Personal Computer World articles from June 2005

Personal Computer World archives from June 2005

Editorial - Don't take security risks. Despite the warnings, too many PC users are still failing to secure their systems says Rob Jones.(Editorial)
June 1, 2005... Security is a subject that should never be far from your mind when it comes to personal technology. If you use the Internet - and, let's face it, most of us do - then going online without any form of security can be generously described as...

How we test. Performance testing is an important part of PCW's reviewing process and to obtain our authoritative results we use the UK's best PC testing resource - VNU Labs. Here we explain why you can trust our results and give you a tour of our most frequently used benchmark programs.
June 1, 2005... One of the main reasons people upgrade their PCs is because their old model seems 'too slow'. But how do you tell whether the one you're going to replace it with is any faster? At PCW we take PC testing very seriously and we have the UK's best...

NTL trials 18Mbit ADSL2+ links.(advance digital subscriber line)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Cable operator NTL has followed BT in starting trials of ADSL2+ offering speeds of up to 18Mbits/sec. But it says its service will be much faster than BT's for most people as the technology is very sensitive to distance and 95 per cent of its...

64bit AMD Centrino rival.(new products from Advanced Micro Devices Inc.)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Clive Akass. AMD has pipped Intel yet again with the release of the first 64bit x86 processors to be designed and optimised specifically for mobile use. Seven Turion processors were launched at Cebit after being announced last year...

High-res eyes coming to a wall near you ...
June 1, 2005... High-definition was the other big news at Cebit and the implications spread way beyond entertainment. Pictured is a demonstration by Sony of high-definition video links, which can be used for anything from conferencing to surveillance. Sony...

Disk record.(new product from Hitachi Ltd.)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Hitachi has packed a record 230GB per square inch of a hard disk by stacking data bits vertically at each location. It would allow a 3.5in drive to pack 1TB of data. A 2.5in drive will ship by the end of the year.

XP No player.(sale of new version of operating system of Microsoft Corp.)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... The version of Windows XP sold without Media Player to comply with an EC ruling will be called Home Edition N, Microsoft has agreed.

Free calls at rail stations.(Broadreach Networks Ltd., Skype Technologies S.A., contract)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... You can make free phone calls using Wifi-equipped laptops or handhelds from major UK railway stations thanks to a deal between hotspot provider Broadreach and peer-to-peer telephony specialist Skype. All you need to do is register with...

Reverse-engineer your brain.(Mind Hacks: Tips and Tools for Using Your Brain)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Clive Akass. Appearances can be deceptive. When you look at someone's face you may 'see' a continuous image but this is not what your eyes are taking in: as this picture shows, they are moving all the time. The rings show the aim...

Superbattery charges in one minute.(new product from Toshiba Corp.)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Toshiba has developed a Lithium-ion battery that can charge up to 80 per cent capacity in less than a minute. It uses particles less than 100nanometres across to store vast numbers of lithium ions without damaging the electrodes. The battery,...

HP cost cutter.(Hewlett-Packard Co., Mark Hurd)(management)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... HP should focus on operations and cost cutting, according to its new chief executive, former NCR head Mark Hurd. But he told an press conference that it was too early to talk about changes in strategy. He declined to say if cost cutting...

Self replicator.(new machine from Bath University)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Iain Thomson. Bath University has unveiled a machine that could make household objects to order. The device has been adapted from a [pounds sterling]25,000 fast prototyper used in the car industry, said Dr Adrian Bowyer of Bath's...

Quiet vision.
June 1, 2005... Sapphire says its new ATI-based Ultimate X800XL graphics card is nearly silent operation thanks to clever cooling. It supports dual displays. www.sapphiretech.com.

Cebit - Highs and lows of Cebit. At the world's top IT show, high-definition video proved it is shaping the industry, as low-bandwidth data broadcast made a debut. Clive Akass was there.
June 1, 2005... Cebit is not only the world's biggest computer show, it is arguably the best, and certainly the most, comprehensive. Nowhere else can you view in one place every conceivable aspect of IT - from banking back-end systems to a low-cost Taiwanese...

Cebit - Dark-horse DMB notebook was pick of the show.(digital multimedia broadcasting )(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... My pick of Cebit was Samsung's Q30 laptop, which was launched before the show and does not even use Intel's latest Sonoma platform - Samsung launched three other models (X20, X25 and X50) that do. I chose the Q30 because it was displayed...

Cebit - Giant screens, low prices.(new product from Samsung Group)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Clive Akass. Samsung set the pace for display sizes at Cebit with a 102in plasma display and an 82in LCD panel. But the show was awash with good-looking plasma, LCD and back-projector models and the big news is that mainstream...

Cebit - Blu-ray drive reads DVD and CD formats.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Clive Akass. Supporters of the HD-DVD and Blu-ray high-definition storage technologies held rival press conferences at Cebit in a replay of the battle over DVD standards, which has more or less played itself out with the emergence...

Cebit - Sony prepares film bonanza.(new service from Sony Entertainment Corp.)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Sony is making digital masters of all its films in high-definition (HD) format so they can be sold on Blu-ray discs when they hit the market. Chris Deering, president of Sony Europe, said at Cebit: 'There will be an immense choice from day...

Cebit - Only 20 notebooks take Express.(new personal computer cards)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Only 20 notebooks using the new Express Card slot have been submitted for approval, the PCMCIA organisation revealed at Cebit. But 53 devices designed to fit into the slots have been submitted, said the organisation's president Bradley...

Cebit - Watch it ... robot spying on you.
June 1, 2005... You'd be hard put to guess what is happening in this picture, unless you've read our Cebit blog or visited the Sony Ericsson stand at the show. The ball on the podium is a robot camera that can trundle about under Bluetooth control beaming...

Cebit - 200Mbit mains links spark.(development of new product high-definition video streams)
June 1, 2005... A fracas has erupted over technology that will allow devices to swap data over home electricity lines fast enough to deliver three high-definition (HD) video streams simultaneously. It came to a head at Cebit, when Panasonic outlined plans...

Cebit - Film your data for long life.(new product from Swiss Data Safe )(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Scientists seeking a way to preserve data beyond the lifetime of standard storage have reverted to a medium that predates the computer era - film. It may seem a strange choice given the problems archivists have had preserving old films,...

Cebit - Nanopunch puts 1TB on postage stamp.(new punch cards)
June 1, 2005... IBM researchers have created a nanoscale version of punch cards, the earliest form of automated data-entry, to produce a device capable of storing a terabit per square inch - the equivalent of 25 DVDs on a postage stamp. The device uses a...

Cebit - Sign of times.(Signascript)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... This may look like a piece of technology from the past, but don't be fooled by its cumbersome exterior. It will impeccably forge your signature, according to vendor Signascript. The machine can be used to write letters in your own...

Cebit - UDO jukebox.
June 1, 2005... Long-term storage specialist Plasmon was also at Cebit, showing its latest Gx174 archive jukebox that can store up to 5TB using 30GB UDO cartridges. UDO drives use the same blue lasers at the centre of emerging HD and Blu-ray drives (see page...

Cebit - Converter card.(new product from ECS UK PLC)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... ECS showed its PF88 card, which allows a P4 motherboard to use a rival AMD chip. The first PF88-compatible motherboard uses an Intel P4 LGA775 socket, with four slots of DDR2 667 memory, a 1066MHz front-side bus, and support for Sata2, GigaLan,...

Cebit - Bluetooth stereo debuts.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Cebit saw the tentative debut of Bluetooth stereo headsets that could revolutionise mobile device design - but none of the best-known vendors had models on show. There was no specification (or profile, as the Bluetooth people have it) for...

Cebit - Operators wary of new phone features.(camera phones)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Samsung's 7megapixel camera phone (see page 21) was far from the only sign of the way cellphones are transmuting into general-purpose mobile devices. But there were signs at Cebit that phone operators are resisting functions that threaten...

Cebit - Sub-audio death-ray horror.(new loudspeakers from Rotosub)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... A low-frequency loudspeaker made out of a turbine was shown by a Swedish company called Rotosub. The device, which comes in many sizes, twists the turbine blades as it rotates to produce sound that can be below the human level of hearing. ...

Cebit - Seeing the past.(new product from Fraunhofer Research Institute)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Germany's Fraunhofer Research Institute showed a great application of what is called augmented reality. It is a telescope through which you can literally see the past. You can put it at a historic site where it will superimpose views from...

Cebit - SLI record.(about motherboards)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Asus claimed to have broken the 3Dmark05 record with a score of 10,118 points, with this A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard, Athlon FX55 processor and two NV45 Ultra graphics cards, linked as shown by the Serial Link Interface bridge. Asus also showed...

Cebit - Bless my sole.(new technology in adidas-Salomon AG shoes)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Yes, it is what we have all been waiting for... the smart shoe. Adidas has embedded a chip that adjusts the springiness of the sole according to how you are moving.

Cebit - Easy Wifi.(new product from Linksys Group Inc.)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Linksys claims setting up Wifi is 'as easy as pushing a button' with its Secure Easy Setup feature that automatically configures linked devices and sets up WPA security. Products using it will launch shortly.

Cebit - XP64 launch imminent.
June 1, 2005... The 64bit versions of Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003 will be launched before the end of April, Microsoft said at Cebit. XP will be available initially only in the Professional edition, with Media Center and Tablet PC versions...

Cebit - All books are fit to scan.(new scanner from i2S Line Scan Div.)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Google caused a stir late last year when it announced plans to put millions of classic texts online - including a million from Oxford's Bodleian Library, but how is it to be done? The French firm I2S, which did the imaging for the CD...

Intel Developer Forum - Moore and more cores. Processors are not clocking any faster as Moore's Law hits the age of 40, but they are spawning a lot of codenames. Kelvyn Taylor guides you through the multicore maze at IDF.
June 1, 2005... This year's Intel Developer Forum (IDF) was themed around the 40th anniversary of Intel co-founder Gordon Moore's observations on the economics of integrated circuit manufacture - something that's been shamelessly distorted over the years by...

Intel Developer Forum - Vanderpool is virtually here.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Kelvyn Taylor. No IDF would be complete without a raft of new acronyms and this year was no exception. The key new technologies were lumped together as the 'T*s' by Intel (to represent Technologies, plus a wildcard symbol) and...

Intel Developer Forum - Portable Media Center.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Another interesting concept based on the Napa platform was a large-screen Portable Media Center, featuring a touch screen that doubled as a speaker (using a transducer) and a removable optical drive module on the back.

Intel Developer Forum - Mac Mini lookalike based on Napa PC.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Kelvyn Taylor. Despite all the crystal ball-gazing at IDF, there weren't many bold hardware concepts on show. The product that caused the biggest stir was a Mac Mini lookalike based on the next-generation dual-core Centrino...

More light on photonics.(new optical modulators from Luxtera)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Iain Thompson. A San Francisco start-up appears to have trounced Intel in the race to build fibre optics directly into a silicon chip. Luxtera says it has built a modulator capable of translating electronic data into photonic...

Pre-paid ink could boost use of colour.(Xerox Corp. marketing)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Xerox is extending a pre-pay scheme for print consumables that could increase the use of colour in small businesses. Deals will vary with suppliers but all involve paying a fixed sum for a certain number of pages per month - say 500 for a...

Adobe tightens Quark Xpress DTP squeeze.(new product from Adobe Systems Inc.)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Adobe is continuing its squeeze on the publishing market with a major upgrade of its Creative Suite package, which includes its flagship products Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat and Indesign. Creative Suite 2, reviewed on page 76, includes...

4ms LCD panel.(new liquid crystal displays from ViewSonic Corp.)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Viewsonic has announced what it claims are the world's fastest LCD monitors with an average video response time of four milliseconds across the colour range. The 19in VX924 and 17in VX724 will be available this summer, the company says. Prices...

2TB drive.
June 1, 2005... Lacie has introduced a [pounds sterling]1,295 ex VAT 2TB version of Bigger Disk Extreme drive which is actually four hard drives acting as one. They are configured for Raid 0, which means data is 'striped' across the disks to provide transfer...

Anyone there?
June 1, 2005... You can beam an email message to the Milky Way by calling a [pounds sterling]2 a minute phone line set up by a team calling themselves www.talktoaliens.com. They transmit messages using a 10.5m parabolic dish in Connecticut.

Mouse aid.
June 1, 2005... An IBM-developed adapter will enable people with hand tremors to have normal use of a PC mouse. Three million people in Britain suffer from the condition - they will be able to buy the Assistive Mouse Adapter for less than [pounds sterling]60....

Email info.
June 1, 2005... A new add-on for Outlook and Outlook Express will tell you the country, state, city, company, service provider and IP address of each email - and even the sender's connection speed. Windows-based LocationMail costs $29.99 ([pounds sterling]16...

Columns - Inside information - Small details hide the bigger picture. Gordon Laing welcomes the imminent launch of high definition TV, but wonders if we will be able to view it?(Column)
June 1, 2005... When Sky announced it would begin high definition (HD) TV broadcasts in 2006 there was a collective sigh of relief from UK home cinema enthusiasts. Because, unless you count the single satellite channel on Euro1080, or the handful of Windows...

Columns - Kewney @ large - Robots don't need the human touch. Intelligent robots are still a long way off, argues Guy Kewney, unless they learn to think for themselves.(Column)
June 1, 2005... Meccano was what kids used to use to make their own machines. These days, we need machines that reflect the age in the way Meccano reflected the Victorian engineering of their time; they must be intelligent. The trouble with 'intelligent'...

Columns - Straight talking - Don't lose sight of users' needs. The IT industry is out of touch with what customers want, says Barry Fox, and doesn't know what to do about it.(Column)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Barry Fox, barryf@pcw.co.uk. The pre-event blurb looked hopeful. The mobile phone industry was finally owning up to the fact that once again it had launched a system before it was ready. Cellnet/O2 famously did it with Wap,...

Reviews.
June 1, 2005... Byline: Edited by Chris Cain. This month has seen something of a media frenzy at PCW, with desktop PCs, peripherals, software and portable systems all designed to make the most of video and audio files. When it comes to multimedia, not...

Reviews - Evesham Teramedia. An ultra-powerful home television server, but at a steep price.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Anthony Dhanendran. Evesham's latest system is so new that when it arrived at PCW it didn't even have a name. The company sent an email to us asking for suggestions. A few seconds later, the Teramedia was born. The Teramedia...

Reviews - Hardware - Packard Bell Ixtreme Gold 2104 Media Center. Fully-featured Windows Media Center PC with software to match.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Luke Peters. Packard Bell continues to be the ambassador of the home PC package, combining the kind of hardware suited to the general PC user with a good selection of software. The Ixtreme Gold is its latest system for those...

Reviews - Peripherals - Portable media players.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Although the idea of portable media players has been around for some time, it wasn't until Microsoft released its Portable Media Center (PMC) specification last year that things really started to take off. Leading manufacturers such as...

Reviews - Peripherals - Canon Pixma IP5000. Excellent quality and fast output.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Will Stapley. The IP5000 is the first printer from Canon's new Pixma range to arrive in the PCW offices. The sleek black design is a big improvement on the old Bubble Jet series, and should appeal to those with an eye for style....

Reviews - Peripherals - Apple Ipod Photo. View pictures as you listen to music.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Rory Reid. We've seen regular revisions of the Ipod since it was unveiled in 1999 but, until now, most have concentrated on improving ease of use or increasing capacity. The Ipod Photo goes one step further by incorporating a...

Reviews - Peripherals - Plextor Convertx PVR. Record TV channels and more to Divx.(personal video recorder )(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Will Stapley. This isn't the first time we've seen a Plextor Convertx PVR. This latest upgrade includes all the features found on its predecessor, but now comes with an integrated analogue TV tuner. As well as being able to...

Reviews - Peripherals - Fujifilm Finepix F455 Zoom. A stylish, easy-to-use 5.2megapixel snapper.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Anna Lagerkvist. The latest addition to its Finepix series, Fujifilm's F455 Zoom offers 5.2megapixel resolution and a 3x optical zoom. Roughly the size of a pack of playing cards, it comes either in silver or black and is designed...

Reviews - Peripherals - JVC Everio GZ-MC200. A Microdrive-based camera debuts.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Rory Reid. JVC's Everio GZ-MC200 is one of the first hard disk-based 'digital media' camcorders. Instead of recording to a video cassette it stores footage on a removable 4GB Hitachi Microdrive. The bundled disc stores an hour...

Reviews - Peripherals - Optoma EP739. Good image quality for home and business.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Rory Reid. The Optoma EP739 is a DLP (Digital Light Processing) business projector that can also be used in a home entertainment environment. The unit is quite chunky but, at 2.4kg, it isn't too much of a hassle to move from place...

Reviews - Peripherals - Power protection.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... It's a common misconception that total blackouts are the only causes of power-related damage to your PC and data. Unfortunately, the power supplied to your PC isn't as clean as you might hope and occasionally suffers from slight dips or peaks -...

Reviews - Peripherals - Apple Ipod Mini.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Chris Cain. Now only available in four colours (goodbye gold) and sporting a 6GB hard drive, Apple's latest Ipod Mini appears to be better value than ever. Dig a little deeper though, and you'll soon discover why its stylish new...

Reviews - Peripherals - HP DVD 640i.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Rory Reid. HP's DVD 640i is one of the first drives on the market to incorporate the company's new 'Lightscribe' technology. Not only can it rewrite in both DVD plus and minus formats but, if you turn the disc upside down on the...

Reviews - Peripherals - Shuttle XP17 Temp AR.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Rob Jones. While Shuttle's latest XP17 screen looks identical to the original, released last September, it boasts an 8ms response time (down from 16ms), a revised tempered glass panel and improved contrast ratio of 500:1. The...

Reviews - Peripherals - Belkin USB2 3-port hub & 15-in-1 media reader/writer.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Chris Cain. Belkin's USB hub is ideal for port-starved notebooks, peripheral-hungry desktop users and anyone who has splashed out on a new Mac Mini. The portable unit provides three high-speed USB2 connectors and an integrated...

Reviews - Peripherals - Sony Cybershot DSC-T33. A go-anywhere, pocket-sized camera.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Chris Cain. Big on features, yet small enough to slip into your pocket, Sony's latest Cybershot is something of a small wonder. The T33 is available in three colours and packs 5.1megapixels and a 3x optical zoom - all this in an...

Reviews - Peripherals - Pentax OptioWP. Take the plunge with this all-weather camera.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Will Stapley. Take a disposable camera to the beach and you're unlikely to worry about covering it in sand or getting it a little wet. Do the same with your expensive digital camera and you'll soon run into problems. Pentax...

Reviews - Components - ECS 915-A. Dual 3D display makes this a winner.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Simon Crisp. Following the success of Nvidia's SLI technology, most motherboard manufacturers are starting to include some degree of dual graphics capability in their new products. The Intel-based 915-A is the first in the new Dual...

Reviews - Components - Sparkle Geforce 6200 TC. A quiet solution for a home theatre PC.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Simon Crisp. While today's high-end graphics cards can set you back a small fortune, the benefits of their development are beginning to filter down to a more affordable level. The latest offering from Sparkle combines the speed of...

Reviews - Overclocking.(new graphics cards)(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... HIS Radeon X850XT Platinum Edition IceQII High-end graphics cards are notoriously difficult to buy, and those based around ATI's top-of-the-range X850XT Platinum Edition are no exception. HIS is doing its best to help the situation by...

Reviews - Software - Apple Iwork 05. Create documents and slideshows on a Mac without paying for Office.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Nigel Whitfield. Apple's Iwork 05 is a productivity package for Mac users who don't need the power, or want to pay the price, of Microsoft Office. It includes an upated version of Keynote, Apple's popular presentation tool, and...

Reviews - Software - Adobe Creative Suite 2 (Beta). A multitude of new features and enhancements make this well worth a look.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Ken McMahon. This is effectively five synchronised product upgrades with some additional glue - features designed to further integrate the suite's applications. Adobe Creative Suite includes Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Go...

Reviews - Software - Kaspersky Security Suite 1. Comprehensive security for your PC.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Laura Jones. Kaspersky is going head-to-head with Norton Internet Security with the release of Personal Security Suite 1. As with Symantec's software, this combines anti-virus and anti-hacker tools, protection from spyware and spam...

Reviews - Software - F-Secure Security 2005. Powerful system protection at a good price.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Laura Jones. F-Secure has been in the security business for some time, though its corporate focus means the company isn't as well known as Norton or McAfee. F-Secure Internet Security Suite 2005 brings its expertise to home users...

Reviews - Software - Xara3D 6. An affordable way to create 3D graphics.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Nigel Whitfield. Creating good-looking logos is one of the hardest tasks for amateur web designers. Xara3D 6 aims to take a lot of the effort out of it, making it easy to create effects such as bevelled text on a background that...

Reviews - Software - Roxio Backup My PC Deluxe. A simple way to preserve precious PC files.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Laura Jones. Backing up your PC is one of those jobs, like checking smoke alarms, or making sure your spare tyre is pumped up and puncture-free, that many of us continually put off. However, should disaster strike, we'd be pleased...

Reviews - Software - Zinio Reader 3.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Rob Jones. Zinio is an alternative to Adobe's Acrobat Reader for presenting electronic documents and is used for many e-magazines. This latest version fixes a number of weaknesses to provide a major upgrade. The page flip...

Reviews - Software - Ciphire Mail.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Kelvyn Taylor. Verifying the origin of emails is a difficult task. Public key infrastructure (PKI) encryption systems can do this, but until now they've been difficult to use for non-technical users. Ciphire Mail is a...

Reviews - Software - Directory Opus 8.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Chris Wiles. Ocassionally you come across a utility that you can't live without. Directory Opus falls into this category. Simply put, this is a Windows Explorer replacement, on steroids. Fully customisable, it can be as simple...

Reviews - Software - Rootsmagic 2 UK Platinum Edition.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Will Stapley. Rootsmagic 2 UK Platinum Edition helps budding genealogists to research family history by collating data in a meaningful and shareable format and offers a huge amount of information to aid research. Seven CDs provide...

PC security - Make Windows bullet proof. Find out how much danger your data is in from viruses, spyware and other threats, check how secure your PC is, and give it the best possible protection.
June 1, 2005... Byline: Heiko Mergard, Jorg Geiger. Online dangers are completely exaggerated. I haven't got any anti-virus software, my computer's running fine and why should I bother with a firewall? There's nothing on my PC which could interest a...

Group Test - Sonoma laptops - Sonoma seduction. The dream of a faster processor and better wireless and audio features is enticing, so to see if the reality fulfils the promise, we put seven next-generation Centrino laptops to the test.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Rory Reid. A couple of years ago, Intel transformed the notebook industry with its Banias mobile platform. Known to consumers as Centrino, it changed perceptions of what could be achieved with a notebook PC by extending the battery...

Group Test - Consumer Linux distributions - Linux leaders. Linux can offer a great alternative to Windows or Mac operating systems, but choosing the right distribution can be confusing. We put five market leaders to the test.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Barry Shilliday. When you buy a PC with Windows XP you know exactly what you're getting. Similarly, when you run an Apple Mac you have OSX. But when it comes to Linux, it's not so simple. Since no single organisation controls...

Network - Onesign tightens up system security. Biometric sign-on aims to improve authentication procedures.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Byline: Roger Howorth. Single sign-on (SSO) technology provider Imprivata has begun UK and European customer trials of its SSO appliance Onesign with several UK companies, following its launch in the US last year. The company claims...