TechRadar: computing components news

Opinion: Why AMD can be the catalyst behind cheaper Ultrabooks

Jeremy Laird — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:50:00 GMT

It's roadmap time at AMD and the big news is the promise of mobile chips that should give those snazzy new Ultrabooks powered by Intel processors a run for their money.

A little further out, AMD also hinted that ARM processor cores, currently the architecture of choice for smartphones and tablets, might find their way into its chips.

But first, Ultrabooks. A little like Intel's Centrino effort of the naughties, the Ultrabook is a simple but deceptively clever idea that has gained traction with astonishing speed. And jolly nice they are too, with their slim proportions, strong performance and excellent battery life, largely courtesy of Intel's latest Core-i-whatever mobile processors.

There's just one problem. Pricing. Intel's original pitch for Ultrabooks involved slick, super-slim computing for $1,000 or less. Just the thing to give Apple's pulchritudinous but pricey MacBook Air a beasting.

The reality for punter's wallets has been significantly less salubrious, especially in the UK. Retail stickers well above £1,000 have been common and to date only a handful have hit the shelves for under that figure.

Chip pricing to blame

Part of the problem, ironically enough, is Intel's chip pricing. AMD hasn't exactly been snapping at its heels of late. Whenever Intel's only significant competitor for PC processors falls behind, the same thing happens. Intel's prices go up and its thirst to innovate dries up.

Enter, therefore, the long awaited AMD Trinity chip. It's AMD's second performance-orientated APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) after last year's Llano model. And it looks rather promising. On the CPU side, it gets an updated version of AMD's new Bulldozer architecture, known as Piledriver.

As regular TechRadar readers will know, the Bulldozer architecture didn't deliver on the desktop. However, updated to Piledriver specification and inserted into an APU that also contains one of AMD's absolutely excellent graphics cores, now that's a different box of CPUs altogether.

We won't know for sure until we get our filthy mitts on Trinity-powered laptop PCs. But AMD recently showed off an early Trinity system developed in partnership with Compal. It's just 18mm thick and will allegedly sell for under $900.

Moreover, AMD is making some pretty startling claims for Trinity. For starters, it's said to pack double the performance per watt of the existing Llano APU along with 50 per cent better graphics performance. And Llano already has the fastest integrated graphics core of any PC chip.

But the real killer is that AMD claims Trinity will deliver all this along with better battery life than equivalent Intel mobile CPUs. What we're promised then, is a chip that goes harder and lasts longer than Intel but will also bring prices down on Ultrabooks.

Supernote, anybody?

Of course, any system powered by an AMD chip can't actually be called an Ultrabook. That's an Intel-only gig.

But if I was AMD, I'd be thinking hard for a snappy name for mouth-breathing PC shop salesmen to bandy about. Would sir prefer an Intel Ultrabook or an AMD Supernote?

Whatever, the arrival of Trinity will almost definitely be a good thing for everyone, even Ultrabook buyers. If it's any good, it'll bring down prices across the board.

But what of that tantalising prospect of an ARM-powered AMD chip? Well, AMD has been dropping bigger and better hints in recent months about its willingness to consider use ARM cores in its processors. And people have been getting excited.

In truth, there's really not much reason to do so. There's no shortage of competition and innovation in the ARM processor game. The addition of AMD to the battlefield won't make much difference. At most it'll force everyone to up their game in graphics a little. No, it's x86 why AMD can make the most impact. Fingers crossed for Trinity, folks.

Microsoft defends the Windows desktop

Patrick Goss — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:01:00 GMT

Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky has defended the Windows desktop, as the company looks ahead to a vital year for the grand old Operating System.

Speaking to TechRadar last week, Sinofsky outlined one of the key new Windows changes: the transition to work on ARM chips.

Windows on ARM (WOA) is a huge departure for Microsoft – it has previously focused on Intel's x86 platform – but the transition to new chips will not see a move away from the now familiar Windows desktop.

Touchtop?

In a blog post, Sinofsky outlined just why the Windows desktop would not be sacrificed any time soon, insisting that it was a compromise too far as touchscreen devices become widespread.

"Some have suggested we might remove the desktop from WOA in an effort to be pure, to break from the past, or to be more simplistic or expeditious in our approach," he blogged.

"To us, giving up something useful that has little cost to customers was a compromise that we didn't want to see in the evolution of PCs.

"The presence of different models is part of every platform. Whether it is to support a transition to a future programming model, to support different programming models on one platform, or to support different ways of working, the presence of multiple models represents a flexible solution that provides a true no-compromise experience on any platform."

brightcove : 1199351091001

Considering the considerable interest in Windows tablets there is clearly still a desire for a desktop, and Microsoft is aware that familiar user interfaces are as much about serving up what a consumer expects as clinging on to the past.

TechRadar's hands on: Windows 8 review discusses the difficulties in balancing a traditional desktop and the touch-friendly modern Metro UI that runs over the top of it.

And even if that transition is still a little clumsy, it seems that ditching the desktop would be a step too far for many - including the team at Microsoft.

Apple intern outs Mac OS X's ARM ambitions

Kate Solomon — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:16:00 GMT

A paper written by an ex-Apple intern who now works for the company has revealed secret plans to port Mac OS X to an ARM chipset.

Tristan Schaap did a 12-week internship with the Platform Technologies Group at Apple, and penned a thesis on the work he had been set, namely working to get the "lower half" of Mac OS X to boot onto an ARM processor.

The paper was submitted in 2010 but not published until some months ago due to the sensitive nature of its contents.

Peach Schaaps

But just because Schaap did work on this project and is now employed by the Core OS department doesn't mean we're definitely going to see ARM architecture in the next generation of Macs.

It may have been an experiment, it could have been a decoy or the project may have once been planned and since been pulled, who knows.

Apple's Mac range currently rocks Intel chipsets but rumours have been around for years that the company wants to try its hand at an ARM platform.

But as Apple Insider points out, Tim Cook seems reticent to take those plans further, telling analysts last week that the iPad should satisfy those who would want such a thing as an ARM-based MacBook Air.

Hands on: Alienware X51 review

Dan Grabham — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:20:00 GMT

Gaming PC vendor Alienware recently took the wraps off its X51 - a smaller form factor desktop to go alongside its not-so-dainty Aurora line of gaming desktop behemoths.

We got up close with the Core i7 variant of the new mini gaming PC at a demo event yesterday.

The first thing that strikes you is the size - it isn't that much taller than an Xbox 360 - 32cm high at its shortest point and less than 10cm in thickness.

The box has been designed to either sit horizontally or stand vertically, and Alienware is expecting a reasonable number to find homes underneath HDTVs in living rooms.

So what we're looking at here is a couple of the £999 units each boasting a 3.4Ghz Intel Core i7-2600, Nvidia Geforce GTX 555 graphics and 8GB of memory.

Alienware is keen to stress that there's a market for a performance gaming system without the bulk - it believes people are looking for smaller machines, but that gamers still want a desktop PC rather than a laptop. The company is keen to stress it wanted to sit the X51 above traditional small form factor (SFF) systems that don't have a great deal of power or graphics capabilities.

As you can see, there's a slot-loading optical drive on the front (24x dual-layer DVD), as well as a couple of USB 2.0 ports. There are a couple of USB 3.0 ports on the back as well as three more USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, Ethernet, full complement of audio outputs including SPDIF and two DVIs. 802.11n Wi-Fi is also integrated.

Alienware was keen to demonstrate that the lower end £699 is also very capable - it packs a 3.3GHz Intel Core i3-2120, Nvidia Geforce GT545 graphics, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 1TB HDD. All models sport Windows 7 Home Premium.

There's also a 3GHz Core i5-2320 mid-range variant available.

We love the look of the thing (and yes, you can customise the colours of those LEDs - there are 8,000 different combinations) but we'll be honest - the X51 is a lot of money for what it is, especially since Alienware believes it occupies a mainstream rather than enthusiast segment of the market.

The unit's weigh clocks in at 5.5Kg - Alienware says it occupies only around 15 per cent of the space of one of its traditional desktops. The components inside are user upgradeable.

You also get a Alienware backlit keyboard and mouse in the box. We'll run our benchmarking rule over it when we hold of one in our TechRadar test lab, though Alienware has posted its on basic benchies for the Core i3 and i7 models, which you can see below - click here for a bigger version.

Gary Marshall: Should Microsoft save the Start button?

Gary Marshall — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:07:00 GMT

According to The Verge, Windows is about to lose something precious: the Start Orb, better known as the Start button.

We're already familiar with the new, touch-optimised, orb-free Windows 8 Metro interface, but it looks like the Orb's getting booted from the traditional desktop too.

There's no doubt that many people would like to see the back of it - we've had comments of the "OMG LOL YOU HAVE TO PRESS START TO SHUT DOWN YOUR PC BUY APPLE BUY APPLE BUY APPLE" variety since it was introduced in 1733, and there's no doubt that Metro looks much more modern and friendly than the ageing Windows UI.

But in the whoosh of Microsoft throwing out the bathwater, some people think they can hear the waaah of a baby.

Stopping Starting something

The rumours, I'm sure, are right: Microsoft has been making Windows 8's interface more Metro-y for some time, and killing off the Start button makes sense from that perspective.

The thing is, though, Microsoft isn't killing it: it's hiding it. When you move the mouse to the bottom corner the Orb magically appears again. You'll still be able to access the Orb from the Start key on your keyboard, too.

If we were living in a time of great pixel shortages, where gangs of graphics card manufacturers fought in the streets over packets of stolen pixels, hiding the Start Orb might be a great advantage.

However, we aren't, and as a result all that's really going on is that Microsoft appears to be making the classic Windows desktop a little bit more confusing, choosing to hide a key part of the user interface. Maybe once we get our hands on the Consumer Preview we'll think the new way is fantastic, but right now it looks like a step backwards in user-friendliness for no real benefit.

Windows 8 beta: new features to expect

According to Windows boss Steven Sinofsky, "people 'in the know' who valued efficiency were moving away from the Start menu, and pinning their frequently used programs to the taskbar so that they could access them instantly in one click."

Program pinning is handy, but you can't pin everything to the taskbar or things start getting silly - and if you're in legacy mode rather than Metro mode, surely you want Windows to work like Windows always has?

Sinofsky says that the old Start menu is bad because it provides access to lots of programs and features people don't use very often, but for some of us that's exactly the point: we *like* having something that provides access to the things we don't use very often.

I'm imagining Sinofsky as a crazed vivisectionist here, cutting up cats and gluing their heads onto horses to make the cats better at showjumping.

Maybe, like cats and horses, Metro and classic Windows are best kept separate. Anyone fancy FrankenWindows?

Buying Guide: Best computer: how to choose the right one

Mike Williams — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:53:00 GMT

How to choose best PC for you

When buying a new computer, it's easy to become confused by the sheer volume of technical decisions that you'll have to make.

How to choose the best desktop PC for you? Well, you might wonder how much RAM you'll need, for instance, which processor to choose or which graphics card to pick, what display to look for, which hard drive will be best for you - there are so many issues that it's difficult to know where to begin.

There is a simple way to at least begin cutting down the choices on offer, though, and ensure you get the best PC for your needs.

And that's to forget about the low-level technical specifications, and fine details like the brand of graphics card just for the moment and instead concentrate on something much more fundamental and important: what you will be expecting your system to do.

So read on to find out how to buy the best computer for you, then check out our 10 best desktop PCs on page 2.

Best computer: using your new PC

Take a moment to think about the sort of applications you'll want to run on your new PC, as these will help to decide which features your system will need.

If you only intend to run basic tasks - browsing the web, sending emails, running office-type software like Microsoft Word - then the good news is that most computers, even at the budget end of the market, will be able to cope with your requirements.

An entertainment PC can handle those basic jobs, too, but might also be used to watch TV and movies, listen to music, play some games, perhaps share music and video files across a home network. Systems like this need a little more in the way of hardware power, like a larger hard drive to store all your music and movies, as well as a big screen, a good sound card and speakers, but they still don't have to be too expensive. Many entertainment PCs are all-in-one PCs these days.

If you want to play the latest games with the best possible performance, then you'll need a gaming PC. This can be much more expensive, as not only will you need a quality screen, a good sound card and speakers, but you'll also require a powerful graphics card, fast hard drive and a decent processor.

And if you're not a gamer, but need to run some heavy-duty software - editing HD videos, say - then you'll need a high-end performance PC. This should include a powerful CPU, plenty of memory, and a large, fast hard drive, so expect a sizeable bill. But you may not need the large screen or powerful graphics card of the entertainment or gaming systems, which will help to keep prices down a little.

Best computer: netbook, laptop or desktop?

With the basic applications of your new computer resolved, it's time to think about the type of system that might be appropriate: a netbook, laptop or desktop?

Netbooks are compact notebooks with small screens (typically 10 to 12 inches), and components that are more about saving battery life than delivering raw power. So expect a slow CPU, only a little RAM (1 to 2GB, usually), no DVD drive, not too much hard drive space, and so on.

This is all that you need for basic web browsing, emailing and similar tasks, though. Their small size makes netbooks extremely portable (most are only around 1-1.5kg), battery life is usually very good at 4 to 10 hours, and you can buy some great systems from as little as £249. Our articles on the best laptop and the top netbooks in the world today will tell you more.

Laptops can seem bulky by comparison to their tiny netbook cousins: they might be more than twice the weight, with larger screens, and more powerful CPUs, which means battery life may struggle to reach 3 hours in some cases.

Of course they can also handle much more powerful applications, though. If you'll be spending hours typing on the system then you'll appreciate the larger keyboard. The built-in DVD drive makes it easier to install software and create backups, and high-end laptops can even deliver very acceptable gaming performance.

Again, we've a guide to suit everyone: The best cheap laptop under £350 focuses on budget systems, while our article on the best student laptops and the best 13" laptops cover a wider range of systems.

The best gaming laptops guide reveals that you buy mobile gaming performance for as little as £599, while the more general Which laptop should I buy? article walks you through the buying process and explains how to make sure you get the right system for you.

If you don't need a computer you can carry around, though, a desktop will be your best option. These are larger, but deliver more power for your money, and are generally much easier to upgrade or reconfigure. So if you decide you need better gaming performance, say, you can just buy another graphics card at a later date, something that won't be possible at all with most netbooks or laptops.

But if you've already got a list of preferred PC manufacturers then it might be more interesting to think about the hardware that your new computer should include - and there's plenty to consider.

Best computer: technical specs

In the past, one of the first questions to ask about your new PC has been how much memory you'll need. These days, though, even many budget PCs come with 4GB of RAM, the maximum a 32-bit Windows system can use.

If you're short of cash and only want to run very basic programs, perhaps to browse the web or send emails, then you might just about get away with 2GB. Maybe. But opting for 4GB will help to improve your system's performance, even here, so avoid skimping on memory if you possibly can.

If you're buying a more high-end system, though, you might also want to consider the type of memory it should include to deliver the best results. Our article on How to buy RAM will tell you more.

It's a similar situation with hard drives. If you're buying a budget PC (around £400, say) then look for the highest capacity you can afford; we'd recommend at least 500GB, although even many budget PCs now include 1TB drives.

If you've more cash to spend, though, it's worth paying more attention to the technical details. Read How to buy the best new hard drive for a grounding in the basics. And if you've a big budget, then solid-state drives (SSDs) deliver the best performance around, though their capacities are low. Our guide to the best SSDs, or solid state drives, will tell you more.

To help you choose between a hard disk drive and a solid-state drive, take a look at our guide SSD vs HDD: which is best?

Then of course there's the issue of your computer's processor: which one is the best CPU? The good news here is that even the cheapest PCs now include CPUs with two cores, essentially separate processors that allow you to run multiple tasks at the same time. But even if money is tight, look for something with more cores, if you can: something like Intel's Core i3-530 or AMD's Athlon II X4 640 offer decent performance at a budget price.

While we've hopefully covered most of your concerns here, there may be one or two other issues you want to consider.

If you aim to play the latest games on your computer, for instance, the choice of graphics card will be critical. Let us help you out with our guide to the 15 best graphics cards in the world today.

And whatever you're doing on your system, a quality LCD monitor will be crucial - so be sure to read our guide to the technical details you really need to know before you buy a monitor.

It's a lot to consider, then, but doing your homework now will really pay off later. And that's because understanding the features you need (and the ones you really don't) will both save you money and help you choose the best PC that will serve you well for years to come.

Which, of course, is the best news of all, because your systems' extended life means you won't have to go computer shopping again for a long, long time.

10 best PCs to choose from

So what's the best desktop PC for you? Although they've been overshadowed by just about everything recently, the fact that they're comfortable to use and can be upgraded easily means that they're still our weapon of choice when it comes to both gaming and general computing.

We've poked through the TechRadar archives to bring you 10 of the best desktop PCs, including the best all-in-one PCs. If you're after a top desktop, look no further.

1. Acer Aspire Z5763

The Acer Aspire Z5763 knows the deal: all-in-one (AIO) PCs aren't supposed to be masters of all things, they're slimline entertainment boxes. We all know that they are usually weak in the processor and more importantly the graphics department, but that doesn't mean they need to hide from the limelight. This all-in-one proudly struts its credentials, this is a 23-inch entertainment system that boasts a 1080p resolution and a Nvidia 3D-ready screen with Blu-ray 3D support.

Read our Acer Aspire Z5763 review

2. CyberPower Liquid Xtreme GT

From the unassuming chassis, you'd be forgiven for thinking the Liquid Xtreme GT was just another mid-range machine from CyberPower. Maybe packing a Core i5 2500K, or a new GTX 560 Ti 448 Core. Or maybe, just maybe, it's a combination of a £500 processor and a £400 graphics card. It's the latter. CyberPower has dropped the lower-end Sandy Bridge E chip, the Core i7 3930K, into this machine and paired it up with the best single-GPU card currently available, the Nvidia GTX 580. That's around £900 worth of processor and graphics cores, easily covering half the price of this full machine.

Read our CyberPower Liquid Xtreme GT review

3. Dell Inspiron One 2320

We're certainly warming to all-in-one computers, and if they continue to be as good the Dell Inspiron One 2320 we can happily see them taking over all of our desks. The £799 price means a lot, and there's a lower-end Pentium model also available, at an MSI Wind Top AE2210-beating £599. As with the other PC all-in-ones we've mentioned, the main "new" headline feature - despite the option of the Sandy Bridge Core i5 processor - that the marketing boys are dying to tell us about is the touchscreen. Decades of careful mouse-based interface design down the tube, as it's far more fun stabbing your podgy fingers at a desktop screen.

Read our Dell Inspiron One 2320 review

4. MSI Wind Top AE2210

We're keen to see if the well-priced MSI Wind Top AE2210 can manage to balance a £700 price tag with good performance. Wire-free is also something the MSI Wind Top AE2210 almost achieves - the only lead you actually need connected is the main power supply. MSI has opted for an external power supply unit, which is something to lose and an additional thing to have to lug around. We'd argue that this could help with cooling, but the unit has an obvious cooling fan. While it mostly ticks over at a low level, it's a little disappointing that it's audible at all.

Read our MSI Wind Top AE2210 review

5. Acer Revo RL100

A triumph of form over function, Acer's ultra-tiny media center PC includes a slide-out backlit touchpad keyboard. It also packs a Blu-Ray/DVD-RW combo drive, with an Nvidia Ion 2 processor to power those high-definition films and a touch of light gaming. An integrated digital TV tuner means that it will compliment a plush home cinema set up quite nicely, and it runs very quietly. It's not the cheapest media center option, but it does perform perfectly adequately.

Read our Acer Revo RL100 review

6. Shuttle SX58H7

A great place to start your media centre PC. Stick a Core i7 CPU, some DDR3 RAM and a DX11 graphics card in this barebones PC and you'll have a fully-fledged unit that's actually capable of running the latest games. It's got a compactl form factor, and it'll certainly look the part next to a TV of epic proportions. It is a tad pricey for what it is, but in recent years Shuttle has got tiny PCs like these down to a fine art.

Read our Shuttle SX58H7 review

7. Apple iMac 27-inch 2011

The mighty Apple's first venture into the world of Intel's Sandy Bridge processors comes in a 21.5-inch form factor (below), and this whopping 27-inch model. It's the most powerful iMac we've ever seen, and it totes a 2TB HDD in partnership with a 256GB SSD so it doesn't get too bogged down. Graphics are catered for with an AMD Radeon HD 6970M, and as gaming on Macs becomes more popular you'll need every megabyte of its 1GB of DDR5 memory. It looks pretty darn nice, too.

Read our Apple iMac 27-inch 2011 review

8. Apple iMac 21.5-inch 2011

Apple's smaller all-in-one addition is a powerful upgrade from 2010 models, and not hugely pared down from its bigger 27-inch brother. Its 21.5-inch screen doesn't need quite as much power, and the price reflects this. The graphics chip - a HD 6750M in this case - can handle games and video editing, and there's even a built-in 720p camera to take advantage of Apple's FaceTime. Just about everything impressed us here, and it's a great first step if you want to move away from Windows.

Read our Apple iMac 21.5-inch 2011 review

9. PC Specialist Vortex M59 OC

So PC Specialist, what have we here with the Vortex M59 OC? An overclocked Core i5 2500K? Why, a system with a CPU specification like that puts you in some pretty illustrious company: there's Chillblast's Fusion Rocket for starters. Chillblast's overclocked 2500K runs at 4.5 GHz, which is 300MHz slower than this rig, but then it's also £150 cheaper. There's also our new favourite Core i5 system, the AT-FX Polaris. Inside that rig lies a 2500K overclocked to 4.8 GHz, matching PC Specialist's rig. It costs nearly £300 more, but there are several luxurious higher specified components inside to justify that.

Read our PC Specialist Vortex M59 OC review

10. Sony Vaio L Series

The Sony Vaio L Series is the Japanese firm's latest stab at this expanding market and it comes in two powerful derivatives – the VPC-L21S1E and VPC-L21M1E – the latter of which we're focusing on here. The S1E costs just under £1,500, while the M1E is a touch more down-to-earth at £1,200. The discernible differences between the pair are a Core i7 processor rather than a Core i5 in the VPC-L21M1E, an extra 4GB of RAM (making for 8GB in total) and a Blu-ray writer instead of just a Blu-ray player. Whichever of these machines you opt for, it's a considerable investment for the privilege of owning one.

Read our Sony Vaio L Series review

Buying Guide: Best NAS drive: 8 on test

PC Plus — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 10:00:00 GMT

Best NAS drive: Overview

NAS (network attached storage) devices certainly aren't the most glamorous gadgets you can have in your home. A network-connected hard drive might seem like a remnant from a home office – a backup necessity for over-paranoid users and not much more.

Early NAS devices – and even some new no-frills budget ones – do little more than allow any computer that's connected to a network to access an external hard drive as if it was physically installed in the computer. However, a lot of new NAS devices have some great features built in, which can completely transform what your home network is capable of.

Not only can they act as media servers throughout your house – letting your devices access and stream music and videos to any device on the network – they can also be used be used to stream your media across the internet, letting you access the files from anywhere in the world, and effectively allowing you to create your own version of Spotify or Netflix.

As for cloud backup and synchronisation services, while you could pay Dropbox the equivalent of $9.99 a month for 50GB of space, with a NAS device you could have your own service with huge amounts of storage (some NAS devices accept hard drives of up to 3TB) without monthly fees or the need to trust your private data to a third party. We've gathered the best NAS devices on the market to find out just what they are capable of.

Buffalo Cloudstation Duo - £240
www.buffalotech.com

Western Digital My Book Live - £147
www.wdc.com

Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 4 - £423
www.netgear.co.uk

Buffalo Linkstation Pro LS-VL - £129
www.buffalotech.com

D-Link ShareCenter - £60
www.dlink.com

Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 - £274
www.iomega.com

Netgear Stora MS2110 - £130
www.netgear.co.uk

Synology DS411 - £485
www.synology.com

Best network storage: 1-6

1. Buffalo Cloudstation Duo

There remains a lingering feeling that setting up a network attached storage device can be complicated, time consuming and fiddly. Buffalo aims to dispel these preconceptions with the Cloudstation Duo, a NAS kit designed to be as user friendly as possible without losing any features or functionality.

The device itself is compact, though quite heavy. Flicking open the front gives quick access to the two 1TB hard drives that come installed. Removing the drives is a bit fiddly at first, but the process is certainly a lot easier than with many other NAS drives.

The fact that the Buffalo Cloudstation Duo is supplied with two large hard drives already installed and set up in a RAID 1 configuration is great, and eliminates a more fiddly and complicated part of the setup procedure.

Read the full Buffalo Cloudstation Duo review

2. Western Digital My Book Live

When it comes to hard drives, Western Digital knows its stuff. While the Buffalo Cloudstation Duo is promoted for its ease of use, the Western Digital My Book Live goes even further in its pursuit of simplicity.

For a start, the small case is completely enclosed, so there is no easy way to open the My Book Live up and replace or upgrade the hard drive as you can with the Buffalo Cloudstation Duo. This means that it's not really suitable as a comprehensive backup device – the lack of hot swappable hard drives means you'd have to physically remove the entire thing if you wanted to store your data safely off site.

The 'My' in the title is evidence that this is a NAS device that focuses on creating your own personal cloud, sharing your own media and files across the internet with as little fuss as possible.

Read the full Digital My Book Live review

3. Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 4

NAS devices are a speedy, convenient means of backing up data, and units like the ReadyNAS Ultra 4 featured here are also capable of streaming any multimedia files to any device that can accept them.

Each of the ReadyNAS Ultra 4's bays can accommodate a 2TB drive, resulting in a possible 8TB of storage – that's an awful lot of video, photos and music.

The Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 4 supports various implementations of RAID technology, which trades off available capacity against protection for your data. If one of the drives fails, you should be able to recover your files.

Features like RAIDar and X-RAID 2 help you make the most of this handy feature. Powered by a dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, it's speedy and responsive. The onboard DLNA 1.5 media server worked well with a variety of networked players. Even multiple full HD video streams were glitch-free.

Read the full Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 4 review

4. Buffalo LinkStation Pro LS-VL

Devices like these are becoming the tool of choice for storing a wide range of digital media, including downloaded movies and TV, music, images and CD/DVD/Blu-ray rips. Speed, capacity and reliability are all essential features, and the Linkstation Pro LS-VL has all three.

This 'Multimedia Shared Network Storage BitTorrent Download Box', ships with a power supply, LAN cable and installation discs, and is available with built-in SATA hard drives in 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB sizes. Windows and Mac OS X compatible, the unit is simply plugged into any network Ethernet port or into the back of your wireless router, and is instantly accessible from any networked device.

The device features transfer speeds up to 76MB/s courtesy of a 1.6GHz CPU, which is a big increase from Buffalo's more home user-orientated Cloudstation Duo.

Read the full Buffalo LinkStation Pro LS-VL review

5. D-Link ShareCenter

D-Link has designed its NAS device to be at the centre of your home network, sharing your files and media throughout your home and over the internet – an admirable aim. The installation process is fairly straightforward, though there are a few options that you need to set yourself, and these can be confusing if you're not used to setting up network attached storage devices.

For example, at one point you're asked if you want to enable NTP server, without any explanation of what this is. There's also a step that asks you to enter your email address, along with port number and SMTP server – a pain if you don't have that information readily to hand.

The network drive wasn't mapped during installation – instead we had to run the D-Link Easy Search Utility, which found the D-Link ShareCenter on our network and then let us map it.

As with other aspects of the ShareCenter, the execution was rather cumbersome and inelegant, but it worked.

Read the full D-Link ShareCenter review

6. Iomega's StorCenter ix2-200

This 2TB NAS drive is billed as cloud storage, which means you can access the drive from anywhere with an internet connection. It's nothing hugely new, but Iomega has provided a good web interface for accessing your stored data online.

Unlike some of the other drives in our test, we had to install software to make it appear on our network. Fortunately, the software is well designed and your hand is held firmly through the process, making it ideal for people who have never used a NAS drive before.

From here, every feature of the drive is clearly explained with colourful bold icons, and essential tasks – such as setting up backups – are highlighted.

There's a range of useful tools too, from email updates to let you know if anything's changed on the drive itself, to the rather useful ability to download torrent files. You can also view hardware statistics, such as how full the drive is, and its current temperature. It's ideally suited to a RAID setup, too, and this can be implemented quickly and easily.

Read the full Iomega's StorCenter ix2-200 review

Best network storage: 7,8 and verdict

7. Netgear's Stora MS2110

We had high hopes for Netgear's NAS drive – after all, Netgear's home networking solutions have often trumped the competition in tests like these. However, we found ourselves sorely let down.

As soon as we connected the drive, all other computers on the network lost the ability to connect. It turned out that the drive had been completely locked down to the previous user, forcing us to do a complete hardware reset. That's not hugely unusual, but we're not sure why Netgear insists on you entering a software-style product key for something that's unlikely to ever leave your home or office.

Although the drive is hefty, the build quality is below par. The front panel – which clicks off to access the hard drives – sprang off in our hands. In fact, merely placing it on the floor caused the panel to flop open. Fortunately, the drives inside feel nicely secure, with a latch at the back to eject them.

Read the full Netgear's Stora MS2110 review

8. Synology DS411

The DiskStation feels like it's stuck between being a consumer-friendly NAS drive and a rack-mounted server. It's supplied without any hard drives, and looks like a small PC, complete with thumbscrews at the back and an array of lights at the front.

Synology recommends certain drives for the product, which are formatted on insertion. This isn't an easy process, especially compared to the more user-friendly drives we've looked at.

Hard drives must be mounted and formatted with Synology's software, and then the NAS drive itself has to be configured via a small patch located on the CD. Then any folders you want on the drive need to be added manually. These all seem like features that would be automated on other NAS drives.

Read the full Synology DS411 review

Verdict

This group test proved to be a perfect microcosm of the current state of the NAS market. On one hand you have devices that stick to the old ways of doing things – heaps of functionality, but with little thought of user-friendliness. The main culprits here are the Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 4, the D-Link ShareCenter and the Synology DS411.

On the other side of the divide are the devices whose manufacturers have acknowledged that there is a growing market for centralised storage in the home, and have tailored their devices to offer easy to use interfaces for creating our very own personal clouds without a single network administrator in sight.

We believe that these devices that will excel in the future, when more homes are equipped with internet enabled devices like smart TVs, leaving the backwards-looking NAS devices in their wake.

Best NAS: Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 - £274

The StorCenter ix2-200 encapsulates everything we were looking for in a NAS device. Its advanced features are wrapped up in a user friendly package that's easy to set up and maintain. It isn't as fast as a professional NAS, but for the internet connected home, this is a great choice.

Best value NAS: Western Digital My Book Live - £147

It's not quite the cheapest NAS device on test here, but the Western Digital My Book Live wins the best value award because it has some great features, is reliable and is easy to use. If you want a relatively cheap NAS device that you can quickly set up and then just leave it to do its job without you having to check on it and tinker every now and then, go for this.

In Depth: The 10 most hated programs of all time

Gary Marshall — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:50:00 GMT

10 worst programs of all time

Programs can be our friends: they can help us express ourselves, can solve our problems and can do their very best to make our days happier.

Sometimes, though, they do the Devil's work, making simple tasks so complex and frustrating that you'd happily make everybody involved face a firing squad.

So which programs made everyone angry? Let's discover the software Hall of Shame.

1. Final Cut Pro X

Apple's movie editing software isn't a bad program, but this release turned even the most mild-mannered editor into an incandescent ball of sheer fury. It was sold as an upgrade, but it was really a brand new, version 1.0 product - and that means it didn't have all the features or compatibility that existing users expected, wanted or relied upon.

2. Adobe Reader

Everybody needs to open a PDF from time to time, but Adobe Reader is a sledgehammer sold as a nutcracker: it's enormous - on the Mac, the current version is 69.1MB - it keeps putting a shortcut on your desktop for no good reason, and once you've installed it seems to spend most of its time moaning that you haven't paid it enough attention or installed yet another enormous update. No wonder Windows 8 plans to whack it with a shovel.

GOING: OS X has its own PDF reader, and Windows 8 will do the same with the new Open Reader

3. Ask Toolbar

We're not fans of browser toolbars at the best of times, but the Ask Toolbar is a particularly poor one: it's been variously accused of installing itself without asking permission, making changes to users' browser settings and promoting itself to children. Many problems occurred because over-zealous software writers bundled the toolbar with their own applications but didn't ask whether or not you wanted it.

WHAT'S THAT JEEVES?: We don't like third party toolbars at the best of times, but the Ask one proved particularly unpopular

4. Lotus Notes

IT departments loved this popular messaging and collaboration system, but users were considerably less keen: in the mid-2000s the product was widely criticised for appearing to have been put together by somebody who really, really hated the entire human race and wanted to make it suffer. According to The Guardian, its popularity in business was partly because "the people who choose [business software] tend not to be the ones who use it."

NOT OF NOTE: Lotus Notes still exists, but these days it's very different from its much-hated mid-2000s incarnation [Image credit: Koman90, Wikimedia Commons]

5. Norton Antivirus

Symantec's desktop antivirus software generated enormous ill will through its unfortunate habit of slowing your PC down to a crawl. Part of the problem was that the software tried to do too much: scanning every conceivable thing you do on PC requires significant resources at a time when PCs weren't the flying machines they are today. Thankfully, Norton has addressed such issues these days.

PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS: Happy Norton Man won't be smiling when his system slows down and he can't uninstall the program

6. Microsoft Word

Some people say "I hate Microsoft Word because it's far too complicated!" Some say "I hate Microsoft Word because it introduced Clippy the bloody Office Assistant!" A few say "I hate Microsoft Word because it's often used by idiots to make really horrible-looking things!" Others say, "I hate Microsoft Word because its HTML output made web designers' lives miserable for years!" Still others say "I hate Microsoft Word because I keep sending .docx files that only three people on Earth can actually read!" We say, people! Come together! Let's hate Microsoft Word for all of those reasons!

OFFICE PEST: Aaagh! Aaagh! Aaagh! Aaagh!

7. Adobe Flash

Despite its many benefits - in web design circles it's a powerful and useful creative tool - Flash can be enormously annoying. In many cases the problem was with its users, not the technology - you can't blame Adobe for irritating splash screens, badly designed ads or appalling user interfaces - but for many internet users, a Flash blocker is the first thing they install in a new browser.

NOT JUST JOBS: Flash remains a powerful design tool, but in the wrong hands it can be a powerful force for evil

8. iTunes for Windows

Steve Jobs called iTunes for Windows "like giving a glass of ice water to someone in hell". The reality distortion field was strong that day, because rather than show Windows users the joys of Apple software, iTunes on Windows seems merely designed to depress them. As we've said previously, "the Windows version is a sluggish, resource-hungry mess. Apple has Windows users worldwide loving its iOS devices and despising iTunes, and this needs to change."

SLOOOOOOW: iTunes is proof that Apple doesn't always get it right. On Windows it's a donkey

9. Windows Me and Windows Vista

Yes, we know these are operating systems. This one's a joint nomination: Windows Me because it was a largely pointless update of Windows 98, and Windows Vista because it didn't work properly. Vista in particular should have been a great OS, but show-stopping bugs - copying a file could easily take four million years - and a lack of initial driver support turned a potential racehorse into a donkey.

WOW NOW: The wow starts... now! No... now! Now! NOW! Oh okay, let's just wait for Windows 7 then

10. Internet Explorer 6

Imagine a pristine swimming pool with crystal clear water. That's the internet. Now imagine an enormous poo floating past. That's IE6.

You know something's bad when even its creator dances on its grave. The problem wasn't the browser as such, which was fairly modern when it was released in 2001; it was Microsoft's refusal to update it significantly for years and years, breaking websites and leaving internet users vulnerable to all kinds of online unpleasantness. IE6 was Microsoft at its worst.

TERRIBLE: "Imagine an enormous poo... that's IE6". IE6 is officially pronounced "Aieeeeeee"

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AMD Radeon HD 7950 launched at last

Dave James — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:01:00 GMT

AMD has finally released its Radeon HD 7950 graphics card to the world, the second tier of the manufacturer's Southern Islands/AMD HD 7000 series cards.

Was it worth the wait? Well you will be pleased to know that yes it was…and then some.

This new graphics card is based on the same 28nm Graphics Core Next GPU as the AMD Radeon HD 7970, code-named Tahiti.

This Tahiti Pro is ever so slightly cut down compared to the HD 7970's Tahiti XT, but the disparity in performance is mostly down to the lower core clockspeed.

The AMD Radeon HD 7950 is clocked at a fairly conservative 800MHz compared to the HD 7970's 925MHz.

We say conservative as the Tahiti Pro GPU, from all the cards we've seen, is more than capable of topping the 1GHz mark. So it's a bit of a shame that we haven't seen a HD 7000 series card hitting the 1GHz core clock speed out of the box.

Though there are rumours a certain Taiwanese graphics card manufacturer may be releasing an overclocked Radeon HD 7950 with that very rating.

We've been playing with a couple of the cards for a while now and of everything it's the overclocking prowess of the Radeon HD 7950 that makes it such an outstanding card.

The fact that it also bests the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 in pretty much all the benchmarks, and ably keeps pace with the Radeon HD 7970 only adds to that.

And does it all for less cash than either.

You can check out our AMD Radeon HD 7950 review and the factory-overclocked Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OverClock edition review on the TechRadar Components Channel right now.

Suffice to say that if we were spending serious money on a graphics card right now it would be on an AMD Radeon HD 7950.

Nvidia is going to have to work hard to produce a card for the same price that out does it on performance.

Explained: AMD HD3D technology: what you need to know

Matt Hanson — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:00:00 GMT

AMD HD3D technology: what's it all about?

Stereoscopic 3D might not be to everyone's tastes, but it's certainly a lucrative business.

For the past few years Nvidia has enjoyed a virtual stereo 3D monopoly on the PC with its 3D Vision technology, but AMD has belatedly entered the ring with its own technology called HD3D.

For those who have heavily invested in Nvidia's technology it might be too little too late, but AMD's new offering introduces a number of innovations that make it worth considering – even if you think stereo 3D is just an expensive way to get a headache.

Read our Nvidia 3D Vision review

The biggest attraction of HD3D is AMD's commitment to making it an open platform that supports many different standards. Unlike Nvidia's approach, where you're tied to Nvidia 3D Vision-certified hardware, HD3D's open ecosystem should allow for a more diverse choice.

It's pretty encouraging that AMD seems to have identified one of consumer stereoscopic 3D's biggest problems, and the reason why so many of us have so far held back from embracing stereo 3D: the vast and confusing array of incompatible 3D standards. If AMD's mission with HD3D is to allow us to buy 3D hardware from various different manufacturers, without us having to worry whether it will all work together, that can only be a good thing for us consumers – and might lead to more of us setting up our rigs for 3D.

How it works

When it comes to three-dimensional gaming, the bulk of the stereo horsepower comes from the HD3D driver. The driver uses a quad-buffer to produce stereo 3D. Usually with non-stereo 3D graphics (monoscopic) the driver uses double-buffering.

This is where the GPU renders content to one specific place in memory, known as a buffer. At the same time, a second buffer is used to deliver the display output of the GPU to a monitor or other display. Quad-buffering essentially doubles this, producing two images – one for the left eye and one for the right – for every frame generated.

AMD's Direct3D engineering team produced an API that supports OpenGL and DirectX 9, 10 and 11. AMD's open approach allows middleware partners, such as DDD and iZ3D to convert games from monoscopic to stereoscopic. This takes some of the pressure off AMD to ensure games are compatible with HD3D and has led to an already impressively long list of compatible games.

Launching into HD3D

If you want to set up HD3D then the first thing you need to do is make sure that you've got a supported Radeon graphics card. The ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series using Catalyst 10.10 or later and AMD Radeon HD 6000 series or above are compatible.

You can also use HD3D if you have an HP Envy 17 3D with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850, an MSI Wind Top AE2420 All-in-One with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730, or a Lenovo IdeaPad y560d with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730.

You'll also need a 3D-capable display device, like a 3D monitor, TV or projector. There are plenty of supported devices – click here for a full list. If the display device is a 3D TV or a 3D projector then it needs to support HDMI 1.4a, and you'll need an HDMI 1.4a cable.

Unless you can afford a glasses-free 3D display, you'll need the chunky eyewear too. You'll also want DDD's TriDef 3D for the AMD HD3D driver, or the iZ3D 3D driver for 3D gaming.

Thanks to AMD's partnership with the middleware driver makers, you can get 50 per cent off either driver if you have HD3D compatible hardware. Make sure you have the latest AMD Catalyst 10.10 software or later from AMD's website. Install either the DDD TriDef 3D or iZ3D drivers and select either 'AMD – AMD HD3D Technology (HDMI 1.4a)' or '120Hz 3D Devices' respectively.

You'll then need to set your desktop resolution to 1,920 x 1,080, 24Hz or 1,280 x 720, 60Hz. Using either TriDef 3D or iZ3D you need to select the game profile and point the software to the game's executable file, and then launch the game itself from inside the 3D software.

AMD has outsourced a lot of the work involved in creating compatible games to the third party middleware companies iZ3D and DDD. Headline games include Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Mass Effect 2 and World of Warcraft, and are included in a growing list of compatible games.

You can be pretty confident that the biggest new releases will be compatible, but for a full list of compatible games go to iz3d.com/games and the TriDef website.

It's not all down to third parties though. AMD is working directly with games developers on native support for HD3D. This year AMD worked closely with Eidos to support native stereo 3D in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. This meant that Eidos rendered images for both the left eye and the right eye in game, and was able to utilise HD3D's quad-buffer without the need for middleware.

Hopefully as the HD3D standard gains popularity, more games will include native support as they are released. So how does AMD's plucky little David compare to Nvidia's Goliath?

In terms of performance and raw power, Nvidia's head start in stereo 3D certainly gives 3D Vision the edge. HD3D's reliance on the HDMI 1.4a specification leaves it with a maximum TMDS throughput of 10.2Gb/s, allowing for 1080p gaming at 24 frames per second for each eye, or 720p at 60 frames per second.

This is a lot lower than 3D Vision Surround's dual-link DVI connection capable of resolutions up to 5,760 x 1,080 over dual monitors. AMD hopes that as more new monitors begin to support DisplayPort 1.2, HD3D will be able to get around HDMI 1.4a's limitations with a bandwidth of 17.28Gb/s – enough for 1080p at 60 frames per second per eye.

HD3D vs 3D Vision

AMD's embrace of open standards really sets the HD3D apart from Nvidia's 3D Vision. Not being tied to specific hardware and standard restrictions gives us far greater scope to build a 3D-capable rig that meets our needs.

It can also be more cost effective – not only can we shop around for the best components at the best prices, we can also avoid some of the hidden costs associated with Nvidia 3D Vision. You don't need a propriety 3DTV Play driver to play 3D Blu-rays, and you don't have to rely on expensive USB emitters.

You do need to pay for third party middleware drivers, though. Still, there is enough potential in HD3D to get us excited about its future, and to cause Nvidia some concern over 3D Vision's future.

Kodak Europe 'unaffected' during US bankruptcy proceedings

Marcus Hawkins — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:13:00 GMT

Kodak has issued a statement to clarify its current position outside of the US, after announcing that it was filing for bankruptcy protection yesterday.

The company notes that its "non-U.S. subsidiaries are not included in the filings and will continue to operate as usual. Accordingly, these international operations continue to honour all obligations to customers and suppliers, whenever incurred.

"Our European business is not affected by the decision that has been taken by our US parent company to file for voluntary Chapter 11 business reorganisation for US businesses." Philip Cullimore, managing director for Europe, said.

Focus on printers

"In Europe we have seen a significant shift towards business-to-business imaging applications, and are weighted towards printing. These businesses in Europe are performing well and growing fast."

So, for the moment at least, it's business as usual in Kodak UK's headquarters at Hemel Hempstead.

Kodak has launched a new website - Kodaktransforms.com - where it intends to update information about the company's reorganisation. The company has once again confirmed its commitment to continue to provide staff with their wages and benefits throughout the reorganisation process, which should be completed in the US by 2013.

Genius DX-Eco battery-less mouse charges in three minutes

Jools Whitehorn — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:07:00 GMT

The Genius DX-Eco is a wireless mouse that doesn't use batteries and can recharge in just three minutes.

Removing the need for planet-killing disposable batteries or time-wasting rechargeables, the Genius DX-Eco uses a built-in gold capacitor instead.

Genius claims that this gold capacitor will hold enough charge for "a full day's use" and just takes three minutes for a complete recharge. So even if a heavy cursor-waggling session drains your electric rodent early, it'll be ready to go again before the kettle has boiled.

Future proof

That gold capacitor is supposedly also good for 100,000 charges. If you're charging it every day that means you'll get a very reasonable 273 years of use out of it.

It's Mac and PC compatible, connecting via a 2.4GHz USB pico receiver which can be slotted inside the mouse when not in use.

According to Genius, BlueEye sensor technology means it will keep on pointing when used on most surfaces including marble and thick carpet. Great news if you don't have a table.

It recharges via Micro USB cable, though, so you'll need to keep track of that wire.

The Genius DX-Eco is out in the US now for $39.99.

Alienware explains move to small form-factor

Patrick Goss — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:01:00 GMT

Alienware's senior product consultant has explained to TechRadar the reasoning behind offering a small-form factored gaming PC in the Alienware X51.

Dell-owned Alienware has established its reputation with high-end products, appealing to hard-core gamers with enough money to fork out for the latest kit.

However, with desktop computing on the wane, Alienware is keen to tap into a category of gamers that do not have the space or justification for a huge, powerful gaming machine.

Decline

Eoin Leyden, Alienware's senior product consultant told TechRadar: "Desktop as a category has been declining, and the only shining light has been small and ultra-small form factor PCs.

"These PCs have been predominantly digital hubs for the living room that have no regard for the gaming population at all.

"Some of that has been partly driven by price, but also the heat generated by gaming systems is a problem."

Alienware's X51 has a form-factor similar to that of an Xbox, but offers far superior specs even at its lowest price point – offering up Intel's Core i3-2120 processor and 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 545 graphics along with 4GB DDR3 RAM.

"The performance speaks for itself," adds Leyden. "The compromise is within the form-factor.

"You can't do SLI graphics because you couldn't manage the heat. You could if you made it bigger, but that defies the entire point.

"I don't personally believe you can offer a system that offers a better gaming performance within that form-factor or even that there is anything close."

"I asked one of our designers what cool thing I should be telling people in the briefings and he said, 'Tell them that we managed to make it all fit in'!"

Sub-core game

Leyden believes that the division between mid-level and hardcore gaming is increasingly blurred and that a generation of gamers still want to play the latest titles but only have limited time.

"From casual to pro-gamer the difference is the amount of leisure time people devote to gaming.

"At one end of the scale you have 'all of my leisure time is taken up by gaming' and at the further you move over you soon hit the 'I get two hours of Call of Duty or Skyrim or do I go and play golf?'

"Gaming is in their heads but not necessarily the number one thing that drives them. If [that demographic] is going to buy a small PC they will want it to be able to play games.

"If they go into a shop and there is two small form factor PCs but one is fully tripped out for games, I'd say 'absolutely – it's a great investment'.

"Within the confines of the form-factor we have totally developed an Alienware product. We didn't go out going to hit a price point but this is a PC that can do all of the things a desktop computer ought to do, but for that extra bit of money it can also play the latest games."

Another key factor is that the standard components mean that the user can upgrade their own PC.

"We did talk about locking it down, but we decided that would not be what we want to do with Alienware desktops," concludes Leyden.

Alienware X51 announced

Patrick Goss — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:00:00 GMT

The Alienware X51 has been officially announced, with the gaming brand offering up a desktop with a small form-factor that is aiming to tempt in the groups between casual gamers and hardcore.

The X51 brings a decent set of specs and the always-enviable Alienware design but packs it into a form-factor that is only marginally bigger than an Xbox.

"I don't personally believe you can offer a system that offers a better gaming performance within that form-factor or even that there is anything close, " Eoin Leyden, Alienware's senior product consultant told TechRadar.

Range

As you would expect the Alienware X51 comes in a range of specs with the lowest priced version at £699 bringing an 3.3 GHz Intel Core i3-2120, Nvidia Geforce GT545 graphics, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 1TB harddrive.

At the other end of the spectrum is the £999 version with 8 Gigs of RAM, Intel Core i7-2600 and Nvidia Geforce GTX 555 graphics. That will give you up to 77 frames per second from Battlefield 3, according to Dell-owned Alienware.

The smaller form factor is aimed at the mass market, and it has been designed to stand horizontally or vertically - so you could sit it next to your TV without it looking too out of place.

It's certainly an unexpected move from a company that has previously specialised in massive high-end rigs - but can it take advantage of the recent renaissance in PC gaming?

In Depth: AMD previews Trinity APU for ultraportables

Mary Branscombe — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:17:00 GMT

If Intel is right about the high percentage of new PCs bought that will be Ultrabooks – and the $300 million it's putting behind the Ultrabook concept should help with that – AMD needs a processor to put in budget thin and light notebooks as well.

That's what the next-generation Trinity APU is designed for. We were first shown the chip at Computex 2011, but AMD showed us it running in a back room at CES 2012.

At first it looked like AMD was demonstrating a beefy desktop processor in a large gaming rig, playing a DirectX 11 game on one screen and transcoding video for iPad resolution on another.

But then AMD's Ron Myers cracked open the case to show the notebook that was actually doing the work, which was also playing HD video on its own screen.

Yes, Dirt3 was running in low detail rather than high and the media transcoding was using CPU rather than GPU, but the texture mapping in DirectX 11 made even low detail pretty impressive and all three tasks were running smoothly without any stuttering or glitching.

Despite being tucked inside a PC case, the notebook showed no signs of overheating (although the large fan on the case is probably responsible for that).

That's because AMD has halved the amount of power that Trinity requires compared to the current Llano APU, from 35W to 17W.

As well as a part designed for laptops (and a high-powered desktop chip), Trinity will also be available as a socket-less processor that will fit into ultra-thin notebooks (which is what AMD has to call Ultrabooks made with its chips, since Intel has copyright on the Ultrabook term) and Windows 8 tablets.

AMD is also promising a 25% improvement in compute performance from the Piledriver CPU that replaces Bulldozer and a 50% improvement from the GPU in Trinity.

TRINITY 2012: We first saw Trinity at last year's Computex

With Intel adding DirectX 11 support in Ivy Bridge, AMD will lose some of the GPU advantage it's had with Llano, so it needs that extra 50%. Of course, we don't know how good DirectX 11 on Ultrabooks will be.

Intel's Mooley Eden refused to put a specific number on the improved performance but promised it would be "a different experience" during CES.

What AMD should still have is lower prices, especially as Trinity ultra-thin systems won't have to have the expensive materials that Intel insists on for Ultrabooks. When Trinity comes out in Q2 this year, notebooks using it are likely to cost $500 or less – half the price Intel's partners are struggling to keep Ultrabooks down to.

With the lower TDP, Trinity should also improve on the already-good battery life of Llano. For comparison, the Llano-powered HP dm1 AMD had running in the corner of the meeting room was managing six hours of video playback. "That's true all-day battery life," Myers pointed out.

How many atoms to store one bit of data?

Patrick Goss — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:51:00 GMT

IBM Research has successfully demonstrated that you can store information in as few as 12 magnetic atoms – a discovery which could pave the way to smaller, faster and more energy efficient hard drives in our favourite devices.

Current hard-drives need around one million atoms to store a single bit of information, according to IBM's scientists, but that atomic limit of magnetic memory is just 12 atoms.

So what does that actually mean for our tablets, computers, mobile phones and any other device that stores information.

Manipulate matter

Well according to the research: "The ability to manipulate matter by its most basic components – atom by atom – could lead to the vital understanding necessary to build smaller, faster and more energy-efficient devices."

IBM's research was conducted as it became clear that silicon transistor technology has "fundamental physical limitations" which suggest that the current scaling efforts will plateau.

IBM Research suggests that nanostructures – built one atom at a time – could utilise antiferromagnetism and store 100 times more information in the same amount of space.

"The chip industry will continue its pursuit of incremental scaling in semiconductor technology but, as components continue to shrink, the march continues to the inevitable end point: the atom, said Andreas Heinrich, the lead investigator into atomic storage at IBM Research.

"We're taking the opposite approach and starting with the smallest unit -- single atoms -- to build computing devices one atom at a time."

You can check out more of the details on IBM's website.

Updated: CES 2012 highlights: what you need to know

TechRadar — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:40:00 GMT

CES 2012 highlights

The world's greatest tech show - CES 2012 - kicked off on Monday 9 January (if you're a show obsessive, note that's a week later than usual).

Running until Thursday, the show sees the entire tech world descend on Las Vegas. It covers more than 1.8 million square feet and has more than 140,000 attendees from across the globe. The biggest names in technology are there to talk about their plans for 2012.

As for every CES, TechRadar is there getting hands on with the hardware that matters and bringing you the latest breaking news from the show. We have a dedicated CES 2012 channel where you can keep up with all the news.

Here are our CES 2012 highlights…

brightcove : 1399303301001

The biggest news at CES 2012

LG unveils stunning 55-inch OLED TV
Steve Ballmer gives last ever Microsoft keynote at CES
Microsoft announces Kinect for PC
Sony develops new Crystal LED tech to rival OLED
Intel promises touch-enabled Ultrabooks
iPad 3 spotted? Or is it the iPad 2S...

CES 2012: Tablets

Without an Apple presence at CES, it's a chance for other manufacturers to shout about their tablet devices. But there's not the mad rush of iPad rivals that you might expect. Poor sales of Android tablets seem to have made the big electronics giants more cautious.

brightcove : 1411796785001

That said, this week we've nodded appreciatively in the direction of the Acer Iconia Tab A700, which will come packing Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich) and a huge quad-core processor. Nice.

Toshiba has also jumped back into tablet waters with the new Excite 10, a stylish 10.1-inch Android slab that boasts a 1.2GHz dual-core TI processor and a 1,280 x 800 pixel display.

But it's Lenovo that has turned heads and widened eyes with its two new tablet models. There's the Asus Transformer-alike IdeaPad S2 running Ice Cream Sandwich and the quad-core Tegra 3-powered IdeaPad K2 (see below), which looks like a supercomputer pretending to be a clipboard.

Lenovo has also been showing off the IdeaPad Yoga, a 13.1-inch laptop/tablet that has been described as "like Microsoft's vision for the Tablet PC from 2002. Only good."

We've also had a play with the ViewSonic ViewPad E70 and the Aigopad m803. While the feisty, quad-core Asus MeMo has Amazon's Kindle Fire firmly in its sights.

Looking to the future, Nvidia has been demoing a prototype Windows 8 tablet, powered by its quad-core Tegra 3 processor. It's good. Very good. Intel should be worried.

Meanwhile, Razer's 'Project Fiona' gaming tablet (see below) has got us all frothed up about gaming on the sofa in 2012. Who needs a PlayStation Vita when you can play PC games on a tablet with two controllers? We hate those fiddly touchscreen joypads...

brightcove : 1387093883001

What of RIM? Rather than unveil a new Playbook model (that would be sheer madness...), the beleaguered Blackberry builder has upgraded its tablet software to version 2.0. We wish we had some groundbreaking features to report. We don't. See for yourself.

CES 2012: Phones

While most manufacturers will be saving their big phone launches until Mobile World Congress in February, several new smartphones have been been spotted on the plush Vegas carpets.

Having absorbed Ericsson into the Sony hive mind, the newest Xperia handsets are the first to break cover without any Ericsson branding.

The Sony Xperia S (pictured above) is essentially a Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc with HD - a 4.3-inch Reality Display (1,280 x 700 pixels), a 12MP camera and the promise of an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade in Q2.

You can also say hello to the new Sony Xperia Ion, a PlayStation-certified, dual-core (1.5GHz) smartphone with 16GB of internal storage and a 12MP rear camera.

Elsewhere, HTC has upgraded the Titan for duty on AT&T. The HTC Titan II is the same 4.7-inch, 1.5GHz Windows Phone that you might be indifferent to. But it's been souped up with a 16MP snapper, wide angle lens, dual LED flash and LTE support.

The US also gets the Nokia Lumia 800 dressed up as the Nokia Lumia 900. What's new? It's LTE-powered, larger screened (4.3 inches) and has a better front camera.

The LG Spectrum also catches the eye with a 4.5-inch IPS LCD that rivals the Retina display on the iPhone 4. While the the Huawei Ascend P1 S and Ascend P1 trumpet Super AMOLED screens and the thinnest chassis on the market. It's only 6.68mm thick.

Intel has regularly missed the boat when it comes to mobile, but that doesn't stop it trying to catch up. The chip colossus has used this year's CES to publish its reference design for smartphones, which stipulates a minimum spec for any manufacturer who wants to use its Atom chips.

Need an example? You're in luck. Lenovo has partnered with Intel to produce the Lenovo K800, an Android-powered Atom-phone with a 720p 4.5-inch display, 8MP camera, NFC and HDMI. It's good. And quite noticeably zippy. But Intel will need better phones than this to establish Atom as a credible mobile CPU.

The future of mobiles in 2012 arguably lies with quad-core handsets like Fujitsu's 1.2GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core super phone prototype. Is it 'super'? Really? The inclusion of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), a 1,280x720 4.6-inch TFT LCD, 13.1MP rear-facing camera and 4GB of RAM would suggest a big, fat "hell, yeah!"

CES 2012: Laptops

Think the laptop is dead? Far from it. Acer launched the 13.3-inch Aspire S5 during its CES 2012 press conference and promised Windows 8 Ultrabooks in the second half of the year.

Forget netbooks, chromebooks and desktop replacement systems. Ultrabooks that pay design homage to Apple's skinny Macbook Air are the new laptop form factor of choice. Without any other stand-out gadgets, they've quickly become one of the stars of the 2012 show.

Lenovo, for example, has unwrapped its good looking IdeaPad U Series ultrabooks at this year's show - the 13-inch U310 model weighs in at 1.7kg and is only 18mm thick.

Intel believes that tablets can't replace laptop computers and that we'll be even happier with a convertible Ultrabook that runs Windows 8 (and is powered by Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge Intel CPUs. Obviously).

HP's Ultrabook effort is the good-lookin' Envy 14 Spectre, which incorporates a roomier 14-inch (1,600 x 900 pixel) panel and is only 21mm thick. Under the hood there's an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processor, and a 128GB hard drive.

Samsung, meanwhile, joins the Ultrabook club with its Series 5 devices, which will be availble in 13- and 14-inch variants with 2nd generation Intel Core i5 engines and Radeon HD graphics.

Samsung also rolled out the second generation of its Series 9 laptops with a refined 'aerodynamic design'.

LG has also jumped on the Ultrabook bandwagon, showcasing the slender LG Z330 and LG Z430 Super Ultrabooks. What's 'Super' about them? We're not sure.

The 13-inch Z330 features a Core i7 processor, a SATA3 SSD and boasts a skinny frame that's an astounding 14.7mm thick. The Z430 is a little bigger with a 14-inch display and dual SSD/HDD storage.

Other Ultrabook contenders include the HP Folio 13 and the Dell XPS 13, a gorgeous device that could seduce you with its looks before you even thought to ask about the specs. Oh yes, the specs... a 13-inch display, narrow 316 x 205mm footprint, Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, 4 gigs of memory and a 128/256GB SSD.

But the prize for strangest laptop surely goes to Intel's Nikiski see-through notebook. It isn't an Ultrabook (although a thinner version is planned), but it does feature a clever glass touchpad that doubles up as a touchscreen when you close the lid (see below).

CES 2012: HDTVs

Despite the popularity of tablets and smartphones, CES has always been about TVs. Bigger TVs, thinner TVs, Full HD TVs, 4K TVs, OLED TVs and smart Internet-connected TVs. CES 2012 is no different.

One of the stars of the show is LG's new 4mm-thick 55-inch OLED 3D HDTV, which has got Vegas crowds dribbling down their free promotional T-shirts. Only 4mm. That's thinner than your smartphone. It's quite simply stunning and still shots don't do it justice.

Not to be outdone (although it clearly has been), Samsung also has a 55-inch OLED telly of its own. Check out our photos and video.

Could this finally be the year that OLED becomes more than a headline-grabbing technology demo? Our fingers are crossed. Again. Just like last year...

As for Sony, it pressganged Hollywood star Will Smith to look impressed by its prototype Crystal LED technology. Fusing LCD and OLED, the futuristic TV works by packing in six million LEDs to give it OLED levels of clarity, colour and brightness.

In the battle of the BIG screens, LG and Sharp duked it out for the 'largest 3D TV of the show' award. Sharp came close with its 80-incher, but LG just nabbed the gong with its 84-inch ultra definition (3,840 x 2,160 pixel) set. The 1mm bezel "enhances the illusion that the 3D is borderless".

And if you think 4K2K TV is impressive, wait until you clap your eyes on Sharp's prototype 8K panel, which boasts 7,680 x 4,320 pixels. That's 16 times the resolution of HD.

Of course, the next generation of TVs will also be smarter. Sony has plans to play around with Google TV STBs, LG also has a Smart TV running Google's Android telly system, while Opera has unveiled more about its television app store.

While we wait for a Siri-powered Apple iTV, Samsung and LG have both been pimping Kinect-style gesture technology as a replacement for the remote control.

In fact, LG's system uses an add-on camera (pictured above) that looks suspiciously similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 peripheral. Samsung's tech uses the camera that's built into its 8000-series HD TVs.

Panasonic, meanwhile, enlisted the help of Justin Timberlake to launch MySpace TV, which will feature on new Viera HDTVs. Does anybody still use MySpace? And can any of them afford a TV? We're not convinced. Panasonic also has a big OLED TV in the works, but it just wasn't ready for this year's show.

CES 2012: Gadgets

What else have we been impressed by at this year's CES? Sure there have been novelty USB sticks, remote-controlled iPhone-copters and Microsoft had a tweet choir during its keynote. But here are the gadgets that have really caught our giant, Sauron-esque eye...

For a peek into the future of cloud computing, look no further than the OnLive Desktop for iPad. Want to use the Microsoft Office Suite on your tablet? OnLive is happy to oblige.

JVC has announced the world's first handheld 4K camcorder. The GY-HMQ10 can take 3,840 x 2,160 footage at 24 or 50p.

Pico projectors may not have the lustre they had when first released but there's certain companies which keep churning out the pint-sized product again and again. Check out the Optoma PK32.

If you want Apple's AirPlay but don't want to spend hundreds replacing the speakers you've already spent hundreds on, Griffin has a treat for you.

CES 2012: Cameras

PMA@CES Preview video

Photographers will doubtless be intrigued by Fujifilm's newly designed X-Trans 16-million pixel APS-C CMOS sensor. Built into the new X-Pro 1 mirrorless camera, Fuji claims that it is capable of delivering resolution of the same quality, if not superior, to a full-frame sensor. Here's our hands on: Fuji X-Pro1 review.

We've also had some hands on time with the Canon G1 X, which boasts a 14.3MP CMOS sensor, 4x optical zoom, raw shooting and Full HD video recording.

CES is also overflowing with compact cameras. Panasonic has introduced five new models to sit in its Lumix range. They include the 16.1-megapixel FS45 and 14.1-megapixel FS40 models; 16.1-megapixel Panasonic Lumix S5; the 14.1-megapixel SZ7 and the 16.1-megapixel SZ1.

Sony has added three new cameras to its enduring CyberShot range - the DSC-W610, DSC-W620 and DSC-W650. While Samsung has been showing off its WB850F and WB150F high-end compacts.

Olympus, meanwhile, has announced five new compact cameras, including a rugged "Tough" camera. The TG-320 is shockproof, waterproof and freezeproof, and is, according to Olympus, "virtually indestructible".

CES 2012: Can Intel take the smartphone fight to ARM?

James Stables — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:10:00 GMT

Can Intel take the smartphone fight to ARM?

Intel's 'Medfield' Atom chip has been a long time coming, and we first reported on its announcement back in February 2011 after Mobile World Congress.

Now we know it's called the Intel Atom Z2460, and is at the heart of the new Lenovo K800 smartphone released today at CES 2012.

After falling behind ARM in the chase for mobile supremacy, Medfield represents Intel's intention to challenge the market with a new kind of processor.

It's a single core chip based on the more familiar Atom processor, which is more commonly found on netbooks, and nettops, offering low power at a low cost. Medfield is an evolution of Penwell, sharing most of the architecture.

The processor market has thrived on the message that 'more cores equal more power' and with dual-core smartphones now the norm, and quad-core tablets being released throughout 2012, many will baulk at Medfield's single core announcement. However, there's more to Medfield than meets the eye.

Low power consumption is a huge part of Intel's intentions with the Atom Z2460, and the ability to deliver long battery life, without sacrificing performance, is a key factor in the success of any mobile processor.

By opting for a 32nm architecture - which is the world's first on a smartphone - Intel believes it can deliver the efficiencies its rivals can't. The company boasted that Medfield enjoys a 10x lower power leakage than its 45nm rivals, which include the ARM licensed Qualcomm MSM8x60 Snapdragon and Texas Instruments OMAP 4, but still larger than the forthcoming 28nm Cortex A7, which is slated for early 2013.

Power and battery life have been huge issues for mobile chip makers, and each has come up with different ways of managing what has become a major complaint for consumers. ARM's Cortex A7 processor uses a Big.LITTLE concept of running two chips - one powerful, one efficient - and switching smartly between them depending on the task undertaken by the handset.

Medfield uses a dynamic range of power states, throttles processor speeds as and when they're required, with fine grained steps at 100MHz increments. 1.6GHz speeds are only achieved in short 'burst modes' for the most demanding tasks.

Intel says this range of speeds enables it to keep power consumption lower than its rivals.

Being derived from a PC processor means that Medfield is the first x86 processor, which brings about a whole new set of challenges for Intel. The first challenge is app support, since the Dalvik and NDK apps found on the Android Market, for example, aren't designed to work on x86 chips.

Intel has promised 90% app support when Medfield phones hit the shelves, and have been busy turning apps into Medfield-compliant programs. The company promised that consumers wouldn't notice any difference, and that Medfield smartphones wouldn't have to be annexed to a separate x86 Marketplace.

Atom Z2460 specifications

The single-core Intel Atom Z2460 chip is clocked at 1.6GHz, with 512KB of L2 cache memory, which is far faster than the 1.2 GHz Cortex A9 found on many the hero devices of 2012, such as the Samsung Galaxy S2.

Intel deflected questions about Medfield's single-core architecture, pointing at other innovations, which help keep performance up with its rivals. Hyperthreading capability is found on Medfield, much like Intel's lauded full-form PC chip Sandy Bridge, which mimics a dual core chip by enabling the core to work on two processes simultaneously.

This speeds up the work done by each core, meaning that processes can be completed quicker, which is really noticeable during video encoding.

Any software must have threads written into the code for a processor to take advantage, and it will be interesting to see where Medfield can gain the biggest performance advantages. While Android's core apps could be engineered to make use of Hyperthreading, it's not clear whether third-party apps will be, and this is something to look for as the system develops.

One cause for concern, however, is that the Intel Atom Z2460 can only handle a maximum screen resolution of 1024 x 768. With an industry focusing on screen quality, this leaves very little headroom for growth. And as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus already features a screen at this resolution, don't expect to see Intel-based smartphones exceeding this.

Atom Z2460 performance

TechRadar was treated to an exclusive preview with a reference handset running the Medfield chip at Intel's Santa Clara headquarters, where the company ran benchmarks against leading handsets.

We'll be holding back judgement until we get the chance to review the Medfield platform ourselves, but Intel's boasts were backed up by an impressive showing in early tests.

The reference handset was 3x faster in BrowserMark than the Samsung Galaxy S2, which is exciting news for those looking to enjoy rich web experiences on their smartphones.

Intel's benchmarks also recorded its Medfield system to use 50% less power in 3G mode than the iPhone 4S, which has suffered from complaints over battery life.

Battery life seems promising, with Intel claiming 26 hours from the reference handset - a figure that's 10% better than the Samsung Galaxy S2.

One of the most exciting Intel demos, however, was the playback of 1080p media from the handset onto a large external display. While high-definition video is promised on many handsets, the reality can be playback with is jumpy at best, and impossible at worst. The Medfield reference phone played 1080p video back seamlessly, even while connected by HDMI.

CES 2012: LaCie shows off new Thunderbolt products

Patrick Goss — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:38:00 GMT

LaCie has announced the 2big Tunderbolt Series and the eSATA Hub Thunderbolt series at CES 2012.

The storage specialist is showing off its latest Thunderbolt-equipped offerings with the technology offering transfer rates three times that of FireWire 800.

LaCie 2big features RAID security, hot swappable discs and a solid aluminimum case, with capacities up to 8TB for people with massive storage needs.

New lease

The eSATA Hub Thunderbolt "gives new life" to existing eSATA drives by allowing you to connect up two eSATA external drives to its ports and take advantage of the Thunderbolt connection.

"LaCie is proud to offer the widest range of storage solutions featuring Thunderbolt technology," said Erwan Girard, professional business unit manager at LaCie.

"These products are some of the fastest and most flexible storage solutions on the market. They will dramatically accelerate the workflow of even the most demanding digital users."

CES 2012: LG's latest monitors unveiled

Patrick Goss — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:17:00 GMT

LG's TVs may have stolen much of the attention, but its monitor line-up has also been given a key boost, with four new arrivals.

The DM92, DM82, DM52 and D43 IPS monitors all offer 2D to 3D conversion - as LG looks to continue to blur the line of where TV's start and monitors end.

"The 2011 IPS monitor line-up shows LG's continued commitment to deliver innovative products that provide consumers with the most immersive home entertainment experience possible." said LG US home entertainment senior VP Jay Vandenbree.

LG DM92

The headliner, as the naming would suggest, is the DM92 - which has a design 'mirroring' the slim bezel Cinema TV range.

It's a 27 inch display and uses the LG FPR 3D display tech - with the Korean giant suggesting that it enables consistent colour and brightness from wide angles.

The DM82 series offers up a 23 inch panel, 7w speakers built in and a 'futuristic' design - which consists of a metallic neck and square base.

The more budget-friendly DM52 range comes at 27 and 23 inch , while the D43 offers up another option for those looking for a TV Monitor combination.

We're yet to get a UK release date, but the monitors will hit the US in the first quarter of 2012.

CES 2012: Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock previewed

Gareth Beavis — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:05:00 GMT

Belkin has detailed its new Thunderbolt Express Dock, which brings next-gen connectivity to the current generation of super-slim, port-shy Ultrabooks and MacBook Airs.

The new dock, which will be on show at CES 2012, features a plethora of ports to give easy access to loads of peripherals with one cable.

This means users can connect up USB devices, transfer high volumes of data and connect to online content at the same speeds offered by gigabit Ethernet.

Very, very frightening… Galileo

The Thunderbolt Express Dock includes three USB 2.0 ports, one Firewire 800 port, one HDMI port, one 3.5mm Audio port, one gigabit Ethernet port and two Thunderbolt ports (one upstream and one downstream) for connecting up multiple Thunderbolt devices too, with 10Gbps bi-directional data transfer rates.

"People purchase the MacBook Air and Ultrabook for ultimate portability, but constantly plugging-in and unplugging numerous cable-connected peripherals is an annoying and time consuming ordeal," said Martin Avilla, general manager of Belkin's Core Business Unit.

"The Thunderbolt Express Dock provides a much-needed solution that creates a cleaner, faster, more productive workspace and reliable connectivity to desktop devices and the Internet."

The Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock release date has been set for Autumn 2012 across Europe, with pricing to be decided in the second half of the year.

Logitech Cube is a mouse shaped like a brick

Kate Solomon — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:02:00 GMT

You know what else really needs reinventing aside from the wheel? The mouse. Good job Logitech's on hand then, with its curious quadrangular Logitech Cube.

Instead of easy, straightforward buttons, the Cube comes with touchscreen tech, which should prove handy for free-flowing scrolling, and you can magically transform the mouse into a presenter simply by picking it up.

Rather than keep it al desko, the Logitech Cube is intended to be taken with you wherever you go, hence why it comes with a tiny receiver which you can keep plugged into your laptop all the time. So all you need do is pop the Cube in your pocket and head for the hills or Starbucks or wherever.

It's not really a cube though, is it

You can pair the Cube to up to six devices and work up to 25 metres away from the computer if that's how you roll, plus the visual battery meter lets you know when the mouse is running low on juice.

Obviously we'll reserve final judgement until we can try the Cube out for ourselves, but we can't imagine wanting to use the brick-like mouse for extended periods of time. It doesn't look exactly ergonomic, if you see what we mean.

But if it tickles your fancy, the Logitech Cube will be showcased at CES 2012 with a UK release date set for January 2012 when you'll be able to pick it up for £59.99.

Also on show at CES 2012 will be the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920, a full HD video camera complete with Carl Zeiss lens, autofocus and H.264 compression.

Samsung 27-inch 9 Series monitor unveiled

Patrick Goss — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:28:00 GMT

Samsung has officially unveiled a second-generation 27-inch Series 9 monitor, with the S27A970 to be shown off at CES 2012 next week.

The stylish monitor is a flagship offering from Samsung taking on the mantle from the Samsung T27A950, and includes the company's proprietary Natural Colour Expert tech and boasts a resolution of 2560x1440.

"Interest in user-generated content and a premium computing experience is growing as consumers are demanding products that allow them to better view, edit and share their photos, videos and entertainment content," said Samsung UK's Neil Sawyer

Answers needs

"The new Series 9 monitor, with Samsung's exclusive Natural Colour Expert technology, answers the need for higher resolution and meticulous detail editing, regardless of the job," he added.

"Its unique minimalist design draws users in for truly immersive computing and delivers Samsung's signature best-in-class viewing experience."

The Natural Colour Expert promises to provide colours 'as they were intended to be seen' and each monitor is apparently hand tuned for colour balance by an engineer.

Also included is Samsung's Plane Line Switching panel tech, that quad high definition resolution, a USB hub in the base, DisplayPort, Dual Link-DVI and HDMI video connections, 7W stereo speakers and a Mobile High Definition Link (MHL) for MHL-enabled smartphones and tablets.

We've not been let in on a UK price yet, but this is a premium offering, so don't expect it to be cheap.

Tutorial: How to undelete a Registry key

Mike Williams — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:30:00 GMT

How to undelete a Registry key

Editing the Registry can be a dangerous business. Not only are you playing around with some of the most important settings on your PC, but there's no easy way to reverse whatever changes you might make.

And so if you delete something accidentally, then you could be in serious trouble.

It doesn't have to be that way, though. Deleting a Registry key is a little like deleting a file; you may not be able to see it any more, but its data is still there on your hard drive.

And so, if you equip yourself with the right program, and act quickly, then you may be able to recover the lost Registry key (or keys) and get your PC back in working order.

One of the best tools for Registry recovery is yaru (Yet Another Registry Utility). Grab yourself a copy, unzip the download file and run yaru.exe to begin. (Windows Vista and 7 users should run it as an administrator; right-click yaru.exe and select "Run as Administrator".)

You won't see any Registry values immediately because yaru works offline, and you'll need to open the relevant hive file first. To open HKEY_CURRENT_USER, say, click File > Open User Hive (local) and choose your user account; to open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software click File > Open Software (Local); to open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System click File > Open System (local), and so on.

The tree for your chosen section of the Registry should now appear, and at the bottom of this will be a branch called Deleted Keys. Open this, browse through what's on offer, and with any luck you'll find your deleted settings.

There are no guarantees, though. If you don't act quickly after deleting a setting then there's a chance it may be overwritten by some other value, and that's what has probably happened here. Confirm that you really are looking in the right area of the Registry, and if so then you'll need to look at some other possibility for recovery.

System Restore will restore your entire Registry back to a previous version, for instance, and if you've a full system backup then that may also help.

Export and restore

If yaru managed to find your lost settings, though, then you'll need to export these in a format which can re-imported into your current Registry. And that only takes a moment. Just right-click the top-level lost key and choose the appropriate export option, which will probably be "Export keys to file [Recursive]"; this means export everything beneath this level to a Registry file. And save the results to a file called "recover.reg" (or something similar) on your desktop.

With that done, now find and double-click the file you've just saved. Windows will warn you that setting a block of Registry keys in this way can be dangerous. If you're 100% sure that you want to do it, though, click "Yes", they'll be imported, and that's it - your lost Registry settings have all been recovered.

You do need to be careful with this technique. You shouldn't assume it gives you leeway to freely delete whatever Registry settings you like, for instance - there's no guarantee yaru will be able to recover any particular value.

And you also have to be careful in deciding what to restore. If you make a mistake there, restore the wrong Registry keys by accident, then you could make your situation even worse. If you're at all unclear about any of these steps then make sure you get yourself some insurance by running System Restore and making regular system backups.

For the most part, though, yaru is an easy way to restore lost Registry keys. Powerful yet compact (the executable file is only 1.4MB), it's packed with powerful features, and is well worth a place in your portable troubleshooting toolkit.

Tutorial: 10 New Year's resolutions for your PC

Alan Dexter — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:00:00 GMT

10 New Year's resolutions for your PC

The New Year is a great time to start using your computer in a safer, more efficient and more exciting way.

Get 2012 off to a flying start with these quick tips.

1. Back up data

We should all back up our important data and documents regularly. Unfortunately, most people only start backing up after losing something irreplaceable. Learn from others' past mistakes and back up your machine right now.

If you have a CD burner or DVD writer, simply select your documents and pictures in Windows Explorer and then hit the 'Burn' button in the top bar. Follow the prompts, burn your disc and then store it somewhere safe.

2 Save to the cloud

Make an extra backup by saving your work in the cloud, as well as to a physical disk. Storage services such as Microsoft SkyDrive offer lots of free space for saving personal files, photos and documents. SkyDrive comes as part of a Windows Live account, which you'll have if you've got a Hotmail account.

3. Clean out the junk

Computers inevitably collect rubbish over time. All those programs you install, websites you visit and things you download from friends and family eventually conspire to slow down your machine. Luckily, cleaning this mess up is a lot easier and more rewarding than you might imagine.

To get started, open Windows Explorer, right-click your hard drive and select 'Properties' from the drop-down list. Click the 'Disk cleanup' button and after a quick check of your system, you'll see how much space you can save by deleting temporary files, rubbish in the Recycle Bin and a variety of logs. Click 'OK' to clean it up!

4. Defrag your hard drive

Now that you've got a lot of rubbish off your hard drive, you can optimise the space that's left. Whenever you delete a file from your hard drive, lots of little gaps are left behind. When you defragment your drive you basically put all these gaps together again. To defragment your drive, right-click your hard drive(s), select 'Properties', click on the 'Tools' tab and then click the 'Defragment now' button.

5. Organise your data better

If you want your machine to operate efficiently all the time, then try to get into good habits when you're deciding where to save your photos and documents. Don't save your files to your computer's desktop with the intention of putting them in your Documents folder later on - save them to the right place in the beginning so you don't have to worry about moving them afterwards. This won't only save you time in the short term, it will make backing up your machine easier as well.

6. Optimise Windows

Now that you've got your hard drive in tip-top shape, you can turn your attention to Windows itself to see if there are any performance-enhancing tweaks to be made there as well. Windows 7 boasts built-in tools that can help you sort out performance issues.

Open the Control Panel from the Start menu, select 'Find and fix problems' under the System and Security section, and then select 'Check for performance issues'. Follow the suggestions supplied by the wizard and any advice it offers.

7. Encrypt your important files

You can improve your computer's security by using encryption to protect your most sensitive data. You'll need a copy of Windows 7 Business or Ultimate to access this feature, and you must be running the operating system on a NTFS-formatted hard drive.

If you've got that list of requirements ticked off, simply create a folder to encrypt, right-click it, select 'Properties', click on the 'Advanced' button and then click the 'Encrypt contents to secure data' option. That's it - the files in that folder are now protected.

8. Update your software

Probably the biggest cause of PC problems is software not being up to date. You should have Windows Update set to work automatically anyway, but if not you can do so from the Windows Update utility using the 'Change settings' option - just set it to automatic.

You should check for updates for all your other programs as well, either by visiting the developer's website yourself, or making sure that any automatic update options are turned on.

9. Take security seriously

With more and more of our lives spent online, doing everything from managing our bank accounts to booking holidays and ordering the weekly shopping, it's important to make sure you and your computer are protected while doing so.

First, make sure that you've got a security suite installed - Microsoft Security Essentials is good and free - and ensure it's kept up to date. Second, remember to scan your system from time to time, and don't just rely on real-time antivirus protection. Third, and most important of all, don't be lax with your security online - if an offer looks too good to be true or is from someone you don't know, just avoid it.

10. Try new things

Our last suggestion for a new year's resolution is to enjoy your PC and use it to do interesting and fun things. 2012 will see an explosion of new applications and web-based services that enable you to do incredible things with your pictures, movies and data. Try something new, different and interesting. We'll be covering the best of what's out there right here, so you can always turn to us for inspiration.