Computer Shopper (May 2010)

The future of internet threats Camera price crasl :-""-.",-

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News

E'liryth inil YOII nee d til IInDW . bo ut whit'. b~l!n lID ing Dn In the wo rld of tlchno logy liver the past month: Apple announus the ,Pad , Nv1dia Optimus primed to transform

laptops . Microsoft urweib next-generationWtndll'oo'lS 7 Phooe operating system · Coogle dropslntemet Explorer 6 5Upport • Microsoft reveals QHia 2010 pricing . First loot : Acer.6.s~ OlIO! 532G laptop . First Loot: Pallllsonic's 3D plasma TVs · First Looi:::Call(l(1's EOS 5500

What's New 14

Handheld!

3D

We ~ our haods on AcH'S lirst android-powered

Printers & Scanners

32

WindDws 71aptDps

Storage

If you want a camera that you tan take anywhere, one of these compact models will be perfect, Some even have HD video modes. so there's no need to r:MTY a camcordet as well

44

Networ1c"s

Components

Games We give our ~rdict on the Bioshod and Mass Effect sequels

Video

Softwarll

Philips' curvaceous new B(u-ray playet is the best-looking to date

48

We put three new An graphics cards through tl\@irpaces

ActlieVl! profmiol'lill -quatity flash photography on a budget in our flash gun roundup

38

9Ei

PSUs

Intel's Core i3 budget processor provides incrtdible performance at low pOces, so thert's nellet been a better time to buy a new laptop, We len nine budget models

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Whethet yOl.J want uttra-cheap, ultra-silent or a media centre cast, we've got the mod~ for yOl.J

Audio

Displays

Photography

8Ei

If you 'rt a budding guitarist. che<:k out lindy's oolliantly simple USB gui tar lead with built-in §(lUnd Cilrd

E...erything you need to put together a kas5le-free home

34

78

Make sure your PC has enough pOWf:r and is running effiCiently with one of these powet supplies

Howe a look at the latest MFPs from Canon and Brother

The BenQ G2222HO is our new favourite LCD monitor. find out why

MotherbDard s

find the ptflect mothert>oard to match your processor,We tett LGAnS, LGA 1156 and 4M3 model<;

PCea.l.

We test the world's forst Blu-ray-capilble NAS device

smartphone, the A1 Liquid

Ei8

Every OJrretlt Int~ and AMO chip tested, from £36 to £780

Ml mDry

14

PCs & Laptops

Processors

With 4GB DDR2 and OOR3 kits. plus two 8GB OOR3 kiB. you'U find the ptffe(:1 $l!t of RAM for your PC

The ultimate resource lor product reviews and rating5. our huge tWlat's Newsection brings you 1m- best new PC kit

We test two new Dells and Packard Bell's latest netbook

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Build a better PC

5D

52

Can the latest version of PaintShop Pro ta~e Photoshop's editing crown?

CDmpact digital cameras

100 110

TIS

RIlcyl:11I your PC Tim Danton shows you how to d~ of your old tomputet and peripherals !ega.y, and how to wipe your data securely if you'rt giving it away

Gilt HD on your TV With the World cup coming up, the time is right to get rtady for high definition. Julian Prokaza shows you how to re<:eive HO channels on your TV

Hack to thll futurll Simon Edwards e~plains how hackers will be targeting us and our internet-connected devices in the future, and gi~s some tips on how to stay safe online COMPlJT'£RSHOI'PER . MAY 2010


128

HDWTD ... Make Windows behave like a Mac COrMIrt videos 'Dr free

Use Device Manager Spring-clean your hard disk

128 129 130 131 132 134 135

How It Works

136

Create a coat of arms

Transfer your old files to Windows 7 Develop RAW images

Simon Handby

~~plains

how YOU' PC gets CD trad names

Helpfile

148 148 149

PC won't power on Processor running at slower speed Media Center keeps waking up Windows keeps scanning hard disk Remove duplicate Vista Laptop taking too long to boot Printer only prints cyan

150 151 152 153 153

Office Help

154

Our resident exp-trt answers your softwa re queries

Web Expert

138

Matt Prest on helps you boost your website's traftie with some

Competition

essential sean;h engine optimisation (SEO) tips

157

Win a Monitor AudloAirStream 10 intemet radio and more!

Multimedia Expert

140

Jim Martin shows you how to make stunning HOR image:-; using multiple shots Of a single RAW image

Linux Expert

142

Mailbox Under Development

We show '100 how to edit vid@Oand(OIWlKtacamcorderto your linUK c.omputtr

O.vid Robinson OeSj) bum

Security Expert

O;w!d Ludlow discovers the absurdity anti-piracy laws

Rants & Raves 144

Simon Edwards explains how 10 ~eep your computer wmpletely frfl! 01 spam

158

Your monthly miS$ives of wit and wisdom

Zygote

167 168 170

Zygote is excited by a phone powefl!d by sugary drinks

Advanced Projects

146

David ludlow 5hows you how to confogure advanced BIOS

I Classmeds ~g

oplioos

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MAY 2010 • COfoW>VTEA SHOPPER


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CONTENTS

Welcome! While it may tie true that build ing your own PC is no

longer the cost -saving exercise it once was, doing so has one main advantage: you can choo5t' high -quality

compo ne nts that match your needs. This month we're helping you lind that kit with our huge Build a Better PC lilbs, starting on page 68. We've reviewed every single proa>ssor currently avallable from AMO and Intel - a total of 6S chips in 311- 12 motherboards, 12 cases, 12 memory kits (4GB and 8GB sets) and 12 power supply units. Whether you're looking to bu ild your own comp uter from

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HAMOHELOS/SMARTPHONES A<~ A1

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scratch or upgrade you r existing PC, this labs will help you find the right kit. If you'd rather just buy a powerful computer, our laptop labs (page 100) will be of interest. This month the majority of the computers use Intel's new Core i3 and is ","ocessors. So. despit e prices starting at under £500, you'll find that these mode ls are significantly laster than laptops that cost £700 a coup le of months ago. Simply put, you get iocredible power on a tight budget. Whe n you buy a ne w computer it can be hard to kllOw what to do with your old one. Fortunate ly, o ur guide to recycling (page 116) is here to he lp. We'lI show you how to dispose 01 your old computer legally arld securely

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wipe your hard disk so that you're not accidentally giving away private data. Security is something we should all be interested in, as hacker!; target our computers to st eal financial and private infOfmation_Our guide to the future of cybercrime (page 124) will show you how threats are evolving arld how hacker!; could soon be atlacldng internet-connected TVs and smartphones as we ll as pcs.

David LudlDw Ed itor

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Jobs on the attack at Pple CEO Steili': Jobs anoounad the

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the firm's long-rumoured tablet device, in

February.Jobs said there is room lor a third device be~n the smartp.hone and the laptop, but it has to be better than either of them at tasks such as web browsing.. email, photos, eOOoks and vid eos. Apple is one of the few companies capable of (",ating a new mar1<.et for the tablet .

"Some thought that netbooks were the answer, but they a",n't bette r at anything." proclaimed Jobs

during t he announcement. The iPad will be pOWi':r"@dbya 1GHzAppie A4 processor, whkh is based on ARM technology, but Jobs didn't elaborate on the chip's capabilities. In terms of wire
connector, as well as headphone and microphon e sockets, The iPad indudes support for 802 .11n WiFi

and Bluelooth 2.1. Some ma.dels will also have built-in 3G capabilities. Data tariffs have yet to be announced for the UK. In the US, there will be two options: a SlS (around (10) per month package wit h lSOMB of data or $30 (a round £19) for unlimited data . Neither dea l has a contractual obligation. The device weighs just 680g and is half an inch thick, making it an incredibly slim machin e;we expected nothing less from App le, however. Despite its very slee k design, battery life hasn't b~ n compromised. You'll typically get 10 hOlJrs in ust' and over a month in standby mode. It has a 9.7in capacitive touchscreen with a high-quality IPS LCD panel, as well as a built-in accelerometer. Apple considers the iPad as much of a gaming device as the iPhone and iPodTouch: you tilt the iPad to control games in the same way. The interface is very similar to the iPhone's arld the iPad runs an updated ~ vefsion of iPhone as, but Apple didn 't say • whether some of the updates would be rolled ii out to th e iPhone as well.

One controve rsia l omission from the iPad's armoury is support for Adobe Flash. It 's been dismissed by App le for the iPhone and Steve jobs doesn't look as if he 's about to cave in. Instead, jobs branded Adobe a "lazy" company befo re going on to say that f lash was "buggy" and that it was th e primary source of all Macs crashing. He also said the technology is doomed . HOWi':ver, whe n jobs demonstrated the iPad 's browsing prowess during his speech, large areas of the websites shown displayed the familiar'plug-in missing' icon that iPhone ust'rs have become accustomed to. On a more positive 'lOte, the fact that it 's running iPhone OS means it has access to the App Store's 140,000 applications right from the off. What's more, you 'll be able to ust' apps that you 've already purchased for your iPhone or iPod Touch without having to buy them aga in.

J

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be tilted when you're p~ylng g.ames

Nvidia poised to transform games vidia has announce
prime

When it comes to providing excellent audio equipment:

iPad launch

"TEUFEL DOESN'T MESS AROUND!""

Apple said that apps will bt> specifically optimiSf'd for the i~ad tha nks to a newly update d version of the iPho rle OS SDK, ~t e xisting apps wi ll run either in a window pixel-lor-pixel or b
for the iPad.Apple 's UK we bsite fails to mention it, bu t a n Apple 5"akesperson told us that "iBooks wTll be available in the UK, but th e timing of that will not be anoouoced until th e iPad gOf'S on sale", The iPad wil l come in 16, 32 and 64GB capacities with 01" without a 3G modem built in. UK pricing is)'i':t to be announced, but in the US the WiFi -only model starts at $499 (aroun.d £320) fOf the 16GB model, going up to $599 (around (387) and $699 (around £452) lor the 32GB and 64GB mode ll;. With built-in 3G, prices increa 5e to $629, $729 and $829 (around £4D7, £471 and £536). The WiFi-only model shou ld be available in th e UK in late March, with 3G models following in ApriL • Apple 's dispute with Fujitsu ove r the iPad name, which has been ongoing since September 2009, shows no sign o f abating. Fujitsu has been selling its own iPad, a ll,5OOWindows CE point-of-sale d evice used in retail stores, since 2002,50 it would seem to be within its rights to claim ownership of the name. However, fuj itsu d idn't apply for the iPad trademark until 2003. Its application was bogged down and eventua lly listed as "abandoned" in April 2009 be<:ause a company calle d Mag-Te k had alre ady claime d the trademark rights to the name for its line of PIN -entry keypads. Following th e abandonm e nt, Fujitsu asked the US Pat e nt and Trademark Office (USPTO) to re-open the application because Mag-Te k's IPAD had nothing to do with Fujitsu's iPad.The Trademark Office agreed and re-opened the application. In September, the USPTO puhlishe d Fujitsu's application as part of the proce ss that a llows other trademark holders to oppose its registration within a set period of tim e. At that point, Apple said it wasn't happy about Fujitsu's application and filed its own application using a sh e ll company called IP Application Development. While Fujitsu's claim seems va lid,Apple can't just storm in and take Fujitsu's pending trademark because it wants the name . Instead, it's going to have to argue that iPad is too similar to iPod while filing its own iPad trademark re gistration . At the same time, it will have to convince the USPTO that it won't confuse peQ9le looking for Mag-Tek's PIN -entry machines, neve r mind Si e mens' iPad motor trademark orCocorlUt Grove 's iPad bras.

TEUFEL CONCEPT B 200 USB » » »

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OOTrustedRt vltwuom, '012009: - These are wort h """I")' .;"!!Ie peony-, Overall: 10/10

TEUFEL CONCEPT E 400 » »

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!s and HD on the move scenes. Currently, the technology is available only in system s using Intel proceSSOf5 and integrated g "'phics ch ipsets; th is includes the latest Core i3, i5 and i7 Arrandale chips, as well as the 4 Snm Core 2 Du o and Atom N400-series prOCe5S0f5. We have an Asus Ul 50vf laptop in for review a t the m omen t, which elCl ern ally loolo;s very sim ilar to other Asus ULSO-series models. Of COUf5e. the major changes are inside and we saw over nine hoors of batterylile in our initial testing, wIlich is similar to what we'd expect from a laptQ9 with only integrated graphics. We are waiting for Asus to confirm that the laptop Wf!: hOM' has the correct specification. and plan to have a full review of the ULSOvt in next month's Shopper .

.. Asus's \JlSOvl

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NEWS

Microsoft unveils new mobile Windows operating system M icrosolt has unveiled i15 next-generation the

mobile phone operating system, Windows Phooe 7 ~ries. marking a dean break

from the firm 's ageing Windows Mobile platform. The Windows Phone 7 Series operating system is an evolution of the company 's Zune HD

software. It's a massive step forward for Microsoft and one that could be a huge hit with consumers. but we're not so convinced about its appeal to businesses at the moment.

For the fi~t time , Microsoft has integrated Xbox Live and the Zune 's music and video capabilities together 00 a mobile phooe, but the innovations go deeper than that. Microsoft CEO Steve BaUmer said he ' chaUenged " the team "to delivt'r a different kind 01 mobile e~perience·. The Windows Phone 7 SeriesOS ' maJ1.:s a turning point toward phones that truly reflect the speed of people's lives and their need to connect to other people and all kinds of seamless experiences," Ballmer claime
.. Too Musk and V>deo hub pulls together liles Irom your PC as we ll as o",lne content

On opening the ~ople hub, you 're greeled with a tile view 01 the contacts you interact with the most. Scrolling sidewa)'$ brings up your full contacts list, while scroWng sideways once again opens a central place from which to post updates to Facebook and Windows live, whi le also checking on your friends' latest posts. The Pictures hub has similar functiona~ty, where you C3n view the latest photos uploaded by your friends. Currently,Windows Phone 7 Series appears to be limited to sharing information only over Facebook and Windows live, but we're hoping that it will expand to cover other social networks and photo-sharing 5elVices. Microsoft has said that every Windows Phone 7 Series handset must have at least a fivemegapixel C3mera built in. UnderGames,you can connect with your Xbox Live friends, play games, coUect achievements and view your gamer profile. If Microsoft can deliver sufficient content at decent prices, this could be a decent competitor to the iPhone and iPod Touch, which currently rule the roost when it comes to gaming on the move. The Music and Video hub is similar to the ZunI' HD 's interface, with a collection of content from your PC and a selection of online music 5elVices. Every Windows Phone 7 Series handset will also indude a built-in FM radio transmitter. Mobile Outlook has had a massive overhaul and it's now much simpler to wol1< through high volumes of email There are tabs lor all messages, unread messages. flagged messages and more. TeKl is very crisp and dear and, 01 course, there 's Exchange support right out of the box. It's Pfob
... AI! Windows Phone 7 Series hMId
in one place, syncing over the air with the cloud. This means you can read , e

NEWS

Google Apps drops Internet Explorer 6 support oogle h~s announced tha t ihApps luite. which

G

includes Coogle Docs, will no 1000ge. support

Internet hplorer 6

~nd

other out-of-date browsers.

"In order to continue to improve our products and

deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing imd new standards such as HTM LS. A5 a result, over the course of 2010, we wiU be phasing

oul support for Internet Explorer 6.0 3S well as other older browser<; that are not supported by their own manufacturers," !>
be phased out from Google Docs and Google Sites. Users of old browsers will lind Ihat these applications may have a higher kllency in use or may not wol1< property.Google Apps will continue to work correctly in IE 7, Firelox 3.0, Google Chrome 4.0 and Salari 3.0, as well as newer versions of these browsers,

The move comes ~fter Microsoft admitted that a flaw in IE6 was used by Chinese hackers to attack Google (News, Shopper 266), Since then, the backlash against Microsoft's browser has been harsh and even led to both the French and German governments telling users that Internet Explorer is insecure and that they should ditch it completely. Many users caned for a similar announcement from the UK government, and a petition on the Prime Minister's Number 10 website caned for the govemment to drop Sllpport for Internet Explorer6.0. The petition, which had more than 6,000 signatures at the time 01 press, argues Ihat IE6 "has some security flaws that leave users vulnerable" and that the UK should follow the examples set by France and Germany. The attacks on Google seemed to raise awareness about Intemet Explorer 6.0's shoncomings, as the latest web browser market-share ligures showed that Internet Explorer 8 managed to overtake IE6 in Januaf)'.

Your Starter for 2010: new Office prices revealed M

icrosoft has announced its pricing plan forOftice eKtra, as the boxed version has a recommended retail 2010, saying that it hopes to "make it easier price of £240. The Product Key Card is a slightly easier pill to swallow at £190, but it 's still a £100 upgrade that than ever before" for consumers to get hold 01 the adds only Ou tlook 2010.01 course, if you 're using right version of Office lor their needs. MicrosoltWorks Exchange or need Outlook's functionality, there isn't has been replaced with Ollice Starter 201O,I'o'hich is completely I~ and will be bundled with new PCs. really a viable altemative. Ollice Starter includes lightweight versions of Finally, Oftice Professional 2010 will retail at a breathtaking £430 for the boxed copy and £300 lor a Word and Excel and will provide users with "basic productivity features". Microsoft hasn't detailed Product Key Card. This is undoubtedly a lot of money exactly what will be included in Oftice Starter 2010, considering the cont inually improving free altematives but we expect them to be slightly more functional such as Google Docs and OpenOffice. However, Ollice Professional 2010 is Microsoft's than the cloud-based Oftice services the company complete productivity suite and indudes Word 2010, launched last year. OHice Starter users will be able to upgrade to the full version of Ollice 2010 at any time. Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010, Publisher 2010 and Access 2010, as well as access The company has introduced a system called to 'premium technicalsupporl' and the Office Web Product Key Cards for Ollice 2010. This gives users a key to unlock the version of Office Apps. Ultimately, that's a lot of software for 2010 pre -installed on a new PC , and is the money, but most consumers that need this kind of power will be part 01 a likely to result in more PC makers larger organisation that relies on installing OHice as standard on their Microsoft'sVolume Licensing. machines, because they know they'll have the opportunity to up-sell their On that note, Microsoft hasn't customers to a full version. announced its Volume Licensing price The wsic version ofOHice 2010, plans lor Office 2010 yet. but there 's Home and Student, will cost £ 110 still plenty of time ahead of the suite's indudingVAT for the boxed copy and scheduled June release. If you're unsure whether it's wonh £90 indudingVAT for a Product Key Card. Office Home and Student 2010 the upgrade, Microsoft is running a free indudesWord 2010, Excel 2010, beta program so you can give it a tf)' PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010 and ahead of its launch. Head over to Microsoft 's Office 2010 home page at access to the OHice Web Apps. www.miCfo50[t.com/o[fice/20IO/en/ OHice Home and Business 2010 ... Bo x dever: the basic "erslon adds Outlook 2010, which costs £130 of Office will retail for £110 de/~ult, aspx for more information,

Click: dell.co.uk

IN BRIEF SYMB1AN BECOMES SYMB1AN~3TO

SUPPORT MUlTITOUCH Nokia has announced Symblan"3, which look s to b~ a massive improvement on prev ious version s of the OS. Major new futures include multltouch guture support, a new user Int~rface with multiple home scree ns and widgets, yisual multituic.inZ manazement and a new media interface that looks slmlbr to Apple's Cover flow view on the iPhone. HP'SANDROIO TOUCHSCREEN NETBOOK REVEALED HP has announced the AlrUfe 100, a netbook runn ing Android that will b. sold excluslyely throuzh 0 •. Th~ device uses Quak omm's Snapdragon processor Instnd ofthe more wid ely used Intel Atom chip. From what we've see n so far, the AirUfe 100 appears to USe I modIfied "trslon of the chassis HP employs for its u lstlng range of Atom , nd Windows·b>osed netbooks. fREETOMTOM LIVE fOR A YEAR fOR ALL NEW CUSTOMERS TomTom hiS , nnounced that aUnewTomTom XL Live and Go _50 satnl YSwill come with I year's free Live subscrIption unt il Easter. TomTom Live's se rvices Includ e HD t raffk, safety alerts, the latest fuel prices and aCcess to Google 's local search service.The offer will save buyers from having to pay th e ES-per-month subscription for the first year. NOKIA AND INTEL MERGE SOFTWARE PLATfORM TO fORM MEEGO Noki a and Intel have announced that th eir Mn mo and Mob1l1n operating systems have been mu ged to create MeeGo,1 Linu.-based OS supportinZ multlp" hardware archltecturu and device types, including mobile phones, netbooks, t.blets, connected TVs and In_vehicle Infotainment systems. The first devices are upected later thi s yea r.

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NEWS

(@"imltttOb

Acer Aspire One 532G
A

has shown 011 the lirst netbook to use Nvidia 's next-genefiltion Ion graphia; chip. The original Ion chipset tfilnslormed a netbook from a device that was 5Uitable for little more than browsing the web and writing emails and Word documents into something powerful enough lor gaming and HD video. Acer's Aspire One 532G is, in many ways, similar to the earlier S32h, which WilS the company's first Intel PineView (Atom N450) netbook. The keyboard and tfilekpad have a lairly positive action. and the l,024x600 display's viewing angles are good. The ports down the right- and left-hand edges of the machine have changed slightly. The 532G has just two USB ports. compared to the three on the 532h (one on each side). The third USB port has been replaced with an HOMI port. enabling you to connect the 532G to yourTV to watch HO videos. Inside the case. the 532G is very similar to the 532h. There 's an Atom N450 processor, 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive. The headline inclusion for

the 532G, however, is Nvidia 's Ion 2 gfilphics chip. which hasn 't been officially announced. Sefore Acer's reps realised what we were doing. we managed to run a quick benchmari; using 30Mark03. It scored 3.049 points, which is about the same as the original Ion chip. so performance doesn't look to have improved much. With that said, we weren 't expecting to ~ major performance increilses.lnsteild we were hoping to ~ a continued focus on improving power consumption and efficiency using Nvidia's Optimus technology (~News, page 8). Ion was ultimately released to raise the 'good enough' bar and it doesn't need to be filised again at the moment. We 'Uleam more about Ion 2 later this month and bring you more information soon. Understandably, Acer hasn't announced pricing or availability lor the Aspire One 532G. ... Ace .. , Aspl,e One 5320 u.... Nvidia',Ion but we'll bring you those details as soon as we 2 9'lIPhics, but we noticed little performance get our hands on a review modeL Impro~ment In a quick te$t

Panasonic's 30 plasma lVs t's been two ye~rs in the making. but we finally got our hands on Panasonic's 3D TVs at its p,ess conference in Germany in february. The 65in model (Viefil TX-P6SVT20) wit! cost around £4.000 when it launches later thiS year, while the 50in model (TX-PSOVT20) is expected to cost £2.000. Panasonic says this is roughly £400 more than a non-3D TV. The newTVs have improved image quality and power consumption. one of the problems with plasma technology. They use around 40 per cent less power than o'dinary plasma TVs. while '30 high -speed drive technology' means that the common problem of slightly blurry 3D images has been much reduced.

I

& Comlr.g out 01 ~ $Creen near vou: Panasonlc's 3D TV. may be e ~pen.lve. but they ..... a lot ....

power than conventional plasma sets

Two pairs 01 shutter glasses are included with each TV (additional pairs cost £100). These have been better synchronised with the frames to reduce eye strain. Instead of switching between each eye immediately. a slight pause eliminates any light leakage from the screen. Both TVs have Viera Cast - Panasonic"s web portal - which now includes video content from DailyMotion and allows you to make video calls to Skype users when you connect the optional USS webcilm.They also have built-in Freesa! HD and Freeview tuners. although not Freeview HO. One other improvement is the audio return channel. which a!lows sound to pass back to an AV receiver via a standard HOMI ubiI' .

(0"@jIr:t:jb

Canon EOS 5500 T he newest addition to Canon's popular line 01 consumer OSLRs is the EOS SSOO.1t has an lS-megapixel APS -C CMOS sensor, 10S0p HD video recording with lull manual control and Canon's new 63-point iCFL metering system, first seen on the semi-professional (OS 70. The 550D's sensor has an ISO range from 100 to 6400, expandable to 12S00. The highlight. though , is the improvement to the auto-ISO system, which lets you select a maximum ISO to ensure images have a minimum 01 noise. As well as capturing still images. the EOS 5S00 records video in 1080p full HD at 30, 25 and 241ps, and also offers nop at 60 and 50lps.You can take control of exposure settings, depth of field and degree 01 motion blur, as well as independent highlight tone priority control

MAY 2010

(which doesn't change the still image capture settings) while recording video. The 550D'5 body has gone through a number of changes. the biggest of which is the new 3in SCfE'i'n.Canon has changed the ratio from 4:3 to 3:2. but left the resolution at 1.024.000 pixels. which allows the user to view 100 per cent captured images without the letterbox effect. It atso means thaI the interface has had to undergo a number 01 changes in the LiveViewfMovie and playbad modes. with the information now overtaid on top. Following user feedback, the buttons have also been tweaked and are now much bigger and more intuitive. Canon's EOS SSOO is compiltible with all Canon EF and U -S lenses, as well as the EX-series Speedlite flash units. It should be

... Canon's EOS 550D Is a consumer D5U! with a very capable HD video mode

ilvailable by the time you read this with an RRP 01 £799 lor the SSOD IS-55 IS kit . However, Canon's pricing is a good deal higher than the high street, $0 we"!1 wait to hear from retailers and evaluate image quality before milking any judgements on this camefil. We're especiaUy excited about its video Cilpabilities. though.

· COMPVl"ER~


THIS MONTH

PACKARD BELL

For the best computing experience, a good monitor is just as important as a powerful

dot s2

processor. LCD screens may all look very similar at first glance, but the best are far superior. Our new favourite, the low-cost

BenQ G2222HD (on page 34), is an ideal upgrade for anyone with an aging display. If you want to upgrade your PC's

components, our labs on page 68 covers

most of your needs. To play games, though, you'll need a graphics card. We test three new ATI models on page 48. You may prefer to buy a new PC, rather

than building one. If so, you have two new options from Dell. The Dell Zinc HD (page 20) is compact and stylish, with a great specification; while the Dell Inspiron One is an aU-in-one model with

a touchscreen display (page 24) . Finally, we test a selection of budget flash guns on page 37. A good flash gun, combined with an off-camera adaptor such as the iShoot PT-04C (on page 20), can help you achieve professionallooking portraits.

Seth Barton Reviews Editor sl!th@ccmputl!rshcppl!rccuk

*****

£300 inc VAT From www.pcworld.co.uk

Packard Bell's dot s2 is a sleek, stylish netbook that uses the new Intel Atom N4S0 proceswr. This has an integrated graphics chip. which should help reduce power consumption.The battery life of eight hours in our light usage test is great, but not quite the best we've seen. It currently comes in red or black. although our review sample is the forthcoming white vef5ion, Despite its svelte profile, the dot s2 felt well-built, with little flex in the lid and a firm keyboard panel, It's built from a number of ma terials, with a glossy, patterned lid, a silver keyboard panel and a metallic front edge, We were especially impressed by the hinge assembly. which did a good job of hiding the bulky 4400mAH battery but also let us tilt the lid back by around 160°, making it great lor use in cramped spaces, such as an economy airline seal. The power button and a wireless indicator are built into either end of the assembly, We were pleasantly surprised by the keyboard , which provides good feedback and travel but has quite a stiff action. The ke)'$ have llat tops an d very little space between them, but they're large enough to prevent too many errOf5. and we found the dot s2 comfortable to type on. While Dell has made some compromises in the layout. we were happy to find a double-height Enter key and a large right Shift key, and the Control key is in the proper position at the bottom-left comer. The touchpad has a vertical scrolling area and supports multitouch gestures (although you'd be hard pressed to use them in such a small space), but its see-saw button is stiH and has ~ttle traveL It's set right on the edge of the ~se, so your thumb rests easily on it. but as it's so narrow, your thumb can brush the pad and Ciluse the cursor to jump.

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••••• COMPVTER SHOPPER .. MA Y ~010


PC SYSTEMS & LAPTOPS

•

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,

'/ / / '~j

.

The screen is blight, with an e~en backlight, but has a blue cast that can ma~e images feel cold. Vertical ~iewing angles are w;,ry tight, and Ihe glossy screen reflects ovemead lighting. $0 it's not

ideal lor an office environment.The integrated graphics chip isn't quite powerful enough to pl
jerky - atthough that's hardly a big problem given the netbook's l ,024x600-resolution display. 3D games are out 01 the question. The dot 52 comes with some

useful extras. A full copy of Photoshop Elements 7 is installed lor touching up your snaps. Although the dot 52's Atom processor isn't up to serious photo-editing. ii's a handy app~cation for organising photos and milking quid edits - such as getting rid 01 red-eye, boosting colour saturation or cropping.

~G..hc.blt_

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Also inclu ded is.n Xsync dongle for easy file transfers bEtween the dot s2 an d other PCs.The software is already installed on the dot s2, so you simply plug the dongle into the SUMMARY netboo~ , plug the other end into your PC , and you can instantly VERDICT A ~.u t ifully d ~.ign<" on .... coll..,t start transferring files or Outlook .~rd , dec..,t batte ry li ~ and .om~ data bEtween them. As the dot s2 u .. fuI .-xtr.. is Ii~ely to bE a 5eCond computer, bundling this simple tool is a NETIIOOK l.66GH. ln,el"" om N4SO. 1GB RAM,l5OGB diole. Inte( GMA 31 SO gr.phia, stroke of geniu~ 10.lin w ic,_ l CO, Wlnd""" 1 St.".., It's these little extras that set the ZS,Z58"85mm, 1.3
- .-

Networks

page 46

CompDnents

page4.il

Software 6- Games

page 50

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...... ••••

page 44

FAQ a computer for a technically cha llenged relative. What should I buy?

Q

I need

A

We're often asked this question, as Shopper readers seem to end up acting as unofficial t ech support for friends and family. If you 're really sick of being pho ned on a Sunday evening to be asked wlty someone else's email isn't wondng, you should ched out the Alex laptop on page 27. It's qu ite expensive, though, with a £9.99 monthly f~. Cheape r opt ions indude buying a standard ~C and sett ing up Windows to boot dir&tly into a web browser. From here, the user can have access, through bookmarks, to web-based applications such as onli ne storage, webmail and photo hosting.This will make it hard for them t o mes s anything up,as they won't see the Windows desktop and won't be installing any applications, We're intrigued by the id ea of a foolproof PC and will tackle it in detail in a future issue.

Barry de la Rasa Laptops and handhelds expert

MAY 2010 . COMPUrERSHOPPER



LENOVO LINDY

Idea Pad U450p

4 Port USB 2.0 In Desk Hub

***

****

lenovo's new ldeaPad U4SOp is a slimline laptop with a funky texture d pattern on the lid 3nd ~eyboard paneLThe styling may be a little busy for some people but it 's certainly eye-catching. and its build quality feels excellent.At 2kg, it's at the limit of our definition of an ultra-portable. The battery lile of lour-and-a-half hour5 i5 di:;cs , The U4SOp is a cute little laptop ovo. /·RW .01., 14in wi d~ lCO. won't run the latest action games that's light enough lor travening but Wor>dow1 7 Hom. ~iOOl 12 -~t, Zl
£576 inc VAT From www.ilgs.co.uk

£20 inc VAT From www.lindy.co.uk

lindy's cleverly designed In Desk USB Hub slots in to the ho le found in most offke Oem

for routing cables. The central core (onLlining the lour USB ports and the captive USB plug is removab~. so you «In still thread chunky cables such as

your PC's kettle power lead through the hole.A gentle touch is required, as it's easy to snap the plastic dips holding

tile core in place. Unfortunately, the Hub lias only a si ngle USB plug instead of two plugs or the option for a power adaptor, so it may have trouble wi th power hungry peripherals. It's also expensive, but if you have a duttered desk, the In Desk Hub is a must~h.lve.

Alan Lu PAAT COOE 42966

DlT.o.ILS wwwJind)o.
LINDY

4 Port USB 2.0 Cable Hub

****

£11 inc VAT From .Ii co.uk

Lindy's compact Cable Hub is designed for laptops. It provides three USB ports am! a mini USB cable lor connecting devices such as smartphooes and digital cameras, It feels very sturdy and well made. A port on the side lets you conned: a power supply for power hungry peripherals, although this isn't supplied. We prefer the design of Sandberg's almost identica l USB Hub for laptop (seeWhan N~. Shopper 26S). which has the same number of ports, but can conned: to your laptop using two USB plugs instead of just one to provide extra power, It doesn't feel as wet! made and is a bit shorter. but it costs just £1 more from www.sandberg. it. It's the better portable hub. Alan lu '''RT CODE 42836 O[UJLS www.lir>
i,.

EDITOR'S CHOICE

J

*****

£278 includi ng VAT From www.simply..sus.oom Asus's new Eee Sox looks almost identical to previous models, but it has been thoroughly ove.-hauled inside. It ha5 a dual-core Atom processor and Nvidia 's Ion chipset. which can play HO video and provides plenty of ports. Six USB ports are provided for adding peripherals and storage devices, and it includes 802.11n for f..st wireless networking. As. well as a I VGA outpu t, there's an HOMI port lor co nnecting the EB 1012 to an HDTV. The dual-core Atom 330 and 2GB of RAM rea lly ma~e a difference in everyday use, with much snappier Windows performance; it scored 50 per cent higher in our benchmarks than most nettops. Windows XI' still ships on many nettops , but the EB1012 uses the far more sophisticated Windows 7. About the size 01a hardback novel. the EB 1012 comes wi th aVESA mount and so can be mounted on

NETTOI' 1.6GH. In..l """" 3)0.

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BYTE SIZE

ADVENT

Centurion CB E1 401

SOLAR TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL

**

£699 includiog VAT From www.pcworld .co.uk

Advent's Centurion CBEI401 is a gaming PC with an overdoded. water-cooled Phenom II X2 processor imd an ATI Radeon HD 5750 graphics card. The watercooling has allowed Advent to increase the processor's speed from 3.1GHz to 3.4GHz, but it could easily be pushed further with a little twea~ing in the BIOS. It also reduces the amount 01 noise. and even sitting next to the Centurion, you 're only aware of a low whisper. noi~ further. Advent h~s covered this vent with a dear The dual-core Phenom is actually a rather cheap processor, and disappointing at this price. It scored well sheet on the inside. We wonder why Advent decided to have a window in the lirst plf'r 266). model with two PS/2 ports and a parallel port instead The HD 5750 is one of our current favoorite of the more modem eSATA, FireWire and digital audio graphics cards, and produced respeclable scores in our OUlp!JIS. The lack of spare PCI sloll is incre<:iible, and gaming benchmal1l<. tGSATI~ large illuminated AMD and Advent CBEI401 is simply far too I'D S750.DVD+I-1\W .I- ot DVD-AAM. logos, we appreciated the protruding expensive, It doesn 't (Orne with a SISI<2ctemaillard page 23}.That PC achieved a far drives, wh ile another panel houses higher score in our benchmarks, four USB ports. an eSATA port and lias a better selection of ports audio jacks. and comes with 7.15UITOund The left side of the case has a sound and a 22in monitor. window with a vent buitt in, To reduce Barry de la Rosa

SAMSUNG

R520

***** inc VAT E460

From www.dabs.com

We reviewed the R520 in Shopper 262. but this newer model comes with Windows 7. With its glossy bli>ck lid ~nd silver interna l design, the RS20 certainly looks a class apart, and you wouldn't guess that it's a budget model. The IS.6in screen is bright and vibrant thanks to the lEO back1ight. The integrated Inte l graphics chipset can't handle the latest 3D games, but playing HD vide(l is no problem. The keyboard actioo is light. with just enough resistance to provide excellent feedback for touch-typists. The R520 is among the last of the Core 2 Duo-based laptops, new Core i3 models are filster, but MAY

2010 .

GENEIlAl-f'URI'OSE lAPTOI' lntti Cor. i<. lnttlGM" . SOOM HDarophk", DVO. / -RW +I-ot, IS.6inwidfld-... tu," """""I)' PART COOf: NP.R52O-)Ml-4U( DET"U www... m.u..l!.co..*

FUllREVIEW M., 2010

..

Freeloader Pica

***** inc VAT

£17 From www_solartech nology.

co,uk The PieD is a battery pack that you can charge using sun~ght. Its pane l takes 10 hours to charge the BOOmAh battery, wMe the mains takes on ly three f'oOurs. You can also charge it from a laptop. II you need to lop up your phoroe or other portable gadgel's charge when you're away from a power socket, the Pieo is a flexible wily to make sure that you never run out of power. It's also one of the best-value battery packs we've seen ilnd a potential life-saver. Barry de la Rosa DETAILS ............ sot.rtoc/"nology.co, u~

-P_. ROCCAT

Arva

*** inc VAT

E46 From www.oll'erdockers. co_uk

This compact gaming keyboard fits a full keyboard into a liny frame by merging the arrow and page nav igalion keys with the number pad.You switch between the two by hitting the Mode key. The lunction keys are built into the top edge 01 the Cil5e, ilnd there are three programmaMe buttons. Reinforted by a metal sheet, the ANO can withstand game rage. With comfortilble keys that have excellent feedback, this is a de
the RS20 is st ill more than adequate for office ilnd internet applications. Its b~ttery lasted iln excellent 4hrs 17mins in our light usage test. A!; an old model stock is running low. but it's a bargain at this price, and a great budget altema tive to a new Core i3 mode l (see page l00).

COMPUT"ERSHOPPER



DELL

Inspiron Zino HD

*****

£540 including VAT From De ll 0844 4 44 5818

An increasing num~r 01 Dell 's pes have colourful designs. an d Ihe Zino HD is no exception. There 's a range 01 attractive coloors and patterns. while the fest of the lino's design is both slee~ and curvaceous. Although it's not quite as small as Apple's Mac mini. it 's still tiny, and also whisper-quiet. me~~y, A built-in receiver would have been most welcome. It's generously equippedby. laW Odlo, sew Klift are comfonable to use. while a pair of eSATA ports PART CooE DRZliOO2 Annoyingly. for a PC that allows you to ad d last external hard disk<; for more looks ideal for Irving room PERFORMANCE use, there's no media centre storage. No TV tuners are included, but these are cheap remote included. You could add one later. but the and can easily be added later. There's no room inside for a receiver will use up another USB pot't and look a tad PO tuner, so yoo'U have to

use a USB model. Wireless networking and a memory card reader are already built in. The lino is reasonably easy to upgrade for a mini PC.Adding memory is a simple maner of unscrewing the bottom panel to access the two RAM slots. atlhough you'd have to discard the two existing modules. The top panel pops off quite easily. but undemeath is a series 01 screws and a plastic panel that should be remo~d careluUy as it feels rather fragile. Beneath all this is the lTB hard disk, which is a standard 3'hin SATA II desktop model Desklop disks are cheaper than the 2'hin laptop disks usually lound in mini PCs. so replacing it with ~n even bigger disk in future shooldn't be expensrve. Dell's Zino HD doesn't have the fastest processor but the rest of the specification is generous, with lois of memory. a big hard disk and a Blu-ray drive, There are cheaper HD-capa ble PCs, but none as compact. good-looking and qu iet as the Zino.Only a few niggles. such as the lack of HD audio output or a built-in remote control receiver. keep it from winning an award. Alan Lv

EDITOR'S CHOICE MESH £19 inc VAT From

Professional photographers use PocketWiI
EdgelS Gamer CS £699 inc VAT ' ~i:;' 't

**** '; From

Mesh's £dgel5 is aimed at t!lose who wan t a laptop with bags 01 power. It's very fast for a laptop at this price. with an Intel Core 2 OI.lo P8700 processor and 4GB of RAM. It managed a decent 77 overall in our 20 benchmari:s. The ATI Radeon HD 4650 graphics card helped it to achieve a frame rate of 39.4fps in oor CaU of Du ty 4 test. so you'll be able to play modem games at reasonab le detail settings. The Edgel5's 15.6in display is bright and colourful. with a slight blue cast to whites. It's not as stylish as laptops from big-name vendors. but the black plastic case doesn't look bad. The keyboard flexes a little under pressure, t!lough. and there 's little feed bad , for touch-typists. The touchpad is large and responsive. with large buttons.

While we were happy to find four USB ports. three of them are inconvenien tly situated on the front edge of the case, where cables may get in the way. Confusingly, there's a switch that should toggle wireless but instead controls Bluetooth. Despi te some quirks. the EdgelS is a good choice for t!lose who wan t to play the odd game on their laptop. COMPUTER SHOPPER •


MA Y~010


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PC NEXTDAY

Zoostorm 72-430l Core i3 Advanced HD PC

**

£700 including VAT

From www.p cnex tday.co.uk

Intel"s Core i3 processOl"5 provide plenty of computing power lor a relati~ly low price. so they're a great choice for a mid-priced system. PC NeKtday"s f700 Z005torm 72-4301 uses just such a processor. and should ha~ been a balancele a ~rfut budg~ not particularly powerful. Its detail in l080p video. The ~ i3 proc ... .,... Ihi. sySl .... i. poor value thank..< 10 ",me d..ckledly fine lor everyday office tasks monitor is bright and e~nly muddl.d compon.nt choic.. backlit but it doesn't have and even a bit of photo or video editing. but it simply wide viewing angles. otSKTOP I'C Imo! w e i3· S40. Wir>dows 7 CdescrNn LCD. sturdy. There's some room tor Call 01 Duty 4 and cravvled 37bl98x4Z6mm. one y.. r
The motherboard already hasVGA. OVI and HDMI outputs. so you (an connect it to an HD TV or add a second monitor. For audio output it has only the standard three rear l5mm audio porl5. which support 5.1 surroond sound using the motherboard's Intel HD audio processor. No 5/PDIF digital ootputs are provided. which is disappointing on a modern Pc. There are si x USB ports on the back and two more al the front. The Core i3 -54O is the laster of the two available chips. and runs at 3.06GHz.lt did well in 01.1' usual benchmark tests. scoring 106 ovefilli. There·s 4GB of RAM filted. which is plenty for most purposes. This system suffers from a la<:k of purpose it"s too expensive for an office workstation. but its monitor and graphics chipset aren't good enoogh for multimedia or gaming purposes. last month.Yoyotech·s outstanding Waroird i650 (see Editor·s Choice. below) showed that you can get a far better PC for £7OO. The Zoostorm 72-4301 looks overpriced in comparison. Kilt Orph.:mides

EDITOR'S CHOICE YOYOTECH

Warbird i650cs

***** "N

***

£700 inc VAT From Yoyotech 0871 855 3380

£52 In c VAT

From www.ilgs.co.uk

Yoyotech·sWarbird i6SO is insanely powerful. For £7OO. you get a dual-core Core is proceS50r. overclocked from 3.2GHz to 4GHz. with an appropriately massive hedows 7 _ Pfemium&4· bit . reputation for stable overdocking. 1.920xl.080 model. but tltis .eGB RAM. SOOGB ~ disk. 1GB ~T I monitor's image was bright with The Warbird i650 has all the card Ilcadoon HO 5150.0VO+/·1IW >/-QL accurate colours and generally slots you'lI need to make upgrade~ U .. w i d<>Cf"~ lCO. one ·y.... US wommty and plenty 01 room for adding drives pleasing to the eye. Although the POWER CONSUMPT1O/'I lW to supplement the OVO writer and ViewSonk wireless keyboard and "'rdoy.81W IS3W iKlr.. mouse set is nothing remarkab~ . its 500GB hard disk. There are foor free P","" CODE 1'C68098 5ATA ports. th ree spare SV.in bays and perfectly functional. ,"'" '~W 2010 We were impressed to find an six Iree 3Y.in bays-In sflort. there·s nothing to fault on this system - it's Aws P7PSSO LE motherboard inside. This is a cut-down version 01 the simply the best perlorming £7OO PC we've ever reviewed. Asus P7PSSO Deluxe. one of our

I

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$(llar-powered Bluetooth handsfree kit is the size of a cigarette packet. It comes with a suction mount for a car windscreen. and a clip lor hooking it on to a sun visor. The solCHAT charges in 18 hours on a sunny day. or three over USB.A cigarette lighter adaptor is also included. Pairing the solCHAT with yoor phone is easy. It supports voke dialling if your pflone does. and works with call waiting. A caller 10 lunction says the name 01 the caller. At this price. though. it's too expensive to re<:ommend. Jim Martin Thi~

OETALli 1OWW.5<""'Oo.

BYTE SIZE ALTEC LANSING

DELL

Inspiron One 19 Touch

***

Orbit USB

£549 including VAT From Dell 0844 444 5818

***

£39 inc VAT

From www.amazoo.co.uk

The Oroit USB is

~

portable speaker

for laptops. The captive USB cable provides power and

a umnection for the built-in sound card. Sadly, there's no 3.Smm input for MP3 players. It feels sturdy and well made and the USB cable handily winds around the rear. In use. a flip out sta nd props the Orbit up at an angle. It sou nds louder than most laptop speakers. but ii's ooly a mollO speaker, and not stereo. which makes everything sound fla t.vocals and instruments sound muddy ilnd bass is wea k. Veho's Mimi wire leu stereQ speakers (see page 43) are a similar price and size, and their superior audio quality makes them a better buy.

Alan Lu PART COOf E3S~ DETAJ.5 ......,.,..• lted.o"""lI_co.uk

We can see the attraction of all-in -one PCs, as they"re neilter than the tower. monitor ilnd cable me5S 01 iI typical desktop. The downside is that they cost a lot more than equivalently specified desktop PCs. a fact often not helped by the inclusion 01 a pricier touchscreen display. Dell's Inspiron One has such a touchscreen. It uses Although compact. it's a fully leiltured PC with six infra-red te Duol Cor. bit dull, and the chunky bezel is part of the point of a good ESlOO. W.ndow. T Hom< P,-/·RW +/.01.. lSI'>", Most modem desktop PCs, you'll have to spend more.We·d widescre"" l CO louchK,"". .l86,4]hl()4. and the pricier aU-in-one models, recommend the Asus Eee Top """"),Hf c<>l!.-ct·. nd ...
oct""

MACALLY

PowerlinkS

***

£2 2 inc VAT

From http://froogle. Ibitstore.com The PowerlinkB is a sma ll external battery pack for iPhones and iPods.l t conne
EDITOR'S CHOICE

SAMSUNG

N140

*****

NETIOO~

The N140 is one 01 Samsung'~ latest netbooks.lts specifications are practically identica l to those of the company"s excellent N120 (see Labs. Shopper 260). with the addition 01 S02.11n wireless I"II'IWornng for faster WiFi connertions. The N140 has the same supert. battery life 01 eight-and-a-half hours as the N120. a bright screen and a large. comfortable keyboard. The casing leels sturdy. and has a fancy new chrome trim and glossy ~ d. Un li ~e the N120. the N140's screen has a matte finish. which helps to reduce glare and reile
Int.t AI"." N210. 1GB

RAM. 160GB disk. Inl.t GM A 950 &1OfIhic<, 10.l in 1.024, 600 l CO. 1.2I
£249 inc VAT From www.morecomputers.com

PAUCOOE

NH~HO·('\'03L1K

DlTAILli www",",m
The price listed here is for a whi te Nl40withWindowsXP installed. and at this price it's a bargain. A model with Windows 7 Home Premium and a 250GB hard disk is also available lor £311 including VAT (from www.oyyy.co.uk).lfyoucan afford the la tter. we recommend buying it. but either will make a line travelling companion lor tight wmputing ta5h. COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y ~010


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BROADBAND COMPUTER CO

Alex

***

Laptop: £400 inc VAT; Service: £9.99 per mon th inc VAT

From Bro adba nd Co mput er Co 0845 149 7000

You know how it goes: you help a relative buy a PC for their simple computing needs and then you spend the rest of your IiiI' providing free

technical support. If that's a familiar story. Broadband Computer Co's Alex may be of interesl. lt's a laptop with an operating system

that's designed to be incredibly 'MS}' 10 use, and

comes with lelephooe support lor £9.99 per month , Alternatively,you can pay f2S per month to add broadband. It's

subject to a 3GB monthly fair-use policy, which is line for normal use.

The operating system is a Linux distribution that's been heavily modified to ma~e

it easier to use. Just as importantly, it's

locked down so that ii's harder to break. To reduce the chances 01 problems e~n further, Alex is updated and managed centrally, so the user doesn't have to worry about applying either application , so you can't work on two patche!; or important security updates. spreadsheets at once, for example. AcceS$ing the Alex is a ~nle strange, as Photo editing is similarly simplistic, offering basic colour, brightness and contrast cOlTection, you must lirst plug a USB Latchkey into the as well as cropping. red -eye removal and image computer. The interlace will be a bit 01 a shock to regular Windows users, as Alex hils been straightening. Images can be organised into designed to keep things as simple as possible. albums, and you can add captions. There 's no Start menu or task bar. Windows The web browser olfers all the leatures you 'd expect to lind on a modem browser, induding can't be resized or movec Docs.They have fewer computer's 250GB hard disk, which is rather small by leatures and options than PERFORMANCE Microsoft Ollice, but today's standards. Alex also comes with MyVault , which enough lor simple home use. Annoyingly, you can 't provides 10GB of online open more than one storage.This can be used to document at a time in back up important files 50 that

oct".

they're s;!fe if the computer crashes. We'd hiI~ preferred this proceS$ to be automatiC, especially gi~n the Alex's target user. The system suffers from some fairly hefty limitations at the moment. There 's very little hardware support and you won't get any hardware to work that needs proprietary dri~rs. such as an iPod. Broadband Computer Co currently lists a single printer on its website, although we'~ been told that any printer that supports Linu x should work. The laptop bundled with the \elYice costs £400 and is a Clevo M760T.This plain-looking lS.4in model is lamiliar to us. as many other manulacturers use this chassis lor their own -brand models. It'S a little underpowered by today 's standards, with a 1.66GHz Celeron T1600 dual-core proceS$or and only 1GB 01 RAM. After we'd installed Windows on the laptop to run our benchmarks, it achieve


David Ludlow

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« ::I: FAQ Q

Can I u se m y ph o ne as a modem for my PC?

A

First, check you're on a data plan that su p ~rts

tet hering (see W1Iat's Ne w,

Shopper 266). Android pho rte owne rs have a nu mt.er of o ptions, bu t t he safest w ay is

to use the popu lar ~da Ne l applicat ion - also available for BiadBerry. Windows Mo bile, iPhone and Pa lmOS. In its 'ree form t his blods secure w eb

traffic, so you won 't be able to check Gma il or use secure shopping sites. Yoo can pay $29 (£18) for a full version. If you own an iPhone 3G or 3G 5, it couldn't be easier. In Sett ings, go t o Genera l, Network arld set Int e rnet Te t hering o n, then connect your

PC via US B or Bluetooth. Windows Mobile users should b
Internet Sharing. but jf t his has b
which turns your pho n.e into a Wifi hotspot. The latest version of Palm's Wet.oS, powering the Palm Pre Plus, also offers this capability. Symbian users should consider using Joi kuSpot, currently € 9 (£8).

Barry de la Rasa lllptops and handhelds expert

ACER

Liq uid

****

£314 inc VAT

From www.handtec.co.uk Acer first got into the smartphone market in our tests we lound coloors to ~ natural last year, alter it acquired handset maker and contrast excellent as long as the E-ten, with a dun range of Windows lighting was strong. A battery life 01 over Mobile devices that failed to excite us. 21 hours is impressive lor a smartphone. The Liquid is a complete reboot it loob but once you factor in WiFi and 3G usage. entirely unli~e the po-evious models. and il you·n stin need to charge it every night. runs Google's Android mobile oper~ting Acer has gone for a light touch when system. Inside is a 768MHz Snapdragon processor customising Android. However, it has installed two - not the lGHz model as seen in Google's own widgets on the edges 01 the left and right panes 01 the home screen. These let yoollick through a caroosel 01 Nexus One - tha t is easily fast enough to make the liquid a pleasure to use. content: the left widget can mow videos. photos and On paper, the liquid is about the same size and music, while the right widget is dedicated to ~ight as the iPhone. HTes Hero and the Nexus One. bookmarks. Unfortunately. there·s no ea~ way to although in re~lity it feels a lillie chunkier. 115 looks import the lalter from your desktop browser. Social may not appeal to everyone - our review model aggregation - the ability to import contacts from divided opin ions with its 5ta11< two-tone design. Black multiple services and merge them - is also absent. and red models are also available. and the build quality Acer has bundled the DocumentsToGo document feels confidently sturdy. The screen is bright and dear, viewer, which can be upgraded for S15 (about f9) to but doesn ·t have the sleek oleophobic fingerprintedit most Office documents.There·s a media seJWr so yoo can stream multimedia from your phone over your resistant coating found on the Hero or iPhone. There·s a dedica ted camera button, a volume roc~er home network, plus copies 01 RoadSync·s Calendar and Mail apps. Acer will offer a free and a 3.Smm headphone j ~ck. as wen as a mini -USB port lor charging upgrade to Android 2.1 and there·s SUMMARY and data trimsfer. The power button an app to ched lor updates. VERDICT A _ 1I·b<80O rosolull"" lCD. S·m.gopi ~ beneath the screen. which we found releases its update to Android 2.1. ""me,... 2'i6MB ""'''lIf. Bw.t ooth. WiFi. to be very responsive . which includes features such as USB<"""",,,Mty. S "",-,ro· 1.lhl..... Our only qualm with the social aggregation. the liquid wiU 16.1 d'Y'· "orwJby. 1ISx(;4xHmm. ns& hardware is the lack of a lens cover PART cOO£ ~ ([RA I_UK be a great all-roond package. Also it for the S-megapi>
aDtrOR1SiIGlH.OICE

NAVMAN

AMAZON

S303D

Kindle 2

****

*****

The 530 3D 5atnav has a simple interface and provides trustworthy rou te information. It comes with ma ps that cover the UK and Ireklnd. but you get only one year of Iree speed camera alerts. Despite its low price, this satnav cuts no important co rners. making the 530 3D a goo
The iPhone of t he eBook reader mar~et, the Kindle 2 operates on Amazon's proprietary wireless network, which lets you browse and buy books directly from the device. It"s a weU...cJes igned eReader. whkh remembers your place in a book ami has the ability to add annotations and look up words from an integrated dictio nary. With lAG8 of storage space you're unlikely to run out of room for your digital library. although we'd have preferred to have a memory ca rd reader. too. The Kind le 2 is great EREADER 61n mono dis~. 1.,",B imemol memo<)'. value. but note that MOi I.Am;t ron ~ ZW . Amazon loeb you into TXT . BooIc lorm.t~ its po-oprietary servke. nSx9x2{)}mm. 2a9s 'ARTCOOE BOO1ST96lC making it hard to DU~IL5 WWW.iOffi'ron.wm change your eReader fUU REVIEW F
£66 inc VAT From www.handtec.co.uk

ST~NO~LONl 5AfflAV }'hin. }2Ox240 d i!.ploy. int
£159 inc VAT From www.amazon.com

COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y ~010


HANDHELDS

LG

InTouch Max GW620

***

Free on £22-per-month, IS-month contract

From www.ylrginmoblle.com £270 inc VAT SIM·free

from www.play.com those in the other services. However. this process isn't automatic - you have to merge your contacts manua!!y - and it supports only these three services. It's no match for either HTC 's Sense or Motorola's Motoblur software, In fact, we were disappointed to find that the GW620 uses Android 1.5 rather than the more recent 2.0 or 2.1 (though the la tter is only on Google 's own Nexus One at present). Not only d~s it miss oot on the built-in social acce55eo-an:l c..'1mo •• up for poor performance also included non-standard processor, but it's said to be the same S28MHz applications. such as the SHARTl'HON! GSM 8501900/1800/1900. QuickOftice document viewer. 3G 90011100. HSDPA, lin 320,400 Qualcomm chip foond in ... soIution lCD, 5-m.g>t>lxeI urn .... , 150MB and its own social aggregation HTes Hero. However, the «_ge. Wifi, B1uot""th, uSB Con..ctMty. features (ca\led linkbook) that GW620 can be sluggish. 1,1 ..,.,,,' I.I~!I"", 20,8 daY" 'Undby, are integrated into the address The slide-out keybwrd 1000SSxlfimm. H% book, Once you've imponed has five rows of keys. with 'ART CODE LGGW520SLV_UK the top row reserved lor your Google contacts and added Facebook, 6ebo or numbi-r keys so you PERFORMANCE Twitter accounts, you can then don 't have to use key link each Google contact wi th combinations. The keys are The InTouch Max GW620 is LC's first Android

phone, and has a large slide-oot QWERTY keyboard and a customised user interface, although you have a choke of switching between LG's interface and the standard Android home screen. LC's interfa
HTC Hero

APPLE

iPhone 3G S 32GB Black

*****

Free on £20-per-month, IS-month contract; £247 inc VAT From www.three.co.uk

Free on UO-per-month. IS-month contract; £325 inc VAT From www.t-mobile.co.uk

The Jet is slim and light. with a be~utifu l OLEO screen and ~ last processor that makes using the touchscreen or opening apps a breeze.The ~irtual QWERTY keyboard works welL There's a good web b.owse. and ema il app, and $MARTl'HONE 3.lin 800>:480 ,"<>Iulion lCD. 5-mdby, stocked. It's a grea l 109><~x12mm. 110g I'AAT CODE s.lMS8OOOBl. ~ UJ( handset for anyone wtlo d~sn't require OfTAIlS www.wmwngmobile,
large and far enough apan to make hitting them easy. but they're rather stiff,The screen only switches to landscape mode when you slide OUI the keybwrd. overriding Android's settings. LG has replaced the Android vinual keyboard with its own alpha-numeric version, which isn't as good. so you're bi-Iter off using the physical one. LG has also opted for a non-standard button layout on its face. There are touch-sensitive buttons lor Home and Bad commands. and the large central button is the Menu key, which we lound unintuitive, but it also acts as the screen unlock button. There's no dedicated Search key such as you'd find on olher Android handsets. Pictures taken with the S-megapixel camera are crisp and have good contrast, but colours are a bit muted, LG I>
HTes recent optimisatio n 01 the Hero means it now feels as fast as the iPhon.e. The Sense software helps you by merging your contacts across numerou s on line services. There are also plenty of apps ava ilable lor its Andro id OS. The oleophob H: ,"<>Iulion lCD. 5-mm bugbear is battery FUll REI/lEW jon Z010 lile, especially il you cIon't use 3G, WiFi and GPS sparingly.

-. .. ' _ 1=':. ._

*****

£279 on £30-per-month, IS-month contract; £549 inc VAT pre-pay From www,02,co.uk

The 3G S is the best iPl>one yet. It's faster tl>and 3G,EDGE. the as supports UMTS. HSOPA, 31>in 3;.0.400 , ...,IuIIOtlLCD.3-mogoplxel

copy and paste, and the battery life is good. However, it's expensive. you have to use Apple's iTunes 50ftware and there's not much to01tempt owners older iPhones to upgrade.

MAY 2010 . COMPUTER SHOPPER


um ..... 3~GB ,tonge,

Sluetoo!h.WiFi,US6
121> doys' norwl>y. 116><6bl~mm.

us&.

""" 'Y'iIr RTB -..mTonty

'ART CODE MC133BIA OETAIlS www,opple.c<>m/uI< fUU REVIEW 0<1 2009

t::~~~~~~~§J ....., .. -

............-

BROTHER

DCP-365CN

***

£68 it'IC VAT From www.kikatek.com

At jusl £62, Brother's DCP-365CN MFP is an inexpensive MFP, Still, it can do everything you 're likely to n~d from a home MFP, from high -resolution photo printing to running off a quick photocopy. We were pleased to s~ a 10/100 wired Ethernet pon, so it borderless 6x4in prints from some programs, such as can be connected 10 a network. We 've s~n several Adobe Reader, were printed with a lmm border. MFPs with wireless networking, but a wired connection Although the DCP-365CN has a memory card is often more stable and easier to configure. reader, printing photos from it isn 't very practical if you The printer uses four individual ink cartridges have a large number of files to choose from. as you inserted behind a panel at the Iront. from where in k is have to print a contact sheet before you can enter the number of the photo you wish to print. If yoo plan on pumped to the print head. During setup we had to wait for around four minutes wh ile the ink reservoir was doing a lot 01 direct printing, then we strongly recommend buying a device with a futl -colour screen, charged, but it took that long to instaU the software. The DCP-365CN comes with Nuance's ScanSoft capable of previewing your snaps, su ch as Epson's PaperPort 11SE, a cut-down version 01 the PaperPort similarly priced Stylus SX215 (see Labs. Shopper 263). The scanner interface is easy to use. it not exactly document management application. which helps you organise PDF scans. Brother has also included a overburdened with fea tures. Scan speeds were on the quick side - we had to wait just 33 Windows 7 driver disc seconds for 6x4in scan at 6OOdpi, Unfortunately. this MFP didn't SUMMARY perform well in our evaluation of although it took almost three VERDICT Allhougill' " chup 10 buy, times as long at 1,200dpi. We liked print speeds and costs. Its draft lhe On-36SCN costs a 10110 run and the level of detail visible on even prints are a quick 11 ,3ppm. but text hu some prlnl qUilllty';:"=,:,,'" is a very pale grey - good enoogh il low-resolution text scans, and fOUR-COlOUllIN~JET MfP photo scans were vivid and richly you want to check the spelling on 6.O!lCI><390><36Smm. """-)lNr on>~e w. ""nty Surprisingly, the DCP-365CN 's POWER CONSUMnlON lW <"'ndby, subtle 5hading. 4W idte. 16W '
----I

FAQ Q

What kind of features do I need to print photos

w ithout using my PC?

A

Any printe r or MFP with a me mory card reader or

USB PictBridge port can print

photos without be ing con rlected to a PC.This is known as direct printing. PictBridge lets yo u conned your digital camera and select t he pictures you want to print using its screen. How well t his worts defJends on t he design of the PictBridge interface on yoor camera. SOm e MFPs also let yO\.l choose wtl ich ~otos you wilnt either by printing a contact st.eel and entering t he number of the photo you want to print, or by choosi ng its filename from a menu on a small LCD. Neithe r is ideal, as th ey te rld to be slow and confusing. Using an MFP with a

de.::ent-sile.l colour LCD screen and a bui lt-in memory card reader is o ur favourite metho.l of direct printing. larger so-eens make it >Hlssi bte 10 carry out

minor editing and cropping before you print.

Kat Drphanides Printers and audio

EDITOR'S CHOICE CANON

HP Officejet 6000

Pixma MP640

*****

*****

£129 inc VAT

£60 inc VAT From . .~""i .~"'o."'k

The Pixma MP640 is an excellent inkjet MFP with 10t5 of features. includi ng wired and wi reless networking. two 1 SO-sh~1 pa per trays. an autom atic duplexer. a 7'hcm SCff{!n and CD printing tray. With reasonable print costs and oUlSla ooing qua~ ty on everyth ing from pholOS 10 business documents. this reliable all-rounder is up to almost any task.

This inexpensive business inkjet is a si ngle-fu nction pri nler wi lh a 10/100 Ethemet >Hlrt, a 2SO-sheet paper tray and a maximum duty cycle of 7.000 pages per monl h. lt's not cut out for photo printing, but its mono and colour document quality is outstand ing. pri nl speeds are fast and costs are low. AI £60. it wins our Business Buy award.

FIVE_COlOlH! INKJET MFP 9, 6OOxl, ~ pm!

,e
9wm mono/8ppm colour m.o. speod. 4,800':9,6OOdpl "'.... ",wlUI""" USB, 101100 Elt..m.I, 801, l1b/& w i rel,,~ 1rO'" inlwod inlerfKH, 116.4s0.368mm. _-)lNr RTB_'....I)' POWlRCONSUMI'TION ow ",. ndby, lW idle, 14W .cti... PARTCQO[ 37.csWOl>AA

OET"ILS _

.<. """.
FUU RlVIW .t-> 2010

fOUR-COlOUR IUSINESS INKJET 4 , 8OO>.1~i ml>.imum rewlul"", USB . nd 101100 EI .... r>etlnt..-foe.', 164x4S8x389mm. """-)'N<

RI B.... "."'" POWER CONSUMI'TION 3W ",. rdly, 3W id le. lOW octi .. PARTCOOf COOS1A

onAJ.S wwwhp.co.uk

fUUREVIEW jonZ010

COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y~OlO


PRINTERS & SCANNERS

I~Q

CANON

MultiFunction Printer

Pixma MX340

**** £81

inc

" ~ o\;" "o\; i1ol~ ,r.r.rtft.~J.

CHOOSING A...

VAT

From www.office999.co.uk

At just ov~r £80, the Pixma MX320 is a funy featured four-ill- one MFP with print. 5<:ao. copy and fax capabii;ties, as well as easy-to-configure a02.11b/g wireless networking. It has a modest l00 -page paper tray and a 3D-page Automatic

Mono text was as sharp as we've come to expect Irom Canon. although coloor documents on plain 80gsm photocopier paper printed with slightly too much ink. producing damp waves in Document Feeder (ADF) 10 make multi -page areas that were lilled with solid colour. Fortunately, they didn't smudge and dried 5fT\oothly when laid faxes and copies easy. To include aU these features at this price. llat. Photo quality was surprisingly good lor a Canon has made a few compromises: there's no printer that uses composite blacl3, although dar\: memory card reader lor starters. Un like most of areas were a little pale in comparison to those the Pixma range , the MX340 doesn't use individual from printers that use dye-based black for photos. ink cartrid~s.lnstead, there's a pigment-based Thanks to Canon 's use 01 the ISOIIEC 24734 standard, print speeds are almost exactly as stated. black cartridge, which is used to produce sharp, Standard-quality text emerged at a reasonable quick-drying mono text , and a tri -colour cartridge, which contains dye-base<1.ZOOdpl pcon .., ..",I..... usa, If you print regularly,you'U although expensive. aren't EIOl.l1blg wi,eIes. interl.<.... prohibitively high if you use save money and get better 19/!x4S8>41Omm, ..... "Y' ... IITB ,...mlnty Canon's high yield PC -S12 and POWER CONSUMPTION lOW SI.<>dby. print speeds and quality by 4W """ 13W oct~ CL-S13 cartridges. Printing costs investing in a more expensive come to 8.7p per page for device. such as Canon's mixed colour and mono non-fax MP640 (opposite). i'ERfOl!.MANC.! printing. but a mono page is an However, the MX340 's alarming 3.6p. These costs are combination of quality and too high to make the MX340 a features are great if you need a printl'f than can do good choke if you print ~ery day. but they're acceptable lor everything. but not very often. occasKmal use , Kat Orp/lanide5

SAMSUNG

SAMSUNG

CLP-315

SCX-4600

*****

****

S ~m~ung's (omp...:t mono laser MFP is a great deal if you expect to print less than 580 pages a month, and there MONO lASER MfP are no hidden 6()Ox6()t)djl i j>"int re>oIuti ..... consumable costs 12wm mOl< ifOOm '~. such as imaging 1,lOO>o:l ,W>dby. 7W kII<, 686W octi ... personal mono '","RT COOE SCX·4600 DU","1L5 www.......... n g.
The CLP-315 is tile world's smaHest (olour laser printer, barely liIrger than most inkjets. and it's also one of the cheapest. Its mono print speed of 14.7ppm is sufficie nt lor a personal printer. although 3.7ppm for HOM£/Sfo11J.L. OFFICECOlOU~ colour prints requires lASER 600d~ , l(i.ppm mono, some patience. Print 4ppm <313mm ....... yo ... with sharp black text R1S~ty POWER CONSUMP'rlO!'I 6W and bright, glossy .to<>dby. 'dW idle, ~ . ct;'" colour prints. Mono P","~T COO( Cl p·llSIXW costs of 2.2p aren't bad, 0ET1dlS .......... ,...... "'''&,<0.'''' but 11.2 p for a FULl. REVIlW DK 2008 mixed-colour page makes the CLP-315 best lor occasional colour print runs only.

£103 inc VAT l\E,;
£122 inc VAT From www.dixons.co.\lk

'"'-_--1

...

_

....



Follow the steps to find your idea) specs PRlHTnCHNOLOc;y: 1nI:J
PRINT RUOI.lJTlot,j: 4.8OO><1,lOOdpi

~ RUOI.I1T1ON: 1,200.l.4OOd~ fNTtRF"'U: IISB EJITIt.O.S: Pictllnd,. po
Rt
",.y

A multi/unction printer combines a printer and scanner in a compact unit. and also provides copying aM even fax facilities. This saves desk s,:oace and also money compared with buying two or more separate devices.

D

Basic models cost as little as £40 including VAT, and have specifications sim ilar to those shown in grey above. TheSf' are OK if funds and space are tight, but qua lity and speed will be basic. print costs expensive. and you won't get any lax capabi lities.

a a

Spending more invariably gives you improved speed and image quality. TheSf' improvements are n't directly proportional to price. though, so read our reviews for details. Re member that running costs can outweigh the price of the unit.

n

Sheet-fed scanners handle multiple pages but flatbeds tend to give better image quality. Cheaper models usually have a flatbed. while pricier units combine both features .

a

. . . If you 'll be printing hundreds of Ii.I pages per month. consider a laser rather than an inkjet model. TheSf' benelit from improve-
1":1 To make the most of the 1:.1 standa lone functions, you'll want decent front-panel controls. These can vary from a single copy button to something reSf'mbling a dedkated copier. If fax is important. you need to check that th e d~ke has a built-in modem.

-=-

Other useful extras to consider

1:.1 are memory card §lots.

duplexing units for the printer andl or scanner. add itional paper tray§ and an Ethemet port to connect the device to a networlc

*****

£119 inc VAT From www.lambda-tek.com/ components hop

c FAQ Q

Wh/lt do I need to get 3D on my PC?

A

There are two th ings you need for t llis. Th e first is a display that's capable of at least a 100Hz refresh rate, This

The 22in 1,920><1 ,080 G2222HDL is the succe:;5Of to the G2220HD (see Labs, Shopper 261) , which won a Best Buy award for its great image qua lity and low price. We were keen to find out if the new model could take the crown from its now-obsolete $ibling. The new mon itor looks identical to the old one, with the same textured inlay on the stand, and a useful /(night, virtually unwiltchable. Switching off the ridge along the top th at ilctS ilS a convenient handle dynamic mode for movies is preferable. for carrying it. The G2222 HDl as the same Full HD resolution as the older displiIY but uses LEOs rilther Response times in our gaming tests _re greil!. than fluorescen t tubes for bacldights. with fluid motion during moments 01 fast action. You With the two placed side by side, the new display can change image presets on the Ily using the menu looks brighter with richer colours. We tweaked the system's arrow buttons, so you can opt for lM'rbiown Standard mode's settings to get the most natural colours and dynamic contrast in a game, and switch colouf"i, bul other presets use dynamic contrast and back to more natural colours for working with photos. boost colouf"i to incredible degrees. which some people The screen's matt finish reduces reflection from might li~e when playing games or watching movies. overhead lights. This can add graininess to the image As usual, BenQ's menu system was dear and easy on some monitors, but we noticed this only when we weren't square on to the scret'n. to follow, although the slight delay between menu screens can be annoying. The menus indude brightnes.s, You won't get many eKtra features at this price. The screen doesn't swivel to portf

enables the monitor to de liver SO ' rames per second to each eye. Few monitors currently support th is refresh rale, tout iI 's a head lirle featu re in those that do, so they' re easy to find. The second part of the equatkln is a graph ics card and

EDITOR'S CHOICE PHILIPS

TOSHIBA

a pair of sh utter glasses. Nvidia

Brilli ance 230C1HSB

Regza 42XV635DB

is t he on ly com"","y that offers this combination with its 3D

E1SS

Vision kit. There 's II fulltist of compatible cards at www. rwidia.comlobjectl3D_ Vision_ Requirements.html. This l ists some 3D monitors too. You'll also nud a dual-core processor and Windows Vista or

7. II 's also worth t.earlng in min.d that you may not be able t o see the 3D effect if yoo have any eye problems such as

amblyopia or strab ismu s. S~ http://www.visionJd.com/ whycant.html for more details.

***** i -ir;r2!J!a

inc VAT • fl! ,• • From www.ebuyer.com

It may have iI tilt-only sta nd, but Ph ilips' 230(1HSB is a fantastic monitor. Image qua lity is top-notch and it has HDMI, DVI and VGA inputs- If you're after a slightly targer Futt HD mo nitor than BenQ's G222 0HO (see right), this is an excellent choke.

*****

£479 inc VAT From www.digitaldirect.co.uk

Wi lhan in tegrated Free~t HD receive r and gre:1.080 n.oti .... ,...,.tution.

Jim Martin Deputy Editor

nlnW(lESCltEEN lCtl l,9ZOXI ,08O not ... VCA. Olfl, HOM I. input>, 1.Smm tiM in ...,dio input. _-pan usa t.ub PART CODE 2.lOC lHSB/OS DETAIlS www.pftiiif'$,co,u k FUll REVIEW NO" ZOO9

'""""tion,

cont'UI ratio nol diKlostd (SO.()(')fr 1 dynamic), SOOcdlm' boiW>t ,.. ,~ l x HDMI, bVC .... 1x compontot, 2x SCA RT ...".,1>

~ From www.laksys.com

Toshibil 's 42 in Regzil is su rprisi ngly cheap for an LCDTV 01 this size. It has one of the best EPGs we've seen and better image quality than y.1,080 ... t Ole ,.solution. 1,)Oi):I(SO,()(')fr' dyn.omk) <<>nm>' ",'10, 4SOcdlm' boi'''' ..... ~ 4. HDMI, hVGA, Ix Wf"P<" .e,", 2>< SCART i,....ln PA~T CODE (2)(V61SDB

PAliTCOOO7lfl100

OETAU www.lg• .com

FUll REVIEW Api"

( O,U"

FUll REVIEW Api" 2010

COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y ~OlO


DISPLAYS CHOOSING AN ...

HANNSG

LCD Monitor

HP222DJO

Follow the steps to find your ideal specs

**

""""'BIU; I"" NAT1V£ RESOUIlJON, 1.-«0:>:900

£132 inc VAT From www,morecomputers.co.uk

INPUTs.: \/GA, DVI

When it comes to 22in widescreen monitors, you're spoilt for choice , There are literally scores of models on the market, especially at this price. The HP222DjO is one of three new 22in models from HannsG, and it diftNentia tes itselt from others by offering height adjustment. It 1001<; almost ret ro, and more like the boxy LCD monitors of 10 years ago than the latest camera, bot oddly they're la belled as wanTl , nat ure curvy s<:reens ,The stand lets you fctOSO 22io monitors such as BenQ 's n.tlv< (..oI. 2SOcd lm' bottom edge of the display G2222 HD (opposite) are available !>rightr..-... VGA . nd DVl inptJ ! ~ rather than the sides. The menu for less money, the HP2220JO's tI....·yur .,..,.~e womr>\)' only ad'l3nta~ is height has few options beyond contrast POWER CONSUMPTION ("fW 5t..-.dby, adju stment, and that's not enough 21Won brightness and colour settings. PARTCODl HP2220jO The latter uses white balance of a reason to buy it instead. DETAIlS ......... ,,,",,",,"co.uk symbols like those on a digital )imManin

EPSON

PANASONIC

JESSOPS

EH-TW2900

PT-AE4000E

*****

*****

8 " Digital Picture Frame ***** ~ £49 inc VAT

, .~~!

£1,156 inc VAT From www.lambda-tek.com/ componentshop

.-

Thi $ is Of\e of _ the cheapest '!II l 080p LCD ~ home cif\ema projectors availab le. It produces na t ural colo urs, and while its co ntrast is good rather than excellent. yo u won't be disappo inted with the sha rpness in Blu -ray movies. With reasonable runn ing costs of 7p per hour in economy mo6e, this is an ex(ellent ( hok e.

~;~)

£2,049 inc VAT From www,rgbdirect,co,uk

The successor to the Ultimate award-wi nning PT- ABOOOE, Panasonic's latest Full HO projeclor is stunning. ltl Intelligent fra me Creation ensures tha I Hollywood movies play smoothly and ima~s are ir>c:red ibly crisp. It 's not the cheapest project or on the ma';;et , but if yo u can afto rd ii , you won't regret buying it ,

From www.jessops.com

11I1I1!1nI

For under fSO, th is Sin fra me offers superb image quality and a sty~sh design, It may oot have Wifi, Bluet ooth or battery power but it's the best -value fra me we've seen.

DIGrTAl PHOTO FUME 8in d~ , 800_600 ""'Iv< 'esolution, 2GS int"'.-..I memor)', SO(He), MMc'

Pfo, Pro HOMl CINEMA PROjKTOR

HOM( CINEMA PIlOJEClOlt

l , ~2O><1.080

1.920><1.080 n.oti .... ,«<>Iu,;"", HI,OOO:I Conlr.5! m io. 1.600 ANSl i...,..",

100,000:1

n.tlv< .-."""!I"",

""",,,,,,,.,io,1,600

ANSIIUffiffi<

Mry S' Ock

DIIo. _D, cr, Micn>dri\I< ond US8

"""" """'ge ,upport, jPEG orwITIFf
.omm.

wornn\)' POWEll. CONSUMPTION )W

, tandby. ~w on

PARTCOOE V11H3~U

PAIITCOOt P T· A E ~

PARTCOOl l~1

OETAILS .......... p>On,co.uk

DETAlS www,pono""';c,co.uk

DETAIlS ...-...w,j<>5op<,C<>m

FUUREVIEW M¥chZ010

FUU REVIEW M..- Z010

FUUREVIEW Apr Z010

MAY 2010 .

COMPUT"ERSHOPPER


~mrndtc! min.".." In M

D

A basic 19in lCO monitor with the specifications listed above witt cost around f80. It will be fine for typical Windows wort., but is likely to have >KX'r viewing angles, so you'll nH:d to sit stf
. : . A VGA input enables you to use D the monitor with any PC, but th e quality may not be quite as good as with a OVI Of HOMI input. Both are digital connections and require a compatib le graphics card b
n

A larger monTtor will be easTer on th e eye and wit1 have a large r resolution. Twenty· inch monitors typicat1y have resolutions of at least 1,680xl,050, Models as small as 22in can have resolutions of 1,920x1,080 (1080p), which provid es lots of room for working with multiple windows at th e same time. For even higher resolutions. you'll f\eed a larger display. A 3Din screen or higher wi ll have a manive resolution of 2,560xl,600. You' ll need a graphics card with a duaHink DVI ootpul.

1::1

. . . If you want better picture Ii.I quality. look for a monitor with a high contrast ratio. The higher the f
> :J: D..

< a:: t!J

e le :J: D..

Q

How d~$ TTl n..sh metering work?

A

TTL stands for 'tnroogh the lens', so TTL metering

is when a camera evaluates the brightness of a SCI'n.e by

SONY

Alpha DSLR-A550L

***

E607 ;ncVAT

From www.pixmania .co.uk

Sony is taking no chances with its consumer SLR fimge. with seven models from BSO to £800 ensuring therE'S something for everyone. The ASSO is one of three new models that use (MOS rather than CCO sensors. Sony is the last SLR manufacturer to switch to CMOS technology, and we were keen to see if the ASSO could turn around the Alpha range·s poor track record for noise levels. The impressive features include in-body There's a smattering of single-use buttons for quick stabilisation. superb baneIY lile and a high-resolutkm access to ISO speed, drive mode aod dynam ic range 3in screen that tilts up and dowo by 90 degrees. It "Iso settings. White bal"nce and autofocus optiOrls are less supports Uve view via a secondary seosor to deliver accessible, Ihough, aod some features. such as uousually last autolocus. 10 previous SOrly SLRs. the depth-ol-field preview. are noticeably absent. For ooise dowmide has been that this low-resolution live view reduction, there's a choice of Normal or High. whkh is seosor's image cao·t be magoilied to fine-tune the bener described as 'high· or 'really high ·. The Auto ISO range can'l be customised, and Ihere's nOlhing like the focus manually. This time, a button switches from the live view seosor to the main sensor. disabling autofocus operatiooaillexibility oHered by competing models. We really like the HOR mode, which combines two but allowing up to 14x magnification. Combined with the superb screen. this is the best live view mode we've exposures to produce a high dynamic range shot. However, the lack of video capture is disappoinling. seen so far on an SLR. Our image qual ity lests revealed little sign 01 noise Cootiouous mode ran at 7lps - far quicker Ihan anything else at this price. It's also fast er than any at ISO 1600 and accept"ble results at 3200. Still, noise SOHC card; performaoce dropped reduclion could only be reduced by SUMMARY shooting in RAW mode an d the to 3.7fps "fter 17 shots, or to 1.1fps VERDICT Se~D"'ly fan .... d packed afler 13 shots in RAW mode. jl'EG engioe slruggled to cope wilh with i~te~>li~g leatu~s, but the lock Alternative continuous modes rao dense textures such as fol"'ge. The 01 vide<> i$ di"'ppointing .... d at 4.sfps and 31ps. and coolinued 10 automalk white balance was .... tom.tic ~po"'rO$ ~ I d be bo,n.r adjust the locus aod exposure for vari"ble. even in overcast sunlight. DlGIT"L Slit U,MEAA 14 megapi~ each frame.The camera was quick The A550 has many strenglhs, (4. S~l'3.0S61. 3, OfIlial 'oom (21. 82.Smml. 3in ~ (911 .600 pi,eI'l. SOHC but its JPEC output iso·t Orle 01 in geoeral use. thaoks io part to a and Memory Std Pro ouo slots (none them. Pt>ntax's cheaper K-x (see proximity sensor that triggers lhe ""wti«JI. U·k>n bottory. llJo4,131xl4Omm. autolocus as SOOrl as the camera is u/}s. Shopper 264 or WNW. 809&- """.yu< RTB warranty held up to lhe eye. expertreview5.co. ukldigitalP"RT CODE OSlRASSOl DfT"I15 _.sony.
--

measuring the tight entering t he

lens and hitting the sensor. All digital cameras do this.

TTL flash melering (TTLFM) is an exterlSion of the 5a~ principle.A pre-flash is used to take a measurement of the flash's effect, and this is used to adjust the powt'r of the main

flash to produce a pleasing ex~sure.

Nearly all digita l

cameras' built·;n flashes use this

te<:hnique. External flashguns must tie compatible with the camera lorTTLfM to work. Various advanced fonns of

TTLFM have been deve loped, which use the lens' focus point to ensure that the exposure is optimised fOf the subject.

Canon calls this E-TTL II, Nikon's is called 3D matrix metering.

and SOI'1y's is ADI f lash.

Ben Pitt

Music and photography expert

EDITOR'S CHOICE

FUJIFILM

PANASONIC

Finepix S200EXR

Lumix DMC-TZ6

*****

IX, .;~,:

*****

£306 inc VAT From www.amazon.co.uk

£190 Inc VAT Ii iz i From www.buyacamera.oo.uk

The S200EXR ....s a 14.3x zoom leos. which would be expensive to match on an SLR.With a big handgrip, dua l leos rings lor lOom and focus plus a commalld dial lor adjusting exposure alld other settings, the S200EXR feels like an SLR in operation. This camera delivers UlTAA·ZOOM DIGITAL extremely high image U,MERA 12 ",.go~"" qua lity wheo shootiog (•.000x3.0001. l H' opt i.1il big zoom and sublime Full RI~ ...... 2010 ergooomics make it an exce ller"l! choice lor outdoor photograplly.

If you want a big zoom in a fairly compact camera. lhe TZ6 is ideal ~-'-:::~':::-L fitting a 12x zoom lens into such a small camera is a remal1:able achievemeol. but more impressive still is how sharp the photos are. Automatic exposures were oearly always perfectly judged. and sta ndarddefinition videos were UlTAA-ZOOM DIGIT...... excelleot. wi th smooth. CAMEAA 10 "",~ i ,.1> sharp images and a (3.6-48,1.736 pi" I.1. 1l, ""titol>Oon1 (lS·3OQmm). clear soundtrack. SOHC 1Ioc (~8InlOmoll. The TZ6 ....s a www . ~wn i<.co.uk design aod produces fUll ~EVIEW Au, ZOO9 reliably excellent photos. It·s a great camera al a veIY reasonable price. COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y ~OlO


PHOTOGRAPHY METZ

SUNPAK

YONGNUO

Mecabli tz 36 C-2

PF30X

YN460

***

****

*****

Sunpak's Pf30X is available in three versions for different camera brands. We tesled the Nikon model. but it's also available for Canon (part code PF30XC) and Sony (PF30XS) cameras. Each model su pports tile brand'sTTL flash metering (see FAQ, left) for automatic exposu res controlled by the attached camera. Most TTL flashguns COS! considerably more than the PF30X, so it'~ not surprising that its features are limited. There's no manual mode. and there are just two buttons for adjusting exposure compensation in half-stops lrom -1.5 to + 1.SEV.TIle flash head tilts upwards by up to 90 degrees to bounce light 011 the ceiling. giving far more natural-looking results than the direct /lash. Its 30m guide number is more than twice as powerlul as most built-in flashes. and saves users resorting to high ISO speed film. Powered by twoAA batteries, its a -second recycle time ilt full power is slow. Otherwise, the PF30X is a solid choice. with reliable exposures and a bounce function lor better results than any built-in flash can muster. Ben Pitt

Flashguns don't come much cheaper than this model. which isn't widely available in the UK. but is sold by BV-electronics via Amazon Marketplace.With no TTL or interl1
£60 inc VAT From www.bri sto l cameras.co. uk

£71 inc VAT Fro m www.m ic roglobe.co.uk

This low-cost flashgun d ~sn 't

support TTL flash

metering (set FAQ.left). but uses an altemative technique for automated metering. An integfil ted sensor m'Mlures the light reflecting oft the subject and stops the flash when enough light has been gathered. The process is far from automatic the user must inform the flashgun of the selected local length, ISO speed and aperture via a series of interconnected switches, and also extend the !Iash head to focus the beam to match the

focal length. Still, we fO\.lnd that exposures were reasonably balanced, adjusting automalicaity to various distances from camera to subject. Nearby subjects such as faces were otten overexposed against a dark background. but tilling the flash to bounce off the ceiling lillhe room more e~nly. Performance was fast, al 3.9 secoods between flashes at lull power. Manual mode is fixed al lull power and automatic mode is a little unwieldy, but this makes sense for cameras lackingTTlFM, such as Fujililm's S200EXR (see What's New. Shopper 266). Its compatibility with virtually an other shoe-equipped cameras is a bonus.

£37 Inc VAT Fro m www.a ma zon.co.u k

Ben Pill SUMMARY SUMMARY VEliOICT An unu ... ~ l - ~nd

cumbersome sy
"'PO"'''''.

CAMEllA. flASliGUN Guido """,be, 36m (ISO 100]. 4. M bl tt« i... 11Sxl h:9Smm,2O'ig.

""'-y_

~n W.....l nty

PART COOl ..00391SO)l;02J OETA1.5 www ...... tzflo>h.'o ...

SUMMARY

VERDICT II', I littl. <>o4Jllho r. bb il·i n ·m..-ho..t~ hl
vtliOICT With m.nual-only conlrol. it·, of limile value lor man

u.MERA flI\stic.UN Guide "".""... 30m (ISO 100), 2x M bott. ,; ... l00x68x92m m. 220g. ono-yN' ~TB w..,..nty PART (00{ PF30XN DETA1.5 www.••mplk.jp

CAMERA FlASHGUN Guide ""mbt< 33m (ISO 100), 40•.0. bl tt..-;' .. IlSx12. SSmm. 2SOg. ,....-yN ' ~n w...... nty PARTCOOl YN · ~ DETA1.5 www.N
FUJIFILM

CANON

PANASONIC

FinePix F70 EXR

EOS 1000D & 18-55mm IS lens

Lumix DMC-LS85

*****

£169 Inc VAT Vf2j%l • \Ii 1,From www.brislo lcameras.co.uk

With its sleek, compact body and lOx loom, the F70EXR (Opes equally wen with wide-angle vistas and telephoto portraits. PholOS look sharper and d eaner than competitors ', low-ligh t images get a boost from Fujifilm's C,"~;;;;.c.~-;;~~;;;;,,",C,~;;;O~;;;:--, ingenio us EXR sensor, wtlich can 9.8 megopi' els (l.616'VU), lOx optical mom (27.21Omm). red uce llOise by switching from 10 10 SDHC:21mm, 5 megapi xels. That it l00g. ""'-yu, RTB WOIT.my PART cOO{ Pl0NCOt 100.0. costs well under £ 200 is the icing on DETAlS www.fuj i filrru o. u ~ FVU R£VIlW Jon 20tO lhe cake. It's our favourite com pact camera al any price.

*****

£80 inc VAT From www.buyacamera .co.u k

From www.b uyacame ra.co..uk

The l0000 's 2'1.!in l CD screen is a li ttle small, but in every other respea it betters its rivals. Tllere are dedicated buttol1$ lor all the key controls and performance is good. with only 05 seconds between shots.TIle 10-megap ixel sensor easi ly competes wi th pricier 12- and 10.1 m. &iIfIlxob (1.888xl.S92 15-megapi xel pi •• l.). 3, opl;u! IOOm. SOfiC exa mples, with lar (none), 7.•V. 1.000m.o.h less noise than U·ionbonOl)' other sub- £400 PART (ODE 21t;6l101JM DETAILS www.GIt\Otl.co.uk DSlJI.s. We'd also FUU. IUVlEW Jon 2009 recommend Canon's EF SOmm 1/ 1.8 11 (about £75).

--

The OM C-LS8S is the che~pest camera in Panasonic's range.The optica l image stab ili ~tion and 1/2.8 apertu re make it far better than most budget cameras wtlen used in low-light co nditions, Its fully automatic mode delivered well-judged expo sures. Deta ils were sharp. colours COMPACT DIGlfAlCAMERA natura l and noise 8 mogop;'.l!. (3.i!6-I. 2.«a levels t.etter than pOx"'). 4. opl ",01 mom (33-132mm). SDHC slot from many pricier (SOMB into".,I). 2x M camera~ The l S8S bon''''''62x91xlOmm, 128g, cuts back on ,..... )It ... U S w,m."ty P.o.RT cooe DMCLS8SESS frillOlous extr~s. DETAILS onic .


www.,.....

c

w c

> FAQ What channe ls are available on Freeview HD, and can I receive them?

Q

A

f~view

HD is finally

with us, or some of us at

least. If you visit www.freeview. co.uk I/ref!view/Services/ Freeview-HD, you'll find a

,.astcode cheder that tells you if you can

rece i~

th e new

serVice. II 's currently limile.d to london and Man.chester, but

other areas wTll be rolled out between now and 2012. BBe HD and lTV 1 HD are

PHILIPS

BDP7500

****

£195 inc VAT From www.expansys.com

stu-ray hasn't revolutionised home movie viewing in the way OVDs did, but it's certainly here to stay. The other options for watch ing films in high definition are The rear of the unit houses all the connections you'd expect. As with all modern players, the HDMI to subscribe to Sky's HO movie channels or download huge files from online movie services. Blu-ray releases port suppons the 1.3 standard.This means it can ou tput the full bitstream of Dolby TrueHD and DTS aren't cheap, admiuedly, but movie rental services such Master Audio soundtrO"l"'r model or " Pi.lyStalion 1 we found it very hard to find de.:oder, you could pay £20 more and STANDALONE ILU ·I!AY PLAYER differences between them - any buy a PlayStation 3 Slim instead (see BbJ ·ray Ploy ... ProMo 2.0, HOI-tl, significilnt difference in picture quality Labs , ShOPPl'f 264}.lt's also a great <- " ono, <"....1and O(Itlcal SlPOIF ""!pot,, is likely to be due to your TV. OVO Slu-ray player, and has loads of other W!h285. S6mm, - 'Y"" AT8 upscaling is another matter, howewr, useful functions, plus it plays games. warranty and li ke its predecessor the BOP7S00 Those who want a cheaper option PQWEA CONSUMPTION OW . undJy, shines, with sharp strilight lines, 18W .ctivo should buy LG's 80370 for £130 from P""'T Coot: BOP1500BIJ 12 reduced compression artefacts and www.richl.fsounds.com. OETAIU WWW.philipHO.uk vibrant. gr
"""Id,

available to view now. The BBe service is the same one that's been availab le Ih roogh Freesat for some tim e, w ith a selection of th e best BSe content. The lTV se rvice is a dedicated channel, however, ralh er than the confusing red-button system

that ap .,ears on Freesat. It directly matches lTV 1's output, and upsca les non-HD content . Channel Four HD will join the

lin.e -up later th is year. II you want to watch these

free-to-air HD broadcasts, you 'll need to buy new kit, such as the Humax HD-fOXT2, which we hope to review n.ext month. This is because they use the new DVS-T2: standard. So far we haven't been able to source a DVS-T2: ~c tun er for testing, but they should be available soon.

Seth aartan Reviews Editor

EDtrOR1SiIGlH.OICE

FLIP

WESTERN DIGITAL

UltraHD

WD TV Live

*****

i1?2%1

_ fl' '. M From www.p lay.com

£140 inc VAT

The Ultra HD is the first Flip with an HOM I output, so you can watch your HO movies back on your HO TV. lt comes with a red1argeable battery pack that charges via the flip-oot USB connedor.You can also fit two standard AA batteries if you prefer. The 8GS of fla sh memory will store around HOC ... MCOII[)(II 8GB n. .... two hours of video. This m. usB. l,2BOx72:0 pixels. It looks HOM !, 106.S2.2lmm, HOg. de ta iled, and exposures _ ' Y"" RTB "'.mlnt)' were well ba lanced. It has P...RT COOE U2120BlJK OIT... I[5 .....-w.l .... lIip.com idiot-proof con trols and FUU RlVlEW 0<, 2009 comes with simple software for upload ing """"" I your d ips to YouTube.

***** £94 inc VAT

This tiny device plugs into your HD TV and plays media liles, either fro m USS storage devices or streamed over a network. The list of sup ported formaLS is im pressive, and it even handled Slu-ray-qual ity video without dropping a frame.The attract ive interlace is simple to mtvigat e, and this is a great little device that lets you enjoy media files on your livi ng-room TV with the minimu m of fuss. MUlTlMEIlIA STtU...MINC PLAYER HOMI, component, (ompo4 Ifideo, BMP. Ttr """ JPEG 4Ox12S,100mm, - 'YN' RTB_ty

, "reo.

"'''g...

PQWER CONSUMPTION 9W

on. 4W st . rw:Ib~

PART coot: WOBM POOOONBk·EESN OETAILS ~.",dc: .< om FUll REVIlW J.... <010



VIDEO

BT

Vision+

***

£15 or £199 it'IC VAT From www.btvision.bt.com

BTVision is an on-demand TV se.vice deli~red

over broadband. and is available ooly to 6T Total Broadband customers. The Vision+ is an update to the original silverVisioo set-top box and loo~ a lot slee~er in black. It's also undergone a lew twea~s to addreS$, among other things. complaints about the lirst box's

power consumption. Instead 01 leaving the hard disk spinning permanently, the new version has a standby mode that involves more than merely changing the colour 01 the status LED from blue to purple. However, even with the hard disk powered down, the box drew almost 12W in sleep mode. This is poor compared with many PVRs, including Humax's PVR-9300T (see page 40). which uses just lW in standby. There's a 'low power/off mode ', which consumes 1W, but this is largely pointless as it doesn 't allow the box to wake up to make recordings and won't respond to the remote control. At the front is a viewing card slot for adding additional subscription channels, whkh are cUJTently limited to the ESPN sports Channel, There 's also a record button and di rect ional controls that replicate tile remote 's. Disappointingly. the USB ports on the front and rear are not used. so you can't play musk. ~ideO\ or photos Irom USB storage de~ice5.

At the back, tneVisiont has two SCART sockets, S-~ideo and HDMI outputs. Annoyingly. no HDMI cable is bundle
Watch list Viewing packs When it comes to on-demand content, you can pay as you go or buy viewing packs. The cheapest viewing pack is Bronze, which cosh £7.50 fOl" the first three months and flS afterwards. Silvercosts fl0.S0 for three months and th en flB, while Gold costs f12.50 and f20 thereafter. These allow you to choose two, three and four 'packs' respectively from PictureBox Film, Sport, Music and Kids programmes. All packs also indude Replay, which is a selection of content from BBC, ITV,Channel 4 and Five from the past seven days. If you don't fancy a 12-month contract 0f1 one of these packs, you can pay 99p per

Rep lay programme or around half this for a single show from Sport, Music or Kids. There are 2B Picture Box films available per month (MIne of t he m new releases), but there are around 600 movies in the pay per view section. Th ese cost from £2 for old titles, B.SO for new releases and a hefty £5 for new HD releases . However, these prices are in line with rentals from the )(box 360'5 Zune service or the PlayStation 3's Video Store. Bear in mind that rentals last just 24 hours. You can watch your programme as many times as you like in that period, but it mearlS you can't watch anything over two evenings without some very careful planning.
longer than most PVRs offer. Pressing the up or down arrows while waH:hing a programme tells you what 's on other channels. while pressing right shows what 's on next , Bear in mind that you can only get the Visioo + box for £1 5 if you sign up to a ~iewing pack - otherwise it costs £199. What"S more, this cut-price deal applies only to new customers. This isn't the end 01 the bad news, either. Like the old box. theVision+ has to be connecte
B month but no new releases

SUMMARY VEkDICT The newlli .... n+ box i. bett.,.. looking Ih"" tt>e old one, bIIt bl'ingolinl••1<. to the table b,r low.,.. pow .. con,umption HARD 0151( FRHVlEW RECOIIOU 2>c f ...... itw t ......... S·-Meo, .Ix SeARl, HOM I ""'tpUts. OIltia SlPOIF ond .,.,"" J*>ono ""!puts. 160GB M,d disk, 360><./~6Smm. one ·y .... coUKt·ond· ..!urn - 'ant)/ POWlRCONSUJoiPTlON 12W

.un.Jby. t6W on PART COOE

\Ii""".

DETAIlS WWWNvi.ion.bt,com

MAY 2010 .

COMPUT"ERSHOPPER


A.C. RYAN

CHOOSING A..•

ACR-PV73100 PlayON! HD Media Player

TV Card Follow the steps to find your Ideal specs

****

lHTE~fACE: IJSB 0< PO

£133 inc VAT From www.scan.co.uk

TUNEli; D'.-liII or h)tIrid 1Nfotrrs: !\ad", f~ (Rr) CAPTURE f ORMAT; MPEGZ

There's a huge range 01 me
HARDWAUC~ No

on the market. Our current favourite is the

~m

weH labelled and make navigating the menus easy. Volume controls let you tweak the levels without Western Digital's WOTV Live (see page 38). We're reaching for the TV remote , Howellef, the playback not sore who A.C. Ryan is, but he (or she) can controls are bizarrely arranged , and the pause button is inconveniently tucked away near the certainly put together a very capable media player. bottom of the handsel. The PlayON! HD is much larger than the WD You can browse files on USB devices, memo!), TV live. but lor a good reason. A panel on the tme provides access to a 3'hin drive bay with support cards, an internal hard disk or from network for dish up to 1.5T6. A hard di 5k ist)'1 a necessity. devices such as NAS drives and shared folders. It however, as the PlayON! HD can play media files wiU also find UPnP media servers. File format support is good , and it' ll play eve!)' format you 're over a network or from local storage devices. Two USB ports on the side allow you to attach likely to need, indudingVOB with DVD menus and H,Z64 video in an MKV container. A handy video these storage devices, while a USB tyPE B port provides direct access to an installed hard disk. thumbnail appears when you scroll through such There's also a memory card reader that supports files, but photos are a~o limited to a single SDHC and Memory Stick Pro formats. thumbnail, when a page of multiple thumbnai~ On the rear is the usual HDMI output, plus would be much easier to naviga te. component and composite jacks, There are some useful extras. Optical and coaxia l SfPOIF's are Internet radio is well implemented SUMMARY provided, along with a stereo and easy to browse butYouTube VD.DlCT Thl. media player doe< phono output. The 101100 access has been removed from ......!)'Ihingyou n.ed, and you can the latest firmware. Picasa Ethemet port is fine for streaming ;odd an ;"t. "",1 hard di,k, but it'. HD movie files but makes brows ing is still present, though, pricior Ihan I"" compOIi:l iOll :::'_ _ network file transfers to and from so you can browse online photos. HARD [)lSI( STREAMING an intemal disk r>ainfuHy slow. The PlayON I HD is a good MUlTIMEOIA PlAYER HOMI, cornp<>nent, """"""it<, " ...., phono There 's no built-in wireless media player with plenty of ports outpUI , <0. .101 an. Supporu WMA, AM. ,OGG, option 01 an internal hard diSk. If with an 8OZ.11n adaptor for as WAV, MP3 audio. WMV- HD, MPEG 1. (a~o available from Scan, part you want to store files locally, it's MP£G2 (vOB), M P£G4, Divx tx",D onarts (... llf>ouIl....-d di.... I""olled), WJ 01 its interlace aren't as polished fascia; eve!)'thing e~e is handled ~~~ PART CODE PI.1yOn!HD with the chunky remote control. as those of the WDTV live. otTAILS www.atJ)'¥',com The buttons on the remote are Seth Barton

i

Iml'f000Si
HUMAX

KWORLD

PVR-9300T

PC160-2T

***** £170 inc VAT

~

~~:!T ii-a From www.scan.co.uk

"---From www.play.com

Humax's PVR-93ODT is easy to use.The remote ((lntrol has well-labelled buttons, and the easy-to-navigate interface indudes a dear EPG , Its two digi tal tuners are capab le of showing a third progrillTlme while you record two others. The 320GB hard disk provides up to 200 hours of feono orw:I opt~ Sl POIf OIJlplJl ~ o.-.e-y .., RTtI w. nonty

"..-.db», 2~W 00

Th is PCI «Ird is compatible with most motherboards, and is supplied wi th a half-height brac~et, so you can fit it into a low-profile case. A mini aerial is included, but as usual you 'll be llKky to get de
PAltT COO( PVR -~lOOT 1GB DETt.IlS www.hJm. >o:
INTlRNAl TVTUNER 2, dig it. tu""" pel i"tmoe., RF. IR l ropul~ one-y ... na "'..... nt)' PARTCOOE KW· I'<:160· 2T DETAIlS .......w~k-
FUll. REVIlW N"" 2008

fUll. REVIEW M. r 2010

roWER CONSUMPTlON lW

,..."ngroy

D

TV cards connect to pC!; through a variety of interfar::es. Internal cards fit into PCI or PCI~E x1 slol$. External devices with USB lnterfar::es are easier to install but use up a USB port. USB stick and PC Card versions are also available and are ideal for laptOfls.

Ell Most devices receive only

a

digital TV broadcasts, but hybrid tuners can also receive allalogue broadcasts. Terrestrial digital TV, or Freeview as it 's commonly known, provides extra fre e channels, but you can't access subscription charvlels with a TV tuner carel. Analogue ~oadcasts can produce a superior picture to digita l broadcasts, but digital tuners don't suffer from noise and ghosting when reception is poor. You can check the digita l re.::eption in your area at www.freeview,co.uk,Remember that analogue broadcasts are being phased out, so analogue-only tuners are a pool" t:hoice.

n

Bask devices provide an RF

1::1 input for connecting an aerial. To connect an analogue video device, sut:h as a t:amcoroer orVCR for video capture, look for a composite or, preferably, S-video input. Digital tuners tend not to include this feature. Buy a hybfid devke if yO\.l want to re.::eive digital TV and capture analogue video. . . . If yO\.l want to u~ your PC for Ii.I video editing or as a digital video recorder, you'll need to capture video in an appropriate comp ression format. The most practical format is MPEG2, which gives excellent qua lity and reasonable file sizes. Digital TV is broadcast in MPEG2 format, which makes it easy to record to diSK. Expect an hour of MPEG2 video to take up roughly 1.5GB of hard diSK space.

n

Most TV tuners come with their

1:.1 own software for watchingTV and scheduling recordings. Many tuners are also compatible with the excellent Windows Me-dia Center, whkh is included with the Home Premium and Ultimate versions of WindowsVista.



.. B U LLG UA R 0 "., WITH YOU ONLINE '"

At 8 uliGuard we want everyone to enjOy the online world with ease and confiden ce Our products provide comprehenSive protection from online risks and secure your va luable data effectively Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com

c C

::::J

FAQ Q

What are aud io stream input/output (ASIO) drivers? Do I need one for my USB sou nd u

rd ?

low-latency ASIO dri~ rs are essential for professional-qualityaudk>

COWON

E22GB

**

£30 inc VAT

From www.advancedmp3 players.co.uk

Cowon's lillest MP3 pI~yer. the E2. beilrs genre 01 music we tried sounded muddy. mOte than a passing resemblance to and lacked detail and warmth. Bass was Apple·s iPo
....

.

.~

A

recording on a Wirldows PC, and are usually su~lied by the manufacturer of your audio

device. However, many generic

USB audio devices (such as Lindy's USB Guitar Cable, opposite) come without ASIO

drivers. Thankfully, generic alternatiws are available. Our favourite is ASSI04ALL,

available from WoNW.asio4all. com. This 'ree generic driver shoold work with almost any sound device. Once insta lled, you simply select it as the input or output device for any audio program you want to use it with. If you have multiple audio

devices (for example, a motherboard audio ~O(essor and a USB one), you'll be able to

select which o~ ASI04AlL uses in its configuration screens.

Alan Lu Audio and storag~ expert

EDITOR'S CHOICE

LOGITECH

SHURE

X-230

SE102

***** U I inc VAT

*****

From http://accessories.euro.

From www.superfi.co.uk

£50 inc VAT

dell.com

Logite<:h's X·230 speakers produce a sound that's de
S1UKERS 2.t COIlllgu'01~

3tw pcM'or. 3.Smm "'reo ub~ inptJ"

PART CODE ~10123 ·11 2O OETALli www.logitoch.<;om fULl.~EVIEW Apr 2OtO

The SE102 headphones are among the most effective noise-isolation earphones we've heard. The 41cm cable is a little short. but an extension leild is included. When listening to musk wMe travelling on the London Underground. we were able to hear line details that are barely audib le using many other noise-cancelling sets. We were surprised by the de
EAIlI'lUGS 3.Smm st.reo jodo: plug. 41crncot>l •• 1-4g PAllTCOOE 5E102·(·E DETAILS www.>hJ ....co.uk fUll. REVIEW Feb 2009

SANDISK

Sansa Clip+ 4GB

*****

=.'i'iI

£36 Inc VAT ~ From www.advan-cedmp3 players.co.u k This MP3 plilyer isn't much bigger than a matchbox, but it h


AUDIO

LINDY

VEHO

USB Gui tar Cable

Mimi

*****

r~:vtt\;i

****

£20 inc VAT From www.lindy.co.uk

£3 5 inc VAT From www.amazon.co.uk

If you'v~ ~ver felt that your electric guitar

was trapped in the 20th century "'lith its amp and 'Aiin TRS C<)(Inector, lindy's USB Guitar Cable could be e>O
Veho's Mimi wireless speaker is no bigger than a glass tumble'. 50 we were surprise
i,',

LOGITECH

PHILIPS

PHILIPS

PHILIPS

Z-5500 Digital

Streamium NP2900

SHE2550 Extra Bass

GoGear Muse 16GB

*****

***** 'tdfb!

***** VI"iM £254 Inc VAT ·1£1. Fro m www.ama zon.co.u k

This surround-sound speaker ki t has builHn decoding for Dolby Digital and DTS soundtrack<;.You can connect a DVD player via the optical aM coaxial SfPDIF inputs, or connect your PC's sound card to its three mini-jack inputs lor surround sound. Quality is great. with an emphasis on t he upper mid-ran~ and treble.This set is great value.

Iii:;~

£250 inc VAT " From http://shop.philip s.co.uk

" TheNP2900 streaming audio _ receiwr is small. but its built-in speakers sound rich aM powerful It supports a wide range of audio formats, and the included TwonkyMe
SURROUND-SOUNO 5I'lAKlRS SOSW power. 3. 3.5 stOp
$TllEAfoW./G AUDIO REUIVER h m ini·jad; i>oadf>h<>n' output. h <00 ..... SJPDlf OIJt~ t . """' yeo< RTB ........ nty.

'~ M

.lIdio PART COOE NP2900Kl5 POWER CONSUMPTION 4W nany. 6Won foo REVIEW Jun 2009

PARTC0DE 9701Hl1Z0 fUll REVIEW Ju l 2009

""I'POI"'sWMA. AAC . Ogg.Wav

and

MP3

£6 inc VAT

t!~

From http://shop.p/lil ipS.co.uk

These earphones may be cheap, but they're superior to sets tha t come with most MP3 players. They're comfortilble, and their open speakers create a full, natural sound that's well suited to rod. pop and dance music. The earphones produce solid b,m tones, but not at the expense of clarity and precision. EARPHONES 3.Smm stereo jad;

~ug.

1.1m GlI>I• • 87&. "",,,~ "' i ty 106<18.... _ _ 12·Z2.000Hz. i "", od"",~ 1& <>hms PAAT CODE SH!:Z550IOO 0flA&5 www . ph il ip~ .....u kl


***** ~

£133 inc VAT ~== From www.amazon.co.uk

Ph ilips' GoG ear Muse has built-in noise cancellation. so you can hear your music dearty in noisy environments. It has good audio and video quality. as well as good ba ttery life. It's not cheap, but it's a great player. lin 0400><240 resolution l CO. "'~ WM .... W MA· DRM.MC. OGG. w... MP3 l1lt er1. ~. 110.8>c55mm. 8% """' ye¥ RT8 ........ nty

PAAT CODE SA lMUS16K1OZ

DfTAI15 ......... ph l ll ~.
W

t!::J

a:

CJ

I-

en

FAQ Q

Can I sh are m y DVD

A

LC's N2B1D (right)

writer wit h other (omputers on my network?

allows multiple computers on a netwo .... to share an optical dri~. This is useful for installing softwa~ onto, or backing up files from, computers without an ~tical

-

LG

-

.~ '.~ ----::-~

N2BlD 2TB

***


I

LG's N2S1D is the fil"5t netwOl"k attach ed storage (NAS) devi~ _'ve seen to come filted with a Blu-ray drrve. Of any optical drive lor that matter. Althoogh it NAS with a built-in optical drive sounds gimmicky. it could be quite useful. Users of computers without optical drives . such as netbooks, can use the N2B1D to install softwim~ from disc. Files can also be written to disc althoogh . unsurprisingly. only one user can access the Blu-ray drive at any one time. Unloltunately, the web interface for burning discs is only auessible from the S
e.

makes it diHiwlt to troubleshoot. However, we had no problems using the N2B 10 to share a USB printer or the conten ts of a USS di sk over our local gigabit Ethernet network.Thell'·s also a memory card reader. so their contents, as well as those of USS disks. can be automatically backed up onto the N2Bl0's hard disks. but they'll' copied into a confusing folder structure. This 2T6 vel"5ion comes with a pair of HB hard disks filted in easily accessible drive bays. In RAID 0 mode. 2T6 01 storage is available. but if a single disk fails then yoo'Ulose all your data. Under RAID I, the available storage is halved. but your data is safe if a disk fails. The N2B 10's performance, whether under RAID V£ROICT A NAS wiU, ~ built·in optkal o or 1. was ...mat we 'd expected drive i..,'t • bad idOl if you h.~ • roughly the same s~ed as it n.!book, bYt LG', Blu-r~-"'l"ipped removable USB hard di sk. N2B1D didn't ny. "1"0 our~' With it price ~r gigabyte 01 NUWORK STORAG: DEVICE 2T11 h.,d 17p. the N2B1D isn't very dl"'. 10/10011000Mb ~ I' E _ . 3 . USB2 expensive, but you're still paying port>. UPn~ m«lo.. i Tu".~ print. USB di'" for a Blu-ray drive ...mich has been one! FTP..",.rs."",-y..,RlBWiI".Oflty. poorly integrated and can't be used 16S.16Sx2jjmm. POWUt CONSUMPTlON 20W "' ndby. to its full potential. If you still want UWoctiYt an optical drive -equipped NAS, 'ART CODE N2B TOOl chea~r vel"5ions with a OVD drive instead of a BR one and smaller hard disks. are available. Check out our Labs of the latest NAS ••• devices in next month's Shopper. Alall Lu

drive - such as netbooks.

If you don't want to invest in such an expensive piece of kit,

it's sITU possible to share a OVO writer across your netwo ..... Ahead's po~lar Nero burning suite used to include NeroNet

which did just this, but it's r>O longer avai lable .You can buy 120% Alcohol, which allows data to tM> written to or read from discs, but it costs US$57 (approx £36) and dOi':sn 't allow OVO or Blu-ray movies to be watched over a network.

For most uses, though, it's far simpler to buy and sha re an external USB OVO writer. Easily-transportable portable models, such as Samsung's SE-SOS4 (see What'sNew, Shopper 263), are avai lable online lor around £50.

Alan Lu PC systems and storage

~xpert

EDITOR'S CHOICE WESTERN DIGITAL

IOMEGA

My Book World Edition lTB

eGo Portable 500GB

*****

~'i:vJ

EIl 7 inc VAT _ «4,_ From http://www.misco.co.uk

This ITB NAS device looks sleek in its glossy ...mite case.lt·s easy to co nfigull' and is olle 01 the fastest single-disk NAS devices we 've seen. It's quiet. too. so it's unobtrusive and can NETWORK STOAAG: DEVICE HB ~d dl .... 10110011.000 be used in a quiet room. Mbitl. ".tW<;KI:. <"""",,,ion. Ix The MyBook Work! USB port. UPnP modi •. ffiJ~ isn't perfect - it has USB dtsl: . ,..J fTP"""o,,no print sewer and thr,,-)'N' RTB _rr""'Y 'ARTCOOE WOH1NC10000 its remote access server isn't very_U ~ designed - but its fUll REVIEW Jun 2009 ~rformance and low cost ~r gigabyte make it great ""lue.

***** £70 inc VAT

, ~'!

From

Some portable USB hard dish can ~1 cheap and flimsy, but lomega 's eGo certainly doesn ·t. Although we wouldn't want to drop any hard disk, the eGo's metallic shell fee ls as though it couW handle a few knocb. It's one of the PORTABLE EXTlRNAl HARD fastest po rtable USB Dtst: 500GB

STORAGE

KINGSTON

SSDNow V+ 128GB

***

£254 inc VAT From www.kikatek.com

Kingston's latest 128GB 2.5'n solid sta te disk (550) for l
30 minutes longe r with the SSDNow fitted, although there were only negligible impro~ements in boot an d hibernation times. SSDs are far more accident-proof than standard disks. and it's this added data security that's the ~ey reason to invest in one. Kingston'S 128GB SSDNow is ~ery last with a weU thought-out selection of accessories. However, like aU current SSDs ifs cramped compared to traditional ha rd disks. and costs an exorbitant f2 per gigabyte. Still, if you need very fast lile copying, a longer battery life and added piece 01 mind regarding data security, then th is is the best SSD to buy. Alan Lv

SUMMARY VERDICT Kingston', !
and come. wllh ev.rythlng you n.-ed. bul ill comparatively low c.pacity

and high l"1er mate II • poor choice SATA SOUDSTATE DISK 118GB i>¥d disk, 114(;& lormott«i copKity (NTH), SATA )00

Inl""o<.

PART CODE SNVPll5 ·5,lI118GS DETAILS www.k .. ptoo.com

SHARKOON

SATA QuickPort USB3.0

****


SharkOOl1'S SATA QuickPort cradle is designed lor people wtlo Irequently need to copy data to an d Irom internal hard disks. It has a top-moonted slot fOf easy connection of a 2.Sin Of 3.Sin SATA disks. No fiddling about with cables is required and the QuickPort then connects to your computer using either USB2 or USB3. Remo~ing a disk is as simple as pressing the eject button and puUing the disk out. Using a 750GB Samsung SATA 300 disk, the QuickPort"s performance o~er USB2 was in line with what we'd expect. When connected to our USB3equipped Asus motherboard. it averaged around l00MBI5 copying both large and small files,This is

around 30MB/s slower than Buffalo's DriveStation eKlerna l USB3 disk (5ee While'S New, Shopper 264), but is stiU around foor times laster than a regular USB2 connection. On the downside, the QuickPort is relati~ely expensive compared to both standard hard disk enclosures and U5B2 di sk cradles, although it's still under ESO - so woo't break the bank. It"s also not as fast as other com pa rable USB3 products. Nevertheless. the QuickPOf\'s convenierx:e is still worth paying fOf if you have already upgraded to USB3 and need to regularly work with internal disks. Alan Lu

SATA TO usa HAAO OISK CUOOU T.I ... 00' 2.5i" or 3.Sln SATA Iw<1 USB) ..1. 01"0<. PARTCOOi 40«951009916

DETAILS www"I>i"toon.com

SEAGATE

SAMSUNG

WESTERN DIGITAL

Barracuda 7200.11 15TB

Story Station lTB

Scorpio Blue 500GB

*****

***** '" '.: .

~"

'i'i i From www.sc.an.co.uk

£73 inc VAT

***** E88 inc VAT

From www.amazoo.co.u k Despite the huge 1.5TB capac ity 01 this 3'hin internal SATA hard disk. it costs just 6p per gigabyte.We were imp ressed by its performance in most of our file -transfer tests: it lagged behind onty wilen SATA HAROOlS~ 1.5TB hord disk, 1.l91G8 f""""tted writing small col'lcity (NTfS), S~TiV 'IOO files. Cheaper ;",..-f. ce. 1 ~ spindle ~,32MB com.. 8.5m, 0< ... ....nen iCuda is OiTAILS www..... gote.
Silmsung's first cleshop external disk lias a brushed meta l and grey plastic finish, As well as looking sleek. it I\lnS quietly. We were impres5ec193mm , ", , ~ .~ .. , USB disks we've RTBw."onty seen, despite its POWEll CONSUMPT1ON lW id le. "IW oct ~ low cost per P.... RTCOOE H)(·DUOIOEB gigabyte 01 7p. DETAILS ...........,...", '"nK'CO . u~ Backup software fUll REVIEW 1'10)1 ZOO9 is included, so it's icleal if you need lots 01 storage.

:

Western Digital's 500GB Scorpio Blue lias an unbeatable combination of high capacity and fast performance. It's one of the qu ickest 2'lti n SATA disks we've ever set'n. yet it costs just over IIp per gigabyte. Unlike some earl ier 500GB drives, lY.ln SATAHARD DISK 500GB. thi s one's slim o4lISGB form. n od copocity 9.5mm case will (NTFSJ. SATA )00 in'..-f",•. fit in almost any 5,-4OOrpm Si'indl .~ 8MB cac ..... 12m..e,, ~ ' i"",.24<18IA) laptop. II you <>0< ... wt..;, l


PARTCOOi WDSOOOQEVT

DETA.U www,,..,,,,
- ... -.-

_ '"" _ _ oi...... ~ e -

EDIMAX

The router has plenty 01 leatures, lrom remote management to keyword· and address-based URL blocking. Basic QoS aUows you to assign bandwidth limits and prioritise different lP ,md port ranges. Dynamic: DNS settings, which en able you £80 in c VAT , ... ! .. to point a lixed URL to your router even il From www.pcworld.co.uk its lP address changes, support a number of popu13r free and commercial services. If Edimax' s tiny ba ttery-powered 3G rou ter you have both wired and 3G connections is about the si~e of a pad of cards and available. you can set one up as a backup designed to let you share an internet connection, so that if your wired connection goes down, for example, the connection wherever you are over WiFi. router can seamlessly switch to 3G. A.s well as sharing a connection wi th laptops. you can also use it to give internet access to other The router is 802.11n compatible and has a WiFi -enabled devices. such as ,m iPod Touch. maximum throughput of lSOMbitls when using To share a 3G connection you fil"$t need to plug channel bonding. This is turned on by default, but we your wireless dongle into the router's USS port There's disabled it. as using two wi reless channels creates also a 10/100 Ethernet port, which can either be used problems with extra intelierence. Using our (entrino 2 laptop we got throughputs of 24.44Mbitls at 1m and as a LAN port to give internet access to a wired device 23.34Mbit/s at 10m. Sadly, we couldn't get a or, using the dedicated button on the side. switched to connection at 20m: thiS lad of range is common to a WA.N port This lets you tum the 3G-62100 into a standard portable router and share a regular internet most single-antenna. lSOMbitls, S02.11n-compatible connect ion. such as those found in hotel rooms. routers. That said. lor its intended purpose. the Configuration is easy. There are qu id setup tools throughputs and range are more than adequate for on the accompanying CD and built into the routers sharing a 3G connection. Switching to Edima x's own EW771SUn 802.11n wireless adaptor (£25). we saw web interface. These ta ke you through configuring your internet connection (3G or wired) and setting up significantly lower speeds than with our laptop and range wasn 't improved. Edimax a secure wirele55 connectioo. claims the router wiUlast for Setting up a 3G internet SUMMARY around one-and-a-half hours using connection is easy. and a simple VERDICT With its com~ct .i",. low matter of entering the correct prke aM nable 10m rango, lhi. i. 04J ' the integrated li-ion battery. Our f;lYOurite port. We 3G rout.,.. to d. te tests confirmed this: the 3G-6210n connection information for your internet provider. If you don't ~now lasted for four hours using a WAN 3CWIRELESS POItTMU ROUTE~ 802.11& (150Mb~I.) . h IOJ100lAN ports..Z, WAN your provider's details. Edimax's connection and two hours '-"lith 3G. pM. (Cobl.,3G ",,'0..,,). uPnP. Oos, website (hlfp:lltinyurl.coml This is an excellent porta ble 16><102.69mm. _y,", __ nl)' router. and it's around a third of edimax3g) will help: just dick on the POWEll CONSUMPTlON 3W 00 the price of Nov.tel's similar MiFi Compatible tab lor a complete li st. PAATCODE lG-6.21On This also tells you which dongles the 2352.11 you don't need the battery life or portability . Zoom's Model router is compatible with. Most PERFORMANCE dongles are supported. but Zoom's 4501 (see Shopper 266) is much "-,Model 4501 (see What's NfW, cheaper and supports a wider range 0 -....... ' -" Shopper 266) has better support. of USS modems. but isn 't as fast KatOrphanides although no battery.

3G Portable Router 3G-6210n

****

FAQ Q

Wh~t '~n I do to my Wifi signal?

imprQV~

,~~ 1·

~TB

A

Your wi reless broadband network can suffer

interfe rence from many sources,

ind uding ne ighbouring

networu atld oth er devices th at use the sam e 2.4GHz frequency as most routers, such as cordless phone s. The fi rst thing to do is change the channel your router uses: channels 1,6 and 11 don't overlap and are the safest choices. If this makes roo differe nce, disable channel txmding. This setting makes

you r route r use two wire less channels instead of one to

tK>ost perform ance, but also irocreasl's th e chances of interfere nce and often ca uses lots of problems, induding a serious loss of range. II changingyOlJ r rout er's settings doesn't help, reme mber that many routers allow you to

replace their antenn.as and switch them for something more ~erfu\. You could also buy a wireless re pe ater to extend you r networl< to othe r areas 01 your hom e.

Kat Drphanides

--5 -,. ' I .........

EDITOR'S CHOICE

0, Premium

SEC-Cl062W

*****

£15 per month (£10 for 0 , mobile customers) From http:// b road band .02.co.uk

£109 Inc VAT

O/s broadba nd services aren't ~ available everywhe re. but if you 're lucky you'll be able to receive its 20 Mb itfs-rate.:l connection for £1S fIE!!" month. Our survey showed average download speeds of 11.1Mbit/s and l1 igl1 satisfaction scores. You don 't get a sta tic IP add ress. but extras inc lude 200 free SMS messages that you can send from 02'S website. Packages are subject to a fair-use policy rather than a stated HOME lRo ... D8A.ND SERVlCE download li mit. 2QMbd02couk great package.You FUU REVIEW Sop ZOO9 even get a fS discou nt if Y
Solwise's SEC-Cl062W is a professional -gracle wireless lP camera with motori sed pan and tilt, suitab le for ceiling-moun ting. It easily justifies its price. VKleo quality is brilliant. witil accurate colours and min imal graininess. To make the most of it. you"!l need an FTP serverwhere it can upload JPE G sna psilots WlRH£SS IP CAMERA 6-IQ>. 480 when motion is ...oIution. lSfp•. 101100w;,ed SOZ. l lbl, 1Mo".1 ..... mOllon cletected. You can even Otloctioo. _ · ~r RIa connect extemal sensors so snapsilots are POWEll CONSUMPTlON 3W on 'ARTCOOE SEC-Cl062W autom atically triggered by events such as a fULL IUVllW 00 ZOO9 window being opened.

SOLWISE

a

2

*****

From www.solwise.co.uk

-,...,



NETWDRKS II MU" ,) "01,I •••

:~,rr::;:~::::d~~~~~:.t

SYNOLOGY

CHOOSING A...

VS60

Wireless Rauter

***

£235 inc VAT

From www.cclonline.com

Synology's VS60 is an unusual connect to just about any PC product. ~ looh like one of the monitor or flat-panel TV. There company'S single-bay Disk are two USB ports - one althe Station NAS devices, but its front and one at the rear - SO purpose is much more specific. you can connect a USB flash The VS stands for Visoal Station drive and moose. If you connect a imd it worn with a Disk Statioo's USB flash drive , you can save snapshots Surveillance Station and allows of leeds as )pEGs. The mouse lets you toggle a C3mer,,'s feed between full-5ueen and thumbnail you to display live feeds from your IP camera on a monitor or TV. views. Cameras that sopport pan, tilt and zoom It's aimed at businesses using IP cameras for can alw be controlled using the mouse. Quality is security ra ther than traditklnal (CTV cameras, ma inly down to your IP cameras, rather than the which limits its potential audience somewha t. For V56O's processing. We didn't notice any drop in u se~ wanting this capability for home security, the quality compared with ~iewing our cameras' feeds VS60 is rather expensive considering it doesn't on a PC monitor in Internet Explorer. For a list of supported IP cameras, go to http:// replace the Disk Station's surveillance capabilities tinyurl.com/synologycameras. Frustratingly, but merely allows you to view the live feeds. In order to use the VS60, you'll need a Disk despite Surveillance Statkln supporting HD Station NAS that supports firmware version webcams, the VS60 doesn't. Its ma ximum 2.2-091 4 or later. This pro~ides the necessa!)' supported resolution is 720xS76 (standard PAL TV) Enable Visual Station tickbox to configure which at 6Ofp<;. Audio is output ~ia a mini-j ack. camera feeds are a~ai lable to the VS6O. You'll also JThe VS6O's power consumption is low at just need to connect the V560 to your nelWorI<: ~ia its 5W. However, the consta ntly flashing LEOs can become annoying and there's no way to turn them 10/100 Ethemet port. Everything is set up through the Disk Station's oil. This could be addressed in a future firmware update, which would be applied web interface. You sim ply drag SUMMARY and drop cameras that have from a US B flash drive. VERDICT A.. a r.rst·genem ion product, been configured in Surveillance As it ' s a fi~t-generation which is .150 very nkhe, the VS60 will Station to the V56O's list to product, there's dearly room app<'al only 10 Ihose who 'f'KificaRy make them appear on your for improvement with the n..,d it. E ~ n then, it's not ,re~t value remote monitor. You can also V56O. Hopefully some of this NETWOIIJ(VIOEO DEVlCl Suf'l'O< USB porn, 1. 10/100 Eth<-m .. unless you ha~e a specific need the maximum. pM, 160><63,218mm. two-Y" ... RTB The V560 has a VGA output for this type of product, it's not particularly good value. only - a slight surprise at this DETAILS www.synology.com price - but this means it should Jim Martin

LlNKSYS

LlNKSYS

WRT320N

WAG160N

*****


From www.sc.an.oo.uk

At £64, this is the chea pest dual-band Draft-N fouter we've ever seen. Even though it can transmit on only one ba nd at a time, it's still inc red ibly fast in both 2AGHz and SG Hz mode, both with a Ce ntrino laptop QUAL·BANDWIRHISS ROUTIR Dr. 1t 8OZ.11 blgln dtJ .. -bo t>
Li nksys's WAGI60 N AD SL footer is easy to confi gure, wi th a standard set of features including QoS and 10Cil1 wireless traffic shap ing, tloth of which help to prioritise high-bandwidth services such as video streami ng, More importa ntly, it produced some of the fa ste st 2AGHz transfer ipfeds we've ever "Dst WIRELESS ROUTER seen, both with our 80Z.11 b/g/n ()OQMb"/.). 4. 101100 LI,N po.OSlO!. moOem~ uP<>P. with Linksys's QoS. 34x20Z.16Omm. ""'"}'Nr WUS B600 N USB RTtlw.......-.ty wire less adaptor. The PARTCOO£ W~Gl60N - U K ' POWER CONSUMPTION 7W "" WAG I60N-U I( can't DETAJ.S ....,.·,.i.linksymyci"""<;Dm transmit on the SGHz fULL. REvtlW Oct 2009 band, but it's easy to use, inexpensive and very fast.

~~~I """_

:.~!!~ Eq~:;1i

--1:_·.....-

MAY 2010 ' COMPUT"ERSHOPPER


Follow the steps to find your ideal specs STMlDARD: B02. lin (3OOM!,;tl.) ElHEIlN£T I'OIITS: four 1&100 M!,;II< 8llOADBANO CONNEClJON: !themol W~N port

~""""""",.-.y

D

A basic wire less router with the specifiutions above will cost around £40. Ewn b-udget routers offer a02.11n te
E'l if you have ADSL,you should get a wireless router with a built-in ADSL modem. It will cost more than th e equivalent cable router, but it lets you con nect your router directly to your broadband connection without a separate modem.ADSLZ+ modems support b.-oadband connections up to 24Mbit/s with an appropriate ISP.

U

n

Most 802.11n wil1!less routers

1::1 use the ZAGHz frequ ency. This has good range but un be >H'one to interference if it's near a lot of other 2.4GHz devices, such as other routers and baby monitors. If you have trouble getting a consistent wireless signal or you want faster transfer sp~ds for wireless video streaming, it's worth buying a dual-band router, which can use both the 2.4GHz and SGHz bands, Alternatively, a hi-gain anten na un tloost signals and improve ranges and throughputs to the whole house. You un also add a hi-gain antenna to a PC's network adaptor. If wire-d network sp~ds are a priority, look for a rout er with Gigabit Ethe rn et. . . . Many routers have built-in USB Ii.I ports that allow you to connect a USB drive and use the router as a basic network storage device. If you want to share a usa printer on your network, look for a wireless router with a built-in USB print server. Altematively,you can add a dediuted wireless print server later. Fina lly, if you're interested in making yoke calls over the intemet, look for a router with built-in Vo,P suwert (and phone sockets) as this can save you money.

en

I-

Z

w

Z

CJ D.. ~ CJ tl FAQ Q

Why . .. e the re 50 many 5000-series graphics

Ulrd5aY/l;~bte?

A

The number of mCKlels in

All's 5000 generation can confusing, but th ere's good reason for the variety. With prices fOf new graphics cards

HIS

Radeon HD 5670 IceQ 512MB

***

£75 inc VAT From www.yoyotech.co.uk

Whatever your budget, ATI makes a graphics card to suit you.The HO 5800 and 5700 enthusiast cards are now foltowed by more mainstream offerings, of which this HO 5670 is the fil"$t we 've seen. the anti -aliasing to 2x to get a playable 31fps from We tested the HI S HD 5670 !ceQ 512MB. which the card. These score~ are a long way behind the HD uses HIS's heats ink design. This kept everything nice 5750, which managed just under 30fps in C'fiis. and cool ~nd r~n quietly, too. B~r this one exception, More worryingly. the older HO 4770 is noticeably the rest of the card is identical toATrs relerence design. quicker with 22fps in Crysis, yet costs the same. There ~re three outputs, with HOMI , DVI andVGA The 4770 doesn't ~upport the fancy gr3phical elfects an provided. This means you can connect most in the latest DirectX 11 games, but then the HD monitors without needing an adaptor. The card 5670 doesn't have enough power to render these at supports ATrs triple-monitor Eyefinity technology, smooth frame rates anyway. One of the HD 5670'5 key advantages over more although this mid-range card will struggle to render any modern game across all those displays, with powerful cards is that it doesn't R'quire its own power typical resolutions being 5}60xl.080. supply. instead drawing all it nee<:ls via the PCI Express The HD 5670 is one step down from the HD 5750 slot.Th is make~ it ideal for upgrading PC~ with no 6-pin power supply connector, such as many compact (see lIIhat'S New. Shopper 263). Its core dock speed is actually faster at 775MHz, a rise of 75MHz. However, it designs. The card draws around 61W wilen gdming, has only 400 stream processors, which shouldn't ov.ertoad most SUMMARY compilred to the 720 on the HD power supplies. VD.DICT The HO 5670 is onothe r 5750, and so can undertake lar fewer If you're looking to upgrade an cOj>able graphics card from A11, but calcul~tions simuttaneously - a fact older PC to play the odd game the olde<" HO 4770 is bette<"volue that became clear in our benchmarks. and you aren't too demanding There's 512MB 01 onboord memory. about detail settings, the HD 5670 HO 5670et. n5MH. cO« ~ d . half that of the HD 5750, though this provides decent performance at a ~1 1MBGDORS memory "",,,;,,g ol 1(;1-1 •• reasonable price, Older cards such is typical lor a mid-r.mge card. PO Exp-... <16 2.1 i nt ..-lo<~ PAATCOOe 1-1567Q512 In our tesllthe HD 5670 scored a as the HD 4770 provide more DflAILS www,hisd igitolcom respectable 41.81ps in Call 01 Duty 4. bang lor your buck. though. and il but struggled in the more demand ing you wdnt to enjoy the latest PERFORMANCE Crysis test with only 16.9fps. OirectX 11 games then you need prob~bly because 01 ill limited to spend a little more and buy the memory-. We had to reduce the HO 57SO for around £100. Seth Barton resolution to 1,2S0x 720 and lower

~

ranging from £40 for II HD 5450

to over £500 for II HD 5970, there's plenty of ground to cover in t.elween. The eight

EDITOR'S CHOICE SAPPHIRE

SAPPHIRE

models currently available are

Radeon HD 5850 1GB

Radeon HD 5770

the HO 5450, 5570, 5670, 5750, 5770,5850,5870 and 5970.

*****

***** " ~'!

All produces II reference

£215 inc VAT From

. i

design for each model. For

I')(ample, the HD 5970 has 3,200 strl'am processors, compared to just 80 on the HD 5450. In the middle 01 the

range, dilfereoces can be slight. Card manufacture rs such as Sapphire arld HIS produce their

own cards based on Ihe reference designs. The core specifications remain the same, but variations can irld ude the amount and type of memory. the design of the heat sink and the type of video outputs.


The Radeon HD 5850 isn 't cheap. but lor keen garners it's worth every penny. It may not be quite as powerful as the HD 5870, but it's still mind-b lowingly quick. II has 1.440 stream processing units. which is only 160 units fewer than the £300 HO 5870. Wi th 88.4lps in our II of Duty 4 benchmark, it wi ll tear through less-demand ing ti tles. It managed a smooth 42.4fps in our tough Crysis test at a resolution 01 1.920x1.2oo. proving th.lt it's capable 01 pleasing resutts in any g~me.The HD 5850 also has lull support for DirectX 11.

The HO 5770 is the more powerful 01AT1"s two new mid-range cards. It h.ls SOO strea m processing units, plus last memory and clock speeds. bu t is held back by its US-bit memory- interface. It did well in our benchmarks, with a PCI EXPRESS GAAf'HICS CAllO score 01 33.6fps in our An ~ HO sno.,.~,;.m~~;.,,, 850MH, <0« >PHd, demanding Crysis test. momooy running .. 1.2(;Hz. It's cooler. quieter and PCI ExprH< .16Z.1 • ."..~ less power-hungry th.ln RTB war,""ty previous cards, plus PARlCODE Z116HlO· l(NI Of.lAILS www... pphi.-.l« h.
r::::=:::-::-:::::::c=--,

I



COMPONENTS

provides support for multiple monitors. It has HDMI and DVI outputs mounted on the card, plus aVGA output on the backplate that's con nected to the card via a ca ble. Sapphire also sells this card "'li th ~ DisplayPort output (part code 11166-QO-20R), but it's less useful for a £37 inc VAT medi a centre Pc. The three outputs allow From www.la mbda-te k.co m/ you to drive a triple -monitor setup, which co mponent shop ATI calls Eyefinity, making this the cheapest card capable of this. Although graphics cards are synonymous with Sapphire's ~rsion of the HD 5450 is gaming, they h~ a lot of other uses too - not excellently designed, and should be compatible least letting you connect a monitor to your PC. with practically arry PC with a PO-Express x16 Other uses include video playback acceleration, slot. For starters it's a hall-he ight design, so it multiple monitor support, speeding up parallel win fit in slimline PC cases.To do this you'(( need to fi t the smaller, supplied, backplate. Such a processing tasks such as video encoding and e~n ootputting HD audio via HDMI. backplate is big enough only for the DVI and The HD S450 is by lar the cheapest card in HDMI connectors, but SffiI. such as DolbyTrueHD, If you're building a media S12M8 DD1\3 "''''''''Y running at 8OOMHr. letting you ootput the lull centre PC, noise is a big issue. PO hpreu . 16 2.1 im..-too. audio glory- of Blu-ray This card's passi~ heatsink PAlI:TCOD£ 11166-<11D-ZOfl movies to a surroundmea r-.s there's no whiny little Ian to annoy you: it's also sound amplifier o~r HDML PERFORMANCE It's also a good choice more compact than the one if you want to upgrade an on ATl's reference ca rd , so it older PC,
SAPPHIRE

HD 5450 512MB DDR3 PCl E HDMI

****

in games. So, while the 5450 struggled through oor games tests, the 5570 did much better. Its Irame rate 01 29.71ps in CaU 01 Duty 4 provides smooth motion for gaming, while dropping the resolution to 1,440x900 bumped the frame rate up to 37.1fps.lt struggled with our more demanding £73 inc VAT Crysis test at 1,6BOxl,050, managing From www.a wd -it.co,uk 21.5fps: howe~r, dropp ing the resolution to 1,440x900 improved frame rates to a playa ble With the Radeon HD 54SO low-profile graphics 27.2fps.This means you can ha~ a PC that ta kes card only just out (see above) , it's hard to get low-protile cards and enjoy some light gaming. excited by the low-prolile HD 5570, particularly Even so, the main use of this card is likely to as it costs almost twice as much. However, this be for home theatre USE'". Here, tile extra stream is a significantly different card. processors can be useful if you're running The HD S450 is basically a slow graphics software that uses the gra phics card (GPGPU) to card lor decoding video and transmitting HD upsca le DVD, such as An:solt 's Sim HD plug-in for TotalMedia Tlleatre 3.With the S45O, SimHD is audio, but tile 5570 is considerably more powerful. You can tell this immediately, as tile only capable 01 upsca~ng DVDs to a 720p resolution: with the 5570, it can upscale to 5570 requires a Ian to keep it cool, while the 5450 is passrvely cooled. Fortunately, the fan l080p.ln tum, it should mean that other isn't noisy and, unless you applications th at use GPGPU, have particularly quiet CPU SUMMARY such as Roxio Creator 2010's and system lans, you're VERDICT A law-profil. card that', vi deo encoder, will run laster c. poOI. of pIoying garno., but tile", unlikely to Ilear it above on this graphics card than they .... bett.r_v,lue card< av, ll.able the noise of your case. win on the 5450. As with all of ATl's The main diHerence pa lXPRESSGRAPHICSCARD ~T III.o ffiI. 1GB between the two cards is 5000-series graphics cards, the OOtU momoty running at 900MH', 1'C1 5570 is fully PAP-compliant the number 01 stream E>
As with all 5000-series cards, the HD 5450 supports Direct)( 11. However, it's simply not powerful enoogh to run modern 3D games smoothly at the kind of det
Seth Barton

SAPPHIRE

HD 5570 1GB DDR3 HDM I

***

The Sapphire card we reviewed came with DVI, HDMI andVGA outputs on a full -size bracket: two s~m-line brackets are also provided. The lirst holds the DVI and HDMI ports: the se<:ond holds theVGA ootput, but is optional as this outpu t can be unplugged Irom the card. Sapphire also makes a version 01 this card with a DisplayPort ra ther than HDMI output. but we don't currently recommend this for home use. We can't help butleel that these dilferences aren 't worth the increase in price. If you're building a media centre PC for Blu-ray and aren't worried about DVD upscaling (or at least, don't mind upscaling to 72Op), the HD 5450 is much better value. Just make sure you buy the version with a built-in HOMI port for conven ience. That said, if you do use your media centre for the occasional bout of gaming, the S570 is the only slim-line graphics card that will give you decent 3D performance. If you don't need a low-prolile card, though, and want to play games, we recommend stretching your budget that bit further and buying Sapphire's Radeon HD S770.



David Ludlow

en

w

~

C!J PREVIEW Metro 2033

Metro 2033 is a first-per50n shooter, ba~d 0f1 a Russian ~st-apocalyptic novel, and st't in the remains of the Moscow underground. The game is made

by new developer 4A Games, though som e of its staff previously worked on

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chemobyl (see What's New, ShopperZ32). Thankfu lly, this li~ar

shooter seems to have

drawn from that game"s

technical excelleroce. In 2013 the world was devastated by an apoca lyptic event, annihilating almost 01\1 of mankind and turning Ihe earth's surface into a poisonous

wasteland. A handful of SUrviVOf5 took refuge in the

depths of th e Moscow underground, and human civilization entered a new Dark Age. Now in 2033. An entire

gene ration has b~ n t.om and raised underground, and the ~s ie~d

Metro Station-Cities

struggle fOf survival with each

oth er, and the mutant horrors that await outside. Early previ ews have impressive, with inaedible in-game lighting. The detailed and atmospheric environments, tx>th underground and above the surface, also wowed us. For more details, visit http:// metroZ033game.com.


2KGAMES

BioShock 2

****

£20 ineVAT From www.t hegame collection.net Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC versions ava ilable The original BioShock (see What's New, Shopper 238) may have

successfully blended tirst -per500 shooting with RPG -style character adv~ncement. but it was the plot ... At ,andom Intel"lla ls a Big Slste, wil l come to make a cl3im on Its young'" b,eth,en. Watch out - $he's tough, ~ th<;at;"n, ~n d • new multiplayt'r mode, but it essential addition to the canon Once liberated you can take lacks 1M origi ""l,ame', imp.ct which is a real pity. charge of the newly rescued Sister. guide her to an ADAM-rich corpse and FltST_PERSON SHOOTEII Requir .. A retum to Rapture was never W


GAMES

EA

Mass Effect 2

***** £20 inc VAT

From www.thegamecoilection. net Xbox 360 and PC versions available

If you pI~yed the exceUenl M~ss Effect (Wh~t'5

in -game characters, which maintain the same high quality of as both a treat and a shod. The treat is that scripting. ~oice acting and depth. you can import your existing eIl.riKle, into The dialogue interface presents MaS$ Effect 2, gaining combat bonuses and moral dilemmas.so that over the al:;o aHecting events - to a limited degree course of the game you build up a .. The cov .... system forms the basis of the combat system, and is reputation as either a Paragon or based on your previous actions. The shock much Improved from the first game is that unlike the original title. Ma55 Effect 2 is Renegade, which then unlocks 11'55 of a role -playing game and more 01 a further dialogue options. big choices and visceral combat. I miss the old tactiCooter. It's impossible to discuss the main plot games, where your character had to eat, and it Gone is the familiar RPG mechanic of took fiVE hours real time to fly somewhere.without reVEaUng a massiVE spoiler: suffice to Overhearing con~ersations not only adds depth. collecting items droppedlrom fallen enemies say that it involves you building up an elite squad to face a final threat. Your team consists and searching ~ry nook and cranny for but also leads to bonus side missions. hidden stashes 011001. Your character has no of a mix of new characters and old faces. The new characters will delight you with their invt'ntory, instead relying on research and the Each character you recruit offers a secondary various personalities and foibles, and it's a game occasional found item to improve his arsenaL mission to help you gain their loyalty. While that will draw you in emotionally. so much so It 's a brave move, but one that should draw that yOU'll lind it hard to let go once you've traVElling the galaxy you can also stumble across more fans than it alienates. side mis5ions on unexplored wortds, or mine finished it. You can then replay it usingyour Those retuming to the Mass Effect uni~erse resources to feed your re search, which gain you existing character to gain bonuses, or start a new will find many of the criticisms of the first upgrades. If YOU 'VE played the first game, you 'll game to try out a different class, as well as being game ha~e been addressed. Combat is far more be glad to hear there's no more bounCing around able to import your character into Mass EHect 3, fluid, with an improved co~er system and a in that awful moon buggy. You now scan planets The graphics on PC are superb, even on from orbit and only land if there's a mission , hardware that barely matches the minimum streamlined interface for issuing commands to team -mate>. Moreover, new powers and specification. We were especially impressed by We would have preferred there to be fewer abilities make it a more tactical experience: possible teammates to recruit. and more depth the loading times between areas. The controls to each character, and we felt less invol~ed with some abilities work in combination with others, are intuitive: you can use the Space bar to pause and wme are designed to the rest 01 the game world as a the game. bringing up a HUD that lets you gi~e SUMMARY result. Some side missions worl:: best against specilic orders to your teammates, or you can assign VERDICT A chang-< 01 diced;"" enemies, which ma~es your seemed to promise further plot abilities - yours or your teamma tes ' - to number bring, men ,",citir>g comb.tto keys, for quick activation, The Xbox 360 version choice 01 team-mates critical. developments, but turned out tI>e M. .. Effect unMorse while Enemies themselVES are much is equaUy accomplished, with loading times to be dead ends. .. taining Biow.,.', typical charm trickier, and you'll lind them However, there are stilt hugely reduced from the previous ~ersion, ...cnc»~ RPG ~ oq"i ... wrtl,o<, 1GB RAM (\f",. I1: 2GB), 1
New, Shopper 248) then this sequel will come

You control three separate characters; Papa Doc, a Vooju priest; Jane Staning. a dashing and improbably proportioned pirate, and Blue Belly, a rotund cook with the mislortune of 5e obv>ou' ~ot 2S4) last year, it uses the solutions are often as funny as ADVENTllREC".AME 1.6GH.(PU. 1GB they are logicaL producing same simple. but elegant RAM. 256 MB Dlrect~ 9,00 compatibl. control system, and mix of results like a coconut-based gr.pOk> (ard, ~ GB dio
DTP ENTERTAINMENT

Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island

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****

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Vampyre Story. your inventory can contain the idea 01 an item, which then be combined with other items and ideas as you find them. Ghost Pirates isn't without its flaws, The plot is OVErcomplicated for such a short game, but experienced adventurers can expect around eight to ten hours of play. Howe~er, we were impressed by the thoughtful. weU-paced puzzle design, rich environments. great characterisation an d humour which kept us smiling throughout, Kat Orphanide$



w

a::

~ I-LL

C

Ul FAQ Q

What the advantages of running virtualisation software on my PC?

A

Virtualisation software, such asVMWare's Workstation 7 on page 55, allows you to simulate PC systems. Each of these can run its own copy ofWirldows, or

any other o.,erating system

you choose. Practically spe aking, you can swit(:h to a

virtual PC as easTly as opening an application or clicking a tab. There are numerolJs uses for

virtualisation. A common Orle is to eKpenmenl with oth er operating systems, such as

UnulC. This is far more convenient than setting up a hard disk partition and a dual-boot startup. Oth er uses include t esting softwarl', so you can try out trial or beta software without irlStalling it on your own ~ rsion of Windows, where it may impact upon other

app lications. You can even use a virtua l machine to check out ~te ntially malicious websites without undue risk. For more on virtua lisation, see How It Work! in Shopper ZS6.


COREL

PaintShop Photo Pro X3

****


.--

The veteran image editor PaintShop Pro has just had a makeover and. unusually for creative .software. it"s a pretty significant update though the overhaul st ill needs some woO:. with numerous bugs and a f!'!W glaring omissions. PaintShop Pro finally gets its own RAW processing engine (turn to page 132 for more information on this process). Camera support is reasonably comprehensive. although cemin recently launched cameras such as Sony's A550 and Pentax's I( -series aren't compatible. Sadly, PaintShop Pro's long-awaited handling of RAW files is atrocious. The controls are hopele ssly basic, with no picker tool for custom white Nlance. no highl ight or shadow restoration and not even a contrast control. Worst of aR. looming the prev iew to 100 per • COfel Painter Photo E..... nti... 4 i. a f~ntastic a lly useful tool to he lp turn your favourite photos inlo artistic creations cent magnification reveals glaring bloc~ artefacts (we suspect the demosaicing and anti-aliasing algorithms are at fault). ThankfuUy , this problem disappears once the image is sent to the main application for further editing. but it makes a nonsense of the noise reduction and sh arpness controls. In the main application, you can use the new Smart Carver tool to st retch or compress photos into different aspect ratios, white defining areas to protect or discard. It's ideal for making photos tit a picture frame without having to crop the edges. and also for removing a stranger, or an ex, from a photo. It works better than Photoshop Elements' simil XP (SP3)M proc"Il: ,.-, Project Creator shows promise, excellent Painter Photo Essentials PRODUCT COOE Vsn,X3IEMB though. and ooce these bugs are makes up for a lot of its problems. DETAILli www."","'""." ironed out it will be a valu able 8M Pill

,

'-- • .---



SOFTWARE

SERIF

Dig ital Scrapbook Artist 2

****

£25 inc VAT

From www.play.com better known lor its powerful but design software sudl as desktop publishing suite PagePlu$ X4 (see Whal'$ New, Shopper 262). However, it's not a huge leap forward from laying out magazine pages to the more casoal pastime of digital scrapbooking. Scrapbooking is the collecting of photos.

from a larger, but not huge. selection at www.daisytrail.com. Ah andfulare free, but most cost 0.49 - crazy for what's little more than a laney c~p art pack. There's a £10 voucher in the box to get you started. 01 COUf5e. you could design your knick-knacks and memorabilia in books. Digital own bits and bobs to adorn your • A pholo book lor a ne wborn Is classi c sc.apbooklng lodder pages, There's a good basic set 01 Scrapbook Artist 211'15 you scrapbook on your PC, combining digital images and clip art tools to help with this. These are don 't use the same one twice. There's built-in easy enough to use, and we particularly liked the together to make attractive IX'ge designs. One photo-editing. so you can quickly add arty effects to photographs, or simply fi x red -eye key advantage of digital scrapbooks is that roughen tool. to give things an aged appearance, they can be shared online with others. and the scissors. so you can easily chop out bits is5ues. Pictures, picture IrameS,letters, We _r1' disappointed to lind there 's no of any object you import or draw frel'hand. backgrounds and other bits and bobs are store
ixel Dell Wireless 365 BluetOOl h Module, £30

Extra battery, £96

BUYING INFORMATION Parts and labour warranty PriceincVAT PnceexVAT Detaols Suppli...-

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BUDGET LAPTOPS

PACKARD BELL

ACER

SONY

Easynote TJ75

Aspire

Vaio VPC-EB1SOEjWI Inspiron 1764

DELL

SAMSUNG R780

7740-334GSOMn Intel Core i3· 330M

***

***

IntelCIl<" i3-33OM

Imel C~ i3- 330M

*****

*****

lole/Core i5·43OM

Intel Core i3-33OM

l.nGHz

2.13GHz

2.13GHz

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Reattek HO Audio

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Reatlek HO Audio

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15.6;n widescreen LCD

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1S.6in widescreoeo LCD

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Choosing a... INTRODUCTION Digital SLRs may be getting chuper lind Micro FourThirds cameras may be reducing

the size of mode ls with interchangeable lenses, but neither is as small or as cheap as II (om pact. If you want something you can carry around with you all the time or simply don't want the bulk of II camera with II replacea ble lens - now's the ideal time to buy II compact. As you'Usee from this Labs, the cost of compacU "', fallen, but their quality has risen. The ru ult is that you ca n buy II camera cheaply that's capable of great quality shou, stunning HD video and more.

Ben Pitt

Music and photography expert

Compact digital camera OU may think that digital compact cameras have reached II stage where any model will produce high-quality shots, but you'd be wrong. While the number of features in cheap camerils has been incr~asing. th~ variation in quality is som~tim~s astounding. H~r~, we'll expl
Y

sensor, so its performance at 12 megapi xels is stunning. However, the dever way that this sensor has been built means that it can switch to a true 6-megapixel mode (not just resize images) lor tile ultimate in low-light performance. This gives th~ F200EXR a lIexibility not normally seen in compact digit
SENSOR SENSIBILITY

The whole point of a compact camera is to get something that's small enough to carry around eV~l)Wher~.It"s unlik~ly tha t you'd also want to carry around a separate camcord~r, so a compact camera's video mode is very important if you want to be able to tak~ impromptu vid~os to upload to YouTube. To help you chose the best camera for your needs, our table on page 115 tells you the maximum resolu tion and frame rate at which each 01 the cameras can record video. Compacts with 640x480 video resolutions are line lor basic video, but with YouTube now supporting HD content, a ?lOp (1 ,280x710) option is much more exciting. Still, the specifications can't tell you ev~rything. so you'lI need to read our r~vi~ws to lind out how good each camera's video mode is. Our reviews will also tell you about the r~corded sound quality. an important aspect that is often glossed over.

VIDEO KilLED THE PHOTO STAR We've long been campa igners against sensors with pointlessly larg~ megapixel ratings in compact cameras for several reasons. Primarily. the Si l~ of a compact means that the sensors used are g~n~ra lly very small. Compared to a digital SlR cam~ra. this typically means that eaoch pixel receives less light on a compact, leading to poor-quality photos and image noise. A smaller sensor wiU struggle in low light. As a result. the size of the sensor used is important. as is the camera's image processing. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell by specifications alon~ if a camera will produce high -quality images or not. Our reviews are here to help, though, and will tell you how good each cam~ra really is. look out for cameras with spedal trick<;, too, such as Fuji/ilm's Finepix F200EXR. This uses a larger than average '/,~in



COMPACT DIGITAL CAMERAS

This month PENTAX Optio MaS Page 112

CANON PowerShot A495 Page112

PANASONIC Lumix DMC-FPo Page 112

OLYMPUS

W7010 Page113

PENTAX Dptio POD Page 113

CASIO Exilim EX-Z2oD Page 113

NIKON

Coolpix S570 Page114

SAM SUNG PL70 Page 114

FUJIFILM FinePix F2DDEXR Page114

MORE MEMORY The vast majority of digital cameras come with a smaU amount of onboard memory, but this is only ever enough for a couple of shots. To use your camera seriO\.lsly, you 'Uneed to buy a memory card. Pretty much every camera here supportS SDHC memory cards, which are cheaply available in sizes up to 32GB. Canon's PowerShot A495 is different as it uses SDXC - a new standard that 5UpportS memory cards larger than 32GB. SDXC is backwards-compatible with 5DHC and SD cards, so you can still use tl>ese cards in your camera. However, SDXC cards can't be used with existing SD and SDHC devices, so yO\.l'U need to buy a new memory card reader if you want to use this standard direcdy with yO\.lr PC. Finally, Olympus has announced that its new range of cameras wiU use SD memory cards, but its existing model<; stit! use the old xD standard. These are relatively expensive and pertorm poorly, slowing the camera down , as you can see from O\.Ir review of the Olympus.

UFE THROUGH A LENS With compact cameras yO\.l 're stud with the lens they ship with, so it's importanl to get a camera with the right modes. The zoom range listed in our table on page 115 tell<; you Ihe zoom multiplier, but the 3Smm equivalent value in brackets is arguably more importanl. The smaller the first number, the wider the shot you

can take: the larger the second number, the doser you can zoom in on an object. These ligures are just guidelines, and having a larger zoom range doesn't necessarily mean better qua!ity. In fact, it 's often the opposite, as it's diHicult to craft a lens's optics to produce decent results throughoot a high loom range. Finally, the aperture range tell<; you how much light the lens can let into the camera. The lower the number, tl>e more light comes in, therefore the faster yO\.l can take a shot and help to eliminate motion blur. With a wider aperture you can take shol5 in lower light conditions "'Iithout having to resort to adjusting the sensor's sensitivity. A wider aperture win give yO\.l a narrower depth of focus, While a ne sensitivity and, hence, the higher the exposure time needs to be. ISO seuings help you take pictures in low light, as you can boost the sensor's light sensitivity and shool at fast spee
option on a camera helps compenS
SCREEN TEST With a compact, the only way to compose a shot is to look al the screen on the bad., as no modern models have a viewfinder. The !
BATTERY LIFE With compact cameras sma!! enough to carry everywhere, it's important that their batteries don't run out. Our table tell<; you the type of battery that each camera ta~es, and how many shots it wi!! last for. Most compact cameras use U-ion batteries, which last longer than their AA counterparts. Li-ion spares ten d to be more expensive, IhO\.lgh, and have to be recharged sometimes inside the camera body. Models that t.:lke AA batteries are less common, bUI these are far simpler to replace wl>en out and about.



@


PENTAX Optio M85

CANON PowerShot A495

**

£111 inc VAT

***

****

From www.lambda-tek .com/

From www.play.com

£95 inc VAT From www.bri stolcameras.co.uk

£120 inc VAT

componentshop With ils M8S, Pent~x appears to be going aU out to provide the most impressive ~cs for the lowest possible price. Inside the slim, aluminium she/fillere's a massive 3in screen and li ->on battery, and it can even record 720p HO video - nOI bad for a mere £95. though, becoming washed out when viewed from above and turning into a surreal negative image at other angles. VieWl'd head on, the screen produces a bright. vivid image, and brings a ~n~ of luxury to the camera. $
With most cameras at this price using 12-megapi>
The FPS's aluminium body is slim, stylish and reassuringly tough. We love the red finish, but it's also available in black ex silver. It's remarkably well equipped for such a cheap camera. 8attery life is great at 380 shots. and the optical stabilisation system is exceptionally effective, keeping around 80 per cent of shots sharp when loomed right in and using a '/...second shutter speed. The 720p HO video mode is anotller highlight, with sharp details, low noise, smooth automatic exposure, continuous autofocus and access to the optical zoom. Sound quality isn·t fantastic but it doesn't spoil the show, Performance is excellent, too. We measured just 1.5 seconds between switching on and capturing a shot, and subsequent frames arrived every 1.7 seconds. The l.Sfps continuous mode lasted for just three shots, but after a couple of seconds it was ready to capture three more. The Pf8 is also highly efficient when it comes to adjusting settings. with a Quick Menu button providing direct access to key photographic Options. The buttons are backlit for visibility in low light but their labels aren·t. so thiS is helpful only once you've leamed what they all do. Tile screen could be better, with poor colour reproduction when viewed at anything other than head on. The lens and digital image processing performed superbly in our tests. producing sharp details and natural colours in a wide range of shooting conditions. The sensor was the weak point, though, exhibiting a little noise even in bright light and lots of it when low ~ght dem~nded high ISO speeds. Pan
SUMMARY

SUMMARY

SUMMARY

VERDlCT Trie, 10 provide 100 much I", 100 liltle-

VlRDICT A """'pet",,1 bud~ "'~pp'''. b
Ind

COMP...cT DIGIT... LU,MEAA 10 m.&iIfIIx.... 3,3, "I'tical zoom (3T. 1Umm), l'hin tCo. 2lc M bonery. 6.2<94x31mm. lTSg. """ .YU' RllI YmTon'Y

COMP... CT DIGIT..... C... MEAA 12 mogop ixols. 4.6x"l'I><.1 'oom (28· 128mm). V in tCo. Li ·ion bonery, 6Ox96.<2
PART COO£ 15&-101

PART COO£ 42S9B010M

PAilT CODE Ot1C-fP8EB-~

DET.u.5 www.j>Mwc.co.uI:

DETAIlS www.<.>oon.cQ.uk

DlT.... LS www . ~ >< .
The screen's viewing angles aren 't great.

,"dly. lmag.. qUluty Is "".rlook<'"d. R.placlng m.nus witll. scrolling opr>on. sysl"'" i. confusing COMP...cT OIGIT"L u.MEAA 12 mogap19mm. 12~g. ""'.YU'

RTlI

~"''Y

VEROICT Wfth • sled< o.",n, I""t performanc.

g"'" fellu.... lndudlng 720p .,;0.0. _

coold

Ii .... with the fPS's u"",mri;tble image qu;t/ity



COMPACT OIGITAL CAMERAS

OLYMPUS

PENTAX

CASIO

1-1-70 10

Optio P80

Exi lim EX-Z280

***

***

**

increasing to 2,8 seconds. That's still nothing to write home about. though. Continuous shoot ing lasted for just two shots, but a High-Speed mode managed 22 shots at l1fps by dropping to three megapixels. The slow performance also accounts for the lack of HD ~ideo capture, The 701O's ~ideos are aU shot at basic 'IGA resolution with fixed loom and focus and wnsistentiy poor sound, but the o~erall picture quality was otherwise OK. Our dis~ke for compact cameras with pointlessly high resolutions is well documented, but even compared to similarly specified cameras the 7010's test shots failed to impress. Focus was poor towards the comers of frames at wide-angle loom settings, and a little soft acroS5 the frame in telephoto shots. The camera also struggled to cope with dense teKtures 50ch as foliage. Shots taken under artificial light h<>d an unpleasant yellow cast. and outdoor images lacked the ~ibrancy of other cameras' shot5. As usual for this type of camera, noise was a big problem at high ISO speeds. Although noise reduction did a decent job of hiding it, it also obliterated a lot of fine detail in the process. Shots at the top ISO 1600 setting were particularly ugly. At this price, it's best to settle for a sma ller loom range in a better all -round camera.

The P80 is incredibly sm all and light. and its curved metal body has a sophistica ted elegance that few camera manufacturers manage to pull off. It's well specified, too, with nop video recording and a wide-angle lens with an 112.6 maximum aperture that's a little wider than most of the other cameras on test. We like HO ~ideo modes on digital cameras, but the P80 's isn't the best. Focus was fixed for the duration of dips, as was the optical loom , relying instead on a digit al 100m that produced blocky results, Noise was a big problem in low light, and the 8kHz audio sample ra te meant that sound quality was extremely basic. There's no optical image stabilisation for counteracting camera shake, either. Instead, Pentax offers a feature called Pixel Track SR. The name suggests that it's more sophisticated than most electronic stabilisation techniques, which usually just involve hiking up the ISO speed. Howe~er, the results aren 't really very different at all, with heavy digital processing ironing out many of the details in shots. Pixel Track SR takes a heavy toll on performance, but even without it, the PSO is slow. It took around lour seconds on a~rage between shots, but this delay was lar from regular, sometimes taking up to six seconds. Continuous shooting lasted for just two frames at the highest quality setting. although dropping the resolution increased this to five. The lens displayed sharp focus acroll its entire worn range and, while the preview image exhibited heary pincushion distortion at wide-angle settings, the sa~d picture was corrected digitally. Colours were a little over<;aturated lor our tastes, but it was possible to rein this in. Howe~er, we also found that we had to adjust the white balance under artificial light to avoid an unpleasant yellow cast to pictures. High-ISO shot<; suffered badly Irom noise, but no more than is usual for a 12-megapixel compact camera. OveralL the PSO's image quality sits in the middle of tMe p
The Z2S0 is a good reminder of how much the camera market has changed in recent months. With it<; 12-megapixel sensor, svelte, brushed aluminium body, wide-angle lens, optical image stabilisation and HD video mode, it<; sub-£ l50 price is remarkable. For one thing. it<; video capabilities are particularly impressive, capturing 720p HO video at a film-li ke Nfps, and with high-quality sound recorded at the same 44.1 ~Hz sample rate used by audio CDs. With a dedicated ~ideo button, there 's no need to switch modes when f(jpping from stills to video capture. Video clips were sharp and well exposed, but darker areas were noisy , even when shooting outdoors. Sadly, the Z2S0 is less successful when it comes to taking photos. It's painfully lethargic. taking an average of 4,4 seconds between shoH in normal use, and this rises to 6.1 seconds when using the flash. The continuous mode ran at 0. 3fps - that's more than three seconds between each photo, and hardly constitutes a continuous mode at aiL Howe~r, ~n alternati~ mode, labelled High Speed CS, offers some compensation by capturing eight two-megapixel shots at 3.8fps. Our image quality tests revealed lurther problems. Outdoor shOH in bright light were generally impreS5ive, but the lens produced chromatic aberrations in the corners of frames, re50lting in indistinct details and halos of discolouration around high-contrast lines. E~en at the lowest ISO speed of 64, quite a lot of noise was ~isi ble, particularly around sharp details where the digital noise reduction appeared to be struggling to distinguish details and noise from each other. Worst of all were the photos taken indoors, with flailing noise reduction leading to grubby-looking results with barely any fine details, Colour reproduction was exceUent when shooting under artiliciallight. but it was too late to salvage a good report lor image quality. The Z280's specifica tions and price are tantalising. but by struggling in two of the most important areas - image quality and performance - it does it<;elf no favours.

SUMMARY

SUMMARY

SUMMARY

VERDICT The 7. toom i, worth n,lIing. but ot h..cameras offer bett.r Imag. q
VERDlCT We love the dinky d.,ign , but t here', Un!. e ls. to make thl' camera
VERDICT This i, ~ ClImer. that look> Ilnt.51ic on pape', bui lt', considerably Ie.. SO In practlcr: image quality being the m. in ", ...I:-no ..

COMPACT DIGITAl CAMERA 11,6 megap i ,e!~ 7, optkal IOOm (,a-l _ ), Vin leD,U -ion brnt
COMPACT DIGITAL CAMERA 12 "",g.op i ,e!~ 4, optkal IOOm (<1.S-11Omm), Vin LCo.li-ion bottt
COHP"'CTDlGIT"'lCAHERA 12 ""'&,pi •• I5,4, optkol. IOOm (26-10""""), l .T'" lCO, U-ion bottOf)', SSx9&c2Omm, 112£ on0-yNf ItTB wom.nty PAATCOOE EX-Z280SR!:o.o

£130 inc VAT From www.c:amerabox.co.uk

The

pla~tjc ~ - 701O

£132 inc VAT From www.amazon_co_uk

isn 't as alluring as its

aluminium-dad rivals, but there are a lew strips of metal to reinforce it and the overall effect is reasonably smart. The 2.7;n SCfel'O has excellent viewing angles and the backlit buttons add a tooch of class to proceedings. We were delighted to find a lx loom lens and optical stabilisation in such a compact, low-price camera. The 170-shot battery life isn't so impressive, though. Olympus has finally a
least there's an adaptor indude
PAItT CODE ~lS96l92 DETAIL5 www.olymp"s.co.uk

£134 inc VAT From www.amazon_co.uk

LO_~_~ __- __~ _·'_WC_ ·_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _~



e


NIKON

SAMSUNG

FUJIFILM

Coolpix S570

PL70

FinePix F200EXR

****

*****

better images in gloomy conditions. However. 1/6.6 at the telephoto end is ,maUer than usoal. The conlrol~ are 5parse, with no metering modes, dynamic-range JXoce~~ing or other advanwl features to worry about. but this keeps the menu simple and quick to navigate. The ISO speed control is more sophisticated than mOil, though. A Fixed Range Auto option lets you specify the maximum ISO speed that's aRowed - 400 or 800 - without having to set the speed manually for each shot The Auto ISO mode u~es 5peed~ up to 1600. so between these three options there 's a healthy amount of flexibility. Sadly, the camera's choice of ISO speeds within the selected range was onen ill-advised. It even ignored our wishes at times. jumping to ISO 800 when we had selected 150 400 as the limit Otherwise, the 5570 put in a solid perlormance in our image-quality tests, but it failed to di~tingui5h it~elf ag~inst similarly priced competitors. Not surprisingly, low-light shots were an woefully lacking in fine det
The PL70 is a tad chunkier than average, but its brushed aluminium front looks elegant. It 's just as impressive around the back. with a 3in LCD screen and a twist dial fc>r quick access to its various shooting modes. A Function button provides quick access to key photographic controls. with other settings stowed away behind the Menu button_ Optical image stabilisation is included. but we found it to be less effective than rival systems. managing only a 60 per cent success r~te at the full zoom extension and a '!,,-second shutter speed (over 90 per cent is common). Combining it with electronic stabilisation improved the success rate to 80 per cent but crippled performance and made various other settings inaccessible. OthelWise, perlormarxe wa~ genera lly decent, but the flash took up to eight seconds to recharge and fire again. Continuous shooting was fast at lfps, but the screen was blank while shooting. It's great to see lZOp HO video at this price, and even better when it 's recorded in the memory-saving AVC format with stereo AAC sound. However, it was let down slightly by fixed focus throughout the length of clips and noise problems when shooting in low light. The 12- megapixe~ '{" in sensor posed serious problems in terms of image noise in photos, too. However, 5amsung's digital processing handled it better than usual. Fine details had a syrupy texture, but othelWise photos looked impressively dean. particularly in high-contrast lines. The lens perlormed weU, too. producing sharp focus across the frame with no bad photos among our test shots. The Pl70 has a lot in common with Panasonic's FP8: 12-megapixel photos. 720p videos, optical stabilisation and a wide-angle lens. The FP8 costs nearly £40 less. ha~ a longer battery life, superior video quality and more effective optical stabilisation. The PL70 has a bigger, better screen and superior still image qua~ty. Either is equally deseJVing of your money, but bear in mind that Fujifilm's fantastic FZOOEXR (right) costs just a lew pounds extra and does a whole lot more.

Fujifilm's FinePix F200EXR has been available for over a year, but it still has the best image quality of any compact camera at any price. bar SLR-compact hybrids costing over £SOO. The key to its success is its innovative sensor design, which can switch between 12 and six megapixels (and not simply by resiling the 12-megapixel image). The 12-megapixel mode is best fO<" capturing sharp details in bright light, while the six-megapixel mode helps minimise noise in low light. A third option produces six-megapixel image~ with a high dynamic range, capturing more highlight detail than other camera~ can muster. These groundbreaking innovations are Ncked up by some great features. There's a Sx wide-angle zoom len$, optical stabilisation to avoid blurry shots, a 3in screen and a manual exposure mode . Our only disappointment is that video is recorded at the standard VGA resolution rather than lZOp HD. Perlormance wasn't astounding. taking 3.4 seconds to switch on and capture a photo. Successive shots started 1.6 seconds apart but. aner three shots, slowed to 2.8 seconds apart. Continuous shooting ran at Z.5fps for three frames. or O.Sfps ongoing. Thi~ i~ disappointing considering the camera's other strengths, but it's not unusual at this price. Image quality is what this camera is all about. Innovations aside. its sensor has over twice the surface area of those in nearly all other compact cameras. and paired with an excellent lens, it produced incredibly sharp 12-megapixel photos. Low-light shots showed the biggest difference, though. Even at 12 megapi xels it was way ahead of the competition. with a little noise. but excellent retention of details. At six megapixels it was even better. Flash photography was less impressive as the camera switched to unnecessarily high ISO speeds. but adjusting this manually quickly fixed the problem. We loved the F200EXR when it cost £270. At just £ 163, it's incredible value and miles ahead of its competitors. If you 're looking to buy a compact camera, this is the one to go for.

SUMMARY

SUMMARY

SUMMARY

VERDICT The 5x zoom w;de-.nglelen$ i, • w.lcome featil~. but lhere'$ nothing else h....

VEROICT Wjth im~ge qu~lfty tnat". way .he~d of the p~d. fle,INe controls .nd a great Sel of lutu",., mi. i, atI uni>e'I~bie b
***

£135 inc VAT

£157 inc VAT From www.dabs..com

From www.amazon.co.uk

The SS70'~

met~l

body (ooh sm~rt but it's not

a particularly striking design. It's far more

eye -catching in black, blue. red or pink linishes. The price quoted ablM' is for the re
impress;ve, with a Sx zoom range st"rting al a wide-angle 28mm focal length. Its 112.7 maximum aperture lor wide-angle shots is bigger than most, capturing more light for

~~ .

£163 inc VAT From www_pixmania.co_uk

lh~1 _".~nl$. ~commefl
VERDICT A um.,,~ not with.,.,t jt, ft.w., bul high Image qual.ily atld nOp HO vide" ~'" atI imp",,,;"e COmbinalion ~ Ihi. p
COMP...cr DIGIT"L CAMERA 12 meg-pix.... 5, op ~coI

COMP"CT DIGIT"L U,MERA 12 m
COMP"CT DIGrf..... C"MERA 12 m
worn (28-14Omm). 2.lin lCO, U-ion bottOf)'. Sl!<9Z,22mm. 120g. ono-y'" RTBYmT.nty

worn (2S-14Omm). 3in lCO, U-ion blIttery. 6O<96. Z"""'.

'oom (Z8-14Omm), U-ion bottery, 59x98><./3mm. 175g.

P"RTCOOE VMA590EI

U9g. ""'-YO'" RIB WiOffonty PART CODE ECPL10ZZSPSCS

PAATCOOE Pl0NC0129OA

0ET.u.5 wwwnlon.co....

0ETAA.li www...... '"ngc.",. ~ co . u~

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RTB WiOfJonty

DlT.... LS www.f"jimm.co."~



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COMPUTER RECYCLING

Your shiny new PC has arrived and it's time to give your old one the boot, but what do you do with something even the bin man turns his nose up at? Tim Danton talks you through your options

wasn't suppose
comes to our computing paraphernalia: what do Wf!:

do with these once -cherished items when

they reach the end of their useful ~fe? Many

people don't realise that simply throwing them in the bin is illegal

The IT in dustry is responsible lor a huge amount of waste, much of it dangerous: tOKins leach into the earth, heavy metal!; lind their way into normal waste dumps and flame retardants generate hanmful gases as they're incinerated.

If you have an old PC or laptop - or any other piece 01 electri~1 equipment lor that matter - then y()(J have a .social and legal responsibility to dispose 01 it appropriately. In this feature, we look at your three main choices: sen it, give it away or recycle it. The environmental pressure group Gr~npeace is dear as to which is the ~t option. "It's almost always better to upgrade old equipment where possible than to recycle: explained Tom Dowdall, greener electronics campaign coordinator for the organisation. "but how long this is possible depends on the use of the Pc. Some studies reveal that reusing a computer is 20 times more effective at saving life-cycle energy use than recycling.We're going to eKplore aU the options to discover wha t you can do with your PC: from selling it. to the numerous ways Y()(J can give y()(Jr PC away, until finally we reach the part we 're trying to avoid: how to recycle your Pc.

COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y


~OlO

COMPUTER RECYCLING

BEFOREYOU DO ANYTHING ELSE •.• Whether you seU or gi~e away your PC. there are some ground J\Iles to co~r. While you own the h~rdw~re and GIn do with it what you wish. the software is a different matter. When you buy or build ~ Windows PC. you're using Microsoft·s software on the basis of a licen~. You won't get into any trouble with Microsoft if you sen or give away your system. Indeed. when we cont~cted the company it positively encouraged the reuse of old PCs. "I do belie~ that keeping PCs in Circulation is a great thing for people and the environment alike: said laurence Painell, Windows OEM and WGA product m~nager. But he ~Iso went on to say' "Individuals n~d to ensure that they are using genuine Windovvs operating systems as it offers users the quality they expect and ~dditional benefits such as full ~cce5S to downloads. upda tes and enhanced fea tures: Microsoft·s offiCial guidance follows similar lines. stating that the entire PC "may be transferred to another end user. along with the software licence rights. When transferring the PC to the new end user. the following must be included: original software media; manuals (if app~cable); Certificate of Authenticity (COA).· If you bought your PC from a manufacturer. such as Dell or Mesh. the COA will almost certainly take the form of a stider on the side of the main chassis. If you built it yourself, it's probably sitting in a ceUophime wrapper along with the warranty information. With any Iud. you mould also find the receipt or purchase invoke hi ding away there, too, Microsoft recommends that such proof of purchase is also passed on to the next owner. and goes 00 to wam that the "original end user cannot keep any copies of the software". So with the paperworl< in order. it's time to ready the machine itself. and that means remo~ing all your personal files. You'll want to keep copies of these files for yourseU - check out the tutorial on page 131 to find out how to transfer them from ~ Windows XP or Vista PC to a shiny new Windows 7 system. When it's time to start erasing. don't just head to My Documents. select aU the contents and dick ~Iete. A computer collects all sorts of hidden information. whether it's your browsing history - complete with passwords - or files you thought you 'd deleted. The safest way to protect

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The key to a high-qua lity photo is the lighting; make sure you choose as bright a room as '100 can. Photo-editing software can help to make photos more vibrant. but they can't add detail that was lost due to dark conditions. You can also ad d eKlra photos. and we recommend you do so. eBay charges eXIra for hosting addition al photos. but the more you Ciln make someone feel they know exactly what they're getting. the more likely they are to bid, You can even add photos to your eBay listing for free by hosting them yourself - say. on your blog - and then following eBay's instructions for linking them to the auction page. Visit http:// tinyurl,comlebayphoto for more information. Then we come to the words. You're there to 5eIL so bring out the best points at the start to lure buyers in. Don't be tempted to gloss over any d~m age or possible drawbacks. however. as this will create negative feedback. The linal point coocerns being specific. For a PC or laptop. people will want to know not just that it's a 2.6GHl ~U; they'll want to know the exact model and the key specifications. You should also make it clear which version 01 Windows is (or isn't) included. and that they will receive aU the necessary p.1perwork. You may not need to enter all the specifications yourself. If it's a PC or laptop that's already in eBay's product database, then you can link your listing to the product - this will then prefill ~ital details and pro~ide photos. To check if your kit is in eBay's database, click on the Find your product link under the PrefiUed item information se<:tion of the Sell Your Item form. You can then enter the part number (or fa iling that. the brand or product name) and your listing will be attached to eBay's existing product information page for that product. This also works well for products such as digital cameras. which are ideal for selling on eBay as they often retain their value. but don't expect great success from old printers, for example. After all. why woold anyone pay even £10 for an old printer when they can buy a new one for as little as BO? There are a coople of extra things to coosider that might help you make more money. first. search eBay for computers similar to yoors: it may be worth more than you think. Also, consider offering a Cilsh-ooly option if people Ciln pi d up your computer. With courier costs of

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There's one ~ery obvious lirst stop when it comes to selling your computer. eBay (IIMW. ebay.co.uk). At any 001' time. yoo'U find around 20.000 laptops and 15.000 desktop PCs being offered for sale. so it's dearly a vibrant placebut equally. there's ~ lot of competition. So how do you get the best possible price? First of aU, you shou ld follow the u50ai good practice for selling on eBay. We created a whole book on this subject (The Inde~ndent UK Guide to eBaylOIO.ISBN 1906372861. f7.99). but the main points can be boiled down to photography. the words you use. and being specific.

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your data is to follow our advice in the 'Destroy your data!' box on page 119. Even if you trust the persoo you're passing your computer to. they might accidentally lea~e the PC vulnerable to hackers who could recover your personal details. If you ha~e a Windows restore disc suppl ied by your computer's manufacturer, the process should be easy: 51ip the dis<: into your drive an d choose the option to boot straight from the optical drive. To stop the computer from automatically booting into Windows as usual. you may need to interrupt the bootup process by pressing ~Iete or one of the function keys. If no dis<: was supplied with yoor computer, you may find a hidden option - aga in accessed by hitting the ~Iete key or a function key during bootup - of restoring th e PC to its filCtory settings via a hidden partition on the hard disk. Some manufacturers supply a plain Windows installation disc instead. The disadvantage of this is that it won't necessarily include all the drivers your computer needs. 50ch as for the graphics card and network adaptor. In the worst-case scenario you have to locate those drivers Irom the internet ~ia another. working Pc. However. instaUation is otherwise relati~ely stra ightfo

GIVEYOUR PCTOCHARITY The good news is that it 's actually easier to give a PC away to charity than it is to give it away to friends. especiaUy if you choose an organisation

such as Computer Aid (www.computeraid.org). This UK -registered charity reuses IT equipment in educational. healthC
dedicated to finding work opportunities for people with disabilities and other barriers to employment. and has an e-cycle arm that recycles computers. Individuals can donate their old Pes to the charity by dropping them off at one of its recycle site locations, but note that there's a £ 10 lee and the locations are currently limited to Preston, Heywood (near Manchester), Barking in East London and Porth near Cardiff. Be careful if you opt to give yoor old PC to an organisa tion whose histoty you don 't know. It's relat .... ely easy to become a registered charity, but not ali of them are transparent with what happens to the money they make. 50 how do yoo choose? As a minimum. _ recommend that you find them on the list of Community Microsoft Authorised Refurbishers. found at hccp;//tillyurl. com/re/uroishefI. This not only means they've passed Microsoft's accreditation process. it also means they qual ify fO( free copies of Windows and Office. It's still important to provide proof of an existing Windows licence, thoogh . as that means Windows XP will be supplied rather than Windows 2000. The final consideration is to check what happens to your computer once its n........ users have finished with it. It it's going abroa d. fO( instance. will it end up being dumped in a landfill in five years' time? If you use Computer Aid. there 's a good chance the PC will be .sent to a recycling centre in the future. ·Computer Aid has been lobbying fO( e-waste solutions in the UK and o~erseas and has been involved in establishing East Africa 's

WilY IIIIT liSE ynllil nUl P[: :nll snMETlllll[; ELSE'? n the P~\t we 've written fe~hlre\ ~bout how to turn you r old. unloved computer into som eth ing mo re useful inlte
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DEDICATED INTERNET COMPUTER

~ You could 1030 Windows or L,n ux on

an old PC and th en turn that computer into your internet system. perhaps keeping it in 11 diffe rent room to your ma in PC However, we 're not conv inced that the hassle of keeping an old PC updated and patched is worth it, eSr>ec ially when much of

th e internet. weh a\ the Bees iPlayer and YouTube. requ ires decent hardware to fUn ~

fiLE STORAGE Why not slap a couple of hard disks into your old PC. co nnect ;tto your "etwork and then use it to stor e mus ic and photo,> For one. beca us" it's a w31te of energy, part icu larly if your PC ulel an older. energy· chomp ing processOf. Ded ic3ted devices such as the Raidson ic IcyBox (see Labs, Shopper 247]. on the othe, hand. cost I"ss than £ 100, they're faste r and they support vita l standards like UPnP

l1....lei

INTERNET FIREWALL When everyone w~s us ing ~ S6K modem to connect to the internet. it made SenSe to have a

hardw~ re fi rewa ll in between the modem and your Pc. But now almost everyone uSeS ~ wire less or wi red router th~t indudes a hardwa re fi rewa ll as standard. What's more. Windows XP SP3. Vist3 and 7 alt include a decent software firewall. too .

-

PRINT SERVER The idea beh ind th is

et was simple enough: if you hod a few

PCs on one network, you could hook up a pri nte r to on old PC. shore it through software ,md then let everyon e print viii th~t compu ter. However. Windows now mahs it eilsy to sh3fe pr inters over ~ network. ~nd many pr inters (an connect di rectly to a network, so the re's no need to leave one PC on all the time just for pr int dut ies. I...IIIIIlIIIii



~OlO

COMPUTER RECYCLING first e~waste recycling plant in Nairobi, Kenya: 'WIys Jones. "The plant provides sustairlable solutions forWEEE once true end-of"lile is reiKhed: Computer Aid is also WOfting with a partner to set up a similar ctI'ltn! in Zambia.

GIVEYOUR PCTOAMUSEUM 1/ you think your compuW is somethng a little bit out 01 tile ordinary. then the Museum of Computing (www.museumofcompttting.org. uk). in Swindon. Wiltshire. might be intet"t5t~ in taking it. VJhen we ask~ if it h~ a list of dtsifable kit, Simon Webb. wrator of the museum, replied: · We don't have a list, but if somebody contacts us by email or telephone, we can let tllem mow if it's of intereSlto us. As well as computers, we 're also interested in games consoles, calculators and anything else computer-related." Unless you happen to live nur Swindon, though , there 's tile minor problem of gett ing your computer - or other device - to the museum. "Most people who donate bring tile machine to us, and we 're happy to oUtf a complimentary tour of the museum in return, ' explained Webb. "If tlley can' t get to us we may be able to pitt it up, depending on location. Small items can be post~, and we're I'\i.ppy to refund postage and pading." To find out if the dusty PC in your attic is of inttfes!. ema~ infoOmuseumofcomputing.org.uk or call 0783-4 3756Z8.

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GIVEYOUR PC AWAY So you'OIt tritd to seU your pc, none of your friends Wilflts it, and it's not quite up to the spec::ilication requir~ lor a charity. There's one more route to ~ore before you recycle your PC, and that's Freecycle (www.freecycle.org). This is similar to the danifj~ ads you used to find in the back of local newspaPtfS. with one dilferel'lCe: everything is free. Your first step is to find your nurest Freecyde groop arld tllen join it. These art run through Yahoo! Croups, so you'll need a Yahoo! accourl! to sign up. First visit www.{reecycle.orglgroupluktohone in on your local group, and follow the links to become a member. You may lirld there's a delay while your membership is ratified. OrlCe you 're irl, you carl post yoor memge, indudirlg photos, to your area's message board. Therl sit back and wait to be COrltact~; yoo may f'rld that lar more people gel in touch than yO<.l think. last year we offtf~ a tired, 1999 Compaq

desltop pc with linux install~, and a dozen people volunteered 10 take it off our hands. Because Freecyde is orgarlised a
in the same way you might arl old piece 01 lumiture. "Most computers cOrltairl some potentially harmful !'Iemenll, though marlulacturers have dramatically r~uced the51' in newer modelat t hey clll"lhandle have to find a recycli ng

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MAY 2010 ' COMPIJT"£A SHOPPER


HD TV SERVICES

tune into

HDTV Got an HD TV but still watching normal TV on it? With more options for receiving HD broadcasts than ever before, Julian Prokaza goes in search of the perfect package he HO

re~olution i~

well under way

in the UK, with the price of high- definition TVs and Blu- ray players now within reach of just

about e~ef)'one. Blu-ray is only one part of the home entertainment sea change , though, and TV

broadcasters are also embracing high -definition. There are currently four ways to watch HO

TV programmes in the UK. with a fifth becoming available this year. Two win eventually olfer free-to-air dlannels that anyone with the

appropriate equipment can tune into lor nothing. wh ile two provide a veritable 5fTlorg~sbord 01 HO programming for a monthly subscription. It 's also possible to Wijtw HD programmes online. We 're talking aboot Freeview HD, Freesa t

anything new bolting to an external wall For new customers, the setup cost includes the \(Jpply and inst~llation of a minidish, UK cover~ge is quoted as being 98 per cent. The dish m~y be the same, but the set·top box required is different. The Sky+HD box is also a personal video recorder (PVR), with a hard disk for recording programmes and pausing live TV, It's al:;o compatible with Sky's 3D seJVice, due for launch later this year (we'll be co~ering 30 technologies in another feature soon), There's a setup cost of £60 lor existing customers, £30 for new customers and no charge lor IleW customers who sign up ooline. The Sky t HO box is free when you subscribe to the HD Pack, which costs £10 per month and is

HD, Sky+HD. Virgin TV and BBC iPlayer. While not e~e!)'one will be able to receive eve!)' seJVice, ~lmost eve!)'one should be able to get ~t le~st Olle, The question , then, is which HO TV seJVice is the best?

o SKY'S THE LIMIT ~ British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB, or just Sky, ~ as it's better known) announced its HD plans in ~ 2004, and the service launched In May 2006. ~ The Sky tHO is broadcast via the same sateHites ~ as its standard defin ition (SO) digital seJVice and :s recei~ed ~ia the same minidish. So, if you're ;t already a Sky TV subscriber, you won 't need

II

... The latest Sky +HD H6 box C3I'I record OVer a week

01 hlgh·del .... II!on b.OItdciIOs ls

requ ired for HD reception, Subscription costs vary according to the Sky channel package, There are six Entertainment Pa cks to choose from; the first costs £18 per mooth and additiooal ones are £ 1 a month each, Movie Pa cks are £8 each, and Sports Packs cost from £9 to £12 each. Sky offers the wide!;t selection of HO channels in the UK- 37 in all - but you ooly receive them all if you subscribe to all 11 channel packages, which costs £57.50 a month. Otherwise, you just get the HD channels th at correspond to those in the channel packages you subscribe to: the Variety Pack includes four HD channels, including Skyl HD, for example (the table on page 122 lists the various packs). A.U HD subscribers receive three free·to· air channels irrespective of their channel pack~ge: BBC HD, Channel 4 HD and Luxe TV HD.lTV HD may also be added manually, depending 011 which Sky t HO box you have (find out at hllp:// tinyur/.com/iMldslry), Sky d0e5n 't offer an on·demand seJVice yet. but an IPTV leJVice to deliver TV over broadband is planned. In the meantime, its pay·per· ~iew Box Office movies seJVice provides some flexibility, with half· hourly start times on multiple channels. Only two channels are dedica ted to HD movies, though, and these don't COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y


~OlO

HD TV SERVICES

• Virgin's V+HD bo~ c,," record two HD channels while you watch, pause and ,.. wind a ltIi,d postcode checker at http:// allyouf5. virginmedla.com to see if

come with a Dolby Digibl 5,1 soondtrack, un~ ke the HD movies available through the Movies package. The Sky+HD PVR has a 250GB hard drive that can store 60 hours 01 HD content. A lTB version has just been announced with room for 240 hours of HD footage, bot this costs an e)(lra £249, l"'lin tuners mean you can rewrd two programmes while watching a third pre-recorded one, The HD-optimised user int erface (the EPG) is a little duttere
LIKE A VIRGIN HD broadcast<; over the digital cable TV network started in 2006 with a trial 01 high-definition on-demand programmes by ntl:lelewest. lhat same year, the company acquired Virgin Mobile, along with the rights to use the Virgin brand name across aU its services, Virgin Me
•

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Simulcasting content

lthough it's a goal for aU broadcaster§ to transmit all-HD content, not alt programmes are shot in HD, and therl"s a vast archive 01 material that WM shot in SO. As a result, none of the live terrestrial broadcasters sim ulcasts an entirely HD version 01 it<; normal SO chanroels , Channel 4 and Chan roe l 4 HD are simulcast for the entire programm e schedule, but gaps in the HD line-up are fil led with upscaled (and unidentified) SD content. That may seem like cheating, but it means you can tune into Channel 4 HD every time and get the best qual1ty available, Sky uses t he same approach lor its own simulcast Skyl HD channel, and id entifies true HD material wit h an appropriate onSCrl'en logo.

A

mere 20 hoors of HD recording may limit it<; appeal, The EPC requires too many button presses to get anything done, and the box is prone to freezing lor anything Irom a couple of seconds to a minute while it accesses information from its servers, Virgin looks set to add ress these complaints alter its recent decision to team up with liVo to develop it<; neKt-generation PVR_liVo pioneere
Ted1nkaUy, ITV1 HO is also simulcast, but the HD stream is available only when therl"s an HD version of the current programme, Otherwise, you get nothing. ITVI HD isn 't yet available on Virgin TV, although we'll be interested to see if that changes in time for the World Cup in June , BBC HD simu lcasts HD versions of ~ogramm es where they exist and fills in the rest of the schedule with repeats of HD shows and selections from its archive, Even so, BBC HD isn't a 24-hour chan ne l; it's off-air between lam until6am, while the flou rs ol6am to 4pm comprise programme ~eviews. Most programmes made in the past lew years are in HD, but not aiL BBC HD shows a mix of drama (ooth home-grown and

im.,orted), light entertainment and children's programmes in high-delinition, but it's the nature documentaries that reaUy show off the lormat, David Attenoorough's Life was the most recent HD extravaganza, but you can see more regular spectacles on Discovery HD and National Geographic HD. Sport really benefits from HD too, and the football World Cup should look great on BBC and lTV HD. Films are the other mainstay of HD schedules, While these pop up on ITVI HD and Channel4 HD from tim e to t ime, serious movie-watchers are better served by the dedicated HD channels of Sky Movies HD and Virgin lV'§ on-<1emand service, where they're also accompanied by Dolby Digital S,lsoundtracks,

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IOlr broadcasts, and you'll need a fre<:view HO-compatible set-top box or TV to view them; existing Freeview equipment cannot ~ used. At the lime of wriling. Freeview HO receivers aren't yet available, but Humax has already demonstrated it5 £170 HO -Fox T2 receiver (see http://tinyuri.comlhumaxT2) , whichshouldbe

on sale by the time you read this. Other Freeview HD recervers, including PVRs, are expected this year. Allhis slage ii's difficu!t 10 know exactly what to expect from Freeview HO. but 50 far ii's broadcasling BBC HD and ITVl HO, with Channel 4 HO and the new Fwe HO channel expected later in the year. However. Nndwidth limitations mean that there 's little chance 01 dozens 01 Freeview HO channels ever appearing using the current technology. Even with just the planned quota 01 lour HO channels alongside around SO SO channels, many viewers are unhappy wi th the BBC'5 plans to squeeze wha t they see as too many HO channels on to the service. With only so much bandwidth to go round , the complaint is that too much compression is ~ing used for what could ~ considered a satislactory high-definition picture

(see the box 'HO or not HOt opposile).lf you're interested in following the ins and outs, the best place 10 slart is with the post on the BBC Internet Blog at http://tinyuri. com/BBC -HOb/og. The BBC is also under heavy lire for its proposal to introduce Digital Rights Management (DRM) to the Freeview HD platlorm. The problem boils down to Ihe BBC wanling 10 encrypt the EPG data lor HD broadcasts on Freeview HO (but not the broadcasts themselves) and placing restrictions on the way in which recordings of HD programmes can be used. As ever, the complaint is that any kind 01 encryption simply makes it more difficult lor vi~rs to enjoy the programmes that they've paid lor (via the licence fee, in this case) in the ways they want. while doing next to nothing to prevent serious copyright inlringement. Read about the latest developments at the BBC Internet Blog at http ://tinyuri,com//W-drm ,

FREESAT HD Although Freeview HD plans 98.5 per cent coverage by ZOlZ , that's still two years awayand the lack of suitable receivers means the service isn 't available to anyone at the moment. II you don 't want to wail lor subscription-free HO TV, you'll need to choose Freesat HD. Freesat is essent ially the satellite equivalent to Freeview. The service is a joint non -prolit ve nture between the BBC and lTV. Freesat

offers over 100 SO channels, and its HO broadcasts ~gan when the service launched in May 2008. Freesat HO is subscription-Iree. but you'U need a satellile dish and a Freesat HDcompatible receiver in order to watch it. Receivers start at around £60, and Freesat HD PVRs are available Irom around £220. Dish instaUation is usua lly an option at the point 01 sale, and costs around £100. Another option lor F,eesa t HD is an HD TV with a built-in receiver. The Panasonic Viera TX-P4ZV10S plasma HO TV (see Labs, Shopper 266) is so equipped, and you just connect the leed from an existing Sky minidish directly to the back of the set. It takes a few 5eConds to;.can lor channels lirst time round, but then tuning into the Freesat HD service simply involves switching to the appropriate TV input. A5 with Freeview HD, freesat HD isn't the most compeRing choice lor HD aficionados. There are only two channels - SSC HD and lTVl HD - and the programme schedule is rather limited as a result. The line-up may expand in the luture, but Freesat HD has made no announcements on new HO channels lor now. BBC iPlayer support, which is currently in bela testing. provides one potential avenue lor expanded HO viewing. with content streamed from the iPlayer site via an Ethernet port and your normal broadNnd connection. However, there are no plans to deUver anything other than SD programmes for now.

HDTVONLINE • HUmIIX will be ~mong lhe ' irsl companies 10 gel ~ Freevlew HO receive r InlO Ihe sh<>ps

II you don't laney splashing out on a new TV or

set-top box, then you can still see what the luS5 COMPllTER SHOPPER • MA Y


~OlO

HD TV SERVICES

lor up to seven days after they were first broadcast, and the BSC often makes complete series ava ilable in C3~ you missed the first few episodes_ HO programmes can be streamed for instant playback an d pl
can make smooth streilrning problematic. Programmes can allema ti",,[y be downloaded lor offline viewing using the BSC

but the ability to tailor a package to your taste helps to bring the cost down. Virgin TV has far fewer HO TV channels. but its subscriptions are dlea per and it offe~ a small selection of free and pay-per-view HD content on demand. Its UK coverage is more limited than Sky's but, if you're on the Virgin network, it"s a cost-effective way to watch HO. As for free-to-view HD TV, it's Freesat HD or nothing at the moment. The equivalent Freeview HD is available in a few areas, but yOAJ can't buy the necessary equipment to receive it at the time of writing. Both Freeview and Freesat offer a limited HD channel selection, an d this looks unlikely to change any time soon. However, BBC HD and lTV HD will be all you need to watch the World Cup in high definition, 50 football fans shOAJld seriously consider these services, especially bearing in mind that Virgin currently lacks lTV HD. Finally, there's the BBC iPlayer.1f you have the necessary computer setup, it reatly is a nifty way to experience HD. even if the quality isn 't quite as good as other HO broadcasts. Plug a PC into your HO TV and you can even get the big-screen experience, which is currently our favourite option fO<" anyone looking for high-definition entertainment on the cheap. E!

iPlayer Desktop application. This oHers a longer 3O-day viewing window for save
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Resolution. frame rates and compression

lthough high-definition video can mean anything higher than th e current standanj definition (SO) resolution of 720xS76 pixels, broadcasters ha~ settled on two formats for HO TV. These are 1,280x720, which pro\lides over twice the resolution of SO ~oadcasts, and l,920J<1 ,080, which has five times the resolution. Resolution is orlly one aspect of an HO TV image, though. Television is about moving pictures, which are achieve
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even-num bered lines. When combined, these produce interlace
1080i video at its native bit rate of lSSGBit/s - but th e amount of compression varies according to the programme content. Compression works by grouping similar pil(els together and updating Oflly those that have changed since the previous frame. Programmes with slow. moving im ages such as the news can be highly compressed because there's little change from frame to framf'. However, programmf's with fast action, such as sports, need a high bit rate to avoid blocky pictures and smeared motion. Sky uses highly efficient AVe compression to squeeze dozens of channels Ofl to its satellite service, with channel bit rates ranging from around S.S to 16.2Mbits/s. Freesat HD and Freeview HD use the sa me format, with a bit rate of around 9.SMbit/s, although this is drawing criticism in some quarters (see http://tinYlJrl.comlhdqua/ity for more information). Virgin TV's digital cable netwo~ has much greater bandwidth, so it can get away with using the If'sseffident MPEG2 code<:. It uses bit rates of around 15Mbit/s for each of its HD channels.



HACK TO THE FUTURE

Hackers, computer viruses and other threats have dogged computer users for years, but what will tomorrow bring? Simon Edwards gazes deep into his technological crystal ball and squints at the worrying future of online crime IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY

hen a fortune-teller stares into her oystal bat! she dalms to see

W

through to the misty future and

oHers guidance to those wilhng

10 hand over the required fee. However, she might be stumped when laced with questions about the state of tomorrow 's computer viruses,

or whether or not tllere will be a global outbreak of cybelWorfare. She ought not to be because,

althoogh the internet threat landscape is continually evolving. there are some basic principles that help us predict what's coming ne)((. Perllop
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•

=

The original computer viruses were born of pride or misplace
that money is the motivation behind the vast majority of online threats. Viruses, compromised websites hosting malicious exploits,lraudulent emails and phishing websites have all been designed to steal or generate money. As we ponder the future ot malware and other threats, we need to look at the matter in the conte)(\ 01 criminal endeavour, rather than seeing online threats as a resolt 01 vandalism and other types of low-level dysfunctional behaviour. In 2008 it became dear that a new underground economy had evolved in which our personal details were traded for cash on the internet We covere

~OlO

HACK TO THE FUTURE

Much of the criminal activity is based around ma!ware, which forms the front line in the criminals' activity. Some people create malware, others sell it. while underground servkes oHer to check the latest viruses to ensure that they aren 't detected by the software produced by anti-virus companies. II 's a sophislkated arrangement. both in terms of business and lechnology. One of Trend Micro's advanced threats researchers. Maxim Goncharov, spends a lot of time moniloring and interacting with criminals as they go about their online business. "They have something like an underground version of VirusTotal. to check that their ma!ware can avoid detection, as well as services 10 monitor betnets and a complex malware management system called Lone Wolf. This is based on a conventional software version control program known as Subversion." Botnels are polentially vasl networks of compromised computers - Pes owned by regular internet users, They are part of the

... Hackersl1eat each other as online businesses and even have their own IT SuPpOrt InfTa$t rUCIure

cybercriminal's IT infrastructure and are the equivalent of a traditional gangster's 'muscle'. Botnets provide masses of compoting power as well as the ability to bring down the websites and internet conneclions of large companies. They can be used to send out billions of spam emails, infect websites en masse and even host transient infected websites that come and go, making them very hard 10 lake down.

TRAFFIC DIRECTION SYSTEMS Maxim also says that the criminals operate traHic direction systems (lOS), These wor!: by selling types of internet traffic to other criminals. For example, a criminal might want to expose American users to a particular fake anti-virus program that automatica lly infects their systems, wh ile sending a diHerent type of exploit to Germans, The same technique can ensure that phishing pages in English are sent only 10 English-speaking countries, while Spanish versions appear in Spani5h-speaking territories. At the core of this method is a combination of language filtering and GeolP, which is a system that can calculate a computer's global location based on its internet address. How do the criminals control internet traffic like this? One common method is to create an infected page, or infect an innocent one, that ranks highly on the Google search engine (and by the end of this paragraph you'll discover how to improve a page's Google ranking. although you won't read about this dirty technique in any search engine optimisa tion books), This means that lots of people wit! encounter the page. Sending lin ks in spam email messages is another way to draw people to a web page, The infected page calculates where in the world each visitor is situated and the TOS uses this information to decide what happens neJCt.lt might direct the user to a currently legitimate page to raise its Google rankings, or it might open a Google Adwords link and so generate revenue in a

semi-legitimate way. Or both. In the worst cases (for the individual visitor), it might try to load malware on to their computer. Once ma!ware is loaded on a system, the compoter can be used as a tool to spy on ils user. This means that usemames, passwords, bank account details and other sensitive data can be siphoned off and sent to the attacker. Although you might think that this is the end of the story, the criminals who instaR the malware may not have a direct use for your data. We've seen a preview of Symantec's la test intemet threat report, which is due to be published in the spring this year, In it the company discloses that criminals compile lists of credit card numbers and bank details, which they sell oH in huge lim, However, the availability of cards has dropped since last year, while demand remains high. This has increased the cost of buying the information, The report also notes a disturbing new development whereby criminals are trading 'dump tracks' - the whole information found in the magnetic stripe on a credit card. This data can not only be sold for a higher price than basic information, but it's also more usable as it can be used to create a physical replica of the card. Criminals are now advertising personal services and, in a perverse version of online business networking. researchers have found recommenda tions for people involved in money laundering and even for 'mules'. According to Symantec: "Mules are unsuspecting members of the public who have been duped into accepting funds into their accounts. or accepting stolen goods. like any other commodity, these people are traded on net forums by cybercriminals." At some stage a criminal will end up using these details to commit a frau dulent act, but it's likely that the data will pass through a number of hands first. Gerry Egan is Symantec's director of product management in the security threat and response (STAR) team. "n and when your personal data is stolen online: he expl~ins, El



HACK TO THE FUTURE

sell it lor financial gain. These regular people wililikel)' haw ban~ accounts and credit cards that can be stolen. Garners often h.we online .(Counts that carry a high value - there has been a thriving market in hijacking or emptying game$ accounts for years. Criminal!; might abo try a targeted approach, where a specific (very rich) individual. comp
• Once your bank details Or ldently have been slolen, l!>ey may J>IISS between several crim ina ls belore they are ti""Uy used "it wiH often be passe<:! from criminal to criminal before being used. Once in possession 01 a card, criminals may try to use it to buy goods. "Alternatively, a criminal may leVf':rage the se.vices of a 'cash-ou t' criminaL These people may charge nothing for their se.vices - that is the se.vice of emptying your bank account - but take a comm ission on the transaction instead." The online criminals haVf': a large number of potential targets to consider. Although their primary objective is to ma~e money, there are a number 01 ways to do 50, some of which are more subtle than others. We'Vf': seen tha t criminals put a value on personal details for the purposes of ID theft, selling the data to ID thieVf':s an d eVf':n pilfering online games login details for financial gain. This means their approach to attacks is both inventive "nd varie<:!.

WHO ARE TOMORROW'S VICTIMS? Tomorrow's victims will be the same as today's. The only difference is that the criminals nee<:! to stay ahead of the game in order to compete with each other and remain profitable. Criminals will always go for the easiest targets first, looking for low-risk, high -retum opportunities. This means creating a widespread threat that has the potential to affect millions of people. The haders aren't going to single out an individual. but instead hope to catch as many random people as possible. coUect their data and use or

convincing. customised attack. In the past, criminals have sent infected CDs and USB keys to workers at banks and other large organisations. Hardware keyloggers can then be used to record

usernames an d password~ There have been fears that last year's attack on the recruitment website Momter furnished criminals with lots of personal information that

allowed them to target people with powerful employment roles, such as CEOs of global companies. Targete<:! attacks can also use information gleaned from social-networking sites - a technology that has only become Vf':ry popular in the last few yt'ars. Businesses themselves are another big target. although the scale of the problem is hard to asoess. "We only ~ the tip of the iceberg." explains R"iner Link. senior thre"t researcher at Trend Micro. "There are probably documents contatl'f.com. Security companies daim that infected websites constitute the largest single threat at the moment. The general assumption is that

these are legitimate websites that have been infected without their owners' knowle
DEATH DF A PC? Viruses and infected websites that attack consumer electronil3 as well as computers are likely to be a feature 01 future cyberattacks. Currently computers are the main target for online criminals. The PC and, to a much lesser degree. the Mac are both attacked because lots of people use them for online banking and other tasks that involve handling valuable information. Tomorrow's targets will be the devices that people use lor similar activities. This means tha t the PC is going to stay at the top of the hacker's hit list for a long time to come. If a certain type of mobile phone became a popular way to access online banking. then you can guarantee that criminals would start to produce malware designed to target and compromise them. From a criminal's point of view, hardware is a much less important consideration than software when building an attack mechanism. For example, a modern Mac is exactly the same as a PC under the hood . The very 5ame processors. RAM, graphil3 chips and hard disks are used in both computers these days. The difference is the operating system. Mal3 run OS X while PCs run completely incompatible variations 01 Windows or Linux. k. most computers in the world run Windows. criminals concentrate on breaking into Windows PCs. The more popular Mal3 become, the more attractive they are as targets. Mobile phones don't mare the same relationship as Mal3 and PCs. Even different models from the same company use different combinations of hardware and sohware. This means that there 's such a wide selection in use

STATES OF ALERT: CYBERA 11ACKS ON GOVERNMENTS



~OlO

HACK TO THE FUTURE

at anyone time that a hader would have to write many different viruses , worms or other threats to catch a significant num~r of victims. In thiS situation, variety is a delence. Once people settle on a specific mobile phone, however, it ~comes worth hacking. See the cautionary tale of the iPhone on page 125. Many 01 the ~st-known anti-virus companies produce an anti-virus product for one or more types 01 mobile phone, yet they generally admit that the threat in this area is either very low or even non-existent. "Mobile phone malware is in its infancy: explains McAfee's principle security analyst Greg Day. "There are over 3S million viruses and Trojans that target PCs. That's not count ing varia tions the true num~r is far higher. Mobile phone viruses number in the few hundreds or maybe early thousands. There is st ill such a disparity of environments: iPhones, Windows Mobile, Symbian, BlackBerry, Android and others. There is too much variety lor malware to lunction."

OARK CLOUO ON THE HORIZON We've already noted that software is much more important than hardware. Today's hackers concentrate on the unde
HEAO IN THE CLOUOS Senior threat researcher Alice Dt'cker notes that the usual way to make money with TV broadcasts is with advertising. The advertising system itself could ~ subverted and used either to make money directly or as part 01 a blackmail scam. "The intemet-enabled TV initiaUy has no financial value," she says. 'What money can criminals make? They could show you a commercial that may be dick able. This way, people's identity data can ~ stolen. If you don't click the ad you may ~ threatened with the prospect that pornography will pop up on screen when your children are watching." The term 'cloud-computing' and 'the doud' is quite vague. These days it tends to mean ronning applications directly on a server. This isn't a new concept for businesses used to dealing with email and web servers. However, the idea of running an application such as a word processor in the cloud is novel for most people as we're used to such programs ~ing software that runs on the computer sitting in front 01 us. When you use Coogle Docs to create and edit word-processing or spreadsheet documents, you 're experiencing what most people consider to ~ cloud computing. You should already be able to see some of the security issues surrounding cloud computing. First of all. your data is stored on a remote computer under someone else's control Every time you access that data you have to authenticate with a remote system, which means that your username and password probably traverses the internet. After you log in, parts 013ny file that you ac~ess also moves through the internet. This potentially exposes your account and its contents to wrong-doers far more than if you stored your photos, documents and ema il on your hard diSk. However, it's convenient to work this way as you ~an access your data from any computer that you ~ke (which is also another potential security flaw) and, in some cases, you can use low-powered computers to run demanding applications because they use the processing powt'r and memory of the service provider's systems rather than the resources 01 your own IT setup. The big cha llenge to companies that provide internet services is to ensure that customers' data remains safe. Alice explains what this means in practice. "Services need to identify where data comes from and where it should go. They need to protect against man-in -the-middle attacks, where attackers intercept data as it passes by. Cloud service.s are not currently developed in this way and can ~ fooled." Tomorrow's intemet attackers will be sophistica ted and realistic. They won't spend hours trying to hack your mobile or TV while there are easier options available. As long as we continue to use PCs to a~cess online banks, buy from ecommer~e sites and play complex subscription-based games, so the bad guys will continue to attack via the home ~omputer. Recent history shows tha t social engineering. where victims are fooled into making poor decisions , is a very successful route to separating us from our cash and personal details. Technical

Click: dell.co.uk

.a. Games con
'solutions' such as internet worms and Trojans embedded in pirated software still exist, but it's those fake emails, infected websites and even infected email attachments that will continue to pose a real threat for the foreseeable future. We also ~now that security software is not a panacea. Computer ShOpper'5 own anti -virus te~ts {http://tinyuri.comlshopperAl1andreports produced by Dt'nnis Technology labs {www. denn~techno/ogylab5.com} support this view, and few security companies would ~ brave enough to daim th at they were wi nning the war against malware. Nevertheless, an anti-virus program wiH help protect your system.

FREE ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE If you don't want to spend any money Wf!: recommend Microsoft's latest free anti -viros program, Security Essentials (www.mkromft. comISecu"ty_f55ent'als). For better protection you need to splash out, and currently any 01 the following are good choices: Kaspersky Intemet Security 2010, Norton Internet Security 2010, PC Tools Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus and Trend Micro Internet Security 2010. It is also important to keep your system up to date with the latest security patches. This means updating Windows, your web browser and plugins such as Adobe Hash and Acrobat Reader. Fail to do this and you can't really blame your anti -viros software if your PC ~comes infected. While the days of sale computing are probably a nostalgic fantasy (bugs have existed lor as long as computers have) , it's not scaremongering to say that today things are far worse than they ever have been, and the problem isn't going to disappear. There is some good news. While the online criminals engage in a virtual arms war against security companies, sell our data for pennies and cost companies billions in lost or stolen revenue, the main security hole is our own gullibility. If you become more suspicious of email requests to chan~ or confirm account details, pop-up warning messages on websites and too-good-tobe true offers, then you're way ahead of the herd. And hackers are only interested in the herd. III

Call: 0844 444 3242 Sam·9pm Weekdays, 9am-6pm Satu rdays, lOam'Spm Sundays


HDWlD ... Make Windows behave like a Mac If you have lots of programs running. it can be hard to keep track of them. Adam Banks explains howto get some clarity ultitasking is an impomnt feature 01 modern

M

computing. and one 01 the most confusing. With umpteen windows stacked on top of one another, it's easy to lose track 01 what you're doing. Windows 7 has some new Features to help, and since Vista

we'~e

had flip 3D, which fans out all

your open windows so you can riffle through them.

Apple users, howe~er. reckon they'Vi" got the best

hpose, a feature of Mac OS X that 5hovvs everything arranged flat. milking it easy to spot what you want at a glance_ To get similar functionality in Windows, you'll need a third -party add -on such as DhposE2. This is free to download, and although designed for Visl,} it woOs in Windows 7, too. It doesn't cope with dual-monitor sel-ups, though, so
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Visit hrrp:iitinyuri.comide)(posf in your web browser. clid Download Now and save the file to your desktop. Double-click the download to install the program. When it"s done. it will launch automaticaUy and a new icon will awear in the system tray at the bottom right 01 the screen. You don·t actually need to use the icon, though. because by delault OExposE2 is activated using func.tion keys. Open a selection of applications and hit the F9 ~ey on your keyboard. Doing so tums a dunered desktop ..

..-..-.- ..---..

Et .. .into this. Each open window is scaled down

IIti::I

so they all lit side by side. To select the one you ·re interested in. simply click it Altematively, click elsewhere or press F9 again or Esc to return to normal.

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If this is too busy for your liking. press F10 to show only the windows belonging to the current application. For example, we have two Internet Explorer windoW$ open, so when one 01 these is selected, hitting FlOgives this result. Moving the mouse over a window pops up a caption listing the application and window title. You Cim't interact with the window previews. but they stay live, with videos continuing to play.

IE:.I

. . . Click Start, All Programs, OExposE2, ~ttings to Ii.I view its preferences. or simply double -clkk the icon in the System Tray. In the Behaviour pane you can specify your own hotkeys if you use F9 and FlO in other programs. Some of the other options are best left alone - there are a few bugs in this freeware - but in the Feel tab you can adjust the appearance of the Expose eHect. For example. Expose speed controls the speed of the an imated tramition effect, and Previews di splacements sets how much space is between each window. Another useful option is available under the Global heading tick Auto-start at system Booting to load DExposE each time you restart Windows. Otherwise you·U need to launch it manuaHy from the desktop short cut. GJ

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ANY VIDEO CONVERTER

HDWTD ...

Convert videos for free There are often times when you need to convert videos from one format to another. Jim Martin shows you how to do it the easy way - and it won't cost you a penny

T

he

~ubject

of video

fOllTl~ls

C31l be

completely baffling. which is why we

wrote a whole feature on understanding video codecs back in issue 245. We 'Vf/'! include
The reason there are so many different formats is down to the sheer number of video

playback devices, from pes and mobile phones to portable media players and media streamers. No single format can cater for all of them. Quite apart from screen size and resolution , there's the iS5ue of compression. To stream video OVf'!r the inleme\, you'll need to use as much compression

as possible to reduce the bandwidth needed. AI the opposite end of Ihe 5Cale. you'll wantlhe least compressiOll and highest quality for w~lching ~ideo on a l~rge HO TV. Thi~ means there win often be a need to convert a ~ideo 10 a fomnallhal's better suiled to the device on which you want to watch it. Perhaps you ha~e a home movie Ihal you wanl to watch both on an HD TV and your portable media player. You'll nee<:! two separale ~ersions, and it'~ easy to convert from one to the other using free software such as Any Video Converter, which you can download lrom ~rtp:/lrjnyurl. com/anyvideo. Before you start, it's important to remember that, just as with photos, you can't increase the detail in a ~ideo by increasing its resolution. If you start with a 64Ox480 ~ideo shot on a digital camera, you can't con~ert it to 1,920xl ,080 and expect it to ~ lantastic. Oownscaling video, on the other hand - from high-resolution footage to low resolution - will yield much better results.

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You may also need 10 find out which video format your device supports, including the ~ideo codee. resolution , frame rate and bit ra te, plus the audio codec, bit rate and sample rate.

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Download, instal! and launch Any Video Con~erter. There are a couple of ways to add videos to be con~erted. The easiest is to use Windows Explorer to navigate to the files you want to convert, then select them and simply drag and drop them on to Any Video Converter. Alternatively, dick the Add Video button in the program's tasl:bar and navigate to the files.

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Your videos should appear in the list. Check that Ihe duration, Irame size and frame rate (Frs) have been detected correctly. You can pre~iew the ~ideo by dicking the left-hand button below the preview window.

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There are two icons to the right of the ~olume slider. The first - a pair 01 scissoo - allows you to trim your dip before converting it. This can be useful if you require only a portion of the video. When you dick on the scissors, a video dipping window will open. Play the ~ideo, or drag the orange arrow to the desired start position, and press pause. To set this as the start point, did the (icon. To set the end point, repeat this process, but dick on the J icon. If you want to adjust these points, dick and drag the small blue triangles below the blue bar. You can add other portions, or segments, by dicking on the New Segment icon, which looks like a piece of paper with the corner lolde<:! o~er. When you'~e finished, click Apply.

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. . . Another option is 10 oop the ~ideo il il Ii.I doesn 't match the aspect ratio of your target de~ice. Clid the icon thaI resembles a magic wand and a new window will open. The easiest way to adjust the crop is to grab an ed~ or corner of the video (your CUf'lor will tum into a double-ended arrow) and drag it to the appropriate place. You may need to untick Keep Aspect Ratio if you want to change the aspect ratio. You can dick within the selected area and drag it to the area you want to keep.

r:I 1:.1

Click the filmstrip icon below the scissoo to see the brightness, contrast and saturation controls. There's also a drop- down menu called Other Effects, which will allow you to rotate any video that may have been ",cidentally shol in the wrong orientation - an easy mistake with cameraphones. When you've finished making adjustmenls, dck Apply.

I'!I

Next, choose a profile Irom the menu in the top-right of the main interface. We want to watch the video on an iPod Touch or irhone but. as there's no preset for these devices, we've chosen Customize<:! MP4 Mo~ie (o.mp4). We'~e manually entered the Frame Size of 480x320, a Video Bitrate of 768Kbitsls and a Framerate 012Sfps (to match our original ~ideo). Finally, we chose the aac Audio Codec and set the BiUate to 128Kbitsls. Click the Con~ert icon in the taskbar and the conversion process will begin. When it's done, you can dick the Output Folder button in the bottom-left comer to see the converted files, which can then be mnsferred to your device. GJ

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:..

MAY 2010 .

COMPIJTERSHOPPER


COAT OF ARMS DESIGN STUDIO

HDWlD ... Create a coat of arms Now you can experience the days of chivalry without all that jousting and duelling. Mike Bedford shows you how to create your very own herlaldic emblem al1~ designing you=11 a coat 01 arms? Perhaps yoo're researching your family history and are interested in your ancestors' arms. Altematively, you might want a

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coat of anms as a company logo or for a character in a role-playing game. You could use a drawing package such as CorelDraw, but this wiu be time-consuming and the linal result may not come up to your expectations. Fortunately, there 's an altern.liVi' that's both cheap and easy to use: dediCilted heraldry software. The software we',e using is Coat of Anms Design Studio, which you'U lind at www.

inkwellideiu,com!coaLof-arms. There's a free online version, and a Pro version that runs on

your PC an d costs $9 (around £6) per year. Here we're using the Pro version, which gives you ~ larger ons.:reen view, allows you to save at a higher resolution and 11'15 you import your own images. Othe
D

E'I

Coats of amns are usually split into divisions. If you don 't want divisions, select a colour for the whole shield by clicking on the white box labelled Bad:ground Color or Fur and go straight to Step 3. If you do want divisions. dick in the gret'n box and select Add a Division from the drop-down menu. The controls for defining the divisions appear in the Edit area at the right of the screen. Select the required panem from the Divisions menu. The names of the divisions will be unfamiliar unless you're au fait with heraldic tenms, but you 'Hget the hang of them as you experiment_ Initially, the divisions will aU be the same colour. so you might like to move on to the next step and then come bad to this one.

a

~ The next job is to assign what we would

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Whefl you start the program, you'll see a blank coat of arms in the traditional shape. If you 'd prefer your coast of arms to be red
Common examples are the fess, which is a broad horizontal band, and a chevron. To add an ordinary, did in either the large gret'n box for the whole shield or one the smaller green boxes for the divisions and select Add an Ordinary from the drop-down menu. The controls for defining the ordinaries appear in the Edit area at the right of the s.:ret'n, and are the same as those for designing divisions.

..:I

The final element of your coat of arms is

1:,1 the charges. These include animals such as dragons and ~ons, plants such as roses or fleurs-de-lis, objects and geometric figures. Charges can be placed anywhere on the arms or limited to one of the divis ions. To add a charge, click in the appropriate gret'n box and select Add a Creature or Add a Symbol (or Add an Image with the Pro version) from the menu. The rest of the procedure is much like adding divisions and ordinaries, but you can select multiple charges in various patterns. Note that charges can be resized and dragged around for accurate positioning. To select a particular charge, or any other element of your design , dick in the green box that you used to create it and select it from the list.

caU colours. but are known in heraldry as tinctures, to each of the divisions (or to the whole anms if it doe5n't have divisions). In the Edit Object area there's a coloured box for each of the divisions and the borders betwet'n them. Click in a coloured box and a Color Chooser window will appear. The palette on the leh offers 1015 of options. but for a formal coat of arms. choose from the lists on the right. These indude metals (Or and Argent. which are gold and silver), colours and several patterns. known as furs. Simply dick on any tincture and then Save.

1:1

.... Hany arms also contain ordinaries. which Iii are bold patterns across either the whole of the coat of anms or some of the divisions.

using the Pro version , select the width of the image in pixels before clicking Save. In the next window. provide a filename for the PNG file and dick Save.GJ

~ When your design is complete, select Save Image from the File menu. If you're

COMPVTER SHOPPER • MAY ~OlO


UPGRADING TO WINDOWS 7

HDWTD ...

Transfer your old files toWindows7 Upgrading to Windows 7 brings lots of benefits, but transferring your personal files can be a pain. Jon Thompson explains how a free Microsoft utility can make it easy 'crosoft's Windows 7 operating system is a big improvement on pre~ious versioos. and it's well worth upgrading. When you do so, it's a good idea to refom13t your hard disk and install Windows 7 from scratch rather than upgrading your current Windows instaUatioo. as this gets rid 01 any accumulated junl for those upgrading from Windows XP, a fresh install is the only optioo_ The only drawback is that a fresh installation will wipe all your personal liles_These must be saved el~where so that you can recover them. Windows Easy Transfer, which is available as a free dOW'nload, makes this process simp/e. It worb

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for both Window XI' and Vista, and will

ha~

you

up and running on Windows 7 very quickly. Windows Easy Transfer can use a special transfer cable to copy files directly from an old Pc. For upgrades, you 'Un~d to use one 01 the other two options: netwoJ1<-at\ached storage or an external storage device. An external USB hard disk is ideal if you have one, but if yoor personal liles aren't too big. you can use a large USB flash drive , which are very cheap. Before you begin, we recommend performing a full backup so that if anything goes wrong. you can roll the system back to a working state.

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It's likely that you have a large number of tiles on your computer that you've either downloa ded or generated yourself. The chances are that yoo've also not accessed many of these files in years.

Take the time to make an assessment of which files yoo actively use. In many cases, you'U find that yoo can free up large amoonts of disk space by simply archiving old liles. Do this now to clear space and you'll save time later on.

E'I

Download Microsoft's Windows Easy Transler from http://tinyurl,com/ WindowsfT. Select the corre<:t version depend ing on whether your old Windows installation is XP or Vista, and 32-bit or 64-bit. 1f you're not sure, in Vista, click St.Jrt. type system and click System in the programs list. In XP, click Start and then Run. Type sysdrn,cpl and press Enter. In each case, the resulting information will teU you if you r current version of Windows is 32- or 64-bit. Once downloaded, double -click on the Ea sy Transfer file and follow the installation wizard.

IIti::I

n

Run Windows Easy Transfer from the Start menu. The initial scr~n tells yoo what it can do. Click Next to continue. The next screen asks which transler met hod you want to use , If you're transferring files using an external device. click the bottom option. Click Next ilgain, and you'll be asked which computer yoo're using. Since there's only one option, c~ ck it. Windows Easy Transler now builds a list of your files and settings. This process may take several minutes.

K:I

. . . Easy File Transfer will identify the data it Ii.I plans to transler for each user account, and also from shared locations. Review these

files using the Customise buttons. This displays a sub-window, aUowingyooto select what you want transferred. If yoo need to remove files or lolders from the list, dick on Advanced. Yoo can then deselect files by unticking the check boxes. Click Next, enter a password il r~uired, then dick Next again to select a transfer destination. The program creates an archive and tells you where it's stored. Yoo can now exit the wizard.

1':1 1:.1

Install Windows 7 using the disc supplied. When it's complete, insert your USB drive and open it to display its files. These are stored as a self-extrilcting archive, so there's no n~d to install Easy File Transfer on Windows 7. Double-click the file called Windows Easy Transfer - Files lrom old computer. After a few minutes yoo 'Ube presented with a similar window to the one you saw earlier when yoo created the archive. but thiS time you 're choosing liles to load on to the new computer. You can dick Customise to omit files, as before.

t;I

Click Transfer to start loading the files on to the new computer, To prevent hie corruptions or access conflicts, Windows 7 deliberately hides the menu bar to prevent you from using the PC until the transler is complete. FinaUy, dick on the option to see the files that were transferred. Clicking the Program report tab also lists any third-party applications. such as Adobe Reader, that Windows 7 thinks you'll need to install to access your files. G:]

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MAV 2010 . COMPIJTERSHOPPER


. :':'::"-

EDITING RAW IMAGE FILES

HDWlD ... Develop RAW images Ever wondered what your camera's RAW mode is for? Ben Pitt explains how this powerful feature can help you squeeze the last drops of quality from your camera

I

igila! SLR

~mera~

usually save photos as

JPEGs. but they can also .save in RAW format. This option is avaHable on an inc:reasing number of compact cameras, 100. RAW files are bigger than )pEGs. and they're compatible with far fewer software applications. Don't let these drawbacks put you off, though. There's an enormous amount you can do with RAW files that simply isn 't possible with JPEGs. Digital cameras must do an awful lot of woO:: before they COlO save an image as a JPEG: J'l!move colour casts, optimise contrast, remoVi' noise, sharpen details and more besides. The camera ma~es

alilhese decisions in a split second before

it can save a JPEG. ready for the neXl shot. These

)pEGs are often extremely jmpre~ive, but there's m~arly always room lor improvement. Capturing in RAW mode unlocks that potential A RAW image lile is essentially the unprocessed data taken dire\:tly Irom the camera's sensor, Rather than processing the image in the camera, it's done using PC software. This method of working lets you take your time to lind the best settings. By bringing your own creative judgement to the process, the results are invariably superior to in -camera processing. One ~ey benefit of shooting in RAW mode is tha t you 'll have a bigger range 01 brightness known as dynamic "lOge - to play with. We're used to sei'ing photos with vivid, punChy colours, so cameras boost a )pEG 's contrast to give the photo more impact. The downside is that it can

make darlo; areas solid black, and bright areas appear .solid white, losing any details in these parts of the photos. This problem is known as highlight and shadow dipping. By shooting in RAW mode, you know that il the sensor can measure it. it will be in your RAW file, You can then boost the contrast lor punchy colours. ease off to avoid clipping or use complex colour curves to achieve the best 01 both worlds. All RAW-capable cameras come with RAW-development software. These packages vary by manufacturer, but they all include a similar COI'e set of tools. In this tutorial we're using Silkypix Developer Studio SE, '-"Ihich is bundled with Panasonic and Pentax cameras. II you're using a camera Irom another manufacturer you can still follow this tutorial, as the basic te\:hniques are common to pretty much all RAW -development software.

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Open a RAW image tile in your chosen software. One 01 the most uselul tools is the Histogram display, as it shows the range of brightness in the image. Enable it in Silkypix by clicking the button at the bottom-left 01 the screen. It's often interesting to see the camera settings used to take the picture, so click the EXIF button located next to the Histogram button.

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Different light sources, such as sunlight, fluorescent tubes and the camera's lIash, have different colour tints. II left unchecked , they

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can give photos an unpleasant colour cast. Cameras' automatic white balance modes olten successfully estimate the correct setting. but shooting in RAW mode lets you try out manual settings to line-tune the results. The camera's setting is embedded into the RAW lile, but you can try out other presets by clicking on Camera setting on the left and selecting a preset from the list. In our case, the automatic setting (in screi'nshot 1) wasn't bad but the Fine (S200K) preset gives warmer. more llattering colours.

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If none of the white balance presets is

ideal. RAW-development software olfers various ways to fine -tune it. Silkypix has three. One option is to click the White Balance button (with an icon resembling the sun) and adjust the threi' sliders below, Another option is to select the Gray Balance Tool and click on an area 01 the photo that should be grey. The third is to use the White balance adjustment tool. which appears in a pop-up window when the button next to the EXIF button is clicked. This adds a colour tint of its own, which can be used either to counteract a tinted light source or as a creative measure to give a pleasing colour palette to the photo.

.... C~ck the words Standard colOI' and step through the various presets listed here. These are equivalent to the picture style presets found on some digital cameras, which in turn are designed to emulate different types of film.

Iii



EDITING RAW IMAGE FILES

Monochrome is an obvioos example, but other option~ manipulate colour~ in ~ubtler ways. Thi~ section also indudes a Saturation slider, which varie~ the inten~ity of colour5. ~ Click on Average contrast and ~elect

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Standard trom the list. As with most RAW-developm ent ~oftware, Silkypix boost~ the contrast 01 photos by default, but selecting Standard reduces the contrast to neutral. This usuaUy gives more natural-looking colours, albt-it less punchy and vibrant. Note that the histogram curve is more bunched toward~ the middle now - redudng the contrast re
bottom 01 the screen. Don't worry about the lirst three controls and concentrate on the Dynamic range control at the bouom. Higher values will reduce the brightnes~ of the highlights, ~o adjust it so that the histogram curve dips to zero just as it reaches the right edge of the graph. A5 always. make sure that the resu lts look good in the photo as well as the hi~togram .

1":'1 &:I

Arguably the most powerful tool for adjusting the brightness and contrast is the Tone curve tool. It plots a graph 01 input again~t output value~ to tran~form the image's brightness. Raising an area of the curve makes those tone~ brighter, but will also allect the contrast of the areas either si de - a steep part of the curve has higher COIltra~t. and a shaUow part has lower contrast. It's best to approach this tool with caution, as anything more than very subtle treatments can make coloorllook artificially skewed. StilL it's uselul for subtle. precise edits. Here, we've used it to make the dark areas a little darker without allecting the brighter areas.

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If the image seems too darl: or too bright. 1:.1 the Exposure control is the one to tum to. This i~ designe
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Most RAW-development software includes a dedicated highlight -recovery control This subtly reduces the brightness 01 the brightest parts of the image, and is ideal lor eliminating highlight c~pping without upsetting the fest of the image. In Silkypix. yoo'U find this tool by clicking Highlight controller at the

Noise is one of the biggest challenges for

~ digital cameras. Noise-reduction

processing is nearly always required to reduce the 5peckled grainine~s tha t blights photos, particularly when a high ISO spee
~ If you want to go bt-yond the presets. ~ Silkypix indudes some advanced tool~ for fine-tuning the noise re
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Once you 've found your preferred noisereduction settings. click the Sharpness button and e~periment with these settings. Outline emphasis increases the sharpneS$ of h igh- contra~t lines. while Detail emphasi~ boosts the definition of subtler details. although this win also exaggerate noise. The False outline control reduces the halo effect that can occur around sharp lines at high settings. although most of the time you can leave it at zero.

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AU that remains is 10 export the final image as a file that's compatible with other software. Type (trl-S to open the Save A5 dialog box, choose a filename and a location. The default ~ettings vvill5
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MAY 2010 • COMP\JT"ER SHOPPER


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DEVICE MANAGER

HDWlD ... Use Device Manager Whether you want to update drivers or troubleshoot hardware problems, the Device Manager is the place to go. Jim Martin explains how to use it

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he Device M~l1ijger allow~ you to view all the hardware inside your computer. It's "Iso the pl
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Here we'll assume that your Windows desktop is showing enonmous icons and you can't adjust the resolu tion in the Display Settings dialog. Scan down the ~vice Milnilger list until you come to the Display adapters entry_ Click the + symbol and you should see an exclamation mark, which means the drivers aren't installed, 1/ there's no Display adapters

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This PC has three disk drlyes connected: a US8 flash drive, a memory card reader and an Intemal hard disk . Th e first two are also li.ted under the ~ble Devices headlng_

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install a piece 01 new hardwilre. you'll al:;o install any drivers from CD. This proceS!i automatically copies files to the appropriate places and adds the hardware to the ~vice Manager list. Although you can en~ble an d disable hardware from the ~vice Manager, it's often more convenient to do so from other places in Windows. The same is true for updating drivers. While you can manually initiate a driver update from an it em's properties page in the Device Manager, there's usuaRy no need to do so, since most drivers downloaded from manufacturers' websites automatically remove old versions and install the new ones, However, when your hardware stop<; wOfting properly or you can't automatically update drivers, the Device Manager comes into its own. The default view of devices by type shows a coliapsed tree structure that shows just the headings, but it will automatically expand any category that contains a problem. You may see a yellow exclamation mark next to a component's name, or a red cross (in XP) or an aJTOW pointing downwards (in Vista). The exclamation mark may mean tha t the hardware drivers aren't installed, or that the hardware can't start. A red cros.s or arrow denotes thilt the hardware is disabled.

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entry, look for Other devices. which should include Unknown device in ill lis\.

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Right-dick on this, or on the name of the graphics card, and choose Properties. Click on the Driver tab and you 'll see details of the currently installed driver, if there is one. You may see Microsoft listed as tl>e Driver PrO\lider, but you should install the latest driver from your graphics card m~nufacturer.

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~ Visit the manufacturer's website to obt3in

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the latest driver and download it. If necessary, unzip it into a folder on your hard disk-If the file is a self·executable - ending in .exe - you can run it at this point. If not. retum to the Properties page from Step 2 and click the Update Oriver.. _button. Click the button labeRed Browse my computer for driver software.

. . . Click the Browse", button on the next W window that appears. Navigate to the folder where you unzipped the drivers and dick NeKt. Windows should install the d riv~, and you may see the screen flicker during the process_You may also have to reboot your PC to complete the instaliation. G:I COMPVTER SHOPPER • MAY ~OlO


PC TOOLS OISK SUITE 2009

HDWTD ...

Spring-clean your hard disk PC Tools Disk Suite 2009 , included on this month's cover disc, can cure a range of hard disk ailments. Julian Prokaza shows you how it's done

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t's ~ f~d of life that a Windows PC wilislow down over time, but this isn 't just a case of old age kicking In. The problem IS a Side

effect of the way we use computers. where

everything from web browsing to instaWng new software leaves behind redundant files. This digital detritus builds up over time, leading to wasted disk space, di sk fragmentation and a general Windows bloat tha t can degrade a PC's performance. Routine maintenance to purge these files is simple, but unless you know where to look and what's sale to delete, simply deleting files that look as if they're no longer needed can create even bigger problems.

It's free to register for a peTools Disk Suite 2009 licence key at WoVW.pctools.coml disi-sllite/freelpromolSHOPPER051O, Follow the instructions and you 'll receive th e key by email; jllst copy and paste it into the program's Register pane and cllck 'Register'.

Files and Recyde Bin; they may contain files you want to keep. The final option is Custom, which lets you select other folders. Tick the boxes for the ~re~s you want to dear ~nd dick Start.

A much safer solution is to use a dedicated

Iwd disk maintenance utility such ~s PC Tools Disk Suite. We 've provided a free copy of the full 2009 edition on this issue's cover disc. you'n need to register to g~in access to the full set of fe~tures, but thi~ won't cost you a penny.

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Instal! PC Too15 Disk Suite from the cover disc. The program runs as a trial edition until you register for a free licence key (see bo>
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Click the Start button just below Cleanup and Optimize. This is the tool you 'n probably use most often, since it allows you to delete the unwanted files that accumulate with Windows' use. There are si x locations, or areas, that contain files you can sa fely purge. However, think twice about selecting Downloaded Program

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Another window will then open to confirm which folders will be emptied;just click the OKbutton when you're happy with the selection. PC Too15 Disk Suite will then show the status of the file deletions, along with the amount of hard disk space that's being recovered in the process. You can opt to see a brief report on the clean-up when it's finished. Otherwise, just dick the OK button on the Operation Complete dialog box to return to the program.

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. . . Cleanup and Optimize should keep your Ii.I PC in tip-top shape, but you need to remember to use it regularly, If you 're the forgetful type, click the Schedule... bullon at the bottom of the screen to set thiS task to run automatically on a regular basis. Click OK to confirm the list of folders to purge (as in step 3), give the task a name and select a frequency. Monthly should be sufficient for most PCs, but When Windows start [sic) works just as wen.

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Registration activates a new module for working with hard disk partitions, but you'll need to e n.able this before you can use it, by choosing Settings, Partition, Enable Partition Module,The new module will then appear under the Status pane.

Choose a time and day to run the task then, when you click the Finish button, it will be listed under the program's Schedule pane. PC Tools Disk Suite doesn't need to be running for this schedule to take effect; all scheduled tasks run automatically in the background.

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Another option worth using regularly is Defrag, also found on the Status page. Defragmen ting a h~rd disk rearranges files that are scattered far and wide to make them faster to access. Select the drive you want to defragment (usually C:), select the Consolidate Free Space action an d dick the Start button. Defragmentation can take some time, so it's worth creating a monthly schedule for this, too.

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PC T0015 Disk Suite can a150 be used to fix problems with ~ey Windovvs folders and repair a hard disk that contains errors. The Scandisk operations listed under Status, Repair let you check the hard disk for physical damage and attempt to rescue data in the damaged sectors. However, the Repair boot record options are best left untouched unless you're familiar with such aspects of Windows' operation. 1i]

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--MAV 2010 . COMPIJTERSHOPPER


•

HDWITWDRKS Music recDgnitiDn If you 've ever wondered how your computer or mobile phone can identify songs from just a brief snatch of music, Simon Handby has tracked down the answer

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ack when musi<: only C
was a case 01 reading the sleeve notes or waiting for the OJ to enlighten you. However, over the p3st lew year.; Ihe way we slore, share and listen to musk has g()(le digital, providing new challenges fOf Odentifying and classifying tracks, along with new opponunities. Our mu sic libraries now consist 01 a mass of digital files, while services well as Spotify and Napster let

us stream even more. Social networks such as last.FM keep track of what we and OOf friends are

~stening

to. and use this infO
new recommendations for music and gigs. For all this 10 wod, though, computers nee
files may contain additional inform ation that you might expect, and some - such as album cover artwork - th at you might not. This month we look at where it come$from, how it 's stored and wh at happens if it's not available.

OFFTHE BEATEN TRACK It seems surprising now, but when CDs fim went on sale in the early 19805 there was nothing in the audio discs ' so-called Red 800k specification that allowed for identification or description of the music they actua lly contained. However, as CD players grew in sophistication, and as audio CDs began to be played on computer CD-ROM drives, an attempt was made to add ress the lack of simple metadata describing the tracks. In 1996, CD-Text was introduced as an extension to Red Book that would store basic album and track information, including title. performer and

songwriter. This da ta, defined and added by the publisher, can be stored in the CD's lead -in area where there is about five kilobytes of free space - enough lor about two page$ 01 text - or in the CD 's unused subchannels, which allow for abou t 31MB of storage. Despite being supported by Sony. CD-Text uptake was patchy and even now it isn't found on all audio discs. In 1995. the year before CD-Text arrived. the lirst MP3 encoders ha d become availa ble. As with early CDs. at first there was no way to identify the contents 01 an HP3 lile: early adopters had to resort to naming files with a two-digit track number, followed by the artist and track name, but trying to store any more inform ation in this way quidly became unwieldy. The problem was solved with the creation of 103 - a specification that allowed a sma ll chunk of text data to be stored within the file itself. Although this information was limited to just 128 bytes, this was enough lor the basics, and 103 quickly became the de facto st
ACE Of BASE

Songs can be cons idered as a set of component frequencies that change ove r time. This graph (1) of MUSic isMarh by Boards of Canada plots frequency against time, with brighter colours showing louder components over the song's five -minute length. Zooming in on a section (Z) reveals its pea ks, the relative Il"e<1uency arld position 01 which can be used to generate a unique fingerp rint (3). By comparing a finge lpfint calculated from a short section to a database containing entire songs, a match can be lound arld the song named.

In 1993. an American programmer, Ti Kan, began distributing CDDB, a da tabase of audio CD informa tion that matched individual CDs with user-submitted track data. As CDDB grew, Kan gave users the ability to read and update the database directly Oller the intemet. Now ~own as Gracenote, the service is still used by applications such as iTunes, but it faces competition from free rivals such as freedb.org. For such services to work. they need a way to identify a specific audio CD when it's inserted in a computer's CD drive. but discs aren't pressed with a unique identifier. Kan's approach was to create a fingerprint based on the CD's trad informa tion, which is usually unique to pressings of the S

HOW IT WORKS: MUSIC RECOGNITION

.. Shllzam identilies whole tracks from just a few seconds 01 music using a h""" database

albom is released, the first user to query the d~tabase will present it with a dill: fingerprint that it hasn't seen before. If the user submit<; track information for that dilC, it's stored in tile database alongside the disc 's identifier. When other userl subsequently insert the same CD, the identifier is calculated and sent to the database, which can supply trad details for the dill:. All the cases we'~e explore
several tens of servers in order to speed up queries. New releases are analysed as a series 01 10-miUisecond chunks, in ea<:h of which the strongest Irequency components are identified, and their positions calculate
Tune in CD DB Identifiers 3,Z07 SECONDS (S3M Z7S)

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~ OC87.01C CHECKSUM

1ZTRACKS

The CDDS identifier is an eight-digit hexade.::ima l number in which the fir5t two digits are a checksum derived from th e start points of each individual track on the disc, The middle four digits re prese nt the total length in seconds of the audio recO«iing, and the last two digits are the num ber 01 tracks.Taken together, these almost always identify a unique recording - in this case, Radlohead's OK Computer.

Surprisingly, perhaps, the fundamentals of music make it reasonably simple to sol~e the lim two problems. Whatever spee
MA v 2010 • COMP\JT"ER SHOPPER


~ Se~rc~ en.gine

w optimisation

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INTRODUCTION A sea rch engine allows you to find website' from all ove r the

inte rnet in an instant. It's easy to add your own website t o t hese sea rch engines so people u n access your (o ntent. In thi s month's We b bpert, we ll explore how th ese sea rch engines work and how to add your webs ite to the ir indexes. We l l also explain how you ca n make your website m ore search -engine frie ndly, from the way in w hich pages are lurch ed to how resulU pages a re gene rated. You will need II publidy visible website SIKh as www. redcotbarn.co.uk to be able to add it to II search engine, so dedica ted web hosting is esse nti al.

Matt Prestan Web developer

Improving your search engine ranking to ensure that your website appears high in Google's search results is simple. Matt Preston explains how to bring more visitors to your site eardl engines use II huge index of all the words and phrases found on all the web pages they ~now about. This index worh in the 5ame way as the index in a boollmagine that each page in a book were a web page: the index at the back would record the web pages on which each word could be found. The index is sorted alphabetically. so you can quickly find words in the index and, hence. the web pages on which the words appear. The technologies may vary slightly from site to site. but there are threo: main steps used by all search engines: crawling. indexing and search ing. Crawling is the way search engines find out about new and updated web pages that need to be added to the index. This process involves downloading billions of pages from all over the internet an d is usually achieved by an automated program that runs on a large number of computef5. These programs are called spidef5. or bots. The Google crawling program. for eKample. is known as Googlebot. The crawling process begins with a list of URls generated from previous crawl processes and new websites submitted by webmastef5. As the spider visits each of the web pages in the list, it records the links found and adds them to the list of pages to be visited. The web pages that are downloaded by the crawling process are analysed and broken down into words aod phrases, which are stored in the index. The index also notes s~cial content in the web page. such as the title. which is used to improve the search and present excerpts in the results. The indexing process is clever and can e>ctract information from a number of sources other than HTML web pages. such as images and Flash liles.

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KEYTO IT ALL Searching involves matching keywords against words and phrases from the index to lind relevant pages. Each search engine has a differeot method for calculating which are the most relevant resulu. The factof5 for what makes one resull more relevanl than another can be quite complicated an d are often a wen-kept secret.

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Addingyour own website to a search engine to be crawled is simply a matter of going to its individual submission pages, such as www.google.com/ ar:kfurl for Google. http://search.yahoo.com/info/suOmir. html for Yahoo! and www.bing.com/webmaster/ Suomir5itePage.aspx for Microsoft's Bing. It's free. but you must wait a few days for your website to appear in the search results. bi-cause you have to wait for a crawl process to visit your site and update the indexes. Each search engine uses a different set of rules for deciding which web pages are most relevaot to a search query. so it can be difficult to work out how to make a website rank well in results. However, there is a strategy for designing or modifying web pages so they achieve good ranking in search results - it 's called search engine optimisation (SEC). As many companies rely on their website appearing prominently in search results, SEC has become a lucrative business.

Search engine providef5 disapprove of people trying to improve their search ranking artificially, but by following some simple guidelines it's easy to ensure thaI your website is successfuny crawled and indexed. You should use a descriptive tag in each of your web pages. Search engines use this tag as a source of important information about your page. and often use it as the basis for the link in their results pages. E'I U Next. add a meta description to your web pages. This should describe the page in greater detail. and may be used by the search engine to generate the excerpt in the results page. This, in turn, win help potential visitors to your site work out if your site is relevant to them. The meta description tag shoold be added to the <head> tag in your HTMl page. You shoold add a meta tag to all HTMl pages; for example: <html> <head> <title>Welcome to Redcot Barn <{ t itle> <meta nd me- RDescrip ti on" conten t Redeot Bar n is one of the best selfcater in g ho lida y co tt ages in Stratford Upo n ~von. It can accommOdate parties of 10 and has spectacu l ar vi ews across th e cou nt ryside ") <Ihead> <{html> Ne . t n n Use <hl > and <h2> tags as well as bold fonts to pick out headings and emphasise text. Search engines will ideotify these tags as a source of significant keywords and will increase the relevancy score when searches are made using them. 1::.1 . . . Don't Iry to be too dever and repeat keywords Ii.I in hidden parts of the page that the user cannot see in an attempt to fool the indexer. Search engines are quite good at detecting thiS misuse. as their reputation is based on the quality of their results. In the WOf5t -case scenario. the search engine will discover what you are up to and remove your website from the index completely. Alternatively. sometimes you'lI need to prevent search engines crawling and indexing content from certain parts of your website. You might want to do this if certain web pages contain information that you don't want to make searchable. or if 1'00 have web pages that lin~ to many gigabytes of data. Search engine crawlers tend to use a lot of bandwidth as they download all the reachable content on your website, so it's easy to exceed the maximum bandvvidth limit of a hosted website by having lots of content available. Exceeding your bandwidth limit can ma~e your website become temporarily unavailable or lead to ex~nsive hosting bills, so it's best to avoid it. Instead. add a special file to COMPllTER SHOPPER • MAY ~OlO Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com WEB EXPERT - -_.... -_. -_-------_ .. __ _-"'--,, - ---_ _-_-_._-... --- - ----_ _ -_ _ _-_ _ _ -_ ....... -. -_--,, ___ _ _ _---_ _-' _ _._ _._ _._-_ .... _ - -- _ -......_. _--_ _--Coogle _ _ Co ogle __ Ula.. _ _ W· ... ... " ... ...... .......... . ... ..,,_ ... . ... . ....... , _._,, .----~--- . ........ ....... ... .. .. _ _ 00r ... _ _ _ . _ .... _ _ . . . _ .. _ _ u.. ... ...... ............ ........ _ _ .. "" .. ___ _ -_ T._-......... ____ ---_......- ... _ ........ .....,........... ....... , ' r_ ,*, . ....... ........ ~. . . _ _ _ _ .... " ~ . .. . ----"'---' --_ ..._- _- -.. --~- u ........ n , "'P ca," ~~ .MNl.anM .... ... <' 00CTTft. .... ...... . · , "• •en ..................."'-,,, ... .....'"_.••. ...,...... ........ ..,.,,..,,--.1, ..._ ..._ ...... • " .... _ · ...... u _ .• , ....'.".' ...... .. _ _ ...... _.......... ......._... ..._ ... _...........-- .. ....... _.. _................ ... ".>11•• - .. _ ~ '''''. ... " ... y _ ................... _ - , .. _ _ . . . . . " . . .. . . _ '" . .. ..... IF< . ..... ....... , _ .... , ... . _ - . .... , . ........, . _ ...- . ... - . . .. ' .... • ..", ... . <~· ...I ..."'."".· " " ••~,., ~ _"' . In-· ' .."'.... · , • ..... ... , • .."..1.... _ ' . "' ........ _ , •• ___ . , .." ... . /> .,..., .-.-.-.--- ~ ... -.-----_._,--------_-..-''-- -..----_._M .-.-- -.-'-~- .~ U~er -~ gent: Itmp! limagesl Di sa ll ow : lo l d/ l ndex . hlm i D I ~a ll ow : Di~~ ll ow : The first line aUoW5 you to give instructions to a particular crawler. Using' in dicates that the rules should be applicable to aU crawlers. The foRowing lines are rules that prevent crawling of specific directories and files, As you can see. it's pOS$ible to alter the cootent that is indeKed by a search engine drasticaUy by altering this lile sometimes by more than you originally intende<l. Google has a free set of tools called Webmaster Tools (w.vv.-.google.coml webmastersltools) that can help you create a robots.txt lile, get more inlormation about which parts of your ~bsite are being indeKed and diagnose other problems, such as broken links, that prevent pages being searchable. Google·s Webmaster Tools anow you to find out more about how Google (and hence other search engines) ~s your ~bsite, and provides tools to help diagnose problems and improve your overall search visibility. like almost all the Google projects. the Webmaster a -_. - -~--- the root of your website, called robots.txt; this tells sea rch·engine crawlers which parts of your website should not be processed. A simple robotHxt file that prevents crawlers processing files and directories looks like this: n '-'''--' -~--- , Tools are free to use. You just need an active Google account. which is e3sy to create. Once you have an account, you can log on to the Webmaster Tools home page by going to the URL above. After you 've logge<l in, you can add URLs for the websites on which you want to use the tools. such as www.5hop~fex~rt.co.uk. You can type in any URL at this point, even those you don 't own or control which is a security problem. Before you can use the tools on a partiC\.llar website. ho~ver. you have to prove that you're in dwge of it. This is done by either uploading an empty file to your website or by pasting a meta tag into the <head> section of your website·s home page. n Once your webs ite has been verified, you can access the fu ll set of tools. These are divided into five main sections: Dashboard, Site configuration. Your site on the web. DiagnostiCS and Labs. The Diagnostic.s section is where you can find out about any errors that Google encountere<l when crawling your website, such as broken links or pages with miS$ing titles. You can also see an overview of pages that were excluded by the robots.txt file to ensure that you have it set up correctly. Ideally. you will want as few errors as possible, so you should ched this report often. The Your site on the web section provides various report5. including what kinds 01 searches people are using to find your website and an overview 01 keywords found in your indeKed web 1:.1 pages. You can also see a list of the top phrases used in external links to your site. such as in anchor tags. Google is very intereste<l in how other people link to your site and includes this informatioo in its relevancy cakulations. The Links to your site section also provides more information about extemal links to your website. Sitemaps are metadata files you can add to your ~bsite to describe its layout. ensuring that crawlers can find pages they might otherwise miss. This is particularly useful if you have ~b pages with dynamic content, using JavaScript to create page links, or web pages that simply don ·t have any links to them. The 5itemaps section in Webmaster Tools allows you to upload and manage sitemaps, For more information about sitemaps. see w.vv.-.xml·sitemaps.com; here you will also find a wiZilrd lor getting started. Site configuratioo has a (rawler access section. which indudes a number of useful utilities lor checking your robots.txt file and generating it if you doo·t have one. One of the tabs is Remove URl., which you can use to resolve issues with pages that no longer exist or create problems by being in the Google indeK. 1Il MAY 2010 • COMPUT"ERSHOPPER Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com Next month HOSTYOUR OWN VIDEO We show you how to embed video in you r site without usingYouTube «~ Mastering HDR filw photography I:L ~ ~ >< High dynamic range images can overcome the limits of your ~amera's sensor. Jim Martin explains how to create stunning Images the easy way I-:W V :...J =~ INTRODUCTION Modem digital ca meras are incredible devices. With little or no technical knowledge, you can take perfectly exposed, sharp photos in just /Ibout every situ ation. Simply press the shutter button and your carner.. instantly assesses the scene and selects the appropriate shutter speed, IIJ>erture and ISO 5lensitivoty. However, there are few situations wh'm~ a single photo can capture the true dynamic (/Inge of a scene. For example, you'll have SHfl COlmtlen photos whee-e blue skies becom e white, or foregrounds become black when skies are blue. This is down to the sensor's li mited dynamic range. It mea ns they can't capture the full range of ou may have seen high dynami~ range (HDR) photos on websites such as Flickr, or even in advertising campaigns. The5e striking images have a grea ter range of luminance between the lightest and da r1<est areas than standard photographic techniques allow. They can more accurat ely repre5ent the range of light intensity in a scene than a single photograph, but the elfect can also be exaggerated to create unreal-looking images. The most common type of scene Ihat can benefit from HOR is where there's extremely high contrast. Perhaps you want to compose a shot Ihat encompasses a bright sky and a dark subject, such as a person walking along a beach at sunset. The best you (imd your camera) can do is to expose on a mid -tone 10 attempt to cater for both the dark and light areas. However. this will inevitably mean tha t detail is lost in the brightest and darkest portions of the im age. You could expo5e for the sky, but that would leave your subject as a silhouette. This may be the desired result, but Ihere are often times when you don't want a silhouette, and harsh sunlight or backlighting would simply result in a white background when you expose the image to ensure your subject is easily visible. Another good example is when photographing the interior of a cathedraL Either you end up with white areas that used to be intricate stained-glass windows, or blackness surrounding the coloured panes of glass. This is where you need to use HDR , which is essentially Ihe same as the old technique of exposure blending. The good news is that virtually any camera can be used for this; you don't need a DSlR to take advantage of this amaling technique. As long as you can control exposure, you can create HDR images. camera '-"Iill take several different exposures when you posh the shu tt er button repea te<!ly. It's also best to enable continuous or burst mode. as this means you can hold your finger on the shutter button and the camera will ta ke all the exposures in one go. If possible, set your camera to aperture priooty mode and set the lowest possible ISO figure. This will ensure tha t Ihe depth of field remains constant for each of your shots (only the shutter speed wiH change) and that Ihere's a minimum of noise. Finally, disable the flash and enable the self-timer. as this will eliminate any camera sha ke, even if you're using a tripod. A tripod is essential, since an your exposures nee<! to line up perfectly. otherwise your final photo will be blurre<!. This also raises the problem of moving subjects. If you want to moot a s<:ene where objects are moving. you'll need an AEB mode, plus a very fast shutter spee<!. WHATYOU'LL NEED First. look in your camera's menus or on its buttons for exposure controls. Most ~ompact digit,,1 cameras Mve EV compensation, which is a slider that runs between -2 and +2.lt may be - t l.S or -+ 3, but the important thing is to be able to control this manually. Some compilcts and most DSlRs have automati~ exposure bracketing. usually shortened to AEB. This means the MAXIMUM EXPOSURE You need a minimum of three shots - or exposures - to make an HDR image. One needs to be overexposed to capture the ma ximum amount of shadow detail. one correctly exposed for the mid-lone details and one underexposed to capture the highlight details. You can also take shots in between these three if you like; this can provide extra detail in the final image. However. for most landscape photos, Ihree exposures will be sufficient: one at -2EV. one at the proper exposure and one at +2EV.lf you want to ta ke an indoor photo that includes a view out of a window, you'll need at least five exposures in the same range. If your camera ~mits you to +1- 1EV, you'll need nine exposures. The final ingredient is HDR software. While it's possible to combine exposures manually in any image-editing application that supports layers. this can take hours. Our recommendation is to use software that can automatically blend exposures. such as HDRSoft Photomatix Pro. Corel Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop Elements 8. These applications can merge exposures in 5ecoods, while Photomatix Pro can also align photos taken without a tripod and re<!uce ghosting caused by swaying trees. Jt can also apply tone mapping. which es>entiany reduces the dynamic range • L03d your bfad<eted photos Into Photomatlx and It will /IutomaticaHy blend them In second$ !he light intensity from true black to true white . Instead, they Ulplure" smaller r/lnge in between these extremes. To overcome thi s. you (lin tIIk!! multiple exposures and blend them together to (reate images with a higher dynamic range. He re we'lI show you how to master this art. Jim Martin Deputy Editor • You ca n adj ust lhe ~ k oIlhe linal image by changing settings In !he panel on !he Ie!! COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y ~OlO Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com MULTIMEDIA EXPERT of the processed image so that it can be properly displayed on a computer monitor. USING PHOTOMATIX Here, we ·Ube using Photomatix light, which costs $39 (around f28) from w.vw.hdno{t.com. It doesn·t have some 01 the advanced tonemilpping options 01 Photomiltix Pro, but it will stiR attempt to align yoor photos and is the cheilpest wily to crea te HDR images. Fiflt, you need to copy your bracketed images to your PC's hard disk. These can be RAW files or )pEGs. Select the exposures you want to use and drag them on to Photomatix·s interlace. Yoo'U see them ilppear in the main window '-"li th tickboxes next to them. You can untick any yoo don't want to use. but this is usually ifTelevanl:. When the images have loaded . you·n see a Next button. Click on it and the exposures will be merged. A new window win open with the image. Make sure that Exposure Fusion is selected in the Methods & Presets pane. Now il ·S time to adjust the settings to create the desired effect for your photo. There are live sliders: Accentuation. Saturation. Blending Point. Shadows and Midtones Contract. The best way to undefltand wha t these do is to adjust each in tum to its extreme positions and then back to the centre, watching the preview after each adjustment. A«entuation adjusts the strength of local contrast, while Blending Point changes the weighting given to the underexposed and overexposed photos. To ilchieve a lighter imilge. slide this to the right. The ShadoW$ slider lets you brighten shadow details without affecting highlights . Midtones Contrast adjusts brightness and contrast together. increasing brightness while decreasing contrast, and vice vefla . Saturation should be II you shoot in RAW mode, your hard disk will be lull of photos that can be tumed into pseudo-HDR images. While it's preferab le to use thre e bracketed photos, it's possible to extract extra shadow and highlight detail Irom a RAW image to create an image that looks similar 10 a rea l HDR photo. Photomatix Light allows you to do this simply and effectively. Just locate Ih e RAW file in Windows Explorer and drag it on to Photomat;'c. Tkk Ih e box next to the thumbn.ail 01 the image arid click Next. The Exposure Fusion option wi11 be disabled, • Here you can see how HDR can be u...d 10 creale a ""1.......·Jooking pholo u.ing Pholomali~ ·, Expo.ure Fu,ion blend mode. Thi' shot was created from the three exposures shown above adjusted last, since the other adjustments can chilnge the ~turation of the image. Once yoo ·re happy with your settings, click the Process & Save button. You can save the image as a JPEG or TIF.lf you plan on editing the image further - to sharpen or blur it. lor example - then s<llle as a lossless TIF file. [D but yo u'll be able to uSe Details Enhancer to adjust the settings. If none of the preset modes creates the look you want, yo u can manually adjust the sliders. Smoolhing is the most important setting as it has the biggest impact on the final image. It smoothes variatiorls in contrast across the picture. More smoothing creates a more natural look, while less smoothirlg gives an artistic (some might say cartoon- like) effect. You'l1 get the best re~ults from photos with med ium contrast; shots with extreme contrast almost always require multiple exposures to Next month MASTER MONOCHROME Learn thor: techniques the pros use to convert colour photos to black and white produce a 'proper' HDR image. In the example hor:re, we've taken a photo where the building was in shadow and man.aged to extract Ih e detai llrom the RAW file to brighten th e dark areas. However, as you can see, Ihe sky doesn't look particu larly natura l in the processed version. This can be corrected easily by loading both the original arid processed photos inlo your photo-editing software, placing them on layers in the same image arid using masking to keep the sky from the original arid the foreground Irom the processed shol. <1 0 .... original RAW lile cont" ined a building In shadow, so much oflhe detail was losl. With the processed version, the det"il is restored. It 1001<5 like an HDR shot, but we·d have achieved a beller re$ult If we'd talcen multiole expo.ure$ to stM with MAY 2010. COMPUT"ERSHOPPER Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com I- Imp ortin9 and Ell editing vl[teo D.. >< W >< ::l Z LlNUX ~r>. -':~ .....I c.---~ If 'Iou are plannmg to swit~h to Unult, don't mISS our in-depth step-, by-step guide to thIS exciting as, °7".5.,1. now for t . in WHsmith INTRODUCTION Your Linux PC can be just as good at editing videos as it is at editing photos. This ste p-by-step guide will show you how to .::anneet a digital video Ume'!! to your Linu)( PC. copy movies from it and edit them on your com puter. Like everyth ing else in Linux, aU the software we've used hen~ is com pletely free. David Ludlow Linux is perfectly capable of dealing with your video files, Here we'll show you how to transfer files to your PC and edit them onnectingyour digi'''' vKleo camera to it Ubuntu linux PC should be pretty easy, as the operatIng system has built-in support for camcorders. However, there are some areas that could give you problems. Before we start. we 'Ula lk you through the difficulties you might fa<e. There are two types of video <:amera that you 're likely to want to connect to your computer: MiniDV or modem flash storage models. In short, MiniDV models will be tricky to instalL Many need to conned to a FireWire port and require a specific dri~er.lt' s not impossible to work around the problem, but you're likely to J\In in to a number 01 difficulties when doing so. Our ad~ice is to keep a PC running Windows handy for connecting this kind of camera. II you ha~e a flash-ba5ed or hard- dis~ -based camcorder, things are a lot easier. In this section we'll 5how you how to connect this type 01 camera and copy files from it to your Ubuntu computer. C CONNECTING YOUR CAMERA Depending on your camera, you 'll have a choice 01 1111:011 DlIO yOU ........ Just • Inserted I med ........ It.. dlllltIl photo • . c - . . ""It .pp/k.llt ...... to s.unc" , -- __ 111-'""_010" ..... _111"""""" .... _ .. 11'00,......"" _ _ "'''''" ..... Alternatively, you can view the files by cliding on Computer from the Places menu. You can then browse your camcorder as though it were any other folder or storage device. Any videos can simply be copied from the device to your hard disk by dragging and dropping. VIEWING FilES connection methods. If your camera use~ removable storage, such as an SO card, you <:an use a USB card reader. Ubuntu recognises these devices in the same way as Windows does. All you have to do with a <:ard reader is take the memO!)' <ard out 01 your <amcorder and plug it in to your card reader. The card will become a~ailable in Computer from the Places menu. All you have to do is copy the files you want lrom it. II your camcorder uses internal memory or a hard disk, or you don't have a memory card reader, your only option is to plug in your camcorder using USB. In our experience, camcorders can use a weird and wonderful collection 01 USB cables, so remember to use the one that came in the box with your camera. Digital cameras may offer multiple connection modes, such as the Picture Transfer Protocol (HP), but video cameras have only one: mass storage. AU you have to do is plug your camera in via USB and it will be recognised as a Ila5h storage device. II you have photos stored on your camera from using its stills mode, as weU as videos, you'U see a dialog box telling you that ·You have just inserted a medium with digitill photos. Choose wha t application to launch: The default option will be F-Spot Photo Manager. Ooo't select this option: instead select Open Folder and dick OK. •- • Modern flash-memory or Mrd-disk-based camcorden ar<) easy 10 con"",1 10 UbunlU Before you start editing your videos (see opposite), you may want to check the files first and delete any that you don 't want to use. Ubuntu can play back most file types, and we had no problems with lOS0p HD video files Irom our Samsung camcorder. However, some HD cameras have been known to use strange fomnats, so you may need to search the Ubuntu forums lor help. To view a lile, simply double-click 00 it and the Totem Movie Player will start. By default this player doesn't have a lot 01 video codecs (the software that is used to display a video file) installed, but it can detect automatically what it needs to install. When you first try to playa file you 'll see an option to install <tdditional plug-ins, such as the gstreamerO.10-ffmpeg H.264 codec. Select the default option and click Install. Once the codec has been installe<!, you 'll be able to preview your video. The software doesn 't always get it right , so if the picture looks squa5he<!, select 16:9 from the View, Aspect Ratio menu. This should fix the video and make it look right. Once you've previewed your dips, you can simply delete those you don't want and .save the others to be edited. Installing the codec also means that supported videos will automatically have a thumbnail image generated in the file browser. This is similar to the way in which Windows handles video liles. lt makes it easy to see quickly what you 've got and always select the right clip without having to pre~iew it first. Once you're happy with the files that you '~ copied from your camcorder, you can edit them in the package of your choice. We provide more details on how to do th is in our guide to using Kdenlive opposite. Next month MAKING BACKUPS Editor We show yoo how to protect your impOl"ta nt fi les from disaster • Select Open Fold"r 10 view your C¥1'Icorder'$ fll". COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y ~OlO Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com LlNUX EXPERT HOW TO ••• Edit video Ubunlu doesn 't come with an appli~ tion to edit video, and it's only re<:ently that developers have started to work 00 programs for this purpo:;e. Currently. the best <:hoio~ is Kdenlive, but as it's ~- - stiR unfinished, you may experience a few bugs. .!::.!! - --~-- _.!. ...... ~: I--: However, as long as you regularly save your work, you can just reload it and carry on. As Kdenlive's interface is relatively complex. 1-+':== ; ~-;:- it's w()(th spending a few moments acquainting -:; i:" - yourself with the various controls (5ee below). To jnstaH Kdenlive, use the Synaptic Package Manager, under Administration in the System menu . Search for ~d enlive in the Quick search box, and marl< it for install<ltion. Accept the extra packages when asked. You'll find Kdenlive under Sound & Video in the Applications menu. ~ Trim the dips by ho~ring your mouse 1::.1 D Copy any video d ips from your camcorder to your hard disk. Clips stored on the camera or OIl a memory card will be too slow. Start up Kdenlive and dick the Add Clip button. Browse to where you ·~ stored your clips, select the ones you want apnd hit the Open button. E'I g Clips may take a few minutes to be indexed, and until they are they'll be greyed out. On~ this is done. drag dips one by one on to the timeline into track 1. over the lelt or righl edge of it and. when the cursor chan~s. drag the d ip to the desired point. If you wanl to add transitions, you'll need to ove rlap dips in adjacent video tracks. Right-dick on one of the dips, hover over Add Transition and then choose Dissol~ from the menu thai a ppea~. . . . You can add a title to the start of your Ii.I movie by clicking the down arrow next to the Add Clip button and choosing Add Title Clip. Using the text tool (the icon with the letter T on it). type in the title you want. changing the font. size and colour as appropriate. You can move it around using the)( and Ycontrols at the top. Click OK and then drag Ihe title from your dip list to the beginning of track O. You can now click the Render button to .sa~ your movie in whatever format is most appropriate. You'l( find lots of presets in the Destination drop-down menu . To save to a DVD, choose DVD. then PAL 16:9 VOB (assuming your video camera is widescreen). Tick ·Open DVD wizard alter rendering' and you'll be ilble to bum a DVD with the resulting MPEG file. CD The Kdenlive interface explained The Rende r bUllon. Click Ihls when > - - - - - - - - -""\ yo<J're ready to export your Ilnlshed movie in a lomlalthat your player Is compatible wllh. r----------------~ Click the Add Clip button to import video dips from your hard disk, memory ca rd ~ directly from your video ca mera . Orag an e tlec1lrom lhe list on 10 a clip 10 add Ihat etlect. You can add multiple etle cts to e ach clip and adjust Ihel' properties with Ihe Effect Stack la b on the left. The J)!"o/ect monitor shows Ihe whole movie, bUI you can switch it lor a view of t he currenl clip by clicking on the Clip Monllor la b below. These are the video clips in your project. They ca n be added to the Ilmeline as many times as yo<J like. II you maka a mistake, you can use the Undo History to jump back to the point I,om which you wa nt to reslart. These two wavelorms represent lhe leI! and righl audio cha n""ls In each video clip. The zoom control lets you sea more detai l when you need to adi ust ar.d ed il dips mOre p'eclseIV. The Ra zo, tool lets you split video clips into mulliple chun" while On t ~ tlmellne. The playback marker shows the cu rrenl pos ition In lhe movie. There a'e two clips on lhe time line. The track5 work like layers in pholo-ediling software. Video on lop will ob$Cu.e Clll» below unlen Ihe lop video is transpa renl Or occupies part of lhe I,ame. Click: dell.co.uk ' ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; : : - - - - - ' The selection tool i, used lor dragging ~ and trimming Cllp$ on Ihe tlmellne. Call: 0844 444 3242 Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com 1:1::: ..... c.. >< -.... tl W W en shows you how to block these unwelcome messages f your email pmgram has an anti -spam filter, you (an I U~ it to move sparn you've downlwded to a spedal email folder. If it work.s as it should, all the email you want will stay in the inbox, while the adverts, viruses and other rubbish will be stored in a folder called sparn. junk or similar. In this m()(lth's 5Kuriryfx~1t we'll 5how you how to avoid spam messages and configure Windows Mail, Windows l ive Mail and Thunderbird to block wam messages automatically. up to use a challorum, you can creale a new Coogle Mail email address for free at/lttp:/lmail.goog/e.com an d use that for your forum iKeount. When you sign up wilh some ~bsites to use their serv"e~ you'll prob<lbly be asked if the company can provide your details to other companies. If you want to cut spam you should untick any boxes that give this penmission. BLOCKING SPAM AVOIDING SPAM II there's a golden rule when dealing wit h unwanted email.it.s never reply to a Sp<lm email. There are a number 01 reasons why you might be tempted to reply. but no good will ever come of it. Here's why: II you use Windows Mail (Vista).liveMail (Windows 7), Thunderbird or Outloo4<. you already have some an ti-spam protection at your fingertips. Here we'U show you how to configure them. USING WINDOWS MAIL/LIVE • Spammers collect email addresses. They do thiS so that (ater advertising camp<ligns reach even more people. When you reply to an email. you are confirming that your email ad dress is valid and that a human is reading email sent to it. • Spammers usually don 't use their own compoters. Online criminals often use hijacked computers in order to send spam, which means that replying to messages will often just sen d a message to an innocent victim 01 a compoter virus. • Sp<lm adverts may not be all they seem. II you didn't ask lor the communication, that business is behaving unethically and quite possibly illegally. II your only contact with a comp<lny is through spam, there are lots of reasons to distru st it. INTRODUCTION Anyone that uses email knows that s~m is a big problem. Th e amount of junk e mail many of us receive is overwh elming. The best way to avoid it is to stop it arriving in th e first pla(e, We'lI show you how to avoid expos ing your email account to spammers here. If you're already receiving some spam. there are three main wllys to hllnd le these unwanted messages: using your emllil progrllm's built-in anti-spam filter; instaUing ""ti -s~m softwllre; lind using an anti-spam se ...... i(e . We'll Uke you through 1111 these options on th ese pa ges. You might be wondering how a spammer got hold of your address. Email addresses appear allover the intemet on websites and <:hat lorums, in databases maintained by online stores and services. and in friends ' address books. Sp<lmmers COln scan websites and forums for email addresses. ha ck databases and use viruses to read private address books. You can control how your email add ress appears on websites and forums. Consider using disposable email ad dresses lor certain activities. For example, il you sign D Click the Tools menu option and choose Junk E-mail Options (Safety Options from the cursor icon at the top-right of Live Mail) Irom the list. By default this will be set to No Automatic Filtering. To st<lrt, <:hoose the Low option, which oHers to move the most obvious spam to the Jun k E-mail folder. There's also an option underneath that wi![ delete the suspect email This isn't a good idea, unless you 're absolute!y sure that you only ever want to receive emaillrom people you list in the next step. Et Click the Safe Senders tab and make sure that the option at the bottom, COl l!ed Also trust e-mail from my Windows ContaCll, is ticked. This mea ns that emaillrom known Iriends and family won't be claSSified as spam.lf you receive email from people....mo aren't in your contacts list, you COln add their addresses by dicking the Add button. a n Open your email inbox and select aU the Sp<lm messages you COln lind. Drag them to the Junk E-ma il lolder on the left. from this point on , any new email that you download will be checked and messages that the system dassilies as spam wiU be moved to this folder automaticaUy. 1::.1 .. _t _ _ --...---_....... -_.--...._-_. __ ....-..... -.._... _-- ..... _. ...... _ ......--._- ...._--_......- - .... .....-r_ .....;or............... -~0-. .. _ _ ..... _ _ , . . _ . I.- _ _ _ _.... . -..... _ I .... -J _ - .... _1 _ _ - 5,-."'''"'' .... ___ .. _ .. ___ ... Siman Edwards Expert on Although we recommend Thunderbird, you may want to use Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail. se~Ulity ... Use your email to help redUC& prog'~m's bui lt";n .. nt~spam protect ion anti-§pam §oflWar~ allows unwant ~ d int o your inbox. Spam t ha t g~t§ through yo ur defenc~§ is described a§ a false negative. When your inbox is stuffed with spam. even though you have anti-spam protection. you're suffering from false negatives. Th ~ worst kind 01 protection §uffers Irom both fa lse positives arld n ~gat ives. ln other words. you r real email ends up in the bin and your spam erlds up in your inbox. When you first start using an ant i-spam app lication, you should keep an eye on your spam folder. It's quite likely t hat some real email will erld up being marked as a false po§itwe. Similarly. don't t rust every message in your inbox, as som~ §pam is likely to get through . W ~ak me§sag~s unwanted mail COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y ~OlO Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com SECURITY EXPERT _....,--:=::.::::.=:---,...----......-_....... - ...--- .... =---_.-- .... ft'I ~ ~--=------~---.-~-..- - ..............-...-.--... -- = ....::;!. ::r;::.=:~:--.- . ___. - ..-<-__ -~ t":;:--.... --.-~- ';I-.~ . . . Don't trust the anti-spam fiher to work Ii.I accurately all the time. Look at the mes:xlges in your Junk E-mail folder occasionally and. if you find any useful mail that has been moved here. right-dick on the message. choose the Junk E-mail option and then dick on Mark as Not Junk . The message will be restored to you r inbox. Consider adding the email address of the sender to your Safe Senders list USING THUNDERBIRD D First ensure tha t your address book contains the email addresses 01 people you always want to receive ema il from.Clid on the Tools menu option and choose Address Book. Select Personal Address Book from the short list in the leh-hand bar and check the names and "_" . . -_-.-:::.-----.-,-.--:.•-- ---._-...._-. ~ -- _ -- --::.::.....------~- - --------- "-_.'" '~ addresses that appear. Click the New Card button to add more addresses. and delete any th at you don 't want by highlighting them with the mouse and pressing the Delete key. Close the window when you 've finished. E'I Right -dd your acwu nt's name on the left-hand bar and choose Properties. The Account Settings window will appear. Click on the Junk Settings option and ensure that the '00 not mark mail as junk if the sender is in: Personal Address Book' option is tid ed. Tick the option called Move new junk messages to and choose the Junk folder on: option. Select your acwunt's name from the drop-down list. Click OK. a n Click the Tools menu option and choose Options lrom the list Click the Privacy button and then choose the Junk tab. Tick the box labelled When I mark messages as junk, imd select the option below this, called Move them to the account's "Junk ' folder. Click OK . 1::.1 Find a spam message. d ck once on its junk dot. This wiU change to look li~e the flaming icon. Click it again to tum it off. Once all Sp<lm messages are labe lled with the junk icon, click on the Tools menu option and choose Run Junk Mail Controls on Folder. The sp~m should be sent to the Junk folder. Check this folder from time to time and rescue any real em ail that has been moved there by unticking its Junk icon.1il . . . View your inbox containing a mixture of Ii.I spam and genu ine email. Find the small junk icon, which looks like flames. probably just to the right of the Sender heading. E<lCh mes:xlge has a dot next to it that 's al igned with this junk icon. Look through your emails and, when you --_.- -_.__....._...--_......_---_ ---- .....::.-:.. .-.---.......-.::.... . -- ._-- ..--==-... --- . -------~-~ _ --- ~-: . ..--'"--_ --_ / _ _ .... I_"'!!.!:!!"!!! .--,-_.,...-... -_._ -- ........-,...-- ... Next month SET UP A SECURE WIRELESS NETWORK Find out how to ~otect your hom e networl< with a secure wireless connection ..... -. --.-... .- .-..... '-,---.-••- -_-_........-........ ------_ .-,-.......... --. '- ...- -- .......... -!- . _ ---- ~ - ... L -- ~ ~- -- ~ - ~- ~- - ~- ,- Stop viruses and spyware Block hac kers and protect p rivacy • Opti mize speed and perfo rma nce • Automa tic file backup • Free onli ne support and loca l-rate phone assistance Order online at www.we broot.co.u klwise Owebroot· _ _ '-"'I "'onun _ _ _ ' Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com amazol\1Xl.uk· ccn Advanced BI[]S ~b configuration zw ~i3 cO::: «11. Your BIOS is responsible for making sure that your processor and memory are configured correctly. David Ludlow shows you how to set it up P emaps the mo~1 important job that your 610S does is to tell your PC how fast the processor and memory should run. II these settings ,lfe incorrect, you may find that your computer either runs more slowly than it shoold, 0<" it will run faster but could crash intermittently. It's therefore important to ma~e SUfe that your BIOS is configured correctly. PROCESSOR SPEED To check your processor's speed, you first need to find the correct setting. This may be in a dedicated menu, such as Cell Menu , or listed under Ad~anced BIOS Features. Whether you're running an Intel or AMD processor, its o~erall speed is based on two settings: an external bus speed and a multiplier (often called the processor ratio in the 6105), The external bus speed multiplied by the multiplier gives you your proceS5ofS speed, For example, a Core 2 Duo E8500 has a clock speed 013.16GH7. This is made up 01 an external bus speed 01 333MHz multiplied by a i<9 multiplier (9 x 333M Hz . 3.16GHz). II either 01 these settings is incorrect. your PC won 't run at its designated speed. In addition, if the extemal bus speed is incorrect, it will have a ~nock -on elfect on your memOl)"s speed. It's important to make sure that this setting is COJTe<t First. you'U need to ~now how fast your processor should run. The easiest way to do this is to start Windows. Right-did Cornputer Irom the Start menu and select Properties. You should see a screen that liSlS your processor model name followed by'@ )()()(GHf. This is your proceS5Or's rated speed in gigahertz. We'll show you how to check processor speeds lor aU processors below. For AMD processors, working out the processor speed is simple, as the extemal bus speed (probably called HyperTransport speed in the BIOS) should be set to 200MHl. You can then set the multiplier. This can be done il you know your processor's rated speed in ... Select the correct CPI.J Base Frequency to goet the ,ight processor speed megahertz (multiply its gigahertz ra ting by 1,000).11 you don't know your processors rated speed, you can find a list of AMD processors at hup:llrinyurl.coml amdprocesJon , Typing the model name into Google will also bring up help. Simply divide your processors rating in megahertz by 200 to get its multiplier. For Intel Core i3, Core is and Core i7 processors, the external bus (probably called base dock or base frequency) should be set to 133MHL As with At"1D's processors above, all you have to do to lind out the multiplier is divide your processor's rated speed in megahertz by 133. You can lind a list 01 Intel processor speeds at http://tlnyurl,com/lnteiproce55orJ. To make things even more confusing. older Intel processors often have their Irontside bus (FSB) speed quoted. This is quad-pumped , so is four times faster than the external bus speed. To lind out your processor's external bus speed, first find out its FSB speed at hup:lltinyuri.comlinteiprocessorJ. Divide the listed FS6 speed by four to get the external bus speed, and divide your processor's speed in megahertz by the external bus speed to get the multiplier. INTRODUCTION In last month's Advancl!d Projects we looIIed at how to configure your computer's st(Wage and boot options. This month we're going a bit more in depth, liS w e took into how to configure your PC's pro<eS$or and memory. It's important to check that the settings are correct .., your computer may othe rwise run stower that it's supposed to, or be faste r but less stable . David Ludlow Editor _._-_ _. --.....- --.- ...-----··--··1 1::1- . ---- .._-- ---_ ------ .. ---- _. ... YOIJ ca n check your proce..or·s ra led speed In Wlrodows' Cont'ol Panel , ----- --_ _".,. - _. ...... __ .. _ _''''IAA ..... _ ,"'Y _ -"I~': '- '• bO'_ ___ -_.. -'-.'-.". --- _ "'_ -..S!Il.SSLlSllfl.sssu.bI6O' ......./CON OO, ..... - 1- CPU·Z , ,0000 -''''' _ QII ":1;1_ .. _ ___ .. "..........t h",,'"- ... ::J _,~, et-. eo... . _ . ... YOIJ can check yOUI' proce..or·s current selling. u.lng the CPU-Z utility . COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y ~OlO Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com ADVANCED PROJECTS --_. ---_ - - .. _ .. - n ""_,, _ _ _ " _ _ ,"""'01 _ _ .... ..... ......-..- - - 10 _ _ .. _ 0 0 1 (. 1 _ _ " _ -IlJ ;. - -_01_._ 1i'"""3 ----I --...... _ .. _ _ .. ---_ ...... __ . _ .. _.._--.. _........... ...... -_ ........ -.--_ ---_ --1I4i O!J _ .. _ .......... .... <N( . ~ ,, __ ... _ ... You can use tile Iree applkatlon HoI CPU T.51... lo pll$l\ YOU' prOCessOf to ,\5 .ated .peed In your BIOS, find the options for CPU Ratio (or mu!tiplier) and, depending on your processor, Make $U", thoat YOU select the coo-reet memory .allo In order to .un yo ..... RAM al lIS de $ignated weed need to 3djust thiS. You can now dick Stop CPU Bum-in on Hot CPU Tester. memory is correctly configured. yoo can save the settings and continue. MEMORY SETTINGS Before we go back to the BIOS. ifs best to check your memory's correct speed and settings by going back to CPU -Z and cUd<:ing on SPD. This reads the configuration from your memory to get the optimal settings. look at the Max Bandwidth section and note down the megahertz rating (this may be half the speed you·re expecting as memory runs at twice its stated bus speed, so DDR2 800MHz actually has a 400MHz clock speed). look at the timings table and find the Frequency entry that matches your memory·s Max Bandwid th speed. Note down all the information in the table, including CAS# latency, RAS# to CAS# and so 00. Once you have this information, restart your computer and go into the BIOS and the menu you used to configure your processor. Your memory·s speed is defined by the processor's external bus speed multiplied by a multiplier called the memory ratio. Change the memory ratio until your memory is set to the correct speed. For example, on a Core 2 Duo E8500 (333MHz). DDR2 800M HI memory should be set to a memory ratio of 1.2 (1.2x333 .. 400MHz). Your BIOS should then display the correct full memory speed; in other words, it will show 800MHI for DDR2 800MHI RAM , not the 'true' speed ol400MHz. Some BIOSes don·t have a memory ratio setting. but rather have a menu option tha t lets you select your memory·s full speed, such as BOOMHz. Simply sele<:t the correct speed from the drop-down list. Next you 'll need to adjust the DRAM Timing Mode. This should be set automatically. but some memory defaults to a slower speed to ensure your PC boots up. The memory timings will be the second set 01 figures you noted down when you were using CPU -l. The headings in the BIOS may not match those taken from CPU-Z, and there may even be more headings displayed. What"s important is that the timings in the BIOS are in the same order as in CPU -Z. CAS latency (Cl) will be clearly marked. Starting here. set each row to the value in the COl1"esponding row that you noted down. When your POWER SEmNGS The final job in the BIOS is to make sure that your PC is correctly configured to save power. To do this. find the Power Management Setup (or 5imilar) menu , Here you can change the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) mode. Look for an ACPI option and set it to S3. rather than 51. This configures your computer so thaI in Sleep mode it will only supply power to the memory. This means Ihat your computer will only use a few watts of power; in SI mode pretty much the entire computer remains on in Sleep mode. which wastes power. Under this option you'll be able to set the Restore On AC Power loss feature. This tells your computer wha t to do alter it's lost power - alter a power cut. for e><ample. Off will leave your PC ofl, On will make it tum on when power is restored , and Last State will leave your PC off if it was tumed 011. but otherwise tum it bad on. base frequency, FSB or HyperTransport speed. Use the plus and minus keys on your keyboard to adjust these settings. CHECKING YOUR SETTINGS Your 610S may display your processor's speed based on the settings that you've change<l. This ~n help you make sure that you've configured it property. II not. don 't panic as it can be checked in Windows. To do this, ~ve your settings and reboot your compoter. Install CPU -Z (www,cpuid,comji'youdon't already have it, and run the application. Click on the CPU tab and at the bottom you 'll see your processor's current bus speed and multiplier. The multiplier may be lower than expected as modern processors reduce it when your PC isn't busy in order to save power and reduce heat. To boost the processor to its maximum speed. download Hot CPU Tester (www.7byte. com}. Install the software and run it. ignoring any messages about buying the full version. Click Burn-in and Run CPU Bum-in. ~Iect CPU- Z and the multiplier will be at its maximum {it may be sluggish to switch to CPU -Z. but don·t worry}. NeKt, check that the Core Speed is set to your processor·s correct rating. If ifs not and the bus speed is set correctly, you'll need to go back to your BIOS and adjust the processor's multiplier. If the bus speed is incorrect. you 'll -*-._- -- - - .,.--'- -". ----.. ---- i!!lW:!l i II_ 10_ ~- ~ 1....'1 OIZIiS IJ_ ~w ~" ~" m ~, ~- ---. ~. ~ w_ • " •" •" " ---,--------.-,-, '" '" You can use CPIJ-Z 10 make a n.ote of Y"'" memory's SUPpOrted speed$ WAKE UP EVENTS You can also set your BIOS to define which devices can bring your PC out of Sleep mode. All BIOSes have slightly different options. New computers will have an option to remove control from the BIOS and put it entirely on Windows. This requires managing your devices through Device Manager in Windovvs, using the Power Management tab to select whether that device can be used to wake the computer, Most device$ don 't have these options, and you can only select which devices can and can't wake the computer. These will typically include USB device~. PS/2 Keyboard and PS/2 Mouse, plus PCI or PCI Express devices. We recommend leaving all these settings enabled. You can still manually control which devices can wa~e the computer by viewing a device's properties in Windows' Device Manager and selecting the Power Management tab. E:! MAY 2010. COMPUT"ERSHOPPER Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com Next month WINDOWS 7 NETWORKING Find out how to make Windows T§ file and printer sharing wo~ with Window§ XP and Vi§ta HELPFILE PC won't power on Q I have an MUS A8N32:-SU motherboard, an AMD 64 fX-60 dual-cort' proa>5sor and two Nvldia GeForce 7900 GTX Cilrds. A Your PC is qui te powerful. so the finger of suspicion poin ts at the power supply unit (PSU). Before you ch ange any h<trdware, rule ou t a problem with this. If you ha~n't already cheded its specifications against t he requirements for your setup, do so. If it meets them , check th at any modular cables are wonected properly and double-check the connections to the motherboard. If your two graphics cards have auxiliary power sockets, make sure they're connected - if not, you need to connect a foor-pin supply to the motherboard's EZ Plug. which is near t he main ATX but stil l no POST beeps. I'm guessing it's the CPU or motherboard but I don't know which . Can you help? power connector. II all seems well, see il you can borrow a similarly powerful PSU from a friend to rule Atj' jung, atifjung@gmail.com , .. . . ._ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _~------, oot a pallial PSU failure. II none of these st eps sol~s the problem, dearing the motherboard 's realt ime dock inform ation may help. This is covered in section 2-20 of MUS'S manual (ht1p:lltinyurl.comlasusmanuaf) but, in brief, you unplug the PC, remove the battery and move the CLRTC jumper from pins 1-2 to pins 2-3. Leave it there for a few seconds before moving it bilck and refitting the battery. If thiS fails and you're feeling pallicularly brave, you can try unplugging the computer and, after ta king anti-static precautions, carefully removing the CPU cooler. Then remove and refit the CPU, ma king sure the socket lever clicks properly back into place ... 11 your PC won' switch on. ched that the power cables a re connected properly before refitting the cooler. When I switch on the machine, nothing appears on the mooitor and I don't hear the usu,,1 POST bee p soonds. The PC comes on and the Ian starts, but that's all. To switch it off, I need to keep my linger pressed on the onloff bunon. I've tried diffe",n! display cables and monitors but that hasn't helped. I've t ried taking out aUlhe RAM, d isconnecting the hard disk.s and oe~n removing the graphics cards, • • Resto re pO ln::s are deleted I've been running Windows 7 on my laptop and desktop ~C for a few weeks, having upgraded from Windows X~ to Windows 7 Home Premium. Everything seems fine except that my restore points are deleted every time I restart, This happens on both systems. I traded this down to a VOLSNM ERROR 25, which occurs every time the system restarts. According to the timestamp, this error occurs at the point of restart and oot at shutdown. The error message is: "The shadow copies of volum e C: were deleted because the s hadow copy storage coold oot grow in time. Consider reducing the K) load on th e system or choose a shadow copy storage volume that is oot be ing shadow cOflied." The only solution I've seen on the intI' met (quite a few peop le seem to be suffering from this problem) suggests doing a re pair install of Windows 7. This seems drastic, and I don 't understand why the same issue would occur on two different machi rles if it were just an installation problem. Although I haven 't found a proper solution yet, I've found something that might be of use to other readers: ERUNT. lt stands for Emergency Recovery Utility NT, and it backs up th e Registry and certain critical files. The program is freeware and can be set up to create a daily backup automatically if o ne doesn't exist already for the day. It can also be run on demand to create a backup, in which case it deletes any previous manual backup for that day. To restore a backup, simply follow t he utility's instructions. Whi le this isn't a perfect solution, it's better than nothing. Although this is quite an old utility, as far as I've been able to tell, it's still valid for Vista and Win.dows 7. You can download ERUNT from www.snapfiles.comlger/erunr.hrml. Ron Lock, ron@ronzilla.co.uk -_. _........---._-__. _0 __ 0.-0 _ _ r ___ _ - ... If you fir<:! tkat Windows 7 is deleting your re.tore point$, you can u.e ERU~T a. a workaround COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y ~010 Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com HELPFILE Processor running at slower speed Q t downloaded an d ra n the C~U-Z (www. cpuid.com) ap~icat ion. 1t correctly detects my proa>ssor, displaying its name followed by its rated speed. However, in the Core Speed box on the CPU tab, the spud list ed is much slower than t he processor's rated speed. Why is my compute r running so slowly ? Ste ven Jameson A Your processor is supposed to run slower than its maximum rated 5peed when Your experts HELPFILE 148 David Ludlow - CJ\l 10:..1_1--..1" 1....... 1_1 _ _c.o..l _ _ tMoo_ __ ........ ~ _rnlGO • _ toto ""'- 1 Ita Y .'_'ID! __ ~c.o..(nf~_0\1_ ,....,. __ _ I - IOIIlI.SKfllJ,lI\lWflVJ..o ~(c.. 0II1 possible. Both Intel and AMD have toto s.-t ,.., .... 1I 0 . • • lZ or....,. technology 00 their processors that reduces their _ _ • WI.., ... t· -I ) ll_ •• l Z - , .... .,. _ ' .... , h _ _ _ ,.. • .,. speeds when they're not ~ing used heavily. This _fSll 1»1.1..". keeps your PC cooler an d, thank5 to the slower Ian speeds requ ired, quieter. Processors running al lower clod:: speeds also use less power. In CPU-Z. the sllt'ed that appears after your processor's name tells IIQICJ you its rated speed, while the Core Speed box tells you how last the processor is currendy running. .. CPU-Z shows you how fast your proc....or i. curr.. ntly There 's a simple way to check what 's going on. running. A slow weed 1$"1 n.e<:euarlly a bad th ing Download the HotCPU tester (http://www.7byte. ,omlindex.php?page~ download) an d install it on your your processors ra te<:! speed. If it hasn·t. there's computer. Run the application. click on the Bum-in probably a configura tion error on the BIOS. Our icon and dkk Run CPU Burn-in. This will push one core complete gu ide to the BIOS {see Advanced Projects on on your processor to 100 per cent load. While the test page 146} will help you oonfigure it. Be careful making is running. switch ba d<: to CPU -Z an d look at the Core any changes. as you can damage your computer if you Speed box again. This should have increased to match accidentally overclock it too far. -. Davi d has been writing about technology for 11 years and specialises in solving netwO<1<ing and PC hardware problems. having previously worke<:! in IT support. Jim Martin Having reviewe<:! PCs for over 11 years and with a keen interest in digital video and photography. Jim can solve your hardware and productivity problems. _ _ _ _ _..J_... Si mon Ed wa rd s With more than 16 years of PC e_perience. focused on protect ing computer users from hackers and other threats. Simon 'stlle best man to help solve security woes. OFFICE HELP 154 Kay Ewbank Display driver stops working and recovers Q I have a Dell Studio XPS 8000 running often Sei' the screi'n flicker and return to the Windows desktop with the error message you mention. However. TOR can be a little sensitive and reset the GPU for no app<!rent reason. even if you're just running a 2D applica tion 5Uch as Word. Having e~perienced th is problem first hand. we can appreciate how frustrating it is. There's no magic fix for this. as the problem could be any number of things. l1"s easy to jump to the condusion that the graphiC$ driver is faulty. but this is a red herring in most cases. In our PC. the fault was a bad stick of RAM; once replaced. the problem vanished. It may be tempting to head to the Registry and attempt to disable TDR or change the timeout period Th is problem affects only a small minority to try to stop the GPU being reset. but you should of PCs and. unfol1unately. there's no easy resist this and try to locate the cause of the problem solution. Windows is trying to prevent a rather than applying a sticking-plaster .solution. total crash - or hang - which would require a reboot. In extreme cases. it's necessary to reinstall Vista and Windows 7 have a Timeout ~tection Windows from scratch. but this won't help if faulty and Recovery (TDR) leature. which tries to detect hardware is causing the problem. Ou r advice is to problematic situations where the graphiC$ procesoing remove all bu t one stid<: of RAM from your PC and unit (GPU) is busy but nothing is being updated on the see if the problem goes away. If not. work your way through all the sticks to check that none of them is screi'n. leading the user to think the PC has crashed. Windows resets the GPU in this situation. and you'lI causing the problem. Other hardware issues that can cause a TOR event indu de bad sectors Display driver stopped responding and has reeov in RAM on the graphics card. bad Displ.y driver NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driwr. Vfflion l Sl .7 sectors on the hard disk that result in reponding and hIS succts~ully .ecovved. a corrupt Windows installation. GPU failure due to ovemeating or insufficient power. an d processor overheating. Software issues can include problems with running multiple monitors. high resolutions ... Num.. rou. I....... can . ... ult in Timeout Detection and Recovery .. " o. m e.... ges•• 0 the e_act cau.e Can be hard to d et ermine and Aero transparency eflects. 54-bit Windows 7. with SGB of RAM and an Nvidia Geforce GT220 graphics card. It's all running really well except for a seemingly random error th at tells me: "Displ ay driver has stOflped respond ing and has reoovered. Display driver Nvidia Windows kemel driver version 186.27 stOflped respond ing and has now successfu lly recove red." I've trie<:! down loading and installing from th e Nvid ia website what I assumed was the latest driver for 64-bit Windows 7. but the annoying problem persists. Any suggestions? David Clowes, ddowes@btinternet.com Please contact the relevant de pa rtment at th e e mail add ress list ed above . Yo u (a n also writ e t o us at: A He lp Comput .. r Sho pper 30 Cleve la nd St reet London MAY 2010 . COMPUT"ERSHOPPER Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com CONTACTS W lT 4JO Please try to give fuU details 01 your problem. We need an email address or daytime and evening telephone numbers in case we nee<:! more information. Although the policy of Computer Shopper is not to publish readers ' email addresses. we indu de them in Help so that other readers with experience of similar problems can share their solution (please also cc any comments to the relevant Help department above). If you would prefer not to have your email address published. please say so. E!l HELPFILE Media Center keeps waking up Q My Windows 7 Media Center PC To do this, dick on the Stan keeps waking itself up. Every lime I go downstairs in the morning. it's on. Why is it doing this and how do I stop it? Ma'*}onf>s A ()(Jt 'Type:' will tell you which device or SCheduled service CilUSed your computer 10 wa~e up. If it's a scheduled service. we bet that ma-update_schedule<l is causing the problems_To change this schedule's settings, dick on the Start button, type 'task scheduler' and preS5 Enter. Using ... You can use a command line 10 lind oul which servke Of piece cA hardware Is waking yo,,", computer the tree menu on the left-hand side, navigate to the Task the command line and type 'powercfg Scheduler libral), Windows, Media Center folder. -devicequel) wake_armed'. ScroH through the list of scheduled applications in the middle window and double-dick the This will give you a list of devices that can wake your computer from sleep. A mouse is mceupdate_scheduled entry. often to blame, as the slightest movement Clid on the Conditions tab and remove can send a signal to your Pc. To stop a device the tick from the 'Wake this computer to run this task' box and click OK. This will stop the waking your computer, run [){,vice Manager scheduled seJVice waking your computer. (type device manager into the Start menu). You can perform similar st eps if your initial Find the device in the list and dooble-dick it. investigation led yoo to another scheduled task.. Select the Power Management tab and remove It a device is waking your computer, yoo need the tid from the option to 'Allow this device to find out which one it is_To do this, go back to to wake the computer'. The culprit is likely to be either a piece of hardware or a sche<:luled service that's set to wake your Pc. The ()(II'll way 10 lind out for sore is to wait until your PC has been woken and then use a command line tool 10 find button. type CMO and press Enter. Type 'powercfg -lastwake' and hil Ent er. The line that st,nts what woke it ,---_ ---. . ....__._-' <....... __ ...... __--_ . -......... -- ...-. ... A scheduled 1M!< can be set 10 wake yo", computer up al a given lime Wireless laptop won't connect I have a Netgur DG834N router to which I wirelessly connect a couple of computers and an XboK 360. Recently, my ageing laptop has started fai ling to connect to the network, particu larly when waking from hit.ernation. On occasion, I've also had messages on my second PC that there was an IP address conflict. I've u~ted the drivers for my Intel nOOBG wireless card, but I still often have to 'repair' my network connection to rejoin the network. What's going on? Michael CoalS Q A Windows wams of an IP address conflict when one PC tries to use an address that has already been leased to another. This shouldn't generally happen, as '_ your router should maintain a list of its past IP assignments , but things can become confused. Like most routers, the OC834N supports address reseJVations , and you can solve the problem by setting some up. Switch on all your computers and make sure they're connected to the network. Log into the router admin IX'ge an d select 'LAN IP Setup' from under the Advanced heading. Clicking the Add button will show a table of your connected devices. Selecting the radio botton next to an entl) copies its details into the fields below, and then clicking Add creates a reseJVation for it. If you do this for each device, they should use the same IP addresses every time you start them, eliminating conmcts. Your connection issues are likely to be a separa te problem_The fact that they're recent suggests that something has changed: perhaps yoo have a new Bluetooth device, or more of your neighbours now have competing wireless networks. Download and run NetStumbler (www.llf:tstumb/er.comldownloads}and make a note of the channel used by your network and by competing ones with strong signals. If you notice dashes,log into your rooter and, on the Wireless Settings page, change the channel from Auto to either 1,6 or II, tl)ing to avoid channels used by other networks. The problem may be that your router is set to use channel bonding. which uses two channels to get throughput of up to 270Mbit/s. Change the menu option Mode to Up to 130Mbit/s under Wireless Settings. Finally, if none of your wireless devices uses the router's 802.11n mode, change it to 'g & b', which c.Jn improve stability with older wireless cards. ·,• ·: ., ··: ·:• ·· I ... J-oIetwork Stumble. displays al l the netwOfko that you. computer can detect. Ustthem by Sig .....1(small numbers .... e stronger) to rind strong competitors, ... Change yOUr rooter's wireless mode and '/\a ..... elil yOu're having Pffl~ems t hen see II they're ll$Ing the same channel 0$ You COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y ~010 Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com HELPFILE Do I need anti-virus software? I'm writing in the ho~ that you can cla rify the effectiveness of hardware firewalls that come with routers and the effectiveness of free anti-virus 5Oltware, especially Microsoft Security Essentials. I regu larly visit a Q computer forum ca lled Te.::h-FOfums (www. fech -forums.net).Onthe forum I was lold by all the administrators and moderators that Security Essentials is just as good as, if not t.etter than, any paid-for anti-virus soltwarl'. Heeding the advice of these very technical and computer-minded individu als,l immediately unill5talled my copy of McAfee, downloaded Security Essentials and comment you made aboot Security Essentials that says, "Although Microsoft doesn't build anti-virus into Windows, it does offer free malware protection in th e form of Microsoft Security Essentials. It's fIOt intended to be as comprehensive as many th ird-party security suites, so a subscription t o another package is probably a better option." This flies in the face of what I was previously advised. Can you please clarify the differences t.etween Security Esse ntials, or any free anti-virus app lication for t hat matter, and the pros and cons of just using the fi rewall on my rou ter? Anthony Fakir It's important to distinguish betw~n a firewall and anti-virus software. as they're designed to offer d ifferent types of protection lor yO\.lr PC. A lirewall acts a little like a border guard , deciding which traffic is allowed into and out of your computer. In the case 01 a wireleS$ router, the firewall is set up by default to allow all outbound connKtions (you can connect to anything). but deny all incoming connections (nobody yn conne<:t to you) . This means that hackers can't scan your computer looking for security flaws to exploit, but it doesn't mean you 're safe. The way firewalls work means that if you initiate a connection. malicious programs can still come in. If you visit an infected website, for A connected my router to my computer, safe in the kroowledge that my PC wou ld now tie even better protected than it was before. I was also happy that I wouldn't have to pay for any subscriptions ~nd that my computer wou ld wo~ that little bit faster without McAfee slowing it down. All was well until! obtaine.:l a copy of the Complete Gujde to Windows 7. There! notice.:l a .. A. wl rele ... route< 11.. . a built-In IlrewaH that oilers some orotKtlon aga inst Inter""t Ikreals. bul you SIIiI need SKUrily on yoU!" PC example, yO\.lr lirewaH aHow<; you to download everything. as it yn 't tell the difference between a web pa~ and a virus. An anti -virus appliC<ltion is designed to spot maliciO\.lS programs and neutralise them, but anti -virus software can 't dete<:t incoming and outgoing connections and deal with them. So. without a rooter and its firewaH. a hacker could discover your computer, scan it, detect a security flaw and run an exploit to ta~e over your computer or steal files. The real difference between free anti -virus programs and the producu you have to pay for is the tools they provide. If you pay for security. you should really pay for the entire security suite. With security suites, you also get a software lirewall. This acts a little like the firewall on your router, but it can offer application control. This way. if your PC were to be infected by a tile that your anti-virus application missed . the software lirewaH could stop this file ma~ing contact with the hackers who programmed it. This can protect your data and stop your PC being turned into a bot that sends out spam or, worse yet, is used to attack other systems. Security suites also come with other tools such as web scanners. which can monitor the websites you visit and stop you accessing infected sites. All these applications worl<ing together increase your protection. Not all se<:urity suites are the same. so read our reviews on security suites (Labs, Shopper 264) lor more information. As a basic minimum Microsoft Security Essentials is a decent anti -virus product that. in combination with your rooter's firewall, will protect yO\.lr PC from a wide range of threau. However. Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 is even beller. Windows keeps scanning hard disk A Window<; runs this procedure il it suspects a file system problem on a disk partition, olten caused when a disk write isn't finished due to an unplanned shutdown. Sometimes Windows can get ·stuck'. repeatedly checking an apparently MAY 2010 . ~ =.-.. _ ... _ . . " o I I -~ " _ . " ' .. , .... _(['.1 ~ healthy disk, but you must rule out the poSSibility that there really is a problem. We assume from yO\.lr description that drive E is one of the partitions on your BOGB disk. rather than your USB disk. From the Start menu, click Run, type CMD and click OK. Type 'fsutil dirty query E:'. which should confirm tha t the volume is seen as ·d irty". Now open up My Computer. right -click on drive E: and select Properties. From the Tools tab, click Che<:k Now. Che<:k both the file system errors and bad sectOI"$ options, then click the Start button. This shooid start an in -depth error check. which will take a while. When the check is finished. repeat the fsutil query as before. If the result is still dirty, you still have a problem. You could try several things at this point. A third-party disk utility may contain more powerful diagnostic and repair routines than Windows ' own: we currently recommend TuneUp Utilities (www.rune-up.com).lfthe partition is smaiL you might consider backing up its contents and reformatting it. II all else fails, open a command prompt as you did for the fsutil query, but this time type 'chkntfs IX E:' which will prevent startup disk checks for E: P A while ago - and not for the first tim e - I inadvertently switched off the comput er at th e mains. Th e next time I started it up. a page appeared stat ing that Windows was "Checking the fi le system on E" and that "o ne of your drives needs chec~lng for consist ency". When I saw this message in the past, the disk check complet ed, fi nding no p!"oblems, and that was the end 01 it. This time, whenever I start up the PC, Windows goes through the same proce.:lure, with identical res ults (in oth er words, it finds no problems). I have t.een unable to discover any way of getting rid of it . Can you help please? I have an 80GB hard disk divided into partitions C through H and an extemal40GB USB drive. I'm running Windows XP. Keith Hellawell Q -- __ P _ ... . " , _ - . . . ...... - ... Ticking both options causes Check Dislc to perform a more thorough scan. II "an take a wtIHe, though, and II you're chKklng a sYstem disk, you'l need 10 reboot only. Bear in mind that an undiagnosed problem may remain; if you want to restore checking on all disks later, the command is 'chknt fs 10'. COMPUT"ERSHOPPER Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com HELPFILE Which laptop bags will keep my laptop dry? Q I walk to and from my wort. daily and as a result su ffer from regu lar soakings in the rain, snow or wet air. I read your reviews on laptop bags as I'm looking for a de.::ent ru cksack to carry my work laptop in but realise.d that a key eleme nt was missing from all the reviews: how dry do these bags keep my laptop? Can you recommetld a suitable fu;:ksack that will keep my laptop arld my lunch dry in anything from a light shower to being practically submerged? Dave Webster; A Your best bet is to buy a waterproof b<>ekpack along with a ~parate sleeve for your laptop 10 protect it from knocks. Ov~rboard ~I!s 20- and 25-litre wa t~rproof backpacks with ~ith~r a 15.4 or 17in 51eeve for £45 and E50 respectively. You could also opt for a dilfer~nt sleev~, such as Pa kuma 's ~c02bag (avai labl~ in si2~ from 7 to 1 S.4in). (www.overboard.co.uk) weblterd@gmail.com We discu55ed at length about testing how waterproof the bags wen~. bot decided tha t we couldn't do this in a meaningful way, especially as none of them dlimed to be waterproof anyway. ...... OYerboafd bags are waterproof, but you' ll need a sepa.ate laptop sleeve No operating system Q I was inspired by an article in Compur~r Shopper to bu ild my own pc. It fired up fi ne, but I can't get any further with setting it up. I chose an Asus H3N78 SE motherboard, as I und~rstood that it had Linux 'tJurnt on', but when I fire up with the Asus disc loaded, it just prompts me to choose between two Nvidia driver pages or a Free DOS prompt. What do I do next ? Norm')n Brown, cMu@easy.com A You'v~ built th~ PC successfuUy. but you don't have an operating system - the disc you are booting from is a utility disc Asus supplies 50 you can cr~ate driver diSC$for use when instamng Windows. You can choose which OS you want to run. Some, such as Ubuntu, are free to download; ask a friend to download th~ disc image from www. ubuntu.comlgetubunruldownloM and bum yO!J a CD. Plac~ the Ubuntu CD in your drive. reboot and follow th~ installation instructions. Tha t said. we'd r~commend Windows 7 Home Pr~mium. OEM versions, for which Microsoft provides no support. cost around £75. We've written lots about Windows 7, part icularly in Shopp~r 261 . which coin<;ided with its launch. Subscribers should also have r~c~ive-d O!Jr Windows 7 supplement with Shopper 265. Alkaline-powered MP3 player? Q I need some help with purchasing an HP3 play~r.1 would have sent this query to the old BuyingC/ink but I hadn't n-oticed it had gone from the magazine! Wh~ n did it go? My girlfrie n-d and I are off to South America for six months in March. W~ want a couple of cheap HP3 players that w~ won't mind being stolen but that run off ordinary, easily available batteri~s (M or AM), as most of th~ time we' ll be in re mote areas away from co mputers and flOwer supplies. We're pre pared to sacrifice quality for low cost. Simon Grimshaw. sLgrimshaW@hotmai/.com A Buying Help (as Buying (linic was later known) finished in the July 2008 so w~'re surprised it"s taken you this long to notice! However, w~'re still happy to answer readers' buying questions where Ih~ products issu~. concerned aren 't covered in our WIlat's New or Llbs sections. We haven't reviewed any MP3 players that run 011 alkaline or NiMH N tl eries for ages, but there are still a cO!Jple available. Alba's 4GB play~r costs f28from Argos an d is 5ilv~r an d comes with pink, white and black covers. W~ can'l vO!Jch for its au dio qualily or ~ven its usability, but it fits you r requir~m~nts. Another opt ion is Philips' GoGear SA2640, which is su pposed to last 30 hours on a single AAA battery. This 4GB play~r isn't widely available, but you can pick up refurbished m odels from sites such as www.{el~phon~sonline.co. uk. ... Few MP3 players u "," AoAo or MAo batteries these days. but they are stil i around II YOU look Mo.d enough Remove duplicate Vista I now have a PC with two operating syst ems on it by mistake: Windows XP SP3 and Win-dows Vista (upgrade) Setup. The latter is the d~fault option an-d won't ev~n boot. How do I restore my compute r to normal an-d make it boot into Windows XP, untill upgrade to W indows Can j re move the Vista fiI~s safely? Q n Henry Chandler A Th~ probl~m here is the boot manager. which is listing that your computer has two operating systems installed and tries to boot into Windows Vista as the default option. The only way to solve this problem is to remove the Vista boot manager and go back to the default XP versiOfl. To do this, you'll need an original Windows XP installation disc. Boot from this, and when the · Wekome to Setup· 5Cre~n appears. press R to stan the Recovery Console. When the Recovery Console st arts (it loob l ik~ a Command Prompt) type fixboot and pr~S5 Enter. This should fix the problem, but if it doesn't, stan the R~covery Console again and this time type fixmbr and press Enter. Th~se commands r~turn your hard disk to a default Windows XP state. YO!J can remove any Windows Vista files from your computer now. but be careful. as it's not always easy to see where one operating system starts and another one ends. To be completely safe, we recommend leaving aU Vista files alone for now. Wh~n you upgrade to Windows 7. perform a dean installa tion. making sure yO!J back up all your documents and other files, such as photos and booIo;marb. first. A clean install always wOl"ks out best in the long run. COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y ~010 Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com HELPFILE Laptop taking too long to boot Q t have a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo D-1845 laptop that 's four or five years old now. It suits me well tJut it takes an age to go through the full boot process arid connect to my broadband con nection. I already have the maximum 1GB of PC2 700 ODR memory irlStalled. What can I do to s ~e<l up the boot process? I have about 12:GB of 5~e still avai lab le on the 80GB hard disk and use external drives whe n requi red to stop filling up the interna l hard disk. I think I could do with deleting some programs and springcleaning the Registry but I don 't know how to go about it in a logiCilI and safe mann er. I'm happy with my laptop'S ~rfonnance, but not the very long time it now takes to boot up fully at'ld t.ecome ope rat ional. I shou ld also add that it has anti-virus and Zone Alarm software installed. Any helpful suggestions would be gratefully received, Andrew Slade, andrew.slade l@btintemet,com One 01 the main reasons why Windows is slow to boot imd becomes unusable is the number 01 appliC<ltions th at include themselves in the Startup section 01 System Conliguration. This means aU these programs have to be loo ded each time you boot your computer. While the Windows de5ktop may appear in a reasonable amount of time, it ta kes a while before you can reaUy do anything. which is due to the lact that aU these applications are loading. You may even have noticed the programs' icons appearing in the notification area at the bottom-right comer 01 the desktop. If there are A ---- - . ~ a lot 01 these, it's a sure sign that ~ this is your m"in problem. -~It's not strictly necessary to have " most 01 these programs running. Many are simply there to speed • up the appliC<l tion 's launch time "oc ___ when you dick on its icon, while l -~ others are waiting lor you to ' t . _..... 't. _ _ ..... ~----connect peripheral!;, such as a • 't. _ _ .. • TomTom satnav or iPod. Still others :-.--~'are t"king up you r precious RAM e, and proce)Sor time by constantly Checking lor updates to applkations you have insta lled just so that they can inlorm you when one is • f'rog r","' thai run in lhe bac kg round a re often unnecessary available to download. a nd can be disabled 10 speed up W lndovn' bool lime Disabling these 'helpers ' is easy, and you 'll free up system resources and speed Another tab you can explore is Services. Tick up boot times, although you 'll sacrifice a little the option to 'Hide all Microsoft services' to Se<: convenience at the same time. However, if you what other services are running. If you know you disable something that you later realise you don 't need one, untid it. When you 've finished, need, it 's just as easy to enable it again. did Apply and then OK. You'll see a message In Win dows XP. dick Start. Run and then as king whether you want to reboot now or later. Changes will only be applied when you reboot. type mscontig in the box that appears. In Vista or Windows 7, type msconfig into the search bar You can also delragment your hard disk. and hit Enter, When the System Configuration Open My Computer. right-dick on local Disk window appears, click the Startup tab and you'U (usually q and click Properties. On the Tools see the applkations that load when Windows tab. dick Defragment Now. Select the disk you starts. It's not always obvious what a program want to delragment and dick Analyze. II it recommends that you delragment the volume, does, so check the name 01 the executable in the Command column and search for it on~ne if dick Defragment. This will rearrange the files on you 're not sure, To disable any Start up Item, just your disk to bring together any fragments of liles untid the box next to it. Obviously, you 'Uneed that aren't stored contiguously on the disk. to leave your anti -virus and firewall entries Other ways to speed up the boot process ticke<! it you want them to woO::. There are inclu de disabling unnee<led devices in the Device buttons to Disable all and Enable aUif you simply Manager (see page 134) and disabling any want to run a quid test to see how fast your hardware such as RAID controllers, serial and laptop will boot with all programs disabled. para llel ports and floppy disk drives in the BIOS. , ,-'-- _ ,"11_' ,-,-,-,- . -,-- -"'--'" '<-_...... • -------"'-_ " --,-_r_u ------_._- ,-- , '<--_ . . . ... ,........ ==,_ = .F '", =- =--_=.= - Printer only prints cyan Q I have a Canon Pixma iP300Q pri nter, which is about lour ~ars old, I recently litted a new ~Iack cartridge as it had run out, but since the n aU I get is the cyan colour. The cartridges are aU in th e correct compartment alld sitting in the locked position, and although I've dearM':d and aligned the heads several times, it makes no dillereoce. I've exhausted one full cyan cartridge and wasted half a re am of paper try ing all the ideas in the various help programs. Can you help belore I throw th e thing through the wirldow? Ceorge Hemingway, gw.hemingway@holmail.co.uk The problem may be that the print heads have lailed or are dirty beyond the printer's ability to dean them, but the cyan problem does sound unusuaL II you 've double-checked all the cartridges and A tried every deaning rout ine available through the nothing else. This should become staine<! with driver interface, you have little left to lose from old ink, and you 'll need to repeat this many trying to dean the print heads manually. Be times belore the old ink is mostly gone. warned that this can permanently damage them, Leave the heads to dry on some kitchen so it really is a last resort belore giving up. paper ovemight. and reassemble the printer. II you decide to dean the heads, remove all You 'Uneed to run several head-cleaning cycles, four cartridges and then the print head, which is but you should soon begin to see ink emerging. secured by a lever, Use sticky tape to cover the and eventually it may work property." place where ink comes out 01 each not, you could try repeating the cartridge so they don 't make a mess, exercise. leaving the head to so"k Opinions diller as to the best way to lor a few hours in a shallow saucer clean the head, but try .:;il:l:t)_j:!~ Of water. or even isopropyl gently swabbing with alcohol, bel()(e swabbing. a cotton bud soaked II after a couple of tries it still doesn 't work, the in warm water problem is likely to be a hardware failure , You can buy ~ If your ptinter'. new heads lor the iP3000 nO! working (part code QY6-0064-000), prOPerly, II ,oold but at aroun d £40 you 're better be due 10 blocked or dirty prlnl heads oil buying a new printer. GJ Click: dell.co.uk .... ... Call: 0844 444 3242 Sam·gpm Weekdays, 9am-6pm Saturdays, lOam'Spm Sundays Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com we.. tJ..J W LL LL~ CJ How do I stop emails? Q .,-.,-'-'I sent an em ail t o someone and asked for a Read R~ uest so I'd know when t hey'd read t ile ema il. I was q uit e - .--..--. ..-.. -..... " )<_._ ... _ _.........._a_..-_-, --... ...- . .. . ___ '. ___ ...-....---.. _---.-. _-- ... - . .r-;C -_._.-._ .... -..~-... ... , pleased when I rea>ived the con fi rmation, but I ~-- --~--- keep gett ing th em. I e<>n get up to 100 emails II day confirming that my em ail has been read. I'~ contacted the re<:ipient an-d asked him to stop sending me all these messages, but he says he isn't. How can I stop this happi':ning? I'm usi ng Outlook 2007. Have you got a sprea dsh eet thllt d~sn't ... dd up. II Word document that needs a textformatting mllcro or II database that's waiting for II report to be writte n? Don't fret : we're here to help. Just send us your query to the e mail address below and our reside nt office applications expert will find your solution. Please provid e as much infonnation as you can , induding the ve rsion of the IIpptication you 're using." sample of any data and details of IIny st e ps yo u've already taken t o solve the issue. Kay Ewbank Database developer and productivity expert Kay Ewbank I •• ~-----~.-- ., ~- ~- __ _-_- _._ , ... _..... .._.....__.'---- j Goodwin ......,...... ...... -... . ~---" The person yoo sent the email to isn't , ' being completely aCWf"ilte, beC<luse in a o way he is sending you the messages. What's prONbly happened is that his email program is automatically configured to acknowledge such requests by sending Nck the email - the read receipt. Unfortunately, it looks as if something has gone wrong and that email is ... Add a rul" to d"let" duplicate meuage-sl n Outlook somehow stuck in his Outbox. Every time he sends emails - which might be automatically every In the ne>Ct page of the assistant, you C<ln add a second few minutes - the email is resent to you, but it's not part to the rule to look for specific words in the subject removed from the folder. I)( message body. Enter the text as it appears in the Try contacting the recipient again a nd asking if he incoming messages, and th at should get rid of yoor could check his Outbox and remove the stuck email. problem. Of coorse, you 'll have to empty your Deleted If he won't do that and the problem continues, yoo items folder a little more frequently as it will fill up have two choices.You could add an Outlook rule that with all these message>. A second option is to add the sender to yoor checks for the incoming message from that sender containing the Message Received te>Ct, and have the blocked senders list. You can add addresses to this list rule ilutomatiC<lily delete the incoming emaiL That by choosing Tools, Options, Junk emaiL Select the Blocked Senders tab, and add the email address to this way, at least yoo won't have to delete the emails. To add the rule, choose Tools, Rules and Alerts, then list. It doesn't stop the ema ils arriving. just puts them choose Add a new rule.The rule shoold start with Move straight into your Junk email foider.Ofcourse. this wiU messages from a specific person to a specified folder. then fiU up with hun dreds of emails from this person, The person is the email add ress of the person sending and if by some chance they send you an email you you the emails, the folder is the Deleted Items folder. want to receive, it will be treated as junk. A INTRODUCTION I~ ,.. .... Displaying names in an Access Combo box j have a combo box in my Access database that lets teache rs select a st ude nt. It is ord ered by th e StudentlD, and shows the students ordered by tutor group fo llowed by student name. Given the number of students that teachers work with, this is the way they tend to remembe r them, so they can st>lect the correct student relatively easi ly. Ho_ver, once they've tracked down the student, I'd really like the com bo box to display the student's name, whereas at the moment it shows the Tutor Group, Is the re a way to do this? Louise Anderson Altematively, yoo could use a te>Ct box next to the combo box to show the student's name using: Q - combol . Co l umn(2) As numbering starts at 0 in combo box columns, this assumes the third column holds the student name. __-- - • • > ... --'''- - . ... -"7""i"""i There are a couple of options. First, you coold change the query used fl)( the RowSoorce of the combo box to concatena te the two columns so both are displayed.This would be our favoured option ilS it identifies Smith as being the John Smith in Abbey4 rather than the John Smith in WalWick3. To do this, you'd use cooe such as: A _.-~ I . ---- .--.!.-- =..'"':. -- FRO~ Students I I -~ I SELECT Student l D, TutorGroup &. .. - & St udent Name .... I I I I ... Use ~ I j I I I , -l. I • t"" box to pick UP Information from a combo box COMPVTERSHOPPER . Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com M"'Y~OlO OFFICE HELP How do I stop Word hyphenating? Q In our company documents w e have a number of Ie<hnical words that, for clarity, _ want to avoid havi ng hyphenated. Word 2007 has a nasty habit of sp litting these quite long words. 15 there a way to stop Word hyphenating them? Phil Chapman A There'l a two-part solution. You n~d to start by creating a special style that you can ilPply to words when they occur in documents. When you tell Word not to dleck the 5pelling or grammar 01 a word, it also doesn't hyphenate words. In the Styles area of the Word ribbon. dick the diagonal right- arrow at the bottom right of the section to ma~e the Styles list appear. Click the New Style button at the bottom left of the dialog and give your style a name such as 'No hyphenation'. Choose to deline a character style. Leave the paragraph style as Default Paragraph font.Click the Forma t buttoo at the bottom, and choose Language from the options that apfH!ar. Set the language to ~ English, UK, then put a tick mark in the box labelled 'Do not check sfH!lIing or grammar'.This will stop Word - 7 _ _ _ _ .. _ _ .. hyphenating words marked with this style (and trying to do sfH!lling corrections or grammar checks on it). Once you 've saved this style, you can apply it to any words you want . Once you have the style available, there is a further optiOll.1f you have words tha t occur often, you can set them so that they're never hyphenated. To do th is,you add them to the AutoCorrect list as formatted : entries. First, select the word in a ~ document and set its character foot to be No hyphenation. With the word I -;-= i[F.3 to be added to the list still selected, dick the Office button (the large round button at the top lelt of the • Add t ..... lo.matted wo.d to the AutoCorrect entrIes to prevent it being hyphenated suet-n). Choose Word Options, Proofing. AutoCorrect Options. You 'll set- the word in the right-hand side of the AutoText entries, again set 10 be formatted AutoCorrect ~st: make sure it's set as a forma tted without hyphenation,To add a word as formatted AutoText, enter it, format it, then in entry, and copy and past e the same spelling to the lelt-hand column. That way, when the word is the Quick Access Toolbar, dOck AutoText, and entell'd , it will be 'corrected' to the same sfH!lling then dick Save Selection 10AutoText Gallery. but set to the No Hyphenatioofont. You'll need to give it a name, select a gallery A final option - as these are long words and an d so oIl, but tha t should make the formatted presumably easy to misspell - is to set them as word available in the gallery. == --~"""""B\ -:::- ---=--------___1---'~ --- ----_. - - .....-:t_= ._.::---::: _ ... ------~ f :.= "- Can I use a formula in each Excel tab? I store data on the students in my dass in heeL Each page has the student's name in the tab, and it worts welL However,l want to share the sheet with other teachers, so that they can paste their dass list over mine, The dasslist is stored in a sheet called Tutor groups, and wt. en you did on a student 's name on this sheet, the correct student page sheet opens, What I want to happen is that when the teacher pastes the names into this sheet, the pages for their students are created with th e correct names in the sh~t tab, Is it possible to put a formula in the tab of each heel worksheet? Richard Stevenson Q A What you want to do is poS$ible, and involves a macro something like this: Sub renameSheet s() Dim ws As WorkShee t Dim i Row As I nteger Dim I Shee t s As In t e ger Dim i th isS heet As In tege r Se t ws - Worksheets(NTutor Gps " ) Wi th ws I Sheets - .Cel l s( ,Row s,Count , NO"). End( x l Up ). Row Ith i sShee t - 0 iRow - 1 Wh i l e l thisSheet ( I Sheets I th lsS hee t - I t hls Shee t + k - Sheets(l th isSheet ),Name If k <> " Tutor Gps " Th en Shee t s(lth i sShee t l Name .Ce ll s(IRow, NO" ) Value iRa ", - Ho w + I --.-- !----lr :::_ -- --- _.- End I f [f Inu msheets > I Shee ts + 1 Then 'more than are needed , need to delete some Fo r I - 1 To I numsheets - (IS he ets ." .- use code to chllllge the names of labs. Dullt might be simple. to cOl>Y arid paste • YOI.I c,," End If Wend End With End Sub This assumes the names of your pupils are pasted 00 to the sheet caUedTutorGps in column D. This macro win replace the current names of the pupils on the worksheet tabs with the names entell'd in column D. However,you'll also need to add extra sheets for any occasioos when you have more names in the new group than in the old group, and you'll also have to deal with the opposite situatioo by deleting sheets.To do this, you'll need extra code aloog the lines of: Wi th ws IS heets ,C e ll s( , Rows , Count , NON), End (x IUp) , RQW In umsheets - Sheets,Co unt If I Sheets + 1 ( I numsheets Th en 'need t o add extra sheets Sheet s.Add after,-Sheets(I), Count : - lnu msheets IS heets Sheets ( I ) , 01'1 ete Ne xt I End If However, we dOll't advise you to automate the process, or at least dOll't expect other people to use the automated copying operation, If you read thiS column regularly, you'll ~now that we are great fans of automating OHice processes, but thiS one could give you a headache. You're obviously an Excel enthusiast and good wi th code and the more advanced uses of spreadsheet functiOlls , UnleS$ you r coUeagues are similarly enthusiastic, however, you will do a lot of work developing the code, hand over a lovely spreadsheet and it won't work for them. They will then come to you to put it right, They 'll paste the names in the wrong column, leave spaces at the top, or something unforeseen, Your spreadsheet also uses VLookup and cross-sheet cell references to pic~ the name of the student and the tutor from the Tutor Groups sheet: all that would need to be checked even if the shet-ts were correctly renamed, and you'd net-d to replicate all the code on any new blank met-ts. Presumably you r studeot groups change OIlly once a year, so our advice would be to get the names of the students from the tut0f5, then use the sheet-renaming macro yourself to do the updating, If it were us we'd copy and paste by hand. It may sound luddite, but simplicity has a lot going for it, G:l MAY 2010 . COMPUrERSHOPPER Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com SUBSCRIPTION OFFER MAGLITE® SOLITAIRE®torch when you claim 3 trial issues of Computer Shopper DVD edition YOUR GREAT DEAL • Save 26% on the shop price • f REE Maglitee Solitaire " torch • 3 triaL issues to start your subscription • FREE delivery to your door • Get every issue before it hits the shops • If you're not satisfied, claim a f ULL REFUND during your trial period Your FREE Magllte® Solltaire® torch • H/gtI-IntMsity ~ light bYm (Spot to Flood) . ~....dWned"""""" • Handy size - measures just 81rrm long 8IId ~ less t:n.n 25 JP'I'IS . ~~by ........ ___ -...._-.... . . _.._00_...""-.__.....-,. INd abows the Up beam rei by to be uwd ttIgHher In the YmO! 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Sittingboume ME9 SGU OSwil.dolMHStR:l (Issut No,c=J) ~~ ... _ .. 1'- - _ "- GlTJ..4.!.._II I .::._ ______ --.._ _ I . o.....,. . c....Itc.rd or . Dlrwcto.wt o.....,./c-Itc-d ~ . 12 . . . . . I _~\ioo~of C ~~Sf<!ion --------------- 11 11 111E 1 -~ ... .. ·..- -.. ::=======~~=====~ .. - 1 f !!ilI!II!fiI [II': Gi~ I 1 l ~!!:!I:i!I _~~1oU1QI < _ I; ~~::i1 lftllRl<_,OI'I"" ..nk or ....ildlngSodttyto,.-,.byOlftclllotblt a _ ......... e!!!!Y • 1.SIII.-yi ...... (SAYE <6"1 rrdldrc 3 trioI iwIIo) ~ ~~ -- - D"ID EdIdGn • O YOUIt DETAILS - • DINct DIIbIt. ~ - a to cn:oI <bins "'I' trW period rd claim . FlU IIB'\MD, I an _ O ~ ..... _ _ .... 00503, WjW _ ,_ ,_ • . - , . . , . . . , _ _ _ .,...,..,,-.., ,..,. _ ,_ . .._ 1*\1*1 _ _ lit ..... 01 _ .. ,... ..., _ mIiI, _ _ _ SIoIS,'ItMJ ... op._ ... _ _ ... _ _ _ ~""' <If /IIi_.@.....,.,.."..<If_ .... O(I053, .......... _ .. _ .... . t ' .... _,...,-....... _ _ e ..... ' . Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com I Oller Code, Pl005 I COMPETITION Z WIN Monitor Audio C AirStream 1() l- M Ionitor Aud io's AirStream 10 is an entirely new way to enjoy r3(jio. By combining th e po_r of thoe internet with an easy user interface and luxury design, AirStrt'am 10 lets)too listen to owr 15,000 internet radio stations, glo~l music se rvices and every music fi le on your home network. It even reaches into analogue to give you FM with RDS,as well w as providing full digita l DAB and a way to plug in your D.. ~ C tJ MP3 playe r a'ld hi -Ij system . We have two to give away, worth £245 each. www.monitoraudio.co.uk I WIN loom ADSL Xliv wireless modem/ router with VolP WIN Idapti3 multicharger The Zoom X6v integrates a lull-rate ADSL 2/2+ modem, router, 802.11 wirele>!; acee)!; point, VolP telephone adaptor. firewall imd lour-port 10/100 Ethernet switch into a single device. The combination of networking devices. along with Zoom's Fastlane Quality 01 Service and instaUation wizard. simptify setup. increase dependability and provide superior voice communications and video deliW'ry over the intemet. The FXO port also irn:ludes the TelePort. an inteUigenl relay thaI allows a single phone to ptace and receive both VolP calls and caUs oW'r the PSTN. We have liW' to give away, worth £80 each. www.ebuyer.com Recharge aU your gizmos at once and cut cilble clutter with Ida pt. The i3 syslem can charge over 3.500 dillerent products, including phones, h<tndheld consoles and ba tteries, using a series 01 interchilngeable tips. Eilch Idapt comes with six tips covering iPodliPhone, microUS8 and most common Nokia, Samsung an d Sony Eria;son phones. The i3 charges up 10 three items simultaneously, and is power-eflicient. too. with an easily accessible of/switch. fl can charge devices in their cases and doesn't need special charging cases. We have 10 to giW' aWilY, worth £30 eilch. www.idaptweb.com/uk ENTER ON THE WEB COMPETITION QUESTION What is the Monitor Audio AirStream lO? a) A monitor b) A radio c) A headset To answer the question and be in with a chance of winning one of these fantastic prizes. go to http://competitions.expertreviews,co.uk CDMPETmDN RULES on~",w",""".q"'"~l""' ... bt~ " ......... wII "'" bt~ .. p«d '" ~I)'..-,.j ""....,.,..-,. . .."""'''''''''"'t • .......,..t .... ~......q,.'''~ ........ nto w "" ........... bt_.,._"' __ lIl ""bt~""""' l-Ioo>oF<.o-/<""""""""lO~SI,_ WlT.)O. W _;w ...... lo<""'''' t _pO''''f'o~ .... bt """"'''''OO!>'I&d.oI<.T''' ~~'''''opeo'''~''' DooWo"'-"''''~~No_'''''''''''''''' bt"""'oo11h<po1!o«) _ _ ... _ .. ""_,,,~ M"" _ ="' _ _ .... ~"""''''''''4O"otol .... F'''.. ....-.. .... 'o _ boy«>J~ .. .......... ', """""'_""'1. ..... _""""'omt<Idtl>tP">'f<lllon .....:I .... ..-. .......... ..,,-,._bt"'_ 'o """"""'~ ... """"..'.01__ .... Io!t,OtIioy<tI,_ " ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' I _ ...... 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COMPUrERSHOPPER Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com MAILBOX This month, readers take umbrage at presumptuous shopping sites and the demise of the Shopper cover CD, but before we tackle those issues, please allow us to bask in a little praise * Test case f10,1, ':ohooocrs reviEWS help our reaoers 121 1have subscribed to Computer Shopper and your sister tit lePCPro lor many years arld have always enjoye<l the mi. of editoria l, reviews and news. However, when purchasing new kit (arld being th e eternal Kept;e) I haye always spent hours conducting my own research before buying. I now finally admit that my time was wasted, as I always arrived at the same conclusions as you r excellent reviews. Today. I needed a new printer so I just che.::ked out your best buys and orderl'd accordingly - the order was ~n dispatched within two hours. This has saved me masSf'S of time, arld I have every confidence that I shall be ve ry pleased. I have quoted your reviews many times to othe rs looking for advice, arld earned lots of brownie points in the process: it's high time I passed these on to their rightful owner. Thanks for a great read and so urce of info rmation. Robin Roberts-Gram We're always amazed when family and friends tel! us they've bought expensive products withou t so much as reading a single review, whether in Computer Shopper or elsewhere. We pride ourselves on the quality of ou r te~ti ng procedure~ and editorial. and we're glad you find it useful. People otten a~k why our review~ don't agree with those of other magazines. and there 's a ~imple an~wer. one product is not always perfect for evetyone. We EDITOR'S CHOICE review product~ based on the factors CANON HP Wf!: thin k are important to our readers. Pixma MP640 PC Pro's readers tend to have slightly Officejet 6000 different priorities to Shopp~ readers. ilJ1 ~ v.., i=.!m iffiBIi Ou r reviews focus heavily on va lue. ~---while PC Pro's focus more on a roo "'""" f1J6.OOiI .. product 's performance. although we ~ '-""'Jon '"'" .......... 01 ........ also hand out our Ultimate award to .-~ exceptional products that may not 1 ~1CO!_ offer quite the same value as ou r ~ ,-'!II).-~ "".~ Best Buys. Naturally, there will \f01l," ",'.-Jc d .......... Nun ~..,"'" always be people who read both. tl71DJ,...1* bot hopefully you can quickly tel! """""' .... ...,.c,ot if a product is right for you. "'" lor ..... """'".,.. fI*!tloc. Il0>l111 We're always open to suggestions, so if we're not reviewing products you ... 01.1, review. are the,e to ""ve you time In clIoosir>g the right p,oduct fo< your needs and budget want to buy. let us know. - .... *. ....... CONTACTS LETTERS PAGE iellers@(OmpUlershopper.(O.uk TECHNICAL ADVICE r.elpfi ldkomputershop-pt< .co.u~ oflicer.e IP@(Om ~e rshopper.(O.u k COVER DISC ENQUIRIES co~rdiscs@compute<shopper. co. uk SU8SCRIPTlON ENQUIRIES computersh<.>pperiPcis.ub •. CQ.uk oreaR 0844 844 0031 or vi,;t WNW.w b~nf(). (O .uk WRITE TO US AT Compuler Shopper. 30 Clevelar>d Street. lor>don W1T 4)0 fd~:;~ -- --_...... -".,.,... PREDICTIVE PROFILING I'm fa5Cinated by prediction, being a regular lottety loser (well, that much is predictable anyway). However, I'm always worried when prediction turns into assumption. Just because I bought one VGA cable from Amazon, the website assumes I wish to buy anything or everything re motely electronic every three days. This makes me wonder. let's say I bought a Barbie for my niece, some lingerie for my wife, Guitar Hero for my son, Call of Duty: Modem Warfa re 2 for my nl!jlh ew and perhaps even 'Call of Nature' for an ageing relative. These would all be one-off purchases, but the people at online stores, travel companies and supermarkets would have an odd profile of me. They would convert my one-oil behaviour into a 'prefere n« ' for those types of items, which is far from the case. The prob lem is that th ese companies often predict behaviour on th e basis of a frequency 01 as little as 0'11': event. They the n use this statistically 121 invalid inlormation to assume people's habits and routines. In fact, we would like to think we are unpred>ctable and living much more flexible and less routine lives these days. I am now going to tum into a hermit, although someo'1l': out there has already foreseen this,l assume. TonyWatson Profiling is almost unavoidable these days and, while it can occasionaUy be useful. it's more otten an annoyance. Why companies as large and exper;enced as Ama~on recommend products based on a single purchase is a mystery. It's also rather strange that the products they recommend based on items you bought otten make no ~en~. Just because you bought a p:ilir of men 's shoe ... th at doesn't mean you migh t also want a p~ ir of wom en's sandals of th e same brand. 01 course, you can usuaRy opt ()(Jt of marketing ema ils at any point If Y()(J can't ~e ~ quick or obviou~ way to do this , you can always set up fi ltering rules in your email progra m to send unwanted mess~ge~ COMPVTERSHOPPER . Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com MAY~OlO _. .- t... 0::.:-- Bear in mind that this woO:.s only with Linux and Windows, and not with diHerent versions of Windows. If you want to dual-boot different versions of Windows, make sure you instaH the oldest version fi rst and leave the disk connected when you install the newest version. This way, Windows itself will let you choose which operating system to boot from. I= DISC DOWNLOADS 121 ... Amazon's r<);:ommendal ions can be hit and miss straight to your spam or trash folder. We explained how to do this in our 'How to .. ' section in Shopper 251, DUAL-BOOTING IS EASIER THAN YOU SAY 121 1very much enjoyed your latest issue, as always. In your article on dual-booting Windows and Llnux (LillllxExpert, Shopper 265), you mention the alternative of using separate hard disks, This could be much simpler than you made it appear. On many comput ers, simply holding down tho! appropriate key whi le booting will let you choose t ho! boot device, For instance, on my desktop PC (which has an MSI motherboard), it's F11, while on my Asus netbook, it's the Esc key, No n~d to SWilP disks or fiddle with BIOS settings. PederChristen5en, Sweden You're absolut ely right. Many motherboards now le t you choose the boot device without entering the 610S. This also means there's no need to open you r case and swap dish just to avoid entering the BIOS, and it adds only a couple of seconds to the boot time. If your motherboard is from a company other than Asus or MSI, simply look for a message on the POST screen that 5aYs 'Press X key for boot options' Of similar, You should then see a li st of poss ible boot devices, which can include opt ical drives and USB -connected drives. Select the one you want (you'll need to know the make and model of the disks containing operat ing systems) and your PC wiU boot from it, 1 must protest about your decision to stop providing cover CDs and move to downloading ISO imilges only, This is discriminatory. It may be all right for tho! miljority, basking as they do in som ething possib ly approilching the mythica l BMbitfs speed, However, it certainly isn't all right for those unfortunates who may not hilve ~oadband access or who, like me, 'just about' have broadband , I live in iI sma ll villilge about as filr away as it's possible to be from my 8T exchange while still getting broadband access. I have to get up in the middle of the night to have any hope of achieving something bener thiln dial-up speeds, and that's only on a very good night, The likelihood of getting a continuous broadband connection for t he several hours it would take to download 650M B is roughly ilkin to success in the search for rocking-horse excretil,As I find the discs useful for occasionill softwilre, but don't in5tall most of it (as I fee l sure most subscribers do), why not illiow your feilde rs to download just the softwilre they wilnt rather thiln the whole ISO disc? As you maintain that one of the driving forces behind this deciskln is that it's better for the environment, such a facility would follow the same logic by saving on the electrical power required to download softwilfe you will never use , Share your 3G connection w herever you go with fa mily and friend s Glyn roster We were hoping tha t we'd be able to oHer individual downloads for exactly the reasons you mention, but we weren 't able to organise thiS in time fO<" the first downloa d. For this issue, we've spli t the virtual disc into two halves, so readers can download just Eu roTa lk or the other half, which contains a couple of other full e IWRITE IN AND WIN! If you wan t to gel t he most out of your home movies ilnd photogrilphs, then Adobe 's Photo~hop f iernent5 8 and Premiere Elements B ilre the be st and easiest way t o do so, If you fancy getting your hands on these products, there 's no need to put your hilnd in your podet all you have to do is write a great leIter. Get it printed as o ur Star Letter, and a co py of both ilpplications will be winging its way to yo u in the post_ Photoshop flements 6 is the best home photo-ed it ing ~ pli cilt ion, lts powerful features are taken from the full Photoshop applica t ion, so you carl ilchieve the 5ame resu lts, but Elements is a lot easier to use, Premiere fleme nts 8 does a similar job for movie mak ing, pulling it5 features from the high-end Prem~re softwilre, but ma king it easier to use so you 'll be ilble to produce Hollywood-style movi es from the comfort of your home_ ( ...... , i:t;M~ The idea l surveillance solution for d umm y Drelof DIY security Now lPhone uun con otnjav 1M privilege with EcfllT'lCllO. new J'hone opps iCofchl PLUS! Every published letter-writer who provides their address also receives a Computer Shopper mug PC World MAY 2010 • COMPUTER SHOPPER Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com LETTERS ._._. _.... _ --_....... :::-.:..:.::~=.:::;:: • We·. .. aiming 10 malee download sizes small...., but don'tlorgel IN I ii's cllea per 10 subscribe programs and the h~1t Toolkit. We 're working on brea~ing thi~ into even smaller chunb. It's also w()(th pointing out that sometimes we won't be able to offer applications for download, as some companies' distribution agreements prevent uS from putting the software online. While .. II this may seem discriminatory to some people, don't forget that you can still boy or subscribe to the OVD version of Sho~r. Subscribing for a year costs just 1:45, which means you pay only B.75 per issue - that's cheaper than buying the CD-less issue from the nemagen\. it gave up the ghost, eve n though the drive had been only lightly used solely for security backup purposes at home. Expecting the unit still to be covered by WO's two-year warranty,l emailed the company but never received the courtesy of a reply. With a view to replacing the drive,l went in to various forums, only to find that WO external drives are not alone in having an unacceptable failure rate, For example, a disproportionate number of peop le posting their star ratings on Amazon were complaining about si milar experie nces with Seagate, MaxtOf and Buffalo devices. I appreciate that it's mainly the dissatisfied buyers 'Ntlo will post comments, but still ... The principal reason they suggest for early deaths is that these drives don't have a coo ling mechanism (other than ventilation ho les). I'm surprised that the figures for Mean Time Between Fail ure aren't published for such units, and I'd be inte rested to read your vi ew, The good news is that although WD still remains sile nt, after only a little prodd ing Amazon came up trumps. Colin Hague, cmague@btinternet.rom EXTERNAL DISK FAILURE 121 Like many other PC users, I installed a USB e)(ternai disk dri~ (a Western Digital My Book) for back ing up my desktop Pc. But after a while it started making dicking noises, es~cially when starting up. Silly me! I should have realised that this was a death rattle. Within two w~1ts The problem with MTBF figures is th~t tlley pro~ide the mean figure. It doesn't guarantee that your disk wiU 13st that long. only that the a~erage model wiU last that long. Most manufacturers quote MTBF fOl" enterprise-dass dis~ only. AS hard d is~ are mechanical devices, there's always the possibility that they might fail prematurely. You could argue tha t th is means they're not ideal as a backup medium. but the fact is that you've simply been unlucky. We know of My Books (and other extemal disks) that have lasted much longer than two years. II's import3nt to have a ba<:kup strategy that involves more than just backing up your data to one drive. especiaUy if the data is criticaL If your house wt're to llood. burn down or be burgled. it's entirely possible th at you could lose both your PC and My Book in one go. Online backup is a sensible alternative as the data is bad ed up muttiple times and stored elsewhere. Altematively. burn DVDs or buy another hard disk and store it at a friend's house, remembering to burn eKlra DV[)s Of synchronise the hard disk as regularly as you need to. Knowing where to turn when a product fa i[o; is tricky. as some manufacturers prefer to deal with buyers directly. while others require you to return the produ ct to the retailer from which you purchased it. Amazon has an excellent reput ation for sorting out problems, so it's good that you bought the disk from there. We agree that many reviewers write only of their bad experiences, 3S those with COMPUTER SHOPPER SHOPPER OFFICE ADVERTISING CONTRIBUTORS Editor David Ludlow david@Computershopper.co.ul Fax02079076600 conrribulorstkompurershopper.co.uk Email ;tds.,hopperOdenni<.co.uk Adam Banko, Gareth Beach. Mike Bedford, Mel Croucher, Tim Danton, K~ [ ", ba ni<. Steve Haines. Simon Handby, Ben Pitt, Matt Prestor>, Ju~an Proi<a>.a, David ROOi n<on. Je>n Thompsor> Dej>vty Editor Jim Martin jim@compute"OOpper.co.ul Reviews Editor Seth Sarton .ethlikompute"J,opper.co.ul Futures Ed itor Simon Edwa rds .imonlikomputfflilopper.co.ul Online Ed~or Tim Smalley ~m@compufershopper, co, uk PRODUCTION Pro6uction Ed~or Group A<lYeftising DirKlor Richard Bennett 020 7907 6640 Dej>uty Advertising Manager Andrea Mason 020 7907 6662 Sen ior Salu E>:Kutive Adam Willboum 020 79(J7 6621 New Media AccOIlnt Manager Gary Rayneau 020 79016612 List Rental Anthony Wh ite 020 7907 6471 ADVERTISING PRODUCTION Jar>ey Goolding Art Editor Coo n Mad:lewort " Dell<!ty Art Editor Anand Parmar GroupArt Editor 8iU SagnaU Fa. 020 1907 6066 Production Director RotHn Rya n 020 7"i07 6052 Product"n Controller Ke rem Kolea ' 020 1907 6059 Sany ~ Ia Rosa MANAGEMENT Tel 020 79(J7 6000 PRINTING Printed by SCP, Bicester, OxOfl [ mailcompshopperO~heIpIine.co. ul Distributo" Seymo ur 02(1 7396 8000 Gra r.am Sm ith 020 7907 6335 Cecil ~h~ey 020 79(J7 6333 ~taffWriter Ha.rl<eting Manage< and (mp!oyu 01 the Year Claire Sera.. Ha<i<eting. Editorial arx:l Competitions Assistant Emily Hooges Mi<l<eting PrD<luction Manager Ge mma Hills Tel 0844 844 0031 Fax0844 856 0650 Senior StaflWriter Ala n Lu barry@l<:ompurfflilopper.co.uk MARKETING SUBSCRIPTIONS COVER CDIDVD CONTACTS s..nior Stafl Writer Ka! Ofphanides katO<;ompurer>i>oPP"'·co.uk Andrew Ridge, Hugh Tlve ifaU Publisning Direct", John Garewal Groop A<lYertising DirKlor jul;'" L"yd·[vans Circulation Director Marti n BellOn Finance Director Brett Reynold, Group Finance Direct", Ian Leggett Ch ie f Executive james l ye Chairmilll FeUx ~ nnis SHOPPER LABS a/antkompurer,hopper.co.ul PHOTOGRAPHY Danny Bi rd, Jan Ohal:, n mo HeMi!<:", .. Hard disks can lail prematurely, which means your backup strategy needs to cover the poss;bi lity 01 this happening """""' _.... """"''''-'''''' .. ........... ..... .......... . . ... --, -. -'" __.. __ ._. . -~" [O'To'U.I.SU IHl_ --""-~ -'''''''''' ~---, "" -"""'" ..-........ "" ~ ... """"'''_'o_~ .....,.,...,..,...'"......... ...,........,'" .., ...,. ~ ....... "'-'" ,.,....,.~- .... ,"'..,."..,....".... ,.....,.,., ....... -.w.-..t._....... _ .."'''''''''''... _ .... ''''''' .... _r''' " to...,.. ..,. "" _«U«<"'''''_. __ _,'''' ~. _ ~ ",, ,..,.",,",,,,,,,-,,,,,,",,,,,-,,-, ""'_"'_ "'.... ~w ,, ~o _ _ .r"' ...... """"'''''' ''''''''''''' ~--NTlRN ........... UClNSN(; ... _ _,w_,-"ooo"" "",.,,, _........................ .....,--r .... _ __ _ .. o;,., ....... .. _"'''' ,.. ....- ...... .........-;, . --~-"'- ... .. _____ ... m_... ~_;, ~"' '''- _r ''' -_ _""- _ 1 1____ 11:_ ~ -..,~...,- _ ~ ... , ... "'_,,_ .. - - i _ _ ........ "" "' . -... ,... "' .......~co..p. ... --"' _~-"""'-"' _ "' _ _ 10111.$ ~y 1111I1 1 _ . . 1If1'M _ _____ " _ _ Lot . ~. "'""""""'" , ,", _... .,,--.. CD "",.....-, u,.,_ "CI...... _...- ..." "-"... -...0_-,,,-,- -- ~ ""''''',..". COMPVTERSHOPPER . Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com MAY~OlO LETTERS good experiences don't generally feel the n<*d (or can spare the time) to tell everyone that their hard disk hasn't failed. Others write reviews immediately aher purchasing an item, when reliability isn't a fa<:tor. It's tempting to assume that the failure rate of external disks is due to the higher temperatures, but this is slightly unfair to manufa<lurers. They have to ensure that the disks they use are able to operate without any active cooling. We spoke to Western Digital to clarify this. Here's the respon~ we received: ' Western Oigit.ll specifically created the Caviar Green family of hard drives for applications that require reduced power, heat and noise. In doing so, WD has reduced power consumption by up to 40 per cent compared to standard desktop drives with the combination of WO's IntelliSeek, NoTouch and InteiliPower technologies. ' Caviar Green drives are used in the manufacture of WO's My Book family of external stora~ products resulting in a fan -less, low heat dissipation and quiet design. The design of the My Book enclosure is made thermally efficient by allowing natural air circulation through ventila tion slots at the top and bottom, thus keeping the drive inside property cooled. "All My Book external storage products are tested at the factO!)' prior to being shipped to conSllmers, and WD currently provides up to three-year warranties across the family: DATA PRIVACY ERROR 121 1enjoy Compute, Shopper and find it helpful and reliable. However, I thought there were a couple of -,- quite serious ~rstatements in the feature on data privacy (Who owns your data?',Shopper 2:66). The article said that all organisations must register wittl the ICO if they handle personal data, tJ.ut there are organisations that are exempt so don't need to register. This may co~r organisations run by some of your readers, such as clubseven those registered as limited companies - provided they're not for profit. Howe~r, it's worth clarifying that they still need to • Readers who want to enter Slloppet's competitions sl>oold vl$lt http://competltions.elfpertreviews.co.uk comply with the Data Protection Act in their dilta hilnodling. Yoor artide quotes Mick Gorritt, who COMPETITION ENTRIES says that "notifying is an important obligation In Mailbox, Shopper 266, you for all organisations that process personal reply to a letter at.out competitions by stating that information". It wou ld be a pity to make exempt organisations register (due to the "we can't accept entries for competitions yearly f~ anod more bureaucracy) wh en they by email as it's not legal". Please t ell us where don't ha~ to. you found this out. There may be readers who organise their own competitions wIlo Mike Watts need to know the truth. Jon Thompson replies: I'm indebted to Mr Watts Tim Hill for his detective worl<. Mr CorTili was speaking in the context of a successful prosecution brought What we meant by this is tha t we can't enter readers' information (from their email entries) against a company tha t should have registered , but repeatedly neglected to do so. into the official competition web page because There are indeed exemptions for companies this would mean they don't get to choose that perform limite;:l internal data processing and whether to opt in or opt out of the data for dubs and societies. Rea ders who are not sure protection portions. It 's al50 possible that we whether they need to register to stay within the might make a mistake while entering the law can call the Information Commissioner's information, whether that's their email address or even the answer to the competition itself. GJ Office on 01625 545740 for information. . . . . - - _._-- -.----- ' :'J - 121 MAY 2010 • COMPUTER SHOPPER Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com COVER DISC GUIDE Full Products PC Tools Disk Suite disks can become bloale<l with '~~:,O::Z,f:"":':.,~I'ogPCTooi.o; files and other Di sk Suite helps U you fix these problems with a few simple moose clicks. The Cleanup an d Optimize feature lets you safely remo~ unneceSS3.y files from your PC without deta iled knowledge of the Windows file system. Removing bloat win not only make your PC perform better. it wiU al.o;o provide you with more free Sp3~. c Fragmented drives drain critical system resources, compromise your ability to access files efficiently and slow down Windows startup. Defragmentation is one of the best methods of boosting system ~rformallCe as it optimises the way files are arranged on the disk. By reO<ganising your PC's files using the disk defragmentation feature, the process of accessing them becomes more efficient. creates more free space and allows you to use your computer more etfectiVl'ly. The Defrag feature provides you with a powerful defragmentation tool tha t supports both NTFS and FAT ==-- -_- ..... ... "" ... . ..-. ... .,,. .i<ail_._ .... G£I1lIG Ullm:D ~ ""...", ~-- IIIe ........, _ ... IXINOIUMS7 F.-~ ..... _ _ . . ""_",,,... _ ..w... &ortrOis< " " " ~ _. . (1-- - ~-= _,..."' • . . . , . . , _ .... _110 ... _ ,looI_Pn. ......... ""... _ _ lIlI _ ~....., ~ 1 ",1f{J1lU. _ ...... _10 . . . . . . . . 10 _ _ IYPOlWI! .IORIUTIOI ~"'IoM ........., _ _..... -..----.~..,. ..... . . . . . . i-.iglio ",,~I • "" .... ,.._",. ... ..,. _ oNo .... _ .. .... ....", . ... tbI> ..... ---.....,,.,,.,--""" ............ _lIut .. ,_ .,,_ ... ... .... _ . _ _ -.....,r-oo-~ . ~ Graham Smith Senior Disc Editor - file systems. Different levels of defragmentation are provided in case you just need a quick defrag or you want to schedule a complete optimisation of your disk. Elsewhere, the Backup feature allows you to make copies of your data that can be restored in the event that files become lost, damaged or corrupted. Creating regular backups is one of the most important steps you can take to ensure yOAJ don't lose irreplaceable data and files 5Uch as photos and documents. The Backup feature in Disk Suite allows yOAJ to tailor the backup to meet your needs by selectively choosing the files to protect. It also allows you to restore files as needed, and verily your backup to ensure valuable data can be recovered when nl'i'ded. Physical disk and file corruption is one of the main causes of data loss. The Repair feature allows yOAJ to monitor the health of your disk and file systems and repair corruption and errors. It also allows you to s<:hedule or run different types of disk integrity checks so potential flaws can be discovered and resolved. - Norton Internet Security 2010 Carbonite Onl ine Backup 3.7 Today's online thieves will take advantage of any opportunity to steal anythingyou'Vl' got, and their methods are getting more devious and sophisticated every day. Symantec blocked an average of more than 245 million attempted malicious code attacks across the globe each month during 200S. Phoney emails. fake websites and online ads trick innocent victims into divulging pef50nal data such as online bank log-i n details and credit card numbef5.Cyberaiminals then sell the information to the highest bidder on the online black market. Symantec"s latest product, Norton Internet Security 2010, uses a new reputation-based model of security to attain unmatched detection of new malware and advance far beyond traditional signa ture- and behaviour-based detection. This vef5ion of Norton Internet Security 2010 indudes free updates for 180 days and,like other Norton products, makes no impact on system performance, in spite of adding a whole new raft of upda ted protection technology. Making regular backups of your music files, digital photographs and anything else you might haVl' stashed on your hard disk is essential. However, many PC users never seem to get around to copying files to CDs or eKlernal hard disks and run the risk that their important data could be destroyed or stolen. Carbonite Online Backup takes the hassle OAJt of backing up by doing the job for you .The software runs in the background, automatically encrypting files before sending them to secure remote data centres. The best news is that the amount of data a user can store is unlimited, soCarbonite will back up as much information as your intemal hard disk will hold, Once installed, Carbonite scans your hard disk and begins to back up all your files. Users can choose Carbonite's default backup settings, which automaticai!y back up photos, documents, emaill and other important file types, or you can select a range of individual files and folders to back up, protecting important data that sit elsewhere on your hard disk. COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y ~OlO Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com COVER DISC GUIDE W here On Earth? This program is lor ~nyone East-Tee Eraser 2009 rivers. mountilins. cities and l<!ndma,b acroS$ the globe. You 'll also lind that wants to improve their geography, bot doesn't have Ihe patien,,, to stare at a map. Where On Earth? is an entertaining w~y of memorising where places a'e and statistic;. such as the populations 01 countries. heights of mountains and when volcanoes ["sl erupted. For fun , ~lect a continent and then explore il.Try to memoo5e the locations what they're called. II geography ;511', your strongest area, it soon will be. The 01 the countries, cities and landmarks, try a practice game, and then test yourself against the clock. You 'll be award~ points for correct interactive gam~ make the subject compeUing and help you to remember the geograpl1icallocations of countries, answers, and you can review your progress on any of the continents and topic are~s. Need a pr<)(l<)<mciati<)(l guide?You c~n hear the place names in British or American English (names such as 'Xi xabangma Feng" can be tricky to pr<)(lounce by just reading the word). Finally, print out some maps then fill in the countries or cities of t he world to see how many you get right. o ®o Prote-=t your data and privacy and remove all evidence of your computer and online activity with E~st-Tec Eraser 2009.The aptly named Eraser surpas~s the US Department of Defense standards for the permanent erao;ure of digital information and removes every trace of ~nsitive data from your computer, including internet history. web pages. pictures, unwanted cookies, chatroom corwersations and aU traces of files, documents, emails deleted in the past. as weI! as entire drives. East-Tee Eraser 2009 deans <fWay evidence from the latest ~rsions of the most popular internet brow~rs. including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome. and hundreds of popular programs such ao; Windows Live! Mes~nger. Outlook Express and Thunderbird, m your private data remains safe fore~r. This easy-to-use program aim lets you view the ~st of files before erasing them and allows you to change the wipe method directly from the program's interlace. HDWlD ... GetYDurvirtual disc .- "-,:-_0__ _ _____ ___ H M~ _ _ M __ _M ____. --.-- --------- _ _ _ M _ M _ . _• • --------_.-..... -_._---_ _M_oa_~ _ _ _ _ _ -~.---, his month·s cover disc is available as a downloadable disc image. Producing fewer discs means there's less cardb-o<lrd and plastic used, fewer emissions from the production process and less poUuti<)(l when distributing the magazine due to lower weight.We've aim had lots of requests from many of you for a disc-less version of Shopper. so this means there·s greater choke on the newsstand. AU you need to use the Shopper disc is a blank CD and software that can write ISO images. If you·d ra ther not burn a disc. you can use an applicati<)(l such as Virtual CI<)(IeDrive to 'mount ' the ISO image in a virtual drive. which you c~n then use as a normal CD. T D To downlwd your Virtual Cover Discs. visi t www.experlreview'i.co.uk/coverrii$Cs. Before you can download anything. you'U need to register a user account.This is free and takes just a couple of minutes. Once that's done, simply log in with your username and password. Then manuaUy change the /reg redirection on the URL to !coverdises. Click the DownloadThis File butt<)(l for the disc you want and you ·ll be prompted save the file to a location of your choke on your hard disk. The files are roughly 300MB, m you'U need a broadband internet connecti<)(l to downlwd it. 11:1 U Once you·ve downlwdedthe Zip file of your disc. you will need to extract the content$. You can use Windows· built-in tool or any other utility such as WinZip.When prompted, enter the password kM4f6Zch to extract the ISO disc image. Plea~ note that the password is case sensiti~.The extracted file has an .iso extension and must be burned to CD or mounted with a virtual dri~ applicati<)(l before you can use it. = ---~-----~ ~ To burn the ISO disc image to CD. use the 1::.1 Bum Disc Image (or similar) option in your disc-burning application. If your software doesn·t support the ISO format, you can downloa d the free ISO Recorder from Ilttp://isorecorrier. aiexfeinman.com/isOff'Corder.htm or the excellent CDBurnerXP from http://cdbumerxp.se. Browse to the unzipped ISO file in your burning application and pop a blank CD in your CD or DVD writer. Once the CD is bumI'd, eje-=t it and reinsert it. If it doesn·t start automaticaHy, run the Shopper.exe file from the root of the disc. From the menu that appears. you can access instructions on how to install the in dividual appUcations. Plea~ note th at the Virtu~1 Cover Disc indudes only a select nllmber of applicati<)(lS from ComputerShopper's cover DVD. including Full and Bonus Full Products, the Expert Toolkit and Open Source sections. . . . If you d<)(l·t ha~ a blank CD and would Ii.I rather use the ISO image as a virtual disc , you can download and use Slysoffs free Virtual CloneDrive. which is a""ilable from http:lhly5oft. com/enJvjrtual-c/onedrive.html. Once you·ve installed the utility. run it and browse to the ISO file you downloaded in step 1. Select it, and it '-"lilt appear in Windows Explorer as a norm~1 CD drive. If it doesn·t run automatically, browse the contents of the disc and run Sl>opper.exe. MAY 2010 . COMPUT"ERSHOPPER Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com .- ~-1~l&~~M Reader Dffers PC Tools: 20% Discount! Ca rbonite Online Backup 3.7 Computer Shopper rea ders c~n ~isit wvtW.pctooh.comldI5k-suitelfree/ promo/5HOPPfR0570 and receive a 20 ~r cent disc()(Jnt 011 all PC Tools software titles (including 12-month licence code, fully functional with unlimited upgrades and updates). Click on any one of the 'purchase' buttons an d the disc:ount will be deducted from the regular sales price. This upgrade olfers includes: This month's cover disc contains a free Carbonite Online Backup offer, which will provide you with un~mited automatic online backup for six months. At the end of that period, you'll be offered the opportunity to renew the subscription service for another 12 months for just £32. A full subscriptioo will er1sure you stilt get access to your existing backed-up files, with no interruption in service. The full version remains unlimited, .so you can continue to add files to your online backup without having to worry about the amount of data that you're storing. PC Tools Spywa re Doctor with A ntiVirus RRP £39.95 Off@r pric@£31 .96 (}electS, removes and blocks aU types of "';!\Ises. spyware, . dware, Trojans, worms, keyloggers and other threats. It uses an advanced update feature that continually improves its spyware and virus-lighting cap.lbilities on a daily basis, so as spyware gets more complex in order to avoid . , detection , Spyware Ooctor with AntiVirus responds with new technology to stay one step ahead. EuroTalk , <q-- .. . 4l) 'r\\" Computer Shop~ readers can now get 20 I \ \ ()\\\ per cent off the following interactive language learning products from EuroTalk: Talk Now! - the world's best-selling language learning CD series for beginners. Talk /-lore - ma kes it easier to learn longer ph!<lses with structUIl'S that can be -,,, adapted to fi t different .social situations. Talk Bulinf'51 - covers all the business jargon you 'Uneed for doing business abroad. World Talk - pll'pares you for real-life Situations with a variety of fun listening games . /-Iovie Talk - this product teaches you to understand your chosen language at the speed it's rea lly spoken using a full-length movie with the flexibility to browse and repeat complex ph!<lses as and when you need to. Prices !<lnge from £14.99 to £99.99. To take advantage of the 20 per cent discount offer simply go to http://eurotalk.comlfmandenterthe code CS3F while ordering, This offer ends 30th June 2010. n , f::,U\ PC Tools Internet Sec urity Suite RRP £49.95 Offer price £39.96 Offers powerful anti -spyware. anti -virus, firewall and spam protectioo in one application to detect, remove and blOCk all types of spyware. adware, viruses, Trojans, worms. keyloggers and other online threats, Spam filtering provides protectioo against unsolicited email, while intelligent automatic protection makes it simple to use for novices but configurable enough for expert users to get the most out 01. _ \~ : roo ., PC Tools Regist ry Mecha nic RRP £29,95 Offer price £23,96 Cleans, repairs, and optimises the Windows Registry with a few simple mouse dicks. Using this Registry cleaner regularly and fixing Registry errors will not only make your PC more stable, but it will also help to improve your system's performance. .. , ,... UTFCast Profess io nal PC Tools File Recover UTFCast Professional is a tool tha t lets you batch-convert all text files to unicode with a single dick of your mouse. You can use it to convert a directory full of text files to an output directory, while maintaining the dill'ctory stllJCtull' of the original files. UTFCast Professional can also automatically detect text files and convert them - wherever they are on your hard disk - and also has the ability to Il'cognise over 30 code pages. This month's cover disc inclu des a free version of UTFCast Professional 1.3. If you would like to upgrade to the latest version, then Computer Shopper readers can take advantage of a SO per cent discount oH the normal price of £ 19,95 when purchasing a UTFCast Professional standard licence. Visit www.roti1fingscrew.comlpurchase.aspx and usethecoupon code DPMC-IK78-CD when ordering, Please note this offer expill's on 31st October 2010, Benefits of standard licences indude: RRP £39.90 Offer price £33.91 Allows you to Il'cover critically important documents, or other files, which have been lost or accidentally deleted. If a file has been partia lly overwritten, File Recover attempts to reconstruct as much of it as possible with the remaining contents. This allows you to salvage at least part, if not all, of that recovered file to continue using wheo Il'quired . • Compatibility with a production or commercial environment. • Frl'e emai l technica l support. • Free access to the Client Center. • New features and tJ.ug fixes from min-orve rs ion upgrades. • A SO ~r cent discount off the ne)(\ major version.EJ PC Tools Privacy Guardia n RRP £29.9S Ofh>r price £23.96 Gua!<lntees your privacy by ensuring all t!<lees of your internet and computer activities are permanently erased and unrecoverable on your PC It also recovers valu able hard disk space and speeds up system performance by cleaning out old and unused tempo!<lry Il'cords. ~. -t!J ---~SHOPPER . MAY~OlO Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com Ta advertise in Camputer Shapper Classifieds, please call Adam Willbaum an 0207907 6621 (.>.\110 11 ORDER ONLINE NOW or Cali to find simply the BEST deals on Quality compa tible and branded Ink I tooer cartridges etc. All makes & models supported. I •••• I Also JettManx refill products. 80% of our orders are repeals or recommendations. Nationwide Supplies to Home, Business & Public Sector users To advertise here please call Adam Willboum an 020 7907 GG21 -RICOH FREEPHONE· 08000190607 •••• SPECIAL RATES for SCHOOLS, LOCAL GOVT & COMPANIES Call free for Details "We pay for your call. No 0845 01' 0870 rip orr here PrinlBritalO group IS operated by Manit Pnnt Care ltd THE consumables speclalists!Of 15 years. CIock\Qwf)r Industrial Peril.. FOlldale. IM4 JHF MAY 2010 COMPIJ1'ER SHOPP£R Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com ~ YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO WEB DESIGN SU\\"O ~30 )~~~~~~1 _ -__ -------..--. _ ----_ tJ\\tlU1ES ..... .. ... ----' ................ .. - ..~ ... ...- Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com UNDER DEVELOPMENT UNDER DEVELDPMENT Flaming useless Your computer is at more risk of fire than you may think, says David Robinson, as he watches his best attempts to get his customers to be proactive go up in smoke program running on Barney, our You'd be amazed how often we visit a server and lind the same tape has been sitting in the drive lor a week (in other words, with no backup media rotation) and , obviously, subject to the same physical rislts that might obliterate that machine, admin server, that lets us know when things go awry on some c~ent RISKY BUSINESSES I n his book The Seven Habits of Highly E/fective People, author Stephen Covey puts "being proactive" at number one on the list. We try to be pro~ctive ,lI1d, 3S part 01 that ethos, we have a systems. We started doing this after one 01 our US customers had a series of email problems. We set it up 10 years ago. when we insta lled their 'mission-critical' software. In those days email was little more than an afterthought: now , 01 course, it's miS$ion oiti<al too. The problem was th~t the computer running the network- wide spam filter, preventing spam getting into their local mail server, kept Idlling over. Messages were getling lost and we were getting the blame, even though we hadn't supplied the offending computer. SPLUNK ROCK I se~rched lor an inexpensi~ w~y of automatically monitoring remote problems and notifying people when stull needed attention, The only (supposedly) free tool I could find went by the evocative moniker of Splunk, Unlortunately, Splunk was dunky to work with, the manual was incomprehensible and to get the real goodies you had to splash out on the commercial version, After spending a lot of time evaluating it. I gave up, Instead I made Ian responsible lor conducting some experiments into what we could achieve using Delphi, our favoured programming language, I'd decided on a simple architecture with a program running on one or m()(e computers at customers' premises periodicaUy reporting ood to our office. The customer programs could, in turn, trigger little mini-programs that performed a single check, such as: ~ " • Is a specific computer actuaUy runn ing ilnd responding to network ;I' requests (ping)? § • Is iI partkular service on the host Z PC actually running? ~ • Has the Iree s""ce on a nom inated disk drive la llen below a certain level? ~ 5 " I ,- • Is iI network printer avai li!bie for use? If there's a way of performing a ched, adding a new mini-program is lairly simple. The checlts generate a binary result (OK ()( faulty), These results are transmitted using simple protocols - which easily pass through lirewalts - to our server, where another program keeps tabs on incoming messages, The current status can be viewed on a d~shboard-style display showing green icons for OK and red for faulty, Email alerts can also be sent to an engineer when a fault occurs, It's not yet in a polished state where it could be sold as a product. but it does a good job and allows us to be proactive, dealing with most customers' system problems before they even know they exist, FIRE FOX At Christmas I received a flood of em~ils ~bout a system at a factory in the Midlands, Over a period of a few minutes every ched failed, resulting in a pile of messages in my inbox, Using a VPN I logged into Barney and checked the customer's dashboard: there were more red 'Iault' indicators than s"'rlet shirts at a Man Utd v Liverpool match. Sho<1ly afterwards there was a ",II on the mobile phone we keep for out-ol-hours suppo<1, It was Tall Paul the general manager, so ca lled be",use he's six loot seven, "Er.. ." he said, "The lactory's on lire." Well there are fires and there are/irf!5, and this was one 01 the latter. It was especially nasty because the factory workshops had a stock of bottled gas, Ouch, The site is split in two sections, with the main oHice on one side and the f"'tory and workshops on the other, separated by a car park, Most 01 the servers are in the oHice, except the one that hosts the service, ~ftersales ~nd warranty records, which is in the factory office. The two halves are linked by a fibre-optic cable, It was here, se~ral years ago, that an electrician acCidentally cut through the fibre-optic link but told Tall Paul he'd managed to rejoin the cable, The sparky then legged it. The stalf couldn't log into the main system, 5() we sent engineer Mick to investigate, He foun d the join all right - made with a reel knotl CHILD'S PLAY Our logging system showed that oockups had been done each night for the previous week: a good start. II TP's staH had been following the guidelines in our handbook, each morning those tapes would have been removed from the server tape drive and from the premises lor safe keeping. A four-year-old could do it. However, our advice is sometimes as welcome as a kebab delivery at a vegan convention, MAY 2010 • COMPUrER SHOPPER Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com SO how big is the risk? Well in 2007, there were 31 ,000 Fires in workplaces and 53,000 lire~ in private dwellings, There are 2.15 million businesses registered lor VAT, and roughly 25 million households in the UK, The chance of you experiencing a business fire is therelore around 1,4 per cent - about the same as winning a tenner for three numbers on the lottery. For a home fire, it's rather lower at 0,2 per cent, but you stit! have more chance of seeing your computer bumt to a crisp than you have of scooping the Lotto jackpot, 01 course, not every fire would wipe out your computer, all your music or your collection of digital holiday photos, but you get an idea 01 the scale 01 probability, And that 's higher than you might thinl Anyway, oock to the fire,lt was a big one. The whole building had gone up in flames, taking the service department se.wrs and all the desktop PCs with it, "If you give us the b"'kups." we said, "we can install the software on a temporary PC,load the data Irom the backup tapes and you'll have warranty records available tom()(row." Where were the backup t<lpes? In a fireprool safe - not t<lken ofl the premises, And where's the safe? In the service department, which is now a pile 01 ~moking rubble, They're still looking lor it. We can't be sure, but perh~ps it 's the blob of melted stulf crushed under a large RSJ that lell out 01 the roof, I think the neKl ~tep is to be proactive and put up a job opportunitie~ poster in Selly Oak infants'school. GJ David Robinson Software and systems develope!' RANTS & RAVES RANTS & RAVES Mel Croucher, haunted by visions of a post-apocalyptic dystopia in his local supermarket, issues a rallying cry to ci vilisation: save Tesco's computers MEL CROUCHER Which is how we came to watch TIle Road A depressing experience. TheRoild is a two-hour epic about an unnamed catastrophe, a devastated landsC<lpe. and hopeless survivof5 who live off garbage while avoiding cannibals. Very much like my last visit to Northampton. Since leaving the cinema, I have b~n wondering what the unnamed catastrophe in the movie could poS$ibly have been. There was no evidence 01 nuclear war. or a mutant virus. or a giant asteroid. or even a UKIP p~rty political broadcast. It was as il aU normallile h~d simply stopped suddenly. And then I remembered Northampton. which is where I witnessed instant social meltdown because 01 a basic programming error. Civilisation came to ~ temporary halt when the Tesco computer went down and the checkouts ground to a halt. I was lud"y to get out of town intact as the panicking masses were denied their lood supplies and turned away. Within 10 minutes, hungty shoppers had started eyeing one another and drooling. inste~d . RANTS OFF OUR TROLLEYS These days. my wife and I can usually manage it about twice a week. As we get older, we prefer to do it in the afternoon. And it may seem a bit odd, but we have a little ritual after the curtains get pulled and the lights go dim. We ha~ a quick suck. She prefers aniseed bal~, but I like the feel of a Polo mint 00 the tip of my tongue. We fancied it this afternoon, which is when I heard my wile utter the immortal words, "Two seniors, please, lor Sex & Drugs [, Rock [, Roll!" She pante<l these amusing words to the lad running our cinema box office, who shuffled his brain cells then mumbled, "Nail ", I j ust had time to tell him that 5n& Drugs [, Rock [, Roll is very good indee<!, before he continued, "Nail , the film's already started," Bummer. AS I see it. here's how the doomsday scenario happens in The Rwd. A disgruntled programmer hacks into the Tesco computer and malks everything up as two-lor-one. All other stores follow suit, beC<luse that"S wha t marketing managers always do, thereby crashing the banking. wholesale and retail systems, and denying the distribution ol lood. luel and basic services. Storage depots are locked down and put under guard by anmed patrols. who are attacked by infant hoodies just for lun as their elders loot Primark for last -minute bargains. Everyone has forgotten how to bake bread, pick cotton and milk chickens. and starva tion haunts the land. The fif5t instances of cannibalism near Kingsgate Plaza shopping centre. Northampton. go unreported. because the media no longer exists without electricity or pubs. By the time everyone realises that they an d lunch are one and the same thing. it is Far Too late. Forget about Afghanistan. the election and the World Cup. We must an pull together and concentrate every resource on protecting Tesco COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y ~OlO Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com RANTS & RAVES compuler~. The wobbly-wheeled Irolley~ of civWsation must be filled. The barcodes of hope mu st be scanned. The checkouts of humanity must fore~r go "beep". I ha~ seen the future if ever they should stop. And in thai Te5Co-bereft dy~lopia, we are all doomed. DAVID LUDLOW breaking copyright laws? Well. that's what we tried 10 find OUI by phoning the federalion Against Copyright Theft (FACT). FACT is the organisation that works on behalf of film and broadcast companies to re<luce piracy. You probably know it better as the producer of the irritaling adverts lellingyou thai pirate DVDs are illegal and that downloading movies makes you as bad as Pol Pot. Now, we assumed that as FACT's job is to care about copyright, it would know if it was illegal or not to break the copy protection on a disc with the sole purpose of walching mull i-region films. We were wrong; nobody at FACT seemed to know. In the end we found out on our own: the UK has implemented the EU 's copyright directive as the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003. These laws make criminal offences of "manufacturing for sille or hire. importiltion. sale or distribution of devices or products which are primarily designed or adapte<lfor the purposes of technological measures" and "providing. promoting. advertising or marketing a service the purpose of which iSlo enable or facililate Ihe circumvention of technical measures' . In short. you can'l buy software t hat breaks copyrighl protection - and we can't tell you about it. So if you buy a Blu-ray disc legally from the US and want to watch it in HO on your PC in this country, the wftware that would let you do this is iHegal Is this necessary? After all, copying a disc is illegal as it breah copyright law: in the same way, scanning a book and putting it online is illegal yet there are 00 laws banning scanners. The crazy thing is thiat, according to FACTs website, "it is not an offence to buy pirated DVOs". Only Ihe "production, di stribulion and sale of pirated OVOs is a criminal offence". In summary, then: if you use software Ihat gives you the freedom to watch any disc that you 've legally paid for, you're breaking the law: if you buy a pirated ovO and watch it, you're nOI.ls it jusl me or should the government be more focused in getting pirate OVO salesmen off our streets and 5pend less time writing all -encompassing laws thai prevenllaw-abiding PC users from watching films flexibly? ,----~ RANTS ALAN W RAVES THE LAW IS AN ASS L<lws in the real world generally make sense. E~rybody knoW$ il 's iKegal to steal from a shop and the consequences of doing so. The law, in Ihis case, is simple 10 undersland and 10 enforce. Take things digita~ though. and the law becomes an incredibly stupid place where nobody's sure what's going on and it's near impossible to work oul whether your actions are illegal or not. and if they are. why. Take, for example, OVOS and Blu-ray discs. There's software out there that strips out the copy protection from these movies. The upside of doing thiS is that region encoding isn 't enforced an d you can play high-definition con lent over an unprOlecte<l digital connection, such as to a DVI monitor. The benefits of this are huge: you can walCh a disc that you've bought anywhere in the world on any display. Now, surely this is all fine if you don't actually copy the movie and hence aren't BACK TO BASICS While my home computer is often engaged in editing high-definition video or Photoshopping batches of images, my friends and family are more likely to be using their computers for less strenuous tasks, such as giggling at YouTube videos or uploading photos to Facebook. NormaUy, 1would snort at such a lackadaisical poverty of ambition with the disdain and contempt thai it deserves. However, my nearest and dearest may be reduced to using their compulers as nolhing more than glorified typewriters through no fault of their own. While computers hilve grown exponentially more powerful and capable in the past 20 years, they still have the same desktop grilphical user interfaces (GUls) they di d 20 years ago. User inter/ilce improvements such as the taskbar or Expose have been made, but GUls are still fundamentally the silme. Although increased capability often inevitably leads to increased complexity, today's GUls may nonetheless be too bloated an d complicated to be fit for purpose if they discourage po!ople from taking advantage of the technology availilble to them. Apple's iPad and Google's Chrome OS could chilnge all this. Both do away wi th the desktop metaphor, drop-down menus and overlapping windows we're familiar with in current computer GUls. The iPad uses multitouch gestures, while Chrome OS will use a single tabbed browser window as an inlerface for web applications. They both have the potential to make PCs dramatically more ilccessible and could open up people's computers to m()(e complex tasks. If my non -nerd friends an d family are any indication, most people are far more comfortable using an iPhone or a web browser than they are with any other piece of computer hardware or software. Of course, I haven 't used either an iPad or a Chrome OS computer, so my hope could be entirely misplaced. The iPad could tum out to be an overgrown iPod Touch, while Chrome OS may be a jumped-up web browser with ideas above its station. Either way, I can't wait to find out. KAT DRPHANIDES RAVES GAMING FOR GOOD The video games industry isn 't as well known for its charilable work as, for inslance, the music industry. However, we've seen some fantastic combinalions of gaming and charitable promotions that have led to successful events. OneBigGame (ww.v.onebiggame.org) · seeks to raise money to sol~ problems afflicting children everywhere, by creating video games through a collaborative industry-wide effort". This is an ambitious goa~ creilting any game consumes significant time and resources and developers usually expect to get paid. OneBigGame donales all profits to Save The Children and the Starlight Children's Foundation, "only deducting the costs of running the organisation and hosting the games portal". Founde<l in 2006, OneBigGame's charitable philosophy is about to come to fruition with the release of Zoe Mode's musical ilction-puzzler Chime, which is available on XboK Live Arcade an d costs 400 Microsoft points (around £3.40). GamesAid (www.gilm~aid.orglabout.php) distributes funds to a range of charities, predominately "to support children's charities in the UK. with limited ilpplication for overseas causes; for e<lucation, health, housing and social welfare. Funds may also be deployed for career guidance and sport. Where possible, there will be some form of technology/interactive play element. bul that is nol a funding stipul ation: GamesAid gets money from direct donations from games publishers and stud ios, charity auctions, sponsored sporting events and contributioos from the general public. The web has made it easy to donate money to good causes, from simplifying payments to allowing charities to publicise their campaigns through viral mar\(eting an d social media. A5 shown above, sometimes contributing to charity can be ilS simple as buying or plilying a game. GJ MAY 2010 . COMPUT"ERSHOPPER Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com ZYGOTE ZYGOTE He may not have the best job in the world - he doesn't spend enough time sitting on his bum for that - but Zygote knows a good thing when he sees it: a fizzy pop-powered mobile phone FURROWED BROWSE Long ago, on the first Monday atter Twelfth Night, humble farm labourers would trudge olf to church toting the tools of their tr~de. When they amved. the clergy would bless their tackle in a ritual known as the Plough Monday service. That was then and this is now, and when the Reverend Canon David Parrott took charge 01 51 lawrence Jewry, which is just up the road from the Sank of England in the City of London, he faile<t to find a single ploughman in his congregation. So as Plough Monday came aroond this ~ar. he decided to .ebrand his service "nd use the altar to display the tools of the mde 01 his new City- type~ These tool<; indude<! an iPhone, a BiackBeny, a Windows-based PC and, just to ~ ecumenical, a Mac600k. Asking his flock to hold their mobiles up to Jesus, Canon Parrot prayed, "May our tongues be gentle, our emails be simple and our websites accessible." Zygote cries Hallelujah and Amen to all that. OWZAT! The future of pay-to-~iew sport is absolutely free! The mighty Coogle has just done a deal with the mighty Indian Premier League, which fUns the mighty Twenty20 cricket matches. In a global first, all 60 games in the series will be streamed U~e on YouTube, with a dedica ted online channel oHering instant replays and a wealth 01 eKlras, including interview5, highlights and pitch reports_ Zygote reckons the likes of BSkyB should start pankking now, because the quality and quantity of YouTube sports e~dusJvt>s can only get better. 5<l tell ite audiences are going to be decimated as soon as the masses figure out they don 't need to pay Murdoch's monthly ransom, because they can satiate their sporting appetites for nowt. In lact, it's only a matter 01 time before the mighty Coogle launches its own premier league championship for e~ery sport under the sun and awards each one its own free YouTube channel. This will kill on the satellite broadcasters for good. And having done that, Coogle can repeat history and start charging us to watchlhem all o~r again. dock in at number 15, while wltware engineers rank number five, and a computer systems analyst makes it all the way up to number three_ According to the survey, which ra tes income, the worl<: en~ironment and the physical and mental demands made on the worker, the second best job in the world is 10 li~ the life of a wFtware engineer, which offers "the best hiring outlook of any available job in 2010". Only one occupation beats wftware engineering to the top slot, and that is the job of an insurance actual). That job also in~olves silting on your bum a lot Wh ile you work oul the risk of robbery, pestilence. war. mayhem and death. The survey states that dealing in5uch disaster in~0lve5 less worry and stress than being a wftware engineer. In which case Zygote would like to know what pills these insurance folk are on. BUM DEAL SWEET NOTHINGS Chinese-born Daizi Zheng came to the UKwhen she was 16. and has spent the past few years studying product design at Central Saint Martins College in london. Among her startling innovations are vegetable-based cigarettes that "can seriously benefit you from cancer·, and an inflatable pregnancy simulalor to deter muggers. Some people whisper that Miss Zheng is taking the piss. The job-search portal CareerCast has published a new league table to help people identify the best jobs inlhe world. The jobs include e~erything from dental hygienists to oil-well drillers, but ii's the careers where you sit on your bum a lot thai win out. In which case, jobs in the computing world should rank ~ry _II indeed, and Ihe Top T_nty ~st Jobs league table does not disappoint. Website de~eloper5 The name Wikipedia comes from wiki - Hawaiian for fart - and pedia - the Latin fo r sme lls like feet, As an open-e nded resource. anyone Is allowed to be a wiki-keeper. but Zygote diSilgreeS, because she has also invented a liltle gizmo that may just change the future of telecommunications. The gizmo in question is a mobile phone that runs on sugar. It has a sleek, ultra -modern design and features a 5fT1all glass flask with a screw cap at one end and a keyp<td etched on to the surface. To power up the de~ice, all you do is pour in a small amount of your favourite fizzy drink, shake it about a bit and allow enzymes to generate electricity from the resultant carbohydrates_ Claimed to last up to four times longer than a traditional lithium ion charge, once the bio-battery dies you can get rid of the waste by drinking it. Not so much taking the piss, as creating it. TOMTIT It was just before Spm on a dismal Saturday in Warrington's Westbrook Centre, when a mystel) man wa lked into the unisex changing room al Asda. He looked around to make sure he was not being observed and proceeded to hide a digital computer camera in the overhead light fitting_No doubt he was hoping to ogle unisex demi-nudity, because he set the camera to auto-record. And automatic record is exactly what it did. for half an hour before it was discovered. Zygote can attest tha t the mystery man is pale-skinned , slim, of medium height. around 32 years old, with a prominent nose and short brown hair receding at the temples. At the time of the incident he was wearing a long dari< coat o~r a fleece with a circular white logo on Ihe left breast. And how does Zygote know aU this? Because the Peeping Tom forgol to tum off the camera and managed to film himself in great detail. Cheshire police are currently -looking into it". [iJ But if you deliberately abuse the wiki-man. you may get flamed by other contributors. COMPVTER SHOPPER • MA Y ~OlO Find more magazines at www.magazinesdownload.com ate C! ~ microdirect.co. uk~.JJiI§Jf-@I~o ':'r- ~ #!IiI Cflli'ljJ ~ @ ~ ~ T§JJ11l'~ ~ • . , - WWW.MICRODIRECT.CO.UK 0161 249 4949 Prices & Specs correct at time of gojng to press. 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Computer Shopper (May 2010)

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