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User Upgrades For A New PC
A new PC of average price will, these days, typically come with Windows 7 Home Premium preinstalled. That may be an unadulterated Microsoft Windows 7 install, or more likely an OEM variant, compiled by the assembler, that contains commercial apps which are complete with suitable prompts for you to register and purchase the full product. If you accept, it makes a few quid for the PC assembler, so if he can get away with it, why not?.
Installing a Parallel Printer via USB under 64-bit Windows 7
Few new PCs will come with a parallel port as standard these days, so you might think an old parallel printer should be consigned to the waste bin, especially if it's to run under 64-bit Windows 7 where drivers for such devices are sometimes flaky at best. This was the case with our faithful old Canon BJC-50, a venerable parallel port printer of whose 64-bit Windows 7 driver Canon themselves had said "no guarantees". We tried it, expecting little.
Upgrading a Windows 7 Home Premium installation to Professional or Ultimate
As we pointed out in an earlier review, most moderately-priced OEM PCs will come with Windows 7 Home Premium installed, probably in the 64-bit version unless you specify otherwise. If you want to upgrade this to a Windows 7 installation with a better specification - Professional or Ultimate - then all you need for a quick upgrade is to acquire the product key. The DVD comes with a product key for the higher spec version of the OS, in the correct bit version, and within a matter of a few minutes and a couple of auto-reboots of the system, the job will be complete.
Creative ZEN X-Fi Style MP3 Player
While the world can be said to be full of MP3 players, and that not every new one that appears bright and shiny onto the market will necessarily be seen as better than the last, it can generally be assumed that the latest model in a given price bracket, from any one supplier, will be something of an improvement on their last, such is the pace of technological development.
Creative Aurvana In-Ear 2 Earphones
The typical mid-price MP3 player will generally come with an adequate but non-optimal set of earphones, though such compromises are generally considered acceptable in order to bring the player's price within market expectations. There are exceptions, of course, but the more demanding user will often have to upgrade to better earphones if he is to have the best listening experience.
Belkin Gigabit PowerLine Adapter Starter Kit
For a long time now the 200Mbps PowerLine adapter has been standard in the computing world for those who either didn't get along well with wifi connectivity - perhaps they were out of range - or those for whom direct wiring with Ethernet cables was not feasible.
But, as always, more speed would have been welcome to cope with increasing demands from HD video streaming etc, so we took a look at this latest gear from Belkin. As usual, these adapters incorporate a three pin power plug and an Ethernet socket, though they did not, as some do, provide a piggy-back power socket wherein to plug your computer or external peripheral.
Ditto, an advanced Windows Clipboard Manager
When installed and running, Ditto lets you copy something to the Clipboard and store it in its own database to make that clip retrievable at a later time. Ditto is, in effect, an extension to the standard facilities of Windows’ own clipboard because in Ditto each new capture doesn’t over-write the previous one as it does in Windows’ Clipboard. This little program allows you to save any type of information that can be put into the clipboard, including text, images, html, and custom formats.
Magix Music Maker 16
I've always had an urge to create music but have been hampered by a lack of time to learn the skills and money to buy the kit. When Magix offered the latest version of their Music Maker package to review, I jumped at the chance.
For a mere £49.99 in its basic version, Magix Music Maker 16 provides an incredible amount of music making technology in a single package.
Altec Lansing inMotion COMPACT iMT320
Altec Lansing have produced a number of iPod speaker systems over the years with the inMotion COMPACT being the latest iteration in their portable range. It is an update to the earlier iMT310 with changes to enable 'Works with iPhone' certification. The changes means you no longer get nasty GSM buzzing with iPhone's.
USB Drives - Part 2
In USB Drives Part 1 we ran through the features you'll find on modern USB flash drives. In this final part we take a close look at four drives, each offering a different range of features and facilities.
USB Drives - Part 1
There can hardly be any computer user who doesn't have at least one USB memory stick, flash drive, dongle - call them what you will. They have become an essential part of computing, a convenient way of transporting data, much easier than floppy disks - remember those? - or burning CDs or DVDs.
In fact, there are now so many USB drives, it's not easy to know what to buy. Do you want capacity, ruggedness, speed, reliability, good looks or what?
Logitech Laptop Speaker Z205
The main thing that folks miss when then substitute a Desktop PC with a laptop is generally sound volume and quality. In comparison with the most basic of external speakers you can add to a Desktop PC, integrated Laptop speakers offer an abysmal audio experience. That’s mainly down to their diminutive size; there’s simply not enough space in the typical laptop case to house a decently sized pair.
Magix Rescue Your Vinyl & Tapes V2
I love my records. I have hundreds of them. I am vinyl obsessed. There, that's got that bit out of the way. Unfortunately, my current amp has no phono input so my trusty Ariston Q-Deck sits forlornly on a shelf and the poor records are stuffed away in sundry cupboards slowly being bashed into submission by everything else stuffed in there.
I've tried to copy a few to MP3 format before but it was a bit tortuous and to be honest, the rougher ones might sound OK on a proper HiFi but through an iPod's headphones, the crackles and pops lose their cute value rapidly. As a result, when Magix offered the new version of their vinyl and tape copying kit for review, I jumped at it.
iPod The Missing Manual 8th Edition
The iPod is a curious beast. At its basic level, it's a paragon of good design - a couple of minutes and you'll have worked out how the menus work, how to play tunes, how to shuffle them and so on. There are two problems though. Firstly, there's a lot of extra functionality hidden behind non obvious button combinations. Secondly, with the advent of the iPod Touch, they've also become hugely more complex devices with numerous features plus the ability to download apps to extend their capabilities.
Business Analysis
Business Analysis, edited by Debra Paul and Donald Yeates is produced by the British Computer Society to assist people working towards the ISEB Business Analysis Diploma. It consists of a number of essays by different authors and attempts to be an authoritative guide to the discipline of business analysis.
What is USB 3 – The Need For Speed
It’s been a long time a-coming but USB 3, also dubbed SuperSpeed USB, is finally here! It was announced in 2007, the specification was completed in 2008 and over the past few months, manufacturers have been releasing USB 3 devices and 2010 should be the year of USB 3.
Guy Kewney
It was with great sadness that I awoke today to the news that one of the UK's if not the worlds greatest IT journalists Guy Kewney had passed on. I never managed to meet Guy in the real world but had known him via CIX, the UK based conferencing service for some 18 years. It was in the late 70's though that I first became aware of him via his articles in PCW magazine and elsewhere.
