August 11, 2008

Nuance releases Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10

by Janet Harris
Nuance Communications, Inc., has announced the UK release of its latest speech recognition software, Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10. The new version include innovative features including the ability to carry out Internet Search, find documents, and send email, all by voice command. This allows PC users to benefit from significant saving in time, as most people speak at least three times faster than they type. Nuance has designed Dragon 10 ...

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XP still being loaded in new computers

by David Allen
It has been almost eighteen months since Windows Vista first appeared on a PC or Laptop screen and, despite there being more than 180 million sales of the operating system, there are claims that the old favourite, Windows XP, is still outselling the newer Windows Vista. But there is a little game going on there, because although Microsoft are saying that Vista is out-selling XP as it should, after ...

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August 7, 2008

AMD ships 790GX chip for gamers

by Janet Harris
AMD has started to distribute the 790GX chipset, which will allow committed gamers to safely run Phenom-processor-based systems at speeds of more than 3.0GHz. The higher overclocking is achieved via 'Advanced Clock Calibration' technology, with tuning enhancements on the new SB750 southbridge which has been introduced to the chipset to provide improved performance with Phenom processors. The new chipset falls just below the existing 790FX, which is designed ...

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August 6, 2008

Met Office buys super computer

by David Allen
The people that so famously bring us the weather have bought themselves a £33 million super computer from IBM. This will be used to forecast the weather and predict the effects of climate change. Once the computer is online, which at the moment is estimated to be sometime in 2009, it will be able to run a maximum of one hundred and twenty five trillion floating operations per second, making ...

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August 1, 2008

Stylophone to make Christmas comeback?

by Brian Turner
According to unusual gifts and gadget suppliers, ShinyShack, the infamous Stylophone is heading for a Christmas comeback. For those who don't remember it, it was supposed to be a revolution in home music production. Launched by Dubreq in the 1970's, the stylophone was billed as a music revolution. Holding a metal stylus running an electric charge, you would run it along a metal ...

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Next generation Wii planned

by David Allen
The Nintendo Wii has been a great success for the company, but never to sit back and pat themselves on the back for long time are the people at Nintendo already working on the next version of the popular games console. It has been said that people do not buy consoles just for the sake of having a machine sitting there; the idea is that they want to play ...

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July 30, 2008

The world’s cheapest laptop

by David Allen
The world of cheap laptops has not been the same since the introduction of the "laptop for all" scheme; the question is now, how low can, they go? Well clearly, they can go lower; in fact, there is a new laptop on scene, which is a real contender for the title “The Cheapest Laptop in the World” The Impulse NPX 9000 has a seven inch screen, but as you ...

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Europe forces retailers to take batteries back

by David Allen
As from the 26th September all retailers who sell batteries or sell goods with batteries included throughout Europe will have provide a service where they will accept all waste batteries. This is regardless of whether replacements are purchased or not. This move comes as the dangerous contents of all batteries are ending up in landfills, considering that they contain, lead, mercury and cadmium it is a surprise that ...

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Asus attack the PC sector

by David Allen
Most people have heard of the Asus Eee, the small laptop that despite being small on the outside is definitely big on the inside! Following the success of their small laptop, Asus are moving their technical know how into the PC sector with the Asus Eee Box, where they intend to attack this market in the same way that they took the laptop market by surprise. However, there is one ...

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Dell goes green with new Studio

by David Allen
The word Hybrid is normally associated with cars these days, but computer maker Dell have actually managed to incorporate this word into their product range with the launch of the new Dell Studio Hybrid PC. This computer is being touted as a rival for Apple, though Apple fans will probably find that quite amusing. Dell say that the PC will use around seventy per cent less power than the ...

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July 28, 2008

Prisoners have playstation games taken away

by David Allen
As from the end of September prisoners being held in either England or Wales will no longer be allowed to play games that have a rating of eighteen. At the moment only prisoners who have demonstrated good behaviour or those who are not at a risk of suicide are able to use the playstations and the games. Last year the Prison Service spent £10,000 on playstations and games. This practice ...

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Gateway stops online sales

by David Allen
The computer maker Gateway has been selling their products through their website and other retail partner sites since 2004, the initial idea was to cut costs and pass these savings onto the customers. Last year the company was taken over by Acer and the result of takeovers normally means a reduction in staff. These cuts in personnel have meant that there would be less productivity in the offices making ...

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July 23, 2008

Microsoft to sell user generated games

by David Allen
Users of the Microsoft XNA tools suite will soon be able to upload their own game creations to the community games section within the Xbox live marketplace, where they can be sold to other users. XNA has tools that help amateur games developers to put into reality the ideas that they have in their heads. Most gamers have ideas on how they can make a game better, but rarely ...

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July 22, 2008

Cheap adapters can cost lives

by David Allen
There are concerns about the influx of cheap AC power adapters that have been imported from China. They can be bought in any High Street for only a few pounds and yet they are being considered as being highly dangerous. The worst offending power adaptors are those, which are compatible with the Nintendo DS, DS Lite and Game Boy. These are dangerous to use because they are not made ...

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July 21, 2008

Intel’s Bloomfield CPU Pricing Lower Than Expected

by Rohan Parker
Reports from motherboard makers suggest that Intel's new Extreme Bloomfield quad-core 3.2 GHz CPU will be released at US$999 for a thousand-unit tray, which is around two thirds of the price for the current high-end CPU. Past releases by Intel were always priced with the Extreme model selling for US$999, however Intel has headed a different course in recent ...

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July 17, 2008

Vodafone offers laptops with built in SIM

by David Allen
As a result of a partnership between Vodafone and ThinkPad notebook maker Lenovo the price of buying a laptop with mobile broadband already built it is set to fall. Normally when ordering a laptop, if a customer wants mobile broadband built in, then it would probably cost around £100, but in this deal the price has been reduced to nothing, as customers will be able to get one of ...

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July 15, 2008

Sky offers TV for the PSP

by David Allen
After a while in the planning stages, Sony and Sky have finally come to an agreement over the Go! View service, which will allow gamers to watch some great TV in between playing games. The service works in a similar manner to the iPlayer, but in this case the PSP will have to be connected to a computer running the Kontiki P2P system. Once connected to the system, the ...

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Simpson’s email address delivers malware

by David Allen
For any fan of the hit TV cartoon The Simpson’s the email address chunkylover53@aol.com was actually used by the donut loving Homer in the episode “The Dad Who Knew Too Little”. This email address was actually registered by a writer from the show. The plan was to answer the emails as Homer, but as the show gained in popularity so did the email address. It was decided the email address ...

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July 14, 2008

One in Three of us copy DVDs

by David Allen
Despite all of the warnings, news and other attention being given to this subject recently, it still appears that over a third of UK users will admit to copying copyrighted material onto a DVD or actually copying DVDs for their friends, or to sell. A survey of 5331 people, conducted by Futureresource Consulting, has blown the lid off of the country's computer users' attitude to the claims by copyright ...

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July 10, 2008

Intel to launch Centrino 2 platform

by Janet Harris
Intel's new notebook platform, Centrino 2, could be unveiled next week. Centrino 2, formerly codenamed Montevina, is designed to provide better performance, reduced power consumption and therefore longer battery life, as well as broad wireless network interoperability. It features a 45nm, dual-core Penryn-class mobile processor, and as well as supporting DDR3 memory and 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, some versions will also support WiMax. Intel is working on quad-core CPUs for the ...

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