Personal Computer World articles from March 2007

Personal Computer World archives from March 2007

Samsung YP-T9.(mp3 players)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Cliff Joseph Samsung YP-T9 A strong rival for the Nano, with Bluetooth, radio and video If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Apple will be pretty pleased by Samsung's YP-T9. The slimline design of this mp3...

Acer C510.(laptop computer)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Paul Lester Acer C510 A user-friendly GPS device in the guise of a portable PC The Acer C510 is a fully functional Windows Mobile Pocket PC with full GPS functionality. With an enclosed antenna, it's a pretty compact...

Logitech 3D Connexion Space Navigator.(mouse)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Cliff Joseph Logitech 3D Connexion Space Navigator Ingenious mouse for CAD and other types of 3D software Logitech is one of the world's leading manufacturers of mice, and it recently bought up a company called 3DConnexion,...

Sony Vaio VGN-UX1.(ultra mobile personal computers)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Will Stapley Sony Vaio VGN-UX1 Windows Vista in the palm of your hand With a strong background in ultraportable notebooks, Sony has been pretty busy in the UMPC (ultra-mobile PC) market of late. The Vaio VGN-UX1 is its...

Cyberlink Powerdirector 6.(Desktop video software)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Ken McMahon Cyberlink Powerdirector 6 Capture and edit digital video, upload to video-sharing websites and create DVDs Cyberlink Powerdirector 6 is a video-editing and production suite aimed at the home video market. It's...

Corel Painter X.(drawing software)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Cliff Joseph Corel Painter X Versatile but complex art package Painter is an amazing piece of graphics software and provides a vast range of tools for simulating the appearance of natural painting materials, such as...

Leadtek Winfast A7300.(graphics cards)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Emil Larsen Leadtek Winfast A7300 Budget AGP graphics, but faster cards are available The new Winfast A7300 GT TDH from Leadtek is aimed at those looking for a budget graphics card for their pre-PCI Express computer. It's...

Microsoft Office 2007.(Business application suites)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Tim Nott Microsoft Office 2007 New file formats and a clutter-free interface introduced The new version of Microsoft Office has been available to corporate clients since November 2006, but retail customers had to wait until...

Microsoft Zune.(mp3 player)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Will Head Microsoft Zune A fresh attempt at displacing Apple, but the UK launch date remains a mystery Microsoft has dabbled in the mp3 player market before, but it's now jumping in feet first with the Zune. So, after...

EVGA E-Geforce 8800GTX KO ACS3 Edn.(graphics cards)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Simon Crisp EVGA E-Geforce 8800GTX KO ACS3 Edn An overclocked beast of a graphics card No stranger to overclocking, EVGA has unleashed its latest monster -- the 8800GTX ACS3 Edition. It's based on Nvidia's Geforce 8800GTX,...

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.(computer role playing games)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Jonathan Parkyn World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Will this multiplayer RPG expansion pack inflame fans? When an expansion pack hits the shelves it's often a sign that the software publisher is trying to squeeze a...

Battlestations: Midway.(computer strategy game)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Jonathan Parkyn Battlestations: Midway Eidos goes in for a spot of genre bending with its latest WWII game Ever played a strategy game and wished you could jump inside one of the tiny vehicles under your command and get...

Supreme Commander.(computer strategy games)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Jonathan Parkyn Supreme Commander Successor to Total Annihilation promises strategic combat on a supremely large scale Strategy gamers have had it pretty good over the past few months. They've enjoyed one of the best-ever...

RIM Blackberry 8800.(smart phones)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Will Head RIM Blackberry 8800 The stylish sophistication of the Pearl with built-in GPS RIM's last launch, the Pearl 8100, was aimed at the consumer and was designed for those who wanted to carry a regular phone-sized...

Sony Playstation 3.(computer entertainment systems)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Jonathan Parkyn Sony Playstation 3 Will the PS3 be crowned king of gaming? It has been a long wait but the Playstation 3 (PS3) is set to arrive in the UK on 23 March 2007, almost a year after it was first scheduled for...

Nokia N800.(smart phones)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Clive Akass Nokia N800 Open-source all-rounder has potential -- it's just a shame about the price Nokia's N800 is a revamped version of the N770 web tablet we reviewed last year (www.pcw.co.uk/2163772) and it is good to...

PC Nextday Zoostorm 2-3305.(desktop computers)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Anthony Dhanendran PC Nextday Zoostorm 2-3305 Vista Home Premium for under [pounds sterling]500 It takes a pretty expensive PC to run Vista with the full visual effects, surely? Not according to PC Nextday, which is selling...

Gateway MT6825b.(laptop computer)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Emil Larsen Gateway MT6825b Well put together and good value for money, but not one for gamers Gateway has released some pretty impressive value-for-money systems recently, and its latest product, the MT6825b Vista...

HP Compaq nc6400.
March 22, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens HP Compaq nc6400 Excellent wireless connectivity features, plus a fingerprint reader, and more With the introduction of the Compaq nc6400, HP has followed other leading vendors by teaming up with Vodafone to...

Watch the box.(Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 HD-DVD drives)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Gordon Laing Watch the box How to link the Xbox 360 HD-DVD to your PC easily and cheaply When Microsoft launched its external HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360 last Christmas, it's fair to say many interested parties had no...

Vista in the driving seat.(Microsoft Windows Vista)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Gordon Laing Vista in the driving seat With Vista, you don't need a floppy drive to install disk drivers, but there are snags Windows Vista finally resolves one of the most annoying catch-22s in PC installations: the need...

Piece of the fraction.(relational databases)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Mark Whitehorn Piece of the fraction How to calculate vulgar fractions, plus adding data such as a phone list to a table Last month, I provided two solutions for a problem about appointments (www.pcw.co.uk/2183829). In the...

Windows Photo Gallery.(Microsoft Windows Vista)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Ken Mcmahon Windows Photo Gallery Vista offers all the easy-to-use image-handling features amateur snappers will need After all the talk, Windows Vista is finally with us. Things being as they are in publishing, I'm...

Brush up your image.(Column)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Barry Shilliday Brush up your image Linux can treat an image file -- an exact copy of your disk data -- as a device itself In last month's column (see www.pcw.co.uk/2174520), we looked at ways to help protect your files...

Dealing with Iso images.(International Organization for Standardization)(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Barry Shilliday Dealing with Iso images Just like a filesystem on a hard drive, the filesystem on a data CD can be stored as an image file. These images are commonly known as Iso images, since the filesystem found on a CD is...

MAC attack.(Media Access Control)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens MAC attack Find out how to use Media Access Control to protect your wireless network Lately I've had several emails asking me to clarify issues raised in recent articles. Nick Helm in Sheffield was one of...

Advice from our experts.(maintenance of personal computers)(Column)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Nigel Whitfield Advice from our experts Our team answers your queries and finds solutions for your PC problems Databases Good relations Q I'm having trouble understanding when to use a relationship in the...

Compression tricks.(data compression)(Column)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Niall Magennis Compression tricks Compression can do many tasks -- if you know how to use the sidechain input Compression is one of the trickier effects to master for those starting out in music-making. When it's used in...

Noise gate.(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Niall Magennis Noise gate An effect that's closely related to the compressor is the noise gate. A noise gate works a bit like a compressor, except in reverse. The gate only allows through sound above a certain threshold. All...

How a compressor works.(online music)(Brief article)(Column)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Niall Magennis How a compressor works In this Sound column, we're showing you how to use a compressor in extreme ways, but usually compression is applied to a track to just make it sound punchier and louder. A compressor does...

Let me put you in the picture.(using Microsoft Excel)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Stephen Wells Let me put you in the picture Use Excel to turn numeric data into a graphical display Vince Emmerson writes, "I have spent hours trying to create a chart embedded in an Excel worksheet that has dates on the X...

Javascript comes of age.(Column)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Tim Anderson Javascript comes of age Adobe's muscle is taking Javascript beyond simple web scripts In 1995 a programmer called Brendan Eich joined Netscape Communications. Netscape "was looking for someone to work on a...

Jscript: Microsoft's hidden .Net language.(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Tim Anderson Jscript: Microsoft's hidden .Net language Microsoft supplies a .Net compiler for Jscript.Net, its version of Ecmascript, with every installation of the .Net Framework. However, this is well hidden, mainly because...

Testing Javascript performance.(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Tim Anderson Testing Javascript performance The performance of script code is often unimportant, but it matters when there is significant processing. An example might be a financial application that generated cost and income...

Desktop search.(using Microsoft Windows Desktop Search software)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Tim Nott Desktop search How to find important documents -- and recover from a disk disaster If you use Windows Desktop Search, as I do, you'll find it a great improvement over the standard Search Companion, the impenetrable...

Blind date.(Microsoft Word)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Tim Nott Blind date Fun with dates in Microsoft Word, and a look at some handy keyboard shortcuts Although the word-processing capabilities of Windows Notepad are rudimentary -- it only became possible recently to change...

Control freaks.(keyboard keys)(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Tim Nott Control freaks Everybody knows that holding down the Control key and pressing C copies the selected text, and most will know a few other Control shortcuts, such as B or I for bold or italic. So here is a top 10 of...

Hands On Introduction.(installing Microsoft Windows Vista)(Column)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Nigel Whitfield hasta la vista to XP? By the time this issue of PCW hits the streets, Microsoft's Windows Vista will have been shipping for a while, but there's still plenty to learn about the new operating system, and how you...

Xensource Xenserver for Windows.(virtualization software)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens Xensource Xenserver for Windows Xen and the art of server virtualisation It has taken a while, but open-source Xen virtualisation technology is now available as a ready-to-run package that can be used to host...

Tandberg RDX Quikstor.(removable media drives)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens Tandberg RDX Quikstor Speed up your backups with this removable hard disk solution Although increasingly popular as a backup medium, there aren't many removable hard disk solutions around. Tandberg Data is...

Windows SBS 2003 R2.(Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens Windows SBS 2003 R2 Still a great small-business bundle, but not an obvious upgrade You may or may not have noticed, but at the end of 2006 Microsoft revamped its small-business server bundle, adding an R2 on...

Kyocera FS-C5025N.(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens Kyocera FS-C5025N Add colour to your documents and still save money Touted as offering rock-bottom cost of ownership, Kyocera's FS-C5025N is a 20ppm (pages per minute) colour laser with an 85,000 page per...

3Com 3CRUS2475.(network switches)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens 3Com 3CRUS2475 A switch that can be all things to all networks It may be a bit of a mouthful, but the 3CRUS2475's full name, Unified Gigabit Wireless PoE Switch 24, tells you more or less all you need to know...

Letters.(Letter to the editor)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Kelvyn Taylor The new Hauppauge WinTV Nova-TD USB stick tuner uses 'Antenna Diversity' technology to give the best reception for digital Freeview TV (DVB-T) on a PC. This tiny USB2 bus-powered stick boasts two digital tuners that...

Weather report.
March 22, 2007... Byline: Mark Whitehorn Weather report You need never be caught without your umbrella again because it's easy to monitor the weather with your PC. Mark Whitehorn looks at the kit available to amateur weathermen The British have...

DIY forecasting.(weather forecasting)(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Mark Whitehorn DIY forecasting Forecasting is a tricky business: even the mighty Meteorological Office, with access to many sources of data, including that from weather satellites, isn't always spot on. You can collect...

Installing wireless weather sensors.(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Mark Whitehorn Installing wireless weather sensors Wireless installations need to take account of distance and any unavoidable obstructions (see Wireless working on page 48). Base stations are not usually weatherproofed and...

Common measurements.(measuring equipment)(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Mark Whitehorn Common measurements Wind direction is measured with a wind vane, which is often combined with an anemometer that measures wind speed. An anemometer typically has little cups which catch the wind and spin, and the...

Digitise your vinyl.
March 22, 2007... Byline: Niall Magennis Digitise your vinyl Converting your prized LPs and tapes so that you can listen to them at the click of a mouse is easier than you think. Niall Magennis shows you how As anyone who has been subjected to an...

How to create music DVDs.(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Niall Magennis How to create music DVDs Once your music is digitised you can choose to store it in many different ways. One of the options open to you is to take advantage of the extra capacity offered by DVD discs. You can fit...

What is attenuation?(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Niall Magennis What is attenuation? If you try to connect a record deck directly to your PC without a pre-amp you'll find the results sound awful. The signal will be ridiculously low in volume and almost totally devoid of bass....

Noise removal.
March 22, 2007... Byline: Niall Magennis Noise removal Unfortunately, noise reduction software can't perform miracles -- the process of removing noise from a recording will always affect the sound quality of the initial recording in some way. This...

How green is your business?(computer peripherals)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens How green is your business? Go green with your office IT equipment. Alan Stevens explains With wildly fluctuating energy prices, not to mention concerns over landfill, carbon emissions and global warming, it...

How to manage power more efficiently.(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens How to manage power more efficiently Although they have a lower profile compared to vendors of PC hardware and software, there are lots of companies that specialise in power management. Many will have started as...

Don't bin IT, recycle IT.(electronic waste in computer industry)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens Don't bin IT, recycle IT Given the rapid rate of development in the computer industry it's no wonder we get through so many PCs, screens, printers and other devices. Today's state-of-the-art hardware is tomorrow's...

Obey the law when disposing of IT kit.(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens Obey the law when disposing of IT kit There are two pieces of European legislation, now law in the UK, which affect the building, use and disposal of not just computers, but all electronic equipment. The first is...

May 2002.(testing ATI Radeon 8500LE and Apple iMac2)(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Emil Larsen May 2002 Five years ago was the heyday of bundled PC packages and we tested 10 [pounds sterling]999 systems all featuring speakers, webcams, printers, scanners and other assorted paraphernalia. Evesham took top...

May 1982.(testing Hitachi Peach and Apple III)(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Emil Larsen May 1982 The cover of the May issue in 1982 featured two very odd looking fruits, the Hitachi Peach and the Apple III, both of which were called in for a bench test. Stephen Withers reported from Australia on...

May 1992.(laptop computers)(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Emil Larsen May 1992 Perhaps the most eye-catching section of this month's magazine was a group test with the first eight laptops to feature colour displays. By today's standards half of the machines would not qualify as...

Using Audacity to convert tapes and vinyl to mp3.
March 22, 2007... Byline: Niall Magennis Using Audacity to convert tapes and vinyl to mp3 Audacity is an excellent free tool for recording from tape or vinyl and converting the results into mp3 files. Go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net to download...

How to use Nero to convert tapes and vinyl to CD.(Nero 7 Premium)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Niall Magennis How to use Nero to convert tapes and vinyl to CD Nero 7 Premium comes with Soundtrax2, which records music from tapes or vinyl and then copies the results to CD. Before you start, connect your tape or record...

Business introduction.(computer peripherals)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens green credentials Many of us try to be as green as possible at home -- recycling where we can, turning off unwanted lights and so on. But at work, where a lot of the decisions are made for you, it's not so easy. In...

Next-generation.(broadband)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Nigel whitfield Next-generation With 24Mbits/sec connections, digital TV and a whole new phone network on the way, broadband is changing fast in 2007, says Nigel Whitfield There's little doubt that 2006 was the year of the...

A new Vista?(Microsoft's new operating system)(Microsoft Windows Vista)(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Nigel whitfield A new Vista? Microsoft's new operating system has received plenty of coverage in PCW, but it's still worth a mention in a broadband feature, especially for those who have been connected to DSL for a few years....

The back of beyond.(cable internet access and digital subscriber line)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Nigel whitfield The back of beyond Cable and DSL broadband have certainly brought faster net access to many -- but there's still a large number of people in the UK who are beyond the reach of the cable networks and DSL...

Capped, unlimited and in perfect shape.
March 22, 2007... Byline: Nigel whitfield Capped, unlimited and in perfect shape For the bulk of internet users, the caps and limits imposed by ISPs aren't too much of a concern. You choose a package you think will fit your requirements, and hope to...

Switching simplified.(internet service providers regulations)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Nigel whitfield Switching simplified The most common type of complaint we receive about broadband at PCW is about switching ISPs. When we last investigated the topic, Ofcom had accepted that the industry couldn't simply be left...

Web 2.0 speed bumps.(internet security)(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Tim Anderson Web 2.0 speed bumps Despite the rapid growth in internet technology, there are some areas of concern with Web 2.0, which the industry has not yet fully addressed. Security -- Internet threats abound, with...

RSS in action: Bag an Ebay bargain.(real simple syndication)(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Tim Anderson RSS in action: Bag an Ebay bargain Ebay's auction site is great for common items, but what about those rare collectibles that don't often appear for sale? Making a daily search is tedious, and you could still miss...

Platform choices on the programmable web.(Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java Enterprise Edition )
March 22, 2007... Byline: Tim Anderson Platform choices on the programmable web Vendors and open-source advocates are jostling for position as the programmable web grows in importance. On the server, there are three main contenders. Sun's Java...

A world of widgets, wikis and mashups.
March 22, 2007... Byline: Tim Anderson A world of widgets, wikis and mashups The web has evolved from a way of reading information into an interactive, personalised, programmable medium. Tim Anderson investigates how to benefit from Web 2.0 The...

What is the WEI?(Windows Experience Index)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Luke Peters What is the WEI? You'll notice in our features table that for Windows Vista systems we've added in the various performance scores generated internally by Vista's Winsat (Windows System Assessment Tool) benchmarking...

Games console or PC?(comparing computer entertainment systems and computer games)(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Luke Peters Games console or PC? The PC-versus-games console debate has been running at least since 1994, when Sony launched the original Playstation. It was a time when PC gaming began to dip its toes into the mainstream --...

Chillblast Fusion Tornado Quadro Q6700.(multiple core processors)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Luke Peters Chillblast Fusion Tornado Quadro Q6700 Price [pounds sterling]2,450 Contact www.chillblast.com Technology may be improving, but the need to cool blisteringly fast components is well demonstrated by Chillblast's...

Quad Core PC Editor's Choice.(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Luke Peters Whether or not you believe that four cores are necessarily better than two, it's always fascinating to peer into the future and see what mainstream PCs will look like in a year or two. But at present, the price premium...

Evesham Solar Quattro G8.(multiple core processors)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Luke Peters Evesham Solar Quattro G8 Price [pounds sterling]2,199 Contact www.evesham.com Evesham has gone for the same tack as Chillblast by using the same Coolermaster chassis (but this time in black aluminium) and...

HP xw6400.(workstation computers)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Luke Peters HP xw6400 Price [pounds sterling]2,426.14 Contact www.hp.com/uk Hewlett Packard was the only manufacturer to supply us with a quad-core PC not running Vista Ultimate, instead opting for Windows XP...

Hard core quad core.(processors)(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Luke Peters Hard core quad core The future of PC technology is here. Forget dual core, Luke Peters tests four quad-core PCs that will make light work of the latest software -- and all for less than [pounds sterling]2,500...

Mesh QX G80 Ultima.(personal computers)(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Luke Peters Mesh QX G80 Ultima Price [pounds sterling]2,499 Contact www.meshcomputers.com One of the long-time stalwarts of the UK PC market, it's good to see that Mesh is still capable of churning out some enviable top-end...

The benefits of upgrading a camera's firmware.
March 22, 2007... Byline: Paul Monckton The benefits of upgrading a camera's firmware Image quality isn't all about the quality of your camera's hardware. As the sophistication of in-camera processing increases, so does the quality of the images...

Canon EOS 400D.(Product/service evaluation)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Paul Monckton Canon EOS 400D Price [pounds sterling]719.99 Contact www.canon.co.uk Canon's latest entry-level digital SLR offers a 10-megapixel sensor, excellent image quality and a good balance of features, suitable for...

DSLR Editor's choice.(Editorial)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Paul Monckton Editor's Choice Canon EOS 400D Recommended Nikon D40 More than ever before, we are seeing SLR cameras targeted at specific audiences. No longer are the entry-level products simply cut-down versions of their...

How we test digital SLR cameras.(single lens reflex cameras)(Editorial)(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Paul Monckton How we test digital SLR cameras In addition to various sample shots taken during general evaluation, we set up four test shots in our labs using simulated daylight illumination. The first test we perform...

Lightning reflexes.(single lens reflex cameras)(Brief article)
March 22, 2007... Byline: Paul Monckton Lightning reflexes DSLRs have come down in price. Paul Monckton puts us in the picture The best of today's compact digital cameras are capable of taking excellent photos. Some even have enthusiast-level manual...