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The Intel Mobile Chips That Could Take The World By y Storm Are Budget Gaming Laptops Just A Myth? Top Tips For Windows Media Player
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Contents
This week...
What Next For Apple?

08

08 What Next For Apple?

Women In 34 Gaming Laptops On Technology A Budget

18

18 Women In Technology
We live in enlightened times, but the world of technology is still largely dominated by men. Why arent there more women working in technology and whats being done to redress this imbalance? Sarah Dobbs reports

Whatever you think of Apple, theres no denying its influence on the computing world. Its made a business out of incremental upgrades for its products, but is it running out ideas? Mark Pickavance examines where it might go next and questions whether it can stay at the top of the pile

Gaming Laptops On A Budget

4
Issue 1193

34

42 Ivy Bridge

The idea of a gaming laptop is an appealing prospect, but whats even better is if it doesnt cost you an arm and a leg. But can you really get a budget gaming laptop? Indeed, what do you need for it to be classed as being gaming-capable? Mark Pickavance answers these questions and more in this special feature

Motherboards On Test
Need an Ivy Bridge motherboard suitable for a gaming PC build? If so, then this weeks group test is for you, because Leo Waldock has been lining up a selection of possible candidates and putting them through their paces

WorldMags.net

42 64

Ivy Bridge Motherboards On Test

Group Test
42 43 44 46 48 49 50 52 53 54 55 56 57

ASRock Z77 Fatal1ty Professional Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel DZ77GA-70K MSI Z77A-G45 Sapphire Pure Platinum Z77K Sum up Zotac GeForce GTX 670 AMP! Edition iClone 5 Pro Imagination Studio 3 Portrait Professional Resident Evil Raccoon City Distant Worlds NecroVision: Lost Company

7-Series Motherboards For Intel Ivy Bridge

Reviews

The Ubuntu Server Project, Part 1

75 Company Profile:
Tumblr

60 The State Of

Mobile Media

Also In This Issue...

90 92 94 76 77 78 79 80 20 22 58 82 84 86 96

Experts
Ask Aaron Ask Jason Ask James Linux Amiga Mobile Retro Gaming

Specialists

64 The Ubuntu Server

Project, Part 1

Kicking of a short series looking at the state of mobile technology today, Ian McGurren looks at mobile media. It all started with the Walkman, but things have moved on considerably since then and there are plenty of new developments on the horizon

Yes, its yet another social network but one thats made its creator a very wealthy young man

News

95 App Of The Week:

David Hayward has been waving his mouse around erratically, but this time its not just because hes had too much coffee

Your Letters The Latest News

StrokesPlus

Regulars
Subscriptions Ad Index IT Essentials Classifieds Logging Off

70 Top Tips For Windows

Media Player

Over the next few weeks, Leo Maxwell is going to show you how to get an Ubuntu-based server project off the ground. This week, to get things started, hes discussing how to choose your components and put them together and how to install the operating system

72 Pocket Intel

Its the media player that pretty much every Windows user will have on their PC somewhere, whether they use it or not. This week, David Hayward shows you how to get the most from it

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As things stand, ARM is the king when it comes to mobile CPUs. Intel, so far, has failed to convince the world it has a worthwhile alternative. Could the release of the Orange San Diego change that? Kevin Pocock looks at what it has to offer and ponders whether an x86 mobile chip is really what the world wants or needs

WorldMags.net

Issue 1213 1193

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Apples Undiscovered Country

Mark Pickavance wonder whether Apple is on the edge of a stunning futuristic vista or a deep abyss
ere not entirely averse to a little prediction here at Micro Mart, even if the technology runes can be especially hard to read. In respect of Apple, this is always a thankless task, because it often appears that the company has little or no idea where it will go next, and the path is as much a surprise to Apple as it is to anyone else. Part of that stems from the super-secret nature of product development at the company, where employees are under no

W
8

illusion what fate might befall them if they reveal company secrets to the press or public. If the last few months are a good example, the passing on of the Apple leadership baton to new CEO Tim Cook hasnt altered the companys persona in this respect. It still likes to prime the rumour mill discretely with one hand while deploying legal representatives to deal with anyone intent on stealing its product launch thunder.

Issue 1213

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APPLES UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

However, its last two major product launches, the iPhone 4S and the new iPad, both raised questions about where Apple goes from here. Neither broke any new ground, choosing instead to rework the model of their predecessors in predictable ways. So has Apple run out of ideas about making new devices or is it just waiting to invade new territories with something radical and new? work for the company was assessing a new iPhone 5 with a bigger display, and that he was on board with it. Since then, more rumours have emerged that the display Apple will go with is even bigger than the one that Steve blessed, so clearly once it crossed that physical rubicon, Apple just kept on going. Its seems safe to say the iPhone 5 will have a bigger display, but thats hardly revolutionary. What else? Well, the obvious other step that goes along with a bigger panel is a higher resolution one, much in way that Apple enhanced the iPad with the Retina display. However, quite what advantages this might bring over the Retina display already in the iPhone 4S isnt clear, and it might be rather pointless, and also break a number of applications that are resolution sensitive.

The Future Of The iPhone

Many people got concerned when they saw the iPhone 4S, which in many aspects isnt much of a stepping stone from the iPhone 4 it replaced. Compared with the distinctive step-change that it went through when moving from the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4S seemed a modest improvement that meant proud owners of the new phone were forced to tell their friends about it, rather than it be obvious they had the latest design. That, coupled with the expectation that it would be the iPhone 5 that was actually appearing, meant there was a degree of disappointment with the iPhone 4S that probably it didnt deserve. However, it served to underline a greater concern, which was, given the capabilities already in the phone, where could Apple take it from next. Because of Steve Jobss focus on the user experience, a number of a rules were laid down early in the development of the phone that provided Apples competitors with lots of opportunities to exploit the market. Probably the most critical of these was his obsession with screen size, where he entirely discounted the notion of a phone screen greater than 3.5. LG, Samsung and HTC all went with larger displays and demonstrated that they would be popular even if Jobs had written them off for the iPhone. As I reported in a recent Logging Off, Apple has now changed its mind about big phone screens, and has even done some preparation of the message change by suggesting covertly that Steve Jobss last

The world is full of people who would like to design Apples next phone or tablet, and some designs look quite believable

WorldMags.net

Issue 1213

I can say with some certainty that the iPhone 5 wont be this cool, even if Apple would love it to be

Its pretty much accepted that Apple will go with an quad-core ARM processor, but it would require some major recoding of iOS to exploit. Traditionally multi-tasking came late to the iPhone, and its not a strong point, so a multi-threaded/multi-core update might make the phone operate more dynamically. Even if a very small portion of the US population, and almost none of Europe, can access the LTE service, the iPhone 5 is very likely to offer it. Other likely featutes include NFC (Near Field Communication) for mobile payments, wireless charging, and the just approved Nano-SIM. If none of this sounds super-exciting to you, then join the club. There isnt a show-stopping feature mentioned, and not all the ones listed are likely to make it into the phone. Unless Apple has a technical ace up its research and development sleeve, then its operating on the basis that fans of Apple will buy the product irrespective of almost every feature already being part of an existing design. The iPhone 5 will undoubtedly sell well, but it might not set the technocratic hearts aflutter. This is one of a number of areas where Apple now seems to be the follower, rather than the leader it once was.

The Future Of The iPad

Just before I wrote this, a small slice of Apple history turned up on eBay, and with it an interesting insight into how Apple likes to ration design improvements, bumping them into future versions of its products. The prototype of the original iPad had one distinct feature, which was dual ports, allowing it to be charged in both horizontal and vertical orientations. This was a nice feature, because it allowed the iPad to play video in its natural landscape mode when mounted on a dock. So where is this feature now? Not available, or rather not in the current iPad, but that doesnt exclude it from future models, does it? The first iPad didnt have a camera, but it was a selling point of the second, and so on. What Apple has learned, and which its taught the world, is that you dont put all your best ideas in the first, second or even third incarnation of the device, because otherwise youll get to the point

that the iPhone has reached now, where youre struggling to find new features to add. This isnt entirely unlike the problem that Microsoft faces with each iteration of Office, where it comes up with increasingly unimportant extras that nobody uses, or it even takes features away in a desperate attempt to inject something new into its software sales. What other manufacturers would do under these circumstances is provide a range of iPads, targeting different markets and pricing. But Apple, or rather Steve Jobs, hated the idea of extensive product ranges and, as such, it only makes two variants (WiFi and 3G+WiFi) and three different memory sizes of each. Thats six different products, which, compared with many product lines, is a very tight line-up indeed. A number of pundits have vaunted the idea of a mini- or a maxiPad, but this creates issues with the presentation of applications, a wider product range that needs more tooling, and more subtle marketing. That would suggest that Apple wont take the iPad down that route, which begs the question of which direction it will go in. Its registered some patents for a Kinect-like control system so that iPad and iPhone users can operate their devices without leaving smudgy prints on them, so were likely to see that, along with improved Siri voice control. Theres also talk of glass that can resist smudges entirely through a special coating, which doesnt seem implausible. However, I think well see that on other tablets almost simultaneously, because the company with this technology wont be granting Apple an exclusive licence on something with such wide application. The next iPad will undoubtedly be better, but it seems unrealistic to expect any radical departures from whats already been seen.

The Future Of The Mac

Quietly, and without much commotion, Apple got out of the server business a while back, and its started to reduce the scope of the Mac product line. Yet its still developing OS X, and its been launching some new systems with the very latest Intel Ivy Bridge technology and its new Thunderbolt port.

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WorldMags.net

A concept for a 3D iPad that appeared on the Mac Life website. The coolness of this concept might be tempered by Nintendos experience of delivering 3D system on portable computing devices

So is the world of the Mac safe from major tinkering? I think not. A large number of Mac fans have noticed a design creep where features and design models from the iPhone/iPad and iOS have been making their way to the Mac, first in OS X Lion and more recently in the Mountain Lion refresh. Oddly, Apple has also dropped the term Mac from the name of the operating system, which is just referred to as OS X, and no longer Mac OS X. The suspicion is that Apple would like to end the Mac, even if this might seem like a culture shock for its fans that would make its transition to Intel seem like a minor inconvenience. Others think that Apple will stop making desktop systems next and just have portable Mac computers, which will eventually merge into the iPad and disappear altogether. From a profitability viewpoint, compared with the iPhone and iPad, the computer division doesnt generate much and it sucks a huge amount of resources from the company, so from a purely fiscal perspective, these rumours have some credence.

That said, there is a hardcore of US Apple supporters who started with the Mac and have stayed with the company through the various ups and downs, and theyd feel rather betrayed if Apple stopped making computers completely. No announcement seems imminent and, whatever happens, Apple is unlikely to take advertisement space to promote its intentions. Whats more likely is a controlled withdrawal, where Apple offers less computers and more sophisticated alternatives in an attempt to move the company away from these legacy devices and into a new era where it gets a share of all software sales for its devices . Of all the hardware that Apple makes, it seems ironic that its the Mac that now seems to be the runt of the litter, given its iconic status in the history of computing. Hold on, doesnt Apple already have a product called Apple TV? Yes, it does, but confusingly it isnt an actual display; its a simple iTunes media-playing box. However, rumours have strongly suggested that Apple will actually launch a physical TV some time in 2012. It wanted to call this device the iTV, but thats a problematic name in numerous geographic locations. My guess is that it will be called iHDTV or iVision or something similar. Were aware of the existence of this product from multiple sources, not least an interview that Tim Cook gave to The Wall Street Journal, and reference to it in the recent Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. Further support for the assertion that the arrival is close come from within Foxconn, Apples most trusted supplier, which, according to several sources, has been given the green light to product the first Apple television. So what else is known about the TV and its abilities? The rumours may or may not be accurate but most of them sound plausible. It will supposedly come in sizes from 42 to 55 , with maybe a 32 one too. The display technology is LCD, as even Apple shied away from OLED at these scales. As with the Apple TV box, the on-board operating system will be iOS, so essentially these will be like huge versions of the iPad, but without the touch sensitivity. Control will be by gesture and voice (Siri v2), and theyll integrate into the exiting app and media selling

Apple TV

Flexibility might be a direction for the iPhone and iTouch, though they might have problems getting people to pay more than 400 for a bendy piece of plastic

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Apple did make a Mac/TV combo in the past, but more than $2,000 for a 14 TV and a slow Mac computer made even Americans decline this deal

Apples premise is that once you have an iPhone, youll want an iPad, a Mac and the TV when that comes out. Why? Well, each of the devices, while interesting on its own, is something of a digital island. In fact, if you refuse to use iTunes, theyre practically useless. Once you accept that you must use iTunes and iCloud, then they start to work together in a subtle but very effective concord. Its this harmony that attracts methodological people, as it demonstrates just how elegant a technical solution you can create when you control everything. Its the same argument for totalitarian states, where the trains run perfectly or someone gets shot. The problem with that logic is that there arent many countries with the disposable income that allows the full Apple experience, and given how rapidly the product range evolves, you need even deeper pockets to maintain the synergy. While this thinking has so far made Apple a small mountain of hard cash, it does exclude it from the larger portion of humanity, and there is very little indication that it intends to make a cheaper iPhone or an affordable iPad. Marketing people in Apple have worked out that the high pricing of its products in itself creates a demand, much like Prada handbags, which when you strip away the branding, do much the same job as a Tescos plastic carrier bag. So the key is the infrastructure, building and maintaining an evolutionary ecosystem that allows the products to deliver more than the sum of their parts, and also hooks people into having the whole range and not just one item. Seeing Apples strategy in that context, the products themselves arent the key; its the App Store and iCloud that are critical. Should Apple start to find that most people jailbreak their devices so they can decide where they source their media and content from, then the foundation of the whole model is seriously undermined. To that end, the walled garden that Apple has created seems likely to get higher walls, armed guards and probably a minefield around it. While the product launches always generate a satisfying buzz for Apple, its world isnt entirely cheering tame journalists and product award ceremonies. Theres a darker side to Apple, where its very keen to maintain its market position, irrespective of what it takes in legal terms to achieve that. To this end, with Microsoft, its embarked on a policy of patent litigation that has now become the norm for tech companies across the world. Theyre all dragging each other to court, blocking the sale of their competitors products or defending their own. Initially these ventures went well, but increasingly Apple appears to have come to a gunfight with a knife, and having made plenty of powerful enemies, some of whom it actually has supplier relationships with (Samsung, for example), at some point these chickens will eventually come home to roost. Concerned about such an eventuality, surviving co-founder Steve Wozniak recently called for Apple to drop its patent attacks on Samsung while talking at Seouls Hanyang University. He also suggested that patents and their associated litigation are damaging many companies ability to innovate, adding Patents are being overused, and many companies are limited by patent laws to produce the same products continually. He and others have suggested that the patent war is something that Apple shouldnt have involved itself in, but without a change of direction it seems unlikely that it will be tempted to stop until forced to. Thats also not the only legal issue its facing, because its also the focus of an antitrust case thats looking into the possible price fixing of ebooks, something Apple and its partners stringently deny.

infrastructure. Pricing is reportedly between $1,500 and $2,000, making these some of the more costly TVs on the market, though not the most expensive. An interesting piece of trivia on this subject is that this wont be the first television that the company has made. In 1993, Apple briefly produced a product called the Macintosh TV, which merged a 14 Sony Trinitron TV with a Mac Performa 520. It only made 10,000 of these, which is a good indication of just how well it sold. Is this the next big thing for Apple? I doubt it. While it fits into a natural niche in the Apple line-up, the Apple TV has failed to excite that many people over three generations, and Steve Jobs once described it as a hobby. Merging that technology with an actual TV rather than allowing you to buy one yourself seems somewhat retrograde, though the gesture control and Siri might make them seem more desirable. That said, Panasonic and Samsung already have ranges of gesture-controlled smart TVs out on the market, and they first appeared in early 2011. It will be interesting to see exactly when the Apple-branded TV is officially acknowledged, and what the reaction to it is when it does arrive.

Dark iClouds On The Horizon

Its The Infrastructure, Stupid

In an attempt to get some insight into Apples greater strategy, I spoke to an old friend who is currently located within the Apple offices in California, working for a parts supplier for the iPhone and iPad. Hes been an Apple fan for some time and, as such, has all the toys to prove his allegiance. His take was an interesting one, as he gets to see rival products in the context of how they compare with Apple and also the synergy of the whole solution.

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Its counter-accused Amazon of stirring up trouble in an attempt to damage the app store business model, while Apple has made great attempts to eliminate any ebook or app selling transactional business on their devices through anything but its own portals. Given how its tied this down in terms of removing applications that allow you to buy services and not pay Apple a large proportion, it might have difficulty in court arguing that these restrictive practices dont represent abuse. The upshot off all this activity is that when Apple products start to get substantially less different between iterations, then it can bemoan the state of patent law as its problem. However, Apple is one of the major abusers of said law and, as such, its a condition that its brought on itself.

Future Shock

Looking back over the decades, its about time that Apple had a product that was a complete stinker, given the natural order of success and failure. If this happens now, that would be remarkably bad timing for Tim Cook, because it will be seen as his Apple failure, and not the responsibility of anyone else, dead or living. But the reality is that for every iPad in Apples history there has been a Newton, and the success its had in recent years doesnt provide an immunity against it happening again. What has changed is the perception of Apple, which is emanating an unrealistic air of invincibility, despite having ceded a huge portion of the smartphone market to Android in the past couple of years. The fall therefore, should it come, will have extra impact, which might well affect the companys share value, which many think is already excessively inflated. As for future products, Im sure its developed roadmaps to exploit its iPhone, iPad and TV products for the next five years or more, and will use its patents to bash those who might reasonably try to compete for sales. It will be interesting to see if the effort that goes into creating legal anarchy through aggressive litigation becomes the primary focus of the company, rather than the actual product range. Apple, the infamous patent troll, is not an unimaginable future.

What it desperately needs is another iPad, a product that has either been passed over like the tablet PC, or a wholly new idea. Im going to go out on a limb here and say that Apple doesnt have this product idea now, and its praying that it comes along without too many patent problems in the near future. In the meantime, it will be business as usual, pumping out new iPhones and iPads to those who like them, with some marginal improvements on board to convince customer to upgrade. There are only a few things that can effectively put paid to these developments, and one of them is the worlds current economic woes, and the potential collapse of the euro zone. So what are Apples future products going to be like? Very similar to the ones we have now, with the exception of the Mac, which is likely to get even shorter product ranges. Of course, its entirely possible that Apple has some amazing technology that its been keeping mum about, just waiting for the right moment to launch it on an unsuspecting world, because it is, by definition, unpredictable. Its immediate problem is that its built up a rather amazing track record since the launch of the iPod, and any product that fails to deliver something revolutionary is going to be seen as a failure, even if thats grossly unfair. The iPod, iPhone and iPad have all made an iRod for Apples back, with which it is likely to be beaten if its next major launch is a misfire on any level. mm

Will we see the iPad integrated into other non-Apple products, like cars perhaps?

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How can the technology world woo women?

Its a problem that keeps being brought up but never effectively addressed: why arent there more women in technology? Sarah Dobbs looks into initiatives designed to solve the problem

ccording to statistics published in a White House report, women make up only about 25% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering and maths-related professions. Obviously, that number is based on the US workforce, but it seems fair to assume the situation isnt much different in the UK. For years, people have been trying to find ways to get more women involved in the technology industry, but the number of women in the IT workforce has dropped dramatically since the late 80s. So what can be done to attract more women to technology?

What Are Companies Doing?

Most of the big technology companies run initiatives to encourage more women into the workplace. IBM, for instance, has set up support networks for women in its employ, and offers both flexible working hours and extra bonuses for women who return to their jobs after having children. IBM also co-sponsors a

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GETTING WOMEN INTO TECHNOLOGY

research internship for women, offering ten weeks paid work at its research locations to female undergraduate students majoring in science or technology. Another example of a company that offers a range of benefits to women is Microsoft, though many of its initiatives are also open to men - it runs a Diversity Forum, designed to help the company understand employee lifestyles and potential problems, and also has a Working Parents Community, where mothers and fathers can support one another and also discuss potential policies the company can adopt to help them. Google was recently named the best place to work in America, and the company proudly declares its commitment to diversity on its employment pages. There are several women in prominent leadership positions at Google, and the company also runs the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, a programme specifically aimed at getting women to excel in computing and technology. There are dozens of other examples of individual companies trying to reach out to women. However, that alone probably isnt enough. Although there might be fewer women working in technologyrelated industries - particularly at the higher ranks - its not like there arent any. Here are just some of the women whove made it, in spite of the odds: Meg Whitman Currently the president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Whitman is a Harvard graduate whos previously worked in senior positions at Disney, DreamWorks, Procter and Gamble, Hasbro, and eBay. Ginni Rometty Rometty has worked at IBM since 1981, starting out as a systems engineer and working her way all the way up: shes currently the companys president and CEO, and frequently shows up on Fortunes list of the 50 most powerful women in business. Marissa Mayer Mayer was one of Googles first 20 employees, and the first female engineer the company hired. She has a masters degree in computer science from Stanford, and is currently Googles vice president of location and local services. Mary Lou Jepsen Formerly the chief technology officer of One Laptop Per Child, Jepsen is the founder and CEO of Pixel Qi. She has a PhD in optical sciences, and she holds patents for many display-related innovations. Sheryl Sandberg Sandberg is currently the chief operating officer at Facebook, and, before that, held the position of vice president of online sales and operations at Google - she helped launch the companys charitable arm, Google.org. Diane Bryant Bryant joined Intel in 1985, and worked her way up through the company, from director of engineering for Intels Mobile Products Group to director of the Corporate Platform Office, then general manager of the Server Platforms Group, and is currently serving as vice president and chief information officer at Intel.

High-Prole Women In Technology

What Else Can Be Done?

Companies cant hire women if women arent applying for the jobs - or even studying to get the necessary qualifications. There are also plenty of examples of organisations designed to get women participating in technology, as well as supporting them once theyve entered the industry, For starters, there are several scholarships available, mostly in the US, to help female students who want to take technology-

Maybe anything that gets women together and talking about technology is a good thing
related degrees. The Vanguard Women in Information Technology Scholarship Program is just one example; it offers up to $10,000 to female students whove proven themselves academically and want to continue their IT-related studies. Conferences and other kinds of learning opportunities also exist to promote and encourage women in technology; theres the annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference, run by the Anita Borg Institute; theres the Ada Initiative, named after Ada Lovelace, which tries to get more women involved in open source programming; and, in the UK, theres BCSWomen, part of the British Computer Society, which provides support and networking opportunities for women entering the computing industry. More controversially, some women-only technology events are starting to spring up - like the GeekGirlMeetups, Women Who Tech, and so on. Its yet to be shown whether these are effective at drawing in female audiences; while some argue that safe, women-centric spaces are necessary, others feel that these kinds of events risk creating a kind of women-only ghetto. Initiatives that focus on encouraging diversity, including both men and women, seem likely to be more effective than events aimed exclusively at women. But since the scales are currently so unbalanced, maybe anything that gets women together and talking about technology is a good thing.

You might be wondering why it matters - if women dont want to work in technology, why should they be persuaded to? Well, questions of gender equality aside, there are good reasons for wanting to get more women involved in science and technologyrelated industries. There have been studies that showed companies that employ more women at a high level tend to be more successful. In the McKinsey report Women Matter, published in March, companies listed their reasons for wanting to hire more women: one company said hiring more women would improve its reputation as a company, another that female employees offered better consumer insight, and another found that the more senior women it had in its sales team, the higher its sales were. McKinseys previous reports have found that a companys success was linked to the number of women in its governing body. Its not just that women stand to benefit from careers in the technology industry; the industry benefits from employing them, too. Its not about altruism or being seen to be socially progressive. Getting more women into technology is important from a business perspective. Companies who arent already looking to improve their gender diversity probably ought to think about it. mm

Why Does It Matter?

WorldMags.net

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Broken Windows

What about an article on how to repair Windows 7 followed the next week by another article on repairing Windows XP, the reasoning behind this is you will not have to keep going from one version to the other. My main reason for this letter is that Ive had trouble with a faulty hard drive; Ive cloned it to a more reliable drive, but along with the cloned data are also the problems of corrupt files and other faults. Im an administrator, but Windows wont let me repair it; it complains that I do not

have administrator powers - I have and Im also the only person using my machine. Ive tried the DOS prompt through Windows, but that will not work. Im given an error message along with this command should be used in the console, whatever that means. It may well be that there have been several articles on how to repair Windows, but I have not seen one for quite some time. The command I have tried is: SFC / SCANNOW - and I have the original disk in the drive, but nothing I have done seems to work.

Even a professional I asked - although he wont admit it - is stuck and he cannot come up with an answer. An article such as this will make a pleasant change from all of that mobile nonsense we keep seeing in the magazines, not just your MM, may I add. Philip Coggin Thanks for getting in touch, Philip. This sounds like a great idea, and well see what we can do. If any other readers would like to see a particular article in Micro Mart, please do let us know.

Really pleased to se the article on the old Atari ST in issue 1186 - a real blast to the past seeing the old GEM desktop again. Two things that struck me: 1) There were replacement desktops for the ST. it came as a ROM replacement, as I remember, or you could do it with software from a disk temporarily. 2) Id love to see a column on the ST in MM, but finding the time to use it would be another issue. Also, whatever happened to the idea of an O/S on a ROM? Instant desktops are only just becoming available now via Windows with a solidstate drive and a minging processor some 25 years later! If you had a hard drive, which I did - a whole 20MB - then things became very much like the PC is today.

A Few Words About Atari

I was very much an Atarian, from 8-bit to 16-bit, and even to the games machines it produced such as the Jaguar. My favorite machine to date was the 8-bit 65XE(5/14 1050 Drive) - 14 different on-board programing languages and a whole new world to be discovered. I personally think the PC was a retrograde step; if Atari had carried on, Im not so sure we would all be working DOS today, the word would have been TOS. Microsofts marketing as opposed to Ataris lack of it, frankly is what lost them the game. The 286 was nothing short of rubbish frankly. PCtools - BIG deal! Atari had a full-blown desktop that booted from scratch in seconds. PiPeVVOrm the remark understates the problem by pointing the finger at government alone. Many large sites work in a flawed manner to some extent in Firefox and this is especially true of their formatting for printing. Included in the sites that really are best run using Internet Explorer include, the BBC, Lloyds bank, the National Lottery, Royal Mail - not small players by any means. All of them work well-enough in Firefox, but much more consistently in IE. Dick Pearson

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By email By post
micromartmag@live.co.uk Micro Mart 30 Cleveland Street London W1T 4JD

James Hunts Plug-in of the Month - IE Tab v2 - in his Download Directory article in Issue 1211 made me smile. Im a Firefox user and a user of IE Tab, which I do recommend. However, his remark that Whether youre being forced to use Internet Explorer by an outdated and underfunded government site,.. is actually misleading, as it is somewhat unfair and also only partially true. Most government sites typically do work well with Firefox these days. More importantly,

Explorer Of The Internet

Online

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Give us a Like and post on our wall

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Rock Out On Your iPhone

Unleash your inner Jimi Hendrix

Windows 8 Release Preview Released

Its here...

s the Queen divided opinions over whether we should live under the watchful eye of a monarchy or not, Microsoft quietly went about its business of unveiling the release preview of Windows 8. If you havent already, you can download the preview from Microsofts Windows site and see for yourself the tens of thousands of under-the-hoods changes made to this allimportant redesign of the worlds most popular OS. The full release should be with us all come the autumn and will come some three years after Windows 7s rather successful launch. The Metro interface, so championed by the firm, remains at the heart of the matter, as does the adoption of the mobile and tablet arena. Microsoft has some ground to make up here, and its hopeful that Windows 8 will bridge the gap. Some of the new features not included in the last consumer preview include some third-party apps, multi-monitor support and some improvements to IE10, and heres another bit of news worth

noting. If you buy a new PC between now and 31st January, youll be able to purchase a download of Windows 8 Pro for 14.99. Microsoft is clearly keen to push this, and why wouldnt it be? Theres little doubting that it has to get it right this time round if its to stand a chance of keeping up with the mobile generation. Roll on the autumn.

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QUICK BITS... Facebook suffered a bunch of service disruptions at the start of the month, leaving many of us unable to post WorldMags.net

eve always fancied ourselves as rock gods. Guitar in hand and voice in suitable state of warbling, we could really wow the crowds with our rendition of Sweet Child Of Mine. Or perhaps not... Anyway, if youre actually quite handy with the guitar, the iStomp from DigiTech might be of genuine interest. Costing a not cheap 159, you have to be serious about this guitar pedal. The big appeal of this is that guitarists dont have to buy a new pedal for each desired effect, instead connecting the included Smart Cable

to an iOS device and then downloading one of over 20 available effects to the unit. The effects themselves cost from $0.99 and theres a try before you buy feature too. We rather like the sound of this and if

you do too, digitech.com/en/ products/istomp is the web address for your browser.

Europes First Intel Phone

Orange heads for San Diego

oping to shake up, or at the very least make a dent in, the UK smartphone market, Orange has released the first Intel mobile to reach European shores. Chinese firm Gigabyte is behind the San Diegos hardware, which bucks the trend by being a mobile not based on an ARM processor. Its actually Intels third smartphone, with the company having already reached markets in India and China and its planning to release devices via Motorola later in the year. Intels move into the mobile market reflects much the same thinking as Microsofts; you simply cant afford to be left behind. Powered by the Intel Atom Z2460, the San Diego supports HSPA+ and Intels XMM 6260 platform for fast browsing, while the now obligatory HD support comes in the form of 1080p video capture and an HDMI-out, while a 4.03 capacitive display, A-GPS and Bluetooth 2.1 raise further interest. Will pay as you go customers be tempted to pay the 199.99 asked of them? Intel will be keen to find out.

When the rst iPad came out, I was not impressed at all. I could see it was missing things and I knew, as most people did, that Apple would add these things in later models. It spite of that, it was a massive success. Indeed, Apple has no problem shifting its products, regardless of what it leaves out for future generations. This drip feeding of features is irritating for the customer, but you can see why Apple does it. Surely, though, it cant go on forever, and thats what Mark Pickavance has been thinking about in this weeks lead feature. Its a problem that many technology and software companies face. The fact is were reaching a point where what we have is pretty much all we need. Hopefully, then, therell be some true innovations that will reinvigorate the technology industries pretty soon. Will it be Apple that delivers again? Who knows, but I wouldnt bet against it.

A n t ho n y
Anthony Enticknap Issue 1213 23 Editor

about what we were going to get up to over the JubileeWorldMags.net weekend

Top

5 Japan
4
Culture Japan
www.dannychoo.com The thing about visiting Japan, if youre European/American, is that there can be a bewildering cultural disconnection to acclimatise to. Sometimes you can look around and theres nothing that you recognise not a logo, an advert, and certainly not a sign post. Thats where sites like Culture Japan can make you feel a little more comfortable. Its not so much a guide to geography or travel, as a primer for a state of mind that offers a little insight into the world youre entering when you arrive in Japan. Having said that, among this is a great series of photos - twinned with Google Map references - that guide people around key places to visit in Tokyo and beyond. A great read.

Night Porter

www.nightporter.co.uk Our resident games expert, Ryan Lambie, has just returned from a long-planned odyssey to the place that some would see as his natural habitat: Japan. So this week were dedicating the Top Five to him, but not before weve tangentially shifted to the first thought that popped into our addled brains when we came up with the idea. That thought was David Sylvian; for, if youre of a certain age, a child of the 80s when Japan seemed like the ice-cool world of the future, the synth-infused funk of the band Japan provided a good aural representation of the country - at least in our minds. Find out what the hell Im talking about here.

Tofugu

www.tofugu.com Much like Culture Japan, Tofugu sets itself up as a cultural primer for life in Japan; though one that takes a much more irreverent take on the subject. A personal favourite of mine is the short series called How To Be A Baka Gaijin... (stupid foreigner, basically) that deals with Japanese etiquette in a Youre Doing It Wrong kind of way. There are also more serious articles about planning a trip to Japan, and lots of information to be found on learning the language - an especially difficult task, but one which is really the key to entering Japanese culture. Much of it is irrelevant, though often funny and entertaining blog-type content, but you certainly feel that you know a little more about the Japanese mind set when youve read it for a while.

Hyperdia

www.hyperdia.com/en Bearing in mind what we have mentioned how alien everything can feel in Japan, for the lessthan-experienced traveller, getting around can be a stressful thing (John still has nightmares about being lost on the Osaka subway in 2001 - no, really). Thats where Hyperdia will come in handy, especially if you like travelling by train. Simply enter the details of the journey you want to take, and the Hyperdia system will offer you a range of options for the trip, referencing up to date timetable and pricing information. I cant print Mr Lambies exact eulogy to the site, but suffice to say he reckoned it made a very complicated transport system, a complete piece of pie* and thats good enough for us. * He didnt really say pie.

Japan Guide

www.japan-guide.com A totally predictable and totally deserving number one, Japan Guide was the first (and very quick) answer Ryan gave me when I asked for his recommendations for this article. Its easy to see why: packed with feature content and advice about this wonderfully inaccessible country, this site is enough to give anyone the confidence to dive into a holiday or business visit with much less apprehension. Whats unexpected is that its a very dynamic resource too, thanks to its active, friendly forums. If youre ever out and about in Japan and wondering what a sign means - highly likely - just take a picture and post it up, youll be amazed how quickly someone will offer an explanation. We used it loads, said Ryan, and he got back safe. So theres a thumbs up!

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QUICK BITS... Notinthekitchenanymore.com is a blog chronicling some of the abuse handed to female online gamers. ThoughtWorldMags.net provoking stuff

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Caption Competition

Rich sound promised from LA headphones

Wikipedias hi-hat entry causes confusion!
Young people today. If theyre not cyber-chatting on their interweb telephone whatnots or spending all their money on sweets and fizzy pop, then theyre wearing percussive instruments on their heads and growing silly pretend beards. Heres what you made of it all: idunno: Joe really hoped that the cymbol on his head would make people not notice his dodgy beard! tighthead: His first drumming lesson could have gone better! John Davies: It doesnt mean anything - its just cymballic. Rod Tenterton: Drummer falls off stage and bangs his head. Doctors tell him hes suffering from a percussion. Darren Gray: Never in my life have I wanted to bash a drum so much. Will Wright: Parents try to drum some sense into their son. John Davies: The Keith Moon tribute band trying to leave the hotel incognito. Gladys King: Drummer/motorcyclist shows off his new crash hat. Thomas Turnbull: I was told you can use cymbals in computer programming but I cant seem to do it. Thomas Turnbull: The mushroom people told me to wear it.

New Phones From Urbanista

ts a fact of life that any public transport vehicle is now full of headphonewearing chaps and chapettes keen to get their fix of music on the move. If youre part of the pack, at least do so in style. Urbanista is giving you the chance to do just that with its Los Angeles headphones, a full size offering that promises a rich sound experience in what the company labels a modern design made from

laser-cut metal and soft-touch materials. The set comes with an integrated microphone, 3.5mm plug and a choice of two stupidly named colours: Fluffy Cloud and Dark Clown. Costing 59, you can buy them now from Amazon.

Clear the air, virtually

Forgive Me!

As ever, thanks to everyone who entered, and a round of applause for tighthead from the forum, who came up with Wikipedias hi-hat entry causes confusion!. As always, to get involved in all this silliness, email us at caption@ micromart.co.uk or head to the forum at forum.micromart.co.uk and look in the Other Stuff section.

s Elton John once sang, at times sorry really does seem to be the hardest word. If you find it hard to swallow your pride face-to-face, why not take the cowards way out and apologise in the virtual space? Virtual Forgiveness allows you to receive apologies and to clear the air with family and friends. The idea for the website came into being after its founder upset his wife by working late.

Completely free, Virtual Forgiveness uses mail messages to contact the guilty or innocent party and is private, of course. If youre thinking you could just use your existing email to apologise in the virtual world, youd be right, of course. This is quite a neat little site, though, and does make the forgiveness process a bit of fun. The website for all this goodwill is to be found at www. virtualforgiveness.com.

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QUICK BITS... Sony is rumoured to be considering streaming PSOne and WorldMags.net PS2 games to the PS3 via the cloud. Were planning a date with Driver

WorldMags.net

Snippets!
Farmers Dont Need Broadband
MPs dont really do themselves any favours at times. A Labour MP has claimed that farmers dont need broadband as part of his campaign against rural broadband investment. Youll remember we mentioned the same MP in the news pages previously - this is the same guy that said rural broadband investment would only benefit the rich. Graham Jones has said that farming has existed for years without broadband and will continue to do so. Hmmm. Countryside campaigners arent happy with the comments but hes certainly good value for the press.

Doom Returns... Kind Of

Lets raise Hell... again
hen Doom 4 was announced in 2008, few thought wed still be waiting for a sight of the shooter today. When id Software spoke up about the franchise recently, then, imagine our excitement, followed by a sense of inevitable disappointment when it turned out that the company is actually releasing a remastered version of Doom 3. Arriving for your PC in the autumn - or so were told at the moment, anyway - were promised greatly enhanced graphics with improved rendering and lighting, plus support for stereoscopic 3D. Gameplay will get a revisit, thanks to a revamped save point system, plus the introduction of

an armour-mounted flashlight while firing - useful in those dark corners. There will be more ammo too, apparently. The BFG Edition will include the Resurrection of Evil expansion pack and seven new single-player levels (titled The

Lost Mission) and copies of the first two Doom games, all alongside the core Doom 3 title. While Doom news always raises a smile, we cant help but feel slightly short-changed with this one. Just where the heck is Doom 4 anyway, guys?

Activision Row Settled

Activision has settled its legal differences with a couple of developers of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The row concerned royalties generated by the game (millions of dollars worth, in fact) as the programmers had sued Activision over claims it had sacked them so that it didnt have to stump up $1bn in royalties. In response, Activision had said that the developers, who have since set up Respawn Entertainment, had breached the terms of their contract. Whatever the previous issues between the pair, it has been settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

We still hold a place in our hearts for the Doom franchise

Chromebox Revamps Googles Line-up

Takes its cues from the Mac Mini

Wii U Goes Social

Nintendo has revealed that the Wii U console will include the Miiverse social network. The Miiverse will encourage console users to see what others are playing and, more importantly, share game content created by themselves. Nintendo has also announced that users will be able to connect to the Miiverse via the Nintendo 3DS, PCs and smartphones, in time. The Wii U Game Pad controller will include a small touch-screen which can be used to send handwritten messages and doodles. The Game Pad still looks really big, though, which may take a while to get used to.

oogle and Samsung have teamed up to launch the Chromebox, a desktop PC that appears to follow in the footsteps of Apples Mac Mini. A Google blog post told us of the little box of tricks at the back end of May and you can buy one from PC World for the princely sum of 279.99 (in theory, although the website was out of stock when we last checked). Much cheaper than a Mac Mini, then, although there are a few reasons for that... The Chromebox comes with the following key specs: a 1.9GHz Intel Celeron B840 processor, 4GB RAM, Bluetooth 3.0, wi-fi, six USB 2.0 ports (no USB 3.0), 16GB SSD and Intel HD graphics. Reading

through that list, the standout points are the processor and that rather low storage space (its presumed that youll also adopt the cloud, of course). Low-cost option though this may be, its hardly a spec thats going to be causing Apple too many sleepless nights. What it does do, however, is provide a very smart and interesting looking entry to Googles Chrome OS and we cant knock it for that. Together with this new product launch, Samsungs Series 5 Chromebook has been handed a refresh (more memory, different processor - that sort of thing) and all this points to a developing future between the partners. We hope both products see some uptake, because the Chrome OS could do with a leg-up.

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WorldMags.net

Micro Mart Community Corner

Join us
This is the part of the magazine that belongs to you. Want to show us your messy computer desk or send us a picture of Windows crashing in a public place? Perhaps youve got a picture of yourself holding Micro Mart while on holiday? If you have any news youd like to share with the rest of the Micro Mart readership, please get in touch via email (editorial@micromart.co.uk) or one of the following: Twitter: Come and join us on twitter at www.twitter.com/micro_ mart, or send us a message via @micro_mart. MM on Facebook: Yes, weve now got a Facebook page at www.facebook/com/micro.mart.mag! We hope you like it! MM Forum: Head to forum.micromart.co.uk for discussions about all things PC, networking, OS, mobile, and tech related. MM Folding Team: With a home on the forum, the Micro Mart folding team is a productive part of Stanford Universitys distributed computing project. To find out more about folding, and to put your spare GPU or CPU cycles to good use, head to tinyurl.com/MMFolds, say hi and help us fold!

Sapphires Radeon HD 7950 Flex Edition

Eyefinity comes as standard

The Micro Mart community forums are powered by InstantForum.NET the leading ASP.NET discussion forum platform from InstantASP. Learn more at www.instantasp.co.uk

iPad Prototype Fetches $10,000

A
30

eBay seller could be in hot water

n online seller of an iPad prototype could be in a spot of bother. The iPad prototype was sold on eBay during Americas Memorial Day weekend, while Apple workers basked in the holiday sunshine rather than trawling the auction site. The anonymous seller spoke with Wired about the issue, which quoted him as saying I wasnt expecting the auction to finish. I was expecting Apple to take it down.

The tablet prototype has a couple of dock connectors and the seller claims that he purchased it from a co-worker, but that he doesnt know how the co-worker got his hands on it. Wired also quotes the seller as saying that it came from an Apple lab in California and that its most likely stolen. Apple have involved the police in reclaiming stolen prototypes, so if the seller is found out and tracked down, they can expect trouble.

apphire Technology has announced the Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Flex Edition, which brings the companys Flex technology for multidisplay gaming for its HD 7000 series of cards for the first time. The Sapphire Flex family can support three DVI monitors in Eyefinity mode without any need for active adapters, with the third monitor being connected via a supplied HDMIto-DVI cable with no additional hardware needed at all. The cards core clock speeds are faster than the standard edition HD 7950, clocked at 860MHz and 1250MHz, and a new

version of Sapphires overclocking tool, TriXX, should appeal to the performance geeks among you. Ready for DirectX 11.1 and Windows 8, the card also supports Stereoscopic 3D with enhanced frame rates of 60Hz per eye and further details, including stockists, can be gleaned over at www. sapphiretech.com.

Issue 1213

QUICK BITS... Londons Kensington and Borough Council has blocked plans to install high-speed broadband cabinets as they WorldMags.net would be something of an eyesore

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e Compon Watch

nt

Fancy Record Players

Jing is no longer a purely analogue domain dominated by phonographs and walking beards with a passion for gaudy clothing and their own voice. Its now an unashamedly digital realm in which highly creative people remix tracks on the fly. Multiple tracks are mashed together while people dance, the DJ responding to the audience. Digital DJs use PCs and one of the popular applications, such as Traktor (www.nativeinstruments.com), Ableton Live (www.ableton.com) and the free-to-use Mixxx (www.mixxx. org), but you need some extra hardware to control the software naturally and effectively. These devices neednt cost a fortune, and many come with software, which also saves a bit of money. Perhaps the cheapest and most effective way of getting into digital DJing is the Numark DJ2Go, which is currently available for 49.99 from Scan (www.scan.co.uk). Its an incredibly compact controller, but you can smoothly fade between

Want to DJ, but dont know what to buy? Andrew Unsworth gets funky with two bargain controllers
tracks using a crossfader, synchronise the tempos of two tracks and load tracks into your virtual track decks without touching your PCs mouse or touchpad. You must use your PCs own internal soundcard, however, because it doesnt have a soundcard of its own. This means that you wont be able to cue and mix tracks privately in your headphones unless your PC has two audio outputs. The Numark DJ2Go comes with Virtual DJ LE software. If you have a bit more money to spend, you could always go for Native Instruments excellent Traktor Kontrol S2. This controller lets you mix, scratch and remix tracks easily and comfortably. It has a built-in soundcard that outputs audio to the dancefloor or an audio recorder while you prepare your mix in your headphones. It also has highquality channel faders that let you smoothly increase or decrease the volume of a track, and a high-quality crossfader that can withstand hardcore scratching. Modern mixing is more than fading one track into another, however, and the Kontrol S2 is equipped with hot-cue buttons, effects controls and loop controls. Hot-cue buttons let you set markers at specific points in a track so you can go You can currently get the Traktor Kontrol S2 for just 389 from Hard To Find Records (www.htfr.com). This really is a bargain price when you consider that youre getting a high-quality

Modern mixing is more than fading one track into another

to that exact point when you next press the button. Hotcues let you remix tracks while theyre played, because you can press one hot-cue button, let the track play for a while and then press another hot-cue button to jump to another point in the track. The Kontrol S2s loop controls do something similar by letting you repeat a section of track. You can either set an automatic loop of a specific length or you can manually set the loop in and out points. DJing controller, especially when it also comes with Native Instruments superb Traktor Pro 2 software, which is used by some of the worlds top DJs. There are other good controllers that you should check out too, such as the Denon MC-3000 (www. denondj.com), Pioneer DDJErgo-V (www.pioneer.co.uk) and Novation Twitch (www. novationmusic.com), but whichever controller you choose, play decent tunes that your audience wants to hear.

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Mark Pickavance examines the gaming laptop and wonders if its possible to get one on a budget
aming with a portable system is a desirable thing to do. If youre away on business, holiday, or would just like to not be stuck where your desktop PC resides, its an attractive option. The snag, as youve probably already guessed, is that they arent cheap, because the power needed to run games smoothly at decent resolutions costs more than a simple office workhorse, and it also impacts on other design aspects such as battery life and screen size. Working for you in this equation is that the cycle of games needing more and more GPU power appears to have abated, with the most recent games working on video technology that doesnt need to be cutting edge. The focus of developers appears to be returning to playability and online interaction, rather than increasing levels of detail. So what constitutes a gaming laptop, and what should you look for when purchasing one?

THE REALITY OF GAMING LAPTOPS

simulation are dramatically less. Look for bandwidth of greater than 25GB/s, gigaflops of better than 250 and 1GB of video memory or more. Processor The move these days is towards quad-core and even higher, but frankly most games dont actually exploit multiple cores well. Therefore Id recommend that if youre offered fewer cores but a higher clock speed, you should generally take it, with the proviso that you have at least a dual-core. In that generalisation you should also factor in the ability to Hyper-Thread, allowing a single core to process two threads simultaneously. The CPU will feed the GPU, so the faster it is, the more data will arrive at the GPU and the game will be smoother, but

What Features To Keep In Mind

Youre in the market for a gaming laptop, but what aspects of the design do you need to focus on? Here are some of the critical considerations. Video/Audio Ive added some reference grids to show what each of the mobile GPU technologies have at their disposal, both with the latest series and the prior one. Obviously more stream processors, better memory technology (GDDR5 not DDR3) and bandwidth all play a part in delivering a better experience. Its worth asking yourself what types of games you play most or are likely to do on the mobile computer. If you like role-playing games or strategic titles, the demands made on the GPU compared with an FPS or flight

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going for the highest-specification CPU will bump the price up dramatically. It will also reduce battery life, if youre likely to be limited by that. Memory/Storage I wouldnt buy a computer with less than 4GB of RAM these days; memory is so cheap, it would seem a silly saving to have less. More than 4GB is possibly gilding the lily, because unless the title is specifically 64-bit, then it cant access more than 2GB of memory anyway. As for hard drive storage, thats a choice that needs to reflect how many games youre likely to install and how big some of those titles might be. The operating system will likely take up 30GB, and once youve loaded your favourite app selection and a few games, 200GB can be eaten up rather quickly. As such, I wouldnt consider a drive smaller than 320GB, and 500GB is a more realistic goal. Unless you have money to burn, dont consider SSD technology, though you might want to consider 7200rpm units over the usual 5400rpm ones that most laptop makers use. The faster drives, and hybrid designs like the Seagate Momentus XT, do reduce loading times. Display The size of a gaming display is a double-edged sword, Ive decided. From one perspective youd like a 1080p (1920x1080) panel, so you get exactly the same resolution that youre most likely using on your desktop system. However, most gaming systems come with less, with 1366x768 being a popular choice. That cloud has a silver lining, though: with less pixels to process for each frame, the GPU will have less work to do and will therefore achieve a higher frame-rate than it would at 1080p. As there are only 50% of the pixels on the lowerresolution panel, that could make a big difference to how smooth games play or what other quality features you can activate while still retaining playability. Other Features Beyond having a decent processor and a good mobile GPU, what else is a necessity? An optical drive is probably a must, as games still generally come on disc, though you could ld network one from another PC in a pinch. What you cant fudge are external connections, specifically USB, of which youll want a few for mice and other r peripherals. If youre an online gamer, then a LAN port is always s useful, as wi-fi tends to introduce additional lag to your connection. ection. And if you end up with a powerful model, you might also want to use HDMI to send the video to a bigger screen reen such an an HD TV. Those are the critical hardware needs, but its also so useful s an to consider what happens to your laptop if there is unfortunate accident or failure. Most hardware makers kers offer a basic return-to-factory warranty, usually for the first irst year at, and of ownership. You can purchase an extension to that, depending how much youre spending overall, it might well be worth the additional investment.

Heres my assessment of each of these choices in the context of buying a gaming laptop, where GPU power rules supreme. Intel Im going to be blunt: Intel is the sickly child of gaming video technology. What annoys me most about it is that it makes all sorts of wild claims for its GPU technology, and it even questioned the future of discrete GPU technology, once its amazing processors get to the level that CPU-based ray-tracing is possible. Well, were still waiting for that epochal event, and frankly I dont think were any closer to getting GPU-less gaming graphics than when Intels people first spouted this rubbish some years ago. For all its fine words, the integrated video it includes in its products underperforms ATI and NVidia in all respects, and when you look at its specification thats entirely to be expected. But (and this is where the world is just plain wrong), Intel actually sells more GPUs than any other company, because 90% of all computers sold have its integrated graphics. So does that mean it knows what its doing with gaming? No, thats not an area its remotely interested in. And because of that, its latest integrated designs are donkeys years old, and not actually integrated into its CPU technology in a remotely elegant fashion. The vast majority of its Core i3 and Core i5 products use Intel HD Graphics 3000, which was first introduced in 2006 or possibly earlier. Its only DirectX 10.1 compliant, although it does have a 4000 model now thats supposedly DirectX 11 certified. On the Intel Atom systems, its introduced a PowerVR licensed GPU, but you wont want one of those, because the CPU performance isnt game friendly. The very best you can hope for is Sandy Bridge HD Graphics 4000, which might have 21.3GB/s of bandwidth, Shader Model 4.1 and a clock speed of 1150MHz, but thats only going to be equivalent to the lowest-specification discrete video card that youd get on a desktop PC. In short, if someone tries to sell you a gaming laptop and it has any version of Intels Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA), then walk swiftly away.

The CPU And GPU Makers

While there are some odd video solutions floating around, the vast majority of laptops use processing technology from either AMD or Intel, and video technology from them or NVidia.

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AMD Interestingly, AMD has two entirely different paths to video performance, one of which is more orientated towards gaming than the other. Its integrated offering is built around its Fusion concept, where the CPU and GPU are merged into a single piece of silicon: the APU. It also has discrete mobile GPUs, which in the context of this article are the ones you want for gaming enjoyment.

Im going to be blunt: Intel is the sickly child of gaming video technology

That said, some of the APU units using the previous generation, have both the internal video and an external Southern Islands GPU working in CrossFireX mode. Generally, avoid the low-power E-Series, and look at the A-Series APUs, some of which have decent GPU power alongside their integrated GPU technology. An even better choice, however, is one of AMDs dedicated mobile GPUs. If you look at the table of Radeon HD 7xxxM Series, youll see that almost every GPU option that AMD makes is better than the best Intel offering, and the top end ones are actually very impressive. The only problem is that the laptops with the 7700M or 7800M series video arent cheap. If youre unsure exactly what power youre likely to get, then balance the number coding against what you might reasonably think about the desktop video equivalent. For example, in desktop video cards a HD 6450 isnt remarkably fast for games, and neither is a HD 6450M. The translation isnt perfect, but youll have an idea. In general, if the mobile coding is in the

The Radeon HD 7xxxM Series - Mobile Graphics

Radeon HD Model 7430M 7450M 7470M 7490M 7510M 7530M 7550M 7570M 7590M 7610M 7630M 7650M 7670M 7690M 7690M XT 7730M 7750M 7770M 7850M 7870M 7970M Model Number Memory (MiB) 1024 1024 1024 1024 1024 1024 1024 1024 1024 1024 1024 1024 1024 1024, 2048 1024, 2048 2048 1024, 2048 1024, 2048 2048 2048 2048 Clock rate Core (MHz) 600 700 750-800 800 450 450 450-550 450-650 600 450 450 450-550 600 725 600 725 575-675 575 675 675 800 850 Memory (MHz) 900 900 800 900 800 950 800 900 900 800 900 800 800 800 800 800 900 900 900 900 1000 1000 1000 1000 1200 Cong Core Bandwidth (GB/s) 14.4 14.4 25.6 14.4 25.6 30.4 12.8 14.4 14.4 25.6 14.4 25.6 25.6 25.6 25.6 25.6 28.8 57.6 28.8 57.6 57.6 28.8 64 64 64 64 153.6 Memory Bus type DDR3 DDR3 GDDR5 DDR3 GDDR5 GDDR5 DDR3 DDR3 DDR3 GDDR5 DDR3 GDDR5 GDDR5 DDR3 DDR3 DDR3 DDR3 GDDR5 DDR3 GDDR5 GDDR5 GDDR5 GDDR5 GDDR5 GDDR5 GDDR5 GDDR5 Bus Width (Bits) 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 128 128 128 128 128 128 128 128 128 128 128 256 API Support (Version) DX 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.1 11.1 11.1 11.1 11.1 11.1 OpenGL 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2

Seymour Pro Seymour Pro Seymour XT Seymour XTX Whistler LE Whistler LP Whistler Pro Whistler Pro Whistler XT Whistler LE Whistler LP Whistler Pro Whistler Pro Whistler XT Whistler XTX Chelsea LP Chelsea Pro Chelsea XT Heathrow Pro Heathrow XT Wimbledon XT

160:8:4 160:8:4 160:8:4 160:8:4 400:20:8 400:24:8 400:20:8 400:20:8 480:24:8 400:20:8 480:24:8 480:24:8 480:24:8 480:24:8 480:24:8 512:32:16 512:32:16 512:32:16 640:40:16 640:40:16 1280:80:32

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6700M to 7700M range or above then youll have a better gaming experience; below those numbers youll need to do some testing to find out if you have sufficient power for your needs. A good rule would be to avoid DDR3 designs, as GDDR5 models often have double the bandwidth. AMD makes some good mobile graphics options, and you can get them on both its own processor platforms and Intels too.

Intel HD Graphics
API Support Graphics CPU Core Clock (MHz) Execution Units Shader Model DX OpenGL OpenCL Memory Bandwidth (GB/s)

Celeron U3xxx Pentium U5xxx 166500 12.8

Core i3-330UM Core i5-520UM Core i7-620UE Core i7-6x0UM Core i7-620LE Core i7-6x0LM Celeron P4xxx Pentium P6xxx Core i3-3x0M

266566 12 500667 17.1 4.0 10.0 2.1 No

HD Graphics (Ironlake)

NVidia 500766 This companys parts have been the mobile gamers Celeron B710 HD Graphics weapon of choice Celeron B8x0 350-1100 6 (Sandy Bridge) for some time, and if Pentium B9x0 you scan through its current 6xxM series Core i3-2330E specifications, then Core i3-23xxM youll soon see why. Core i5-2510E 4.1 10.1 3.1 No 21.3 Only its lowest Core i5-24xxM HD Graphics 6501300 12 Core i5-25xxM 3000 (Sandy rung, the 610M, is Core i7-26xxM Bridge) at the level of Intels Core i7-2710QE GMA and AMDs Core i7-27x0QM Core i7-29x0XM lesser offerings. Everything else is significantly better, and its high-end Core i5-3320M stuff is wickedly Core i5-3360M quick. The sweet Core i5-3427U spot in its range Core i7-3520M 6 HD Graphics Core i7-3667U 6501150 16 5.0 11 4.0 1.1 21.3 4000 (Ivy must be the GeForce Core i7-36xxQM Bridge) GT 635M, but Core i5-3720QM depending on the Core i7-3820QM Core i7-3920XM memory used, the 640M LE can also be quite potent. The previous 500M Gaming Laptop Recommendations series isnt chopped liver either, delivering good bandwidth and excellent shader numbers from the 550M upwards. To help anyone who is considering purchasing a gaming laptop, What you need to watch out for is those parts that, here are a few possibilities that wont break the bank. depending which memory model they use, can either be wonderful or much less so. The key is DDR3 use, which isnt a Acer Aspire 5560G - 600 good sign, but GDDR5 is - like that used in AMD GPUs. For the money, this is a really nice design, built around the If you can afford a laptop with one of these in, then youll quad-core AMD A6-3400M processor, and its HD 6470M GPU. probably be happy with the gaming experience, even if youre You get 6GB of RAM, 500GB of hard drive space and Windows used to desktop video. 7 Home Premium 64-bit edition.

Core i5-430M Core i5-520E Core i5-5x0M Core i7-610E Core i7-620M

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The display is a 15.6 HD Acer CineCrystal LED panel, which has a natural resolution of 1366x768, and it comes with a DVD-RW drive and a six-cell battery. Acers speakers are a little weedy, however, so you might want to consider getting some external ones to go with this system. HP Pavilion G6-1331EA - 419.99 When I first saw the price of this, I wondered if it was a mistake, though Ive since seen it even cheaper. It uses the powerful A8-3520M APU, which has an integrated 6620G GPU, but the Pavillion doesnt rely on it alone. HP has added in a 7450M (a rebranded 6490M) with 1GB of dedicated GDDR3 for some dual-GPU fun. Add 6GB of RAM, 750GB of hard drive space and the excellent HP Brightview display, and this starts to look quite desirable. In GPU performance terms, this is probably at the low end of whats acceptable, but the price is excellent for whats on offer. Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 - 750 This isnt especially cheap, but it gives you an idea of what a proper mobile gaming platform is likely to cost you. The IdeaPad Y570 uses the Intel Core i5 2450M, but thankfully Lenovo didnt use the Intel GMA, choosing instead to use the NVidia GT555 GPU, giving this system some proper 3D video poke. Included in the price is a very slick aluminium shell, a Blu-ray reader/DVD writer, 1GB of video RAM, 750GB of storage and 8GB of main memory. Whats amazing about this PC is that even with the power it has, Lenovo managed to squeeze four hours of battery life out of it. Asus N53SV-SX858V - 660 This is another Intel platform, and with a name like Asus behind it, it was never going to be that cheap. Then again, when you look at the specification, this is actually a really good deal. It has Core i5 2430M dual-core CPU (2.4GHz), Blu-ray reader, 4GB of RAM and a 640GB hard drive. However, the real selling point is the NVidia GeForce GT 540M, which takes over from the entirely duff Intel HD Graphics 3000 that the processor came along with. The GT 540M has 260 gigaflops of processing power, and a bandwidth of 28.8GB/s - very close to the GT 630M on the current series. Asus styling and some sharp pricing makes this an attractive option. Dell XPS L702x (Refurbished) - 600.19 Im not usually in the business of promoting Dell, as its Alienware gaming systems are outrageously expensive when new. However, if youre looking for some cheap gaming hardware, then it might be worth giving its Factory Outlet a look. I was able to find this Dell XPS L702x, which uses the powerful Intel Core i7-2670QM. Its addressed the inherent GPU weakness with an NVidia GT 555M, with 3GB of its own video memory, along with 8GB of main memory RAM. This would make a very capable gaming system. If you have a little more money, in the same location I also found an Alienware M17x R3, which Dell is offering for 881.87. It has the AMD Radeon HD 6970M on board,

for some serious 3D gaming performance. Obviously, these items come with a limited warranty, and what they have available at any time is highly variable, but some good deals can be found.

Final Thoughts

Gaming on the go is always going to be a compromise, irrespective of your budget. Whatever equipment you buy, making a system portable means that it could never compete directly with a desktop system; theres not enough room for the highest-end GPU tech or the power consumption they demand. That said, its entirely possible to have a decent gaming experience on a laptop, if your standards arent too high and your expectations are suitably curbed.

NVIdia GeForce 6xxM series Mobile Graphics

Model GeForce 610M GeForce GT 620M GeForce GT 630M GeForce GT 635M GeForce GT 640M LE GeForce GT 640M GeForce GT 650M GeForce GTX 660M GeForce GTX 670M GeForce GTX 675M GeForce GTX 680M Code Name GF119 GF117 GF108 GF117 GF106 GF116 GF108 GK107 GK107 GK107 GK107 GF114 GF114 GK106 Memory (MiB) 1024 2048 1024 2048 1024 2048 1536 2048 1024 2048 1024 2048 1024 2048 2048 1536 3072 2048 4096 Cong Core 48:8:4 96:16:4 96:16:4 96:16:4 144:24:24 96:16:4 384:32:16 384:32:16 384:32:16 384:32:16 336:56:24 384:64:32 768:64:24

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What concerns me is that those who enter the retail environment without doing sufficient research might end up with hardware thats at best borderline, and at worst entirely unsuitable for gaming.

People who game with a laptop learn to love medium, and occasionally low unless they have something special

A while back in Logging Off, I talked about a friend who asked about a gaming system and mentioned a budget that just wouldnt buy one. His budget wasnt enough for gaming performance, but he just said that hed lower his expectations. The problem is that you can call it whatever you like, but the machine he ultimately bought wasnt a gaming PC on any level, as far as I was concerned. Any system that comes with an Intel processor and its video solution isnt gaming capable, whatever the promotional material says. A gaming laptop can only truly be called that if you can enjoy gaming on it, and some that are sold are debatable on that point. If you wish to test the waters, so to speak, then many retail locations are happy to demonstrate their equipment to you. The only caveat to that is that systems are rarely preinstalled with suitable test titles, and Ive even seen salespeople attempt to pass off smooth video playback as being indicative of gaming performance. It isnt. Under those circumstances its worth identifying what GPU a system has, and then researching what the typical frame rate is likely to be on the types of games you mostly play. Once armed with that information, you can either decide to reduce your expectations or increase you budget, or both, I suspect. Is it possible to get a gaming laptop on a budget? Yes, I think it is, especially if youre willing to accept last years technology, and youre not expecting to run at 1080p with all the settings on ultra high. People who game with a laptop learn to love medium, and occasionally low unless they have something special. One day all mobile devices will have such massive GPU power that well be gaming on the cheapest hardware, but for now its a matter of not investing too heavily in equipment that will be overtaken by developments in a couple of short years. mm
Memory

Clock Speed Core (MHz) 900 625 672 800 675 762 500 625 850 735 835 598 620 1006 Shader (MHz) 1800 1250 1600 1350 1524 500 625 850 735 835 1196 1240 1006 Memory (MT/s) 1800 1800 1800 1800 3130 1800 1800 1800 4000 4000 3000 3000 3000 Bandwidth (GB/s) 14.4 28.8 28.8 50.2 43.2 50.2 28.8 28.8 28.8 64.0 64.0 72.0 96.0 192.2

API Support (Version) Bus Width (bit) 64 128 64 128 128 192 128 128 128 128 192 256 256 DirectX 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.0 11.1 11.1 11.1 11.1 11.0 11.0 11.1 OpenGL 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2

Bus Type DDR3 DDR3 DDR3 GDDR5 DDR3 GDDR5 DDR3 GDDR5 DDR3 GDDR5 DDR3 GDDR5 GDDR5 GDDR5 GDDR5 GDDR5

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TEST
7-Series ds For Motherboarridge Intel Ivy B

GROUP

7-Series Motherboards For Intel Ivy Bridge

ASRock Z77 Fatal1ty Professional

Price: 190 Manufacturer: ASRock Website: www.asrock.com

DETAILS

T
Leo Waldock compares ve motherboards for Ivy Bridge gaming

he ASRock Z77 Fatal1ty Professional trades on the name of professional gamer Johnathan Wendel to push the idea that this motherboard is ideal for the hardcore gamer. There's no denying that the ASRock Z77 Fatal1ty Professional looks very purposeful with its black and red colour scheme, and the heatsinks on the chipset and power regulation hardware are sizeable to say the least. ASRock employs its Combo Cooler Option system with two sets of mounting holes that allow you to choose either an LGA1155 or LGA775 cooler. Depending on the size of the cooler and how much it overhangs the RAM slots, you may need to install the system memory before you install the cooler. If that's the case, then you'll find that the CPU is effectively hemmed in on all four sides, and that makes the job very fiddly. That's okay, though, because gamers enjoy that sort of hassle. The thing that makes us cautious about the gamer schtick is the enormous list of features that ASRock has included in the package. Three graphics slots is a fine idea, but when the heck does the need for ten SATA ports arise? That's six SATA 6Gbps and four SATA 3Gbps, which must surely be about six ports more than any gamer needs. There's a retro touch, as ASRock

has included connectors for IDE and also for floppy, which might well prove useful to the man in the street, but once again we query their value for gamers. We have a problem with the on-board power and reset buttons, because they're not illuminated and are difficult to tell apart. It's a similar story on the I/O panel, where you'll find HDMI and DisplayPort connectors hidden in among six USB 2.0 ports and no less than six USB 3.0 ports. Added to that, ASRock includes a 3.5" drive bay with two USB 3.0 ports that also has a bracket for rear mounting. That's brilliant for a regular person trying to build a high-end PC, but why on earth does a gamer require that many USB ports? Could it be for their printer, scanner and iPod? No, it's all nonsense. The Fatal1ty branding is pure bunkum and while we applaud Mr Wendel for earning some cash, we really need to park that idea. What we have here is a superb motherboard that's packed with features, but it's nothing to do with professional gaming. One feature we adore is in the UEFI setup screen, which includes a feature called System Browser, which is a picture of the motherboard. Move the mouse cursor around 'your' motherboard and it lists the details of your CPU and RAM and also tells you what is installed in each expansion slot. Click on the SATA or I/O sections and you're presented with an enlarged picture on those areas showing what's plugged into each port or socket. Once you've installed Windows, you can use the AMI Win flasher to update the BIOS (in our case from from V1.10 to v1.20), and then run the driver disc, which offers options to install individual drivers, to install all drivers or to install all drivers and utilities. We made the latter

choice and found a fair amount of clutter appeared on our drive. For instance, Norton Internet Security 2012 is only a 60-day trial, ASRock XFast LAN (which shows your network traffic) comes with a 30-day trial of cFos Speed traffic shaping and Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi MB2 costs US$24.99 for an upgrade to a full version. That's annoying, but Intel Smart Connect, Lucid Virtu, ASRock APP charger and F-Stream Tuning Utility are useful pieces of software, so it's fine provided you pick and choose. The F-Stream Tuning utility looks a bit clunky but seems to work well enough and has tabs for Hardware Monitor, Fan Control, Overclocking, Fatal1ty Mouse Port, Energy Saving and XFast RAM. Within the UEFI screen you'll find Optimised CPU OC Settings (i.e. profiles) for 4.0GHz, 4.2GHz, 4.4GHz, 4.6GHz and 4.8GHz. 4.8GHz was listed in red, presumably as a warning, and caused an error in Catalyst Control Centre the moment that Windows started. And then Windows 7 blue screened, so we tried 4.6GHz, which froze during PCMark7 and instead ended up at 4.4GHz, which is pretty feeble as you can achieve the same end by adjusting the Turbo Boost setting. Other than that, we love the ASRock to pieces and feel it's a fine piece of hardware.

Quality

Value

9 7

Overall

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7-Series s for motherboarddge Intel Ivy Bri

TEST

GROUP

7-Series Motherboards For Intel Ivy Bridge

Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H
Price: 150 Manufacturer: Gigabyte Website: uk.gigabyte.com

DETAILS

f you want an object lesson in how to pack in the ports on an I/O panel, you need to take a look at the Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H. The ports and connectors come in a solid block without any wasted space. Reading from left to right, we have VGA, DVI-D, DisplayPort and HDMI graphics outputs, optical S/PDIF, two USB 2.0, one FireWire, one eSATA, four USB 3.0, dual gigabit networking and six audio mini jacks. Gigabyte includes a front panel USB 3.0 unit in the package that uses one of the two USB 3.0 headers, so you

still have the scope to connect two more of these ports. And you get headers for another FireWire port and four more USB 2.0 ports. Taken together that's a lot of ports and a big thumbs up for Gigabyte. It's a similar story with the SATA connectors. The Intel Z77 chipset supports six connectors but that's not enough for Gigabyte, so there are two add-in Marvel chips that each support two more connectors, so there are two more SATA 6Gbps connectors, one ATX4P, an eSATA on the I/O panel and an internal SATA connector at the foot of the board. Yes, that's five connectors, because they share a controller so you can't use them all simultaneously. Between the CPU socket and primary graphics slot you'll find an mSATA connector that can be used for Intel's Smart Response Technology.

Gigabyte hasn't gone completely mad with the ports and connectors and has pulled back from including legacy PS/2, floppy or IDE connectors. It's interesting to note that Gigabyte has installed the MOSFETs of the power regulation hardware on the back side of the board while leaving the capacitors and chokes on the front. This approach certainly gives them more space to work and the board looks very tidy despite the huge amount of hardware that has been accommodated. Updating the BIOS using the Q-Flash feature with a USB flash drive was quick and easy as it always is with a Gigabyte board. There's a flick switch at the foot of the board to change from the main BIOS to the backup BIOS with an LED next to each BIOS chip to show which one is operating.

Quality Value

8 8

Overall

Gigabyte uses a dual UEFI BIOS and also a 3D BIOS. The main screen of the setup screen is a picture of a motherboard that is similar to the Z77X-UD5H. Mouse over an area of the board and you can jump directly to the relevant section of the setup screen for graphics, PCI Express, RAM or whatever. This makes it easy, for example, to change the SATA setting from legacy to AHCI but it doesn't give you any idea which SATA drives are connected to which SATA ports. ASRock does a better job in this regard, but if you read the Gigabyte screen legends carefully you'll find that the F9 key displays system information. At the top right of the screen the CPU and RAM clock speeds are displayed, which is a nice touch. Click the Advanced button on the setup screen and the appearance changes to a more conventional UEFI look and feel. Once you're in Windows, you can install the Easy Tune 6 overclocking utility. This software has three presets for our Core i7-3770K: green for 4.18GHz, amber for 4.43GHz and red for 4.68GHz. You make your selection, click the button and watch the system restart, so it's clear that Easy Tune is applying a series of preset options to the BIOS. Despite this fact, the red choice refused to boot, so we went for Amber instead, which is in the same 4.4GHz/4.5GHz zone that every motherboard should be able to manage with the Core i7-3770K processor. Nice piece of hardware, lovely UEFI screen, not so impressed by the performance.

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7-Series Motherboards For Intel Ivy Bridge

Intel DZ77GA-70K
Price: 185 Manufacturer: Intel Website: www.intel.co.uk

DETAILS

he Intel DZ77GA70K follows a pattern with Intel Extreme motherboards, as it has clearly been designed as a showcase for the Intel Z77 chipset and Ivy Bridge family of processors. This means that we're looking for the latest features and cutting-edge technology, while staying strictly within Intel's design guidelines. For instance, the four DDR3 memory slots support up to 32GB of memory running up to 1600MHz, where the other manufacturers run as high as 2800MHz in the case of ASRock. It gives you pause for thought when you see that Intel has used an add-in SATA controller to complement the six SATA connectors that come with the chipset. Perhaps the Z8x chipset will drop SATA 3Gbps and move across wholesale to 6Gbps. That's not to say that Intel is staid or boring, although it can be a little conservative. On the I/O panel we have no less than three colours of USB ports. There are two black USB 2.0, two yellow USB 2.0 that supply extra power for fast charging of devices such as iPads and there are four USB 3.0 ports. In case that's not enough, there are

three USB 2.0 headers for case mounted ports and two USB 3.0 headers, and Intel even includes a 3.5" drive bay module with two USB 3.0 ports. Intel also includes a FireWire port, which we regard as redundant and outdated, and its famed 'Back to BIOS' button, which will recover your PC from any incident short of being destroyed in a house fire. On the downside, the layout of the ports isn't especially intelligent and we can see a good deal of fresh air such that Intel has provided only an HDMI output for the integrated graphics. We would have been far happier to see the inclusion of a DVI connector, because HDMI is a real pain when it comes to PC drivers and screens and we are truly surprised that Intel has ignored DisplayPort. Intel has also ignored mSATA and that is also a surprise, because we fully expected it to push the use of flash memory to speed up your system. If you want more oomph, you'll need to ally an SSD with your hard drive, instead of using on-board cache. Included in the package is a Bluetooth/802.11n module that connects to a USB 2.0 mid-board header. The idea is that you can link devices wirelessly to your PC, but we don't understand this thinking. Wireless devices should connect to your router or possibly to other wireless devices. If you wish to connect your phone to your PC it's easy to use a cable. Another curious omission is the absence of Intel Extreme

Tuning software. Intel includes its Desktop Utilities for monitoring the hardware but if you wish to make any changes, you need to visit the UEFI setup screen. This is where the Intel technology showcase gets into its stride. Intel calls the UEFI setup screen a Visual BIOS. It contains an Overclocking Assistant for the CPU, graphics and memory. For our CPU the slider control can be dragged between 3.8GHz and 4.5GHz in 100MHz steps. At each step you can see the settings that will be applied for TDC Current Override, Burst Mode Power Limit, Sustained Mode Power Limit, CPU Voltage Offset and Turbo Boost limit. Click the arrow to the right of the screen and you move across to the hardware monitor where you can see graphics and readouts for fan speeds, temperatures, voltages and the SATA connections on the board. Although Intel has a pretty picture of the eight SATA connections, the connections are only displayed for the six native SATA ports, so if you're using the add-in Marvell chip, you'll find those devices are invisible. Click to the right and the third screen shows system information including the motherboard model, BIOS version, CPU

model and Management Engine Firmware version. That's the Basic or Simple setup approach. Click the Advanced Setup button and the appearance of the UEFI changes to something more akin to a traditional BIOS with seven tabs across the top. The Advanced Screen has clearly been developed for navigation with a mouse rather than the dreadful keyboard arrows. It delivers far greater control over the settings so, for instance, you can choose the Turbo Boost limit for one, two, three or four cores; enable or disable SpeedStep; or change the power limits to your preferred figures. This is exactly what you would expect and it works very well. Shame the Overclocking Assistant doesn't go higher though. So yes, the DZ77GA-70K is a showcase for UEFI technology and the importance of USB ports, but the rest of the board is a bit dull and the price is horribly steep. We found this model on sale at 185, but if you're not careful you could pay over 200 and that is absurd.

Quality Value

6 5

Overall

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Everything you need to know about Windows Phone, in one place.

The Ultimate Guide To

Top Windows Phone handsets tested and rated Find out all the tips, tricks and shortcuts The best apps and games to download

Order your print or digital copy direct from magbooks.com or call 0844 844 0053
MagBooks cover a range of topics, from IT to Motoring, and Fitness to Lifestyle
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7-Series Motherboards For Intel Ivy Bridge

MSI Z77A-G45
Price: 95 Manufacturer: MSI Website: uk.msi.com

DETAILS

SI rushed us an early sample of the Z77A-G45 in a plain box, which seemed like it might be an obstacle. In fact, it caused no problems, because this this model comes with very little in the way of extras in the package. We downloaded the manual from the MSI website and saw that the only things missing were the I/O shield, the driver disc and a handful of SATA cables. First impressions of the Z77A-G45 are favourable and we like the understated colour scheme that uses MSI's standard combination of blue and black. The heatsinks are large, solid aluminium items that are screwed into place, but we weren't convinced about the black plastic shrouds on the two heatsinks on the power regulation hardware. It seems that their main function is to carry marketing messages: one message is Military Class III, which refers to the MOSFETs, capacitors and chokes, which are modern solid items. This is a good thing and is a similar set of technologies to Gigabyte's Ultra Durable 3. The second logo is OC Genie II, which is repeated on the PCB down by the SATA connectors. The thing is that this model doesn't have the OC Genie

button that provides instant access to overclocking, so we can only assume that the logo is intended for a more expensive model that has a larger set of features. It's a similar story with the V-Check Points at the side of the board. The solder bumps are in place, but the multimeter check points are not included, so hardcore overclockers may well be disappointed. Taking a tour around the Z77A-G45 makes it plain that MSI has added very little to the features that are part of the Z77 chipset. There are six SATA connectors, which means you only get two SATA 6Gbps, which doesn't compare very well with boards that offer four or six of the faster connector. There are two USB 3.0 ports on the I/O panel, which looks distinctly mean and while it's true that MSI has included a header

for two more USB 3.0 ports, there's no bracket in the package to supply those ports, so you'll need a suitable case. We like the way the USB 3.0 header is laid down alongside the SATA ports, but we would like it even more if there were four USB 3.0 ports on the I/O panel. It's not as if MSI has loaded the I/O panel with USB 2.0 ports, as there are only four of these slower connectors installed, albeit with mid-board headers for six more ports. Instead, MSI has chosen to fill the I/O panel with a full set of audio connectors (six mini jacks plus optical and coaxial S/PDIF) and a decent array of graphics outputs for the Intel GPU. The connectors consist of HDMI, DVI-D and VGA, which is fair enough, since DisplayPort can be considered a bit exotic and not entirely useful. The problem is that MSI has managed to supply

a large number of ports that aren't especially necessary while missing out on the USB ports that we all use day to day. One point of interest is that MSI has included a small Clear CMOS button on the I/O panel, which is considerably more accessible than the jumper that is positioned above the second graphics slot. The choice of expansion slots is likely to please some customers while annoying others. There are no legacy PCI slots, but instead you get two PCI Express 3.0 sots that support CrossFireX, a third graphics slot with four lanes of bandwidth and four PCI Express 1x slots. We have no idea what you would do with all those PCI Express slots. To be honest, the Z77A-G45 is rather basic and a bit dull, but it's saved from the abyss by MSI's usual excellent package of software. There are some handy utilities in the shape of Super Charger for iPad/iPhone 4, MSI Control Centre for overclocking and Green Power, which works with Intel ME. We also liked Click BIOS II, which allows you to control BIOS settings within Windows. The jewel in the crown, as ever, is Live Update 5, which is the simplest way to keep the BIOS and drivers up to date on your motherboard. The price of this model is very low but we would expect nothing less, because it's rather basic. Still, it does a decent job.

Quality Value

5 7

Overall

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7-Series Motherboards For Intel Ivy Bridge

Sapphire Pure Platinum Z77K

Price: estimate 129 as US price is $149.99 Manufacturer: Sapphire Website: www.sapphiretech.com

DETAILS

kay let's start with the biggest problem that we have with the Sapphire Pure Platinum Z77K, which is that we have no idea of the UK price. We believe it sells across the pond for US$149.99, so we're going to take a wild guess at a UK price and say it's 129. That pushes the Sapphire towards the lower end of the price spectrum in this group and that's unexpected, as it feels like a solid piece of hardware and looks really smart. The coolers on the chipset and power regulation hardware are solidly mounted, you get power and reset micro buttons and an LCD debug display and there's enough PCI expansion to gladden the heart. Specifically, there are four long PCI Express slots (and two 1x slots), but the third and fourth slots only support four lanes of bandwidth each. The first and second slots each get eight lanes of PCI Express 3.0, just like every other board in this group. The I/O panel is a curious mixture of features. On the plus side Sapphire provides a full array of graphics connectors HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI-I and

VGA - but on the downside this only leaves enough room for four USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.0 ports. That lowly number is helped by the inclusion of a 3.5" drive bay unit in the package with two USB 3.0 ports. The bay comes with a bracket that allows it to be used at the rear of the case should you prefer. Oddly enough, one of the main features of the Sapphire board isn't immediately apparent. The dual networking ports are both gigabit, as you would expect, and one is a conventional Realtek port. The other is a Killer E2200 port, which used to go by the name of Bigfoot Networks, but these days is a real mouthful and is called Qualcomm Atheros Killer Network adapter. The idea is that a clever control panel prioritises network traffic for gaming, movie streaming or whatever you prefer, just like a decent router provides QoS. Sapphire also provides a dual BIOS feature with a hardware switch, so you can be sure that you always have a good BIOS to

save the day when things go wrong. That brings us to the weak points. Updating the BIOS within Windows requires you to unzip a file and run the include BAT file to kick off the process. The documentation is feeble, but you should be able to work it out. In essence, Sapphire has taken an aged process and updated it for Windows 7, but honestly, it could do with a bit more polish and glitz. It's a similar story with the UEFI setup screen, which has seven large buttons across the top with system information displayed across the button that shows clock speeds, voltages and temperatures. In essence, the UEFI is a tidied-up BIOS that you can navigate using a mouse, but it lacks the finesse offered by ASRock, Gigabyte and Intel. Sapphire supplies its TRIXX utility that allows you to adjust

Quality Value

6 6

Overall

base clock speed, voltages and multipliers within Windows, but it's easier to visit the UEFI and make your changes to the Turbo Boost figures there. The setup screen is limited and you work with typed numbers rather than sliders, so you can change the CPU speed to whatever figure you like, but the limit on standard voltage continues to be 4.5GHz if you wish to avoid a blue screen. Overall, we found the hardware was average, the UEFI setup screen was average and we guess that the price is relatively low.

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7-Series s for motherboarddge Intel Ivy Bri

TEST

GROUP

DITOR

H
Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H
Intel DZ77GA-70K MSI Z77A-G45 95 Dual PCI Express 3.0 (1x16 or 2x8) CrossFireX 32GB DDR3-2667MHz in 4 DIMMS HDMI, DVI-D, VGA No Two/4/None No 185 Dual PCI Express 3.0 (1x16 or 2x8) CrossFireX and SLI 32GB DDR3-1600MHz in 4 DIMMS HDMI Yes 4/4/One No One 4x/Two 1x/Two 8 (4 on I/O, 2 on bracket, 2 mid-board)

IGHLY

MM CO

A highly specified motherboard that drips with features and all manner of shiny features.

ASRock Z77 Fatal1ty Pro

Decent hardware and Gigabyte's superb 3D BIOS combine in a compelling motherboard.

HOW WE TESTED...

We tested the motherboards using a Core i7-3770K processor with 16GB of G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1600MHz, a Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 graphics card and Intel 510 SSD running on 64-bit Windows 7.
Sapphire Pure Platinum Z77K

Price Inc VAT Graphics Expansion CrossFireX And SLI Memory Support Graphics Outputs Lucid Virtu Universal SATA 6Gbps/SATA 3Gbps/ eSATA mSATA Slot PCI-E/PCI Slots

129 estimated Dual PCI Express 3.0 (1x16 or 2x8) CrossFireX 32GB DDR3-1600MHz in 4 DIMMS HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI-I, VGA No Two/4/None No Two 4x/Two 1x/None 4 (2 on I/O, 2 on bracket) 10 (4 on I/O, 6 mid-board) One PS/2 Six mini jacks and optical S/PDIF Realtek and Killer E2200 gigabit UEFI Yes/Yes Five ATX 305mm x 245mm TRIXX 5,497 8,342 8,210 9,612 7,668

One 4x/4 1x/None 4 (2 on I/O, 2 mid-board) 10 (4 on I/O, 6 mid-board) One PS/2 Six mini jacks, coaxial and optical S/ PDIF Realtek gigabit UEFI No/No 4 ATX 305mm x 245mm MSI Control Centre 5,532 8,254 8,178 9,722 7,655

USB 3.0 Ports USB 2.0 Ports Other Ports Audio connectors Ethernet BIOS Or UEFI Setup Screen Debug Display/Micro Buttons Fan Connectors Form Factor Overclocking Tool PCMark 7 Overall 3DMark 11 Performance 3DMark 11 Graphics Score 3DMark 11 Physics Score 3DMark 11 Combined Score

10 (4 on I/O, 6 mid-board) One PS/2, one FireWire Five mini jacks and optical S/PDIF Dual Intel gigabit UEFI Yes/Yes 4 ATX 295mm x 244mm Overclocking Assistant 5,671 8,212 8,017 9,869 7,679

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REVIEWS
Zotac GeForce GTX 670 AMP! Edition
Mark discovers that Zotac's second-tier card is almost as potent as its rst DETAILS
Price: 329.99 Manufacturer: Zotac Website: www.zotac.com Required spec: Windows 7 for DX11, single PCI-Express x16 slot, dual PCIe six-pin power lines, 550W PSU or bigger, 2GB RAM, 330MB HDD space

n first impressions, this is an identical card to the Zotac GTX 680 AMP! that I previously reviewed. It requires the same amount of PCIe power lines, it uses the same custom Zotac cooler, takes up the same space, drinks in the same wateringhole. They are hardware twins, divided at birth. Yet, the GTX 670 is different, not least in being about 120 cheaper, marginally less than AMD is asking for its flagship HD 7970 and about the same as the HD 7950. Given that pricing, I was curious to find out if the Zotac GTX 670 AMP! just looks like its big brother or if it can pound pixels as furiously. On paper, the GTX 670 has just 1344 shaders, 192 less than the GTX 680, and it is also denuded of a few texture mapping units. But, and this is critical, it has exactly the same memory bus, running its 2GB of GDDR5 at the same speed, and therefore the same overall bandwidth available. Its GPU clock is also very similar, and the boost that Zotac has added for its AMP! branding is also the same. With 14% less shaders, surely the GTX 670 is going to be a

shadow of the superior card, the one that's 36% more? Not so much. This issue here is that most of the benchmarks I ran aren't restricted by the GPU any longer but rather the CPU, which in this case is about as good as you can get. I think my selection, if a little dated in places, offers a good cross section of what people are actually using their video cards for. And if you're not running

the very latest software, then the difference between this card and the GTX 680 can be nominal. Even on the hardest tests, like Heaven 3.0, the difference was just 7%, which, given the price difference, makes this card something of a bargain.

Those wondering why I didn't stack AMD's scores against this one, it was to hide its shame, as I've yet to see a HD 7000 series of any model get near these numbers. Perhaps a dual GPU one might, with a following wind.

Specifications

1344 SMX unified shaders Engine clock: 1098MHz (base), 1176MHz (boost) 2GB GDDR5 memory Memory clock: 6608MHz (1652MHz x 4) Custom dual-fan cooler 256-bit memory interface DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs PCI Express 3.0 interface NVidia GPU Boost technology NVidia 3D Vision Surround capable NVidia FXAA technology NVidia TXAA technology NVidia SLI ready NVidia Adaptive Vertical Sync DirectX 11 technology and Shader Model 5.0 OpenGL 4.2 compatible Hardware-accelerated full-HD video playback Blu-ray 3D ready Lossless audio bitstream capable TrackMania 2 Canyon 3-Day Game Pass included

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Obviously, this is a much better deal than the GTX 680, and with Zotac's special AMP sauce it's an even tastier option. The only question I'd ask is whether 330 is still too much to spend on a video card. That's a choice you'd need to make, but I can confirm that for an investment at that level you get almost all the Kepler GPU goodness that spending 450 will return.

This card is all good news for the consumer, on a number of levels
The only appreciable downside to this card is that it's not physically any smaller than the GTX 680 and, as such, you need plenty of space inside your PC to house it. You also need a PSU with dual PCIe sixpin lines, although anyone building a gaming rig at this level should already have a decent power supply. This card is all good news for the consumer, on a number of Test HAWX 2 3DMark Vantage 3DMark 11 Resolution 1080p DX11 Default Avg. FPS Performance Performance Extreme Avg. FPS Avg. FPS Avg. FPS Avg. FPS Avg. FPS levels. If you want Kepler power, then you can have it without having to pay silly money. And, if you still like AMD, and many do, then the appearance of this card is probably going to push the cost of the 7900 and 7800 cards down rapidly. As for Zotac, it's delivered on its signature AMP promise, by delivering extra power at mainstream pricing. mm Mark Pickavance

Almost all the power that NVidia offers at a more palatable price

Quality Value

8 8

Overall

Zotac GeForce GTX 670 AMP! 159 P33793 P9499 X3240 140.25 269.67 297 58.5 101.5

Zotac GeForce GTX 680 AMP! 166 P36059 P10302 X3490 149.83 277 305 62.5 107.3

Default Default 1080p 8xAA Far Cry 2 Street Fighter 1080P 8xAA IV 1080p Batman:AA 1080p Heaven 3.0 Benchmark 8xAA 16xAF Tessellation Normal AVP 1080p 16xAF

Benchmark's performed with a Intel DX79SI motherboard, Core i7-3960X CPU, 16GB DDR3 quad-channel memory, Crucial M4 128GB SSD, Windows 7 64-bit

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iClone 5 Pro
Become a movie director in you own home with iClone 5 DETAILS
The program ships with a decent selection of sets, textures, characters and miscellaneous objects to get you started. If you need something more specific, the Reallusion site has many more packs you can buy. I also found a large resource of thirdparty freeware components and characters, available to download from a number of talented designers' websites. Incidentally, the Reallusion marketplace offers a new freebie most days, so its always worth a visit. With this version, Reallusion introduces the new G5 characters. These are more advanced in terms of realism, because their heads have a higher polygon count and 3D teeth. Ultimately, this gives you more control over facial expressions; they also have better bone structures. For example, the chest is designed to expand and contract properly, giving your avatars the ability to breathe. When you combine these new features with body puppet motion, you have the facility to record your own actions and profiles. You do this by playing one of the built-in actions, while masking certain body parts. Then you can animate and record individual parts in real time using the mouse. These recordings are simply overlaid, making it easy to create quite complex animations. In fact, theres a better method of recording your own actions in iClone 5, but you would need to invest in a Mocap device and purchase the Mocap plug-in. This is basically a special camera (like Microsofts Kinect Sensor) that uses the Mocap plug-in to capture your actions in real time. It can also be used to control your characters live, while interacting with on-screen smart props that react automatically when you touch them. Undoubtedly iClone5 is a very powerful program, useful for creating demos for first-person perspective games, or perhaps a realistic walkthrough to show clients your new architectural design. I appreciate that this review only scratches the surface of the product, so if you want to know more, you can download a fully operational trial version from the Reallusion website. mm Joe Lavery
Price: 159.00 Manufacturer: Reallusion 3D Software Website: www.reallusion.com Required spec: 2GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 2GB HDD space, 1024x768 display, DirectX 9.0c, Shader Model 3.0, Windows XP SP2 or later

n the past, animators were highly skilled artists who created movement by drawing at least 25 individual cels for every second of screen time. So, for example, to get a character to move, they would draw it in a slightly different position in each cel. Today, most of this work is done by computer. The animators still have to create the scenes and characters, but the laborious work of animating is done by sophisticated software like the product featured here. iClone 5 is the latest release from Reallusion, designed to create complex 3D animated sets and realistic characters without any prior knowledge of animation techniques. Although its target market is primarily the home user, game designers have been using it to good effect for some time, because it provides them with an almost instant method of visualising and testing their designs. Initially, the program looks daunting, simply because there are so many options on offer. However, the video tutorials on the Reallusion website are excellent, quickly demonstrating how to create a fully animated scene in just a few minutes. In fact, as I learnt later, most of the on-screen controls are designed to simply refine what youve already created.

Some of the G4 - G5 characters supplied with the program

A very impressive product, able to produce animations with great depth and realism

Quality Value

9 8

Overall

With a higher polygon count, the new G5 characters are more realistic

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Imagination Studio 3
Michael Fereday has a go at using his Imagination DETAILS
Price: 114.95 Manufacturer: Sony Website: sonycreative software.com Required spec: 2GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 3.6GB HDD space, Windows XP or later

ormally associated with hardware, Sony also has a software string to its bow. One such software offering is the companys Imagination Studio currently standing at version 3. The Imagination Studio contains tools for working with video, photos and audio plus DVD authoring. Imagination Studio offers a piecemeal approach to its installation. The main Studio element consists of Acid Music Studio 8.0, DVD Architect Studio 5.0, Sound Forge Audio Studio 10.0 and Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11.0. This is a collection of individual items rather than a fully integrated package. Each application, accessed from its own desktop icon, requires a serial number with online registration and product activation. Fortunately, your registration details are retained after the first entry, so you don't need to type the data every time. As well as the main applications, Sony includes a number of bonus items. These offerings are Studio Devil, TruePianos Amber Lite, Vocal Eraser and Photo Go. Each of these items has its own installation routine, with the final two requiring the entry of a supplied serial number. With the longest pedigree (it's version 11), Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum is an obvious place to start. Offering a range of video

Manipulate video clips

The file explorer

editing features, this software has an interface that is predominately grey in colour. While this subdued approach does has the benefit of not distracting you while working, it's a little on the drab side for my taste. An opening overlaid menu gives you the option to start a project using presets including region, video format and destination media; viewing various tutorials; or jumping right in to begin work. This latest version of Vegas Movie Studio has support for 2D and 3D content. For best results with 3D, you need to be working with a multi-core CPU or multi-processor system. A pair of cardboard anaglyph glasses is included in the box for previewing 3D content. The manipulation of titles has been greatly enhanced with this version. You can add effects such as glow and blur plus animate individual characters for

eye-catching results. As well as burning content to optical media, including 3D Blu-ray, it can be exported to YouTube. The other three main elements of this package have interfaces that are slightly more appealing. Each one opens with an option to discover how to carry out tasks with a 'Show Me How' box. When dealing with audio, you can split the work between Acid Music Studio and Sound Forge Audio Studio. For working with pre-recorded content, Acid Music Studio will be your application of choice. You can download and work with loops as you mix and trim items to suit your needs. There are tools for MIDI editing and sequencing, a mixing console and playback facilities. Although there's some duplication, Sound Forge Audio Studio comes into its own when recording content - you will need to provide the microphone. The

Sound Forge software can also be used to edit, add effects and create your own CDs. Completing the main package is DVD Architect Studio. This software can handle videos, photos and music as you select from over 50 DVD themes supplemented with your own efforts. Titles, menus and special effects can be added before the results are burned to optical media. As mentioned earlier, you also get Studio Devil (guitar and bass amp), TruePianos Amber Lite (piano synth), Vocal Eraser (Sound Forge plug in to remove vocals) and Photo Go (photo editing). mm Michael Fereday

A well-featured collection of tools for the enthusiastic media developer

Quality Value

8 7

Overall

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Portrait Professional
Make your face a bit more appealing with this handy software
the tip of the nose and the edges of the mouth using a mouse cursor that has, at this allow you to move on to the next mask. General markers indicating the hair and jaw lines adjusting facial features categorised as Face sculpture, Skin, Eye, Mouth and Nose, Hair, Lighting and overall Picture. You can easily switch between a two and one image view showing just the After portrait. You also get a mini image of your subject that can be used to select a particular area and then zoom in for a closer look at the main image(s). By scrolling through the various facial categories, you can select from different aspects that can be adjusted. Letting your mouse cursor hover over a slider bar will bring up a brief description of its features plus images showing the possible results of using this tool. While many of the slider bars make subtle adjustments, others can have a more dramatic effect such as changes to skin tone and hair colour. You also have access to a touch-up and restore brushes with adjustable size and strength attributes. I was impressed with the functionality and ease of use of Portrait Professional Studio. Regrettably it had no effect on my mirror as it only works on photographs. mm Michael Fereday

DETAILS

Price: 49.95 (special offer) Manufacturer: Anthropics Website: portraitprofessional.com Required spec: 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 75MB HDD space, Windows XP or later / Intel Mac OS X 10.5 or later

Portrait Professionals total focus is on the subjects head

point, instructions attached to it. A dummy image will be provided to help guide you through this process. The data gathered will be used to create adjustable masks that are placed over the eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth. You can fine-tune these masks with regards to their positioning and shape by dragging on set anchor points. Pressing the spacebar will can also be adjusted in the same manner. Again a dummy image will show how the masks need to be adjusted. At the conclusion of this process, a full skin blemish procedure, which generally takes under a minute, will be performed. You will then be shown a Before and After view of the portrait alongside a panel containing slider bars for

s I remarked to a longstanding member of the team responsible for the publication of the UKs most enduring weekly computer magazine, this next software title could be ideal for one of us. Perhaps, if truth be told, I should have said that both of us could benefit from our photographic images being touched up - alright completely remodelled - by this software. Developed by Anthropics and now up to version 10, Portrait Professional is available in Standard, Studio or Studio 64 editions. This review is based on the Studio version, which includes support for RAW image format and can be used as a Photoshop add-on as well as performing as a stand-alone product, which is the approach I took. Portrait Professionals total focus is on the subjects head, whether in full frontal, threequarters or profile mode, although you can make minor adjustments to the neck. Once you've loaded your portrait, you do get a number of samples on which you can practice, you will need to inform the software whether the subject is a child, woman or man as the image is displayed in a central screen position. You will then be led through the process of marking the outside edges of each eye,

Position the masks

An easy-to-use professional portrait photographic tool that shows how good you could look

Quality Value
Change of hair colour

9 9

Overall

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Resident Evil Raccoon City

Kevin Pocock dusts off the health sprays DETAILS
Valentine and Carlos Oliveira) plus a new character, Lone wolf. Each of these has comparable abilities to the Umbrella mob, and if you were persistent enough you could unlock the abilities for both sets of characters and all weapons. The question is whether you'd want to. In the campaign mode, XP accumulation is hastened with the collection and reporting of data, and the destroying of CCTV cameras. In multiplayer, it's all based on kills and victories. The fly in the soup is that although there are four different modes - Team Attack, Survival, Biohazard and Heroes - I struggled to find many to players online unless submitting to the Quickmatch option. This had me playing Team Attack again and again, and it quickly became a little tiring. Online, in-game tactics and teamwork do come into it and as the game supports Games for Windows Live you can talk to each other, but more often than not matches were rather unbalanced and over in minutes, as those dedicated enough to reach the higher character ranks took the glory. There's the nuts and bolts of a good game here and zombies aplenty. Unless you're a big Resi fan, though, that might not be enough. mm Kevin Pocock
Price: 24.85 (Zavvi.com) Developer: Capcom Website: residentevil.com/reorc Required spec: Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz or better, 2GB RAM, 10GB HDD space, Radeon HD 3850 or better, Windows XP or later

f keen interest to dedicated fans of the series, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City offers a single or co-op campaign and online multiplayer modes. It's set during the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3, and you play one of six elite Umbrella-hired soldiers contracted to go into Raccoon City and cover up an outbreak of the T-Virus. Resident Evil games lend themselves to interwoven plot lines, and this particular angle works well enough. Storylines cross enough to provide continuity and a few headnodding moments, but never really do enough to pull you in, although perhaps that's to do with playing elite soldiers rather than a cop with scarce ammo. Each of the playable campaign mode characters has a specialised set of skills: recon, field scientist, reconnaissance, assault, demolitions, medicine. Each of these adds a bit of extra consideration when going into battle and, in fact, if you wanted to, you could play the whole campaign through while exiting and reloading as a different character for each objective. However, apart from some nasties infected with the T-Virus and some persistent US Spec Ops (sent in to find out just what's going on), you're never exactly sure what each level has to offer. So if you've opted for the recon

Honey, I'm hooome!

character Vector when it might be easier to play as the demolitions specialist, Beltway, or the guns-a-blazing Lupo, you might struggle before eventually beating the level. It would be nice if you could switch in-game, but alas it isn't so. Another issue here is the length of the campaign mode, which I completed in around six hours, half of which without even unlocking the passive and active skills each player has, or the decent selection of firepower on offer. If you do unlock these early, the campaign might even last a

little less time, but unless you're an XP magnet or playing with game-smart friends, the likelihood is you'll still get to the end of things without having unlocked everything for every character or reaching a heady personal rank. I finished with enough XP for a gamertag rank of 21, and there are 100! Still, there are the online modes. Here, teams of four face off against each other as members of the Umbrella squad battle against some more familiar faces (Claire Redfield, Leon Kennedy, Ada Wong, Jill

A decent addition, but nothing jaw-dropping

Quality Value

6 7

Overall

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Distant Worlds
Mark Pilkington expresses his desire to run a galactic empire
While played in a real-time environment, thankfully you do have the option to pause or slow down the action if things become too hectic for you. In fact, I can guarantee they will do with a game this vast; it really is quite impressive just how and different types of terrain. You see what I mean now when I say it takes some getting around? The first few times you play will prove to be a very overwhelming experience. There's always something going on, and you'll quickly be you research new technology and how aggressive your opponent's AI is. Playing the game, you can select the majority of your day-to -day empire governing to be automated, leaving you free to concentrate on the important tasks that flash up on your message board. A quick flick of your mouse will send you scrolling around the star system, allowing you to zoom in and out of planets and colonies to issue commands. When you encounter other races, you can choose to be diplomatic to them and trade resources, or if you've developed a sizable army, to fight them. Depending on what ship you're fighting will largely affect your tactics, and you can assign a certain ship to attack or just let the AI handle things. Scoring top marks for depth, there's always plenty for you to do in Distant Worlds, and it's a game that rewards you for the time you spend playing it. This is definitely a thinking spaceman's game, and it will throw you in at the deep end and expect you to discover how to play it for yourself. Still, nobody ever said running a galactic empire singlehandily would be easy, and realtime strategy buffs will be in their element here. mm Mark Pilkington
Price: 29.99 Manufacturer: Matrix Games Website: www.matrixgames.com Required spec: Windows XP or later, 1.5GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 500MB HDD space

DETAILS

hen it comes to creating an allconquering empire, you can't get much more of a challenge than ruling an entire galaxy. Billed as a 4X game (standing for explore, expand, exploit and exterminate) Distant Worlds is a real-time space-age strategy game that's not for the weak hearted. As you might expect from a title that features hundreds of star systems and even more planets, this game is very complex to play. You'll spend the first hour or so struggling with the numerous menus and options as you try to get your head around the basics a feat that will put many potential players off. Those who do keep at it are eventually rewarded, although it's a long, hard slog to get there.

There's always plenty for you to do in Distant Worlds

detailed and intricate the universe is. The galaxy itself is populated with over 1,000 stars, each of which contains its own set of planets, and each planet contains its own separate moons kept busy no matter which of the 20 races you decide to play as. As you would expect, Distant Worlds is a highly customisable game, allowing you to select the size of the galaxy, how quickly

A complicated but fun strategy game

Quality Value

7 8

Overall

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TEST
Reviews

ON

NecroVision: Lost Company

Zombies, big guns and plenty of FPS action
Price: 9.99 Manufacturer: Excalibur Publishing Website: excalibur-publishing.com Required spec: Windows XP or later, Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz or better, 2GB RAM, 2GB HDD space, NVidia 8800+ video card

DETAILS

azi zombies. While hardly being an original idea these days, the developer of NecroVision: Lost Company has taken the now familiar concept and added demons and dragons to the mix, creating a truly gripping gaming experience in the process. Ever since the days of Doom, the FPS and horror have shared a happy marriage together, and in many respects this is a continuation of the theme. A sequel (or should I say prequel) to the original NecroVision, NecroVision: Lost Company is set in the bloody days of World War One, where the German forces have found a new biological weapon that turns its victims into zombies. Along with hordes of the undead staggering around the trenches, you'll also encounter fire-breathing dragons and giant mutants among other unsavoury foes. The majority of the-game is played from a first person perspective - although as you progress you will also get the chance to pilot a fighter plane and take control of an armoured tank - and in many respects can be seen as a homage to the early days of the genre. As you play through each level you'll acquire a multitude of different weapons with which to battle

do tend to look a little similar after a while. The good news here is you won't need a powerful spec machine to play this on, and owners of older systems will find that they should be able to run the game quite happily. The game's performance and graphics do improve slightly with the latest video cards, but not so much to make a great difference. For gamers who like their shooters served with gallons of blood, NecroVision: Lost Company ticks all the right boxes. If you're of a squeamish nature, then perhaps this is best avoided, but the rest of you should find plenty to make you smile in this fun WW1 zombie mash-up. mm Mark Pilkington the undead foes, ranging from a close-combat, nail-studded bat to ultra powerful machine guns. You can also duel wield some weapons, such as pistols, which you can simultaneously fire. Ammunition for these weapons is limited, but you can find stray clips to pick up as you explore the environments or that have been dropped by your nowdeceased opponents. When it comes to graphics, brutal and gory are the order of the day. Every time you shoot an opponent, you're guaranteed a satisfying splatter of blood, and it's a regular occurrence for heads and limbs to go flying off as the zombies meet their maker. Get up close to the little critters and your screen will be filled with their decaying faces as they frantically try to bite you something that is quite a sight the first few times it happens. The games environments are suitably dark and gritty, as you would expect from a World War One shooter, although one complaint that could be mustered here is that the levels

Nothing cutting edge but rates highly in the gore stakes

Quality Value

6 7

Overall

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THE STATE OF MOBILE... MEDIA IN 2012

Mobile technology is moving so fast its hard to keep up, so let Ian an McGurren put you in the picture. This week, its media on the move

MPman, the first MP3 player

round 1989, on the BBCs BCs Saturday morning kids s television show Going Live, they demonstrated an amazing zing piece of technology that blew the young ng minds of those who saw it. Essentially a music player around half the size of the standard dard music player of the time, Sonys Walkman, it could store the whole top 40 on a chip the size of a 50p piece. If that wasnt impressive enough, , it was also voice activated. 23 years ago this all seemed eemed too good to t was later revealed to be true - and indeed it was, as it be an April Fools joke. Today, however, owever, you are no doubt reading this thinking that we have ve this technology now, d it by some distance. and indeed weve even surpassed Mobile media has been a part of our lives since the invention ncompassing digital with of the Walkman in 1979, later encompassing d 80s. Both, though, were the CD-based Discman in the mid , the humble cassette or the CD. hampered by their source media, erent the best in terms Cassettes, although cheap, werent of frequency response and users would dread the tape

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Mobile media has been a part of our lives since the invention of the Walkman
wrapping itself around the spindles or warping in a hot car. CDs were a little more resilient, but their playback required the stream of bits to be constant or it would skip. This was easy to achieve at home in a stereo system, but impossible on the move. Buffering would help this, but with memory still expensive at this time, many could only offer a few seconds at best. All this, and the size didnt help - compact compared to vinyl but not practical on the move. Mobile video was even more of a niche product. There were a few attempts, most notably from Sir Clive Sinclair (the 2 FTV1) and tiny Casio LCD TVs, but these were broadcast television only and required a good signal. Video was the preserve of bulky VHS tapes still, and even when DVD finally took over, it had the same issues that plagued the CD Discman some 15 years prior. Around the turn of the century the landscape changed. Cheap solid-state memory, cheap hard drives, powerful chips and new video and audio compression techniques combined in a perfect media storm. Suddenly music and video could be shrunk to smaller files and stored on large drives, memory

chips or sent round the world via the web - no more CDs, VHS tapes or cassettes. In 1998, the MPMan became the first commercial device to bring this all together, with 32MB of solid-state memory that could be filled with around a CDs worth of songs in MP3 format. It was a quiet revolution. However, history shows us that it wasnt the MPMan that took digital media to the public consciousness. That award goes to a product few believed in from a company fighting bankruptcy: Apples iPod, released in October 2001. Like the word Hoover is used as a colloquial term for a vacuum cleaner, iPod has become so successful that it is used instead of the term media player. The growth in digital music has seen parallel growth in digital video. In fact, if anything, digital video has made more forward leaps that its aural brother, with high-definition, 3D video and more.

The Current State

In 2012, many of us now own a device capable of playing digital media, be it music or video. Whats more, thats not even its primary function. The single largest change from the introduction of media players a decade ago has seen them move from being their own discrete devices to becoming just another function of your mobile phone. All smartphones from the last 24 months will play MP3 files, most midrange smartphones will play digital video and any high-

Hooking up your smartphone to your TV with MHL

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Wireless HDMI, coming soon to phones?

end device will play high-definition digital video. If you have a modern smartphone, theres every chance its as powerful a media player as you could wish for. Solid-state memory is now at such a price that its possible to store thousands of MP3 files as well as a few TV shows and films on a 32GB micro-SD card that will set you back around 20. Soon this will be the price for 64GB, then 128GB. Of course, you dont have to carry it all with you, instead opting to use the improved data speeds for mobile internet and streaming your music from the web. Services such as Spotify allow you to pay a subscription and have full access to their vast libraries of music on demand. No syncing of devices or transferring onto memory cards, just whatever takes your fancy wherever you want it. The latest twist has been the phone becoming more than a personal media centre. Devices like the iPad, iPhone 4, Samsung Galaxy S2 and HTC Sensation have the ability to become a home media centre. For example, the iPad can work with the Apple

If anything digital video has made more forward leaps than digital audio
TV to show videos on your HDTV, the Galaxy S2 can be plugged straight into a TV and run HD videos. No more using a media box or a console, just dock your phone and off you go. Lets take a look at some of the best in mobile media: XBMC / Plex: Legendary media centre XBMC, along with its cousin Plex are now appearing on mobile devices in two forms.

The first is as remote controls - excellent for controlling your HTPC (the XBMC one even puts text messages on screen and pauses playback when you have a call). The second is as fully fledged media centres, able to play HD video of varying formats on screen or on a remote screen with the correct cable. Best of all, theyre free, though iThings will need to be jailbroken. Netflix: Finally in the UK, Netflix is a service that accounts for a third of the US internet traffic by supplying on-demand films and TV shows for a reasonable 6 a month. Still a bit light in content its at least more reliable than the often-buffering Lovefilm, and is simple to use. On most devices including consoles, its now on Android, iOS and Windows Phone. Skifta: What if you have plenty of media already and just want to have access to it out and about? Chip giants Qualcomms Skifta application may well be the answer. It streams your media from your PC to your mobile device over your network, transcoding on the fly if needed. However, it also does the same out and about, allowing you to stream music on the move or media round a friends place. Presently, its solid over wi-fi but its a little flakey over 3G, and requires the use of an IP redirect and port forwarding, so its not for the techaverse but its a promising start. iCloud, host to Apples iTunes Match

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Apple iTunes Match / Google Music / Amazon Cloud Player: All similar sides of the same cloud based coin, these three are betting on. What all three have in common is a way of accessing your music from anywhere theres a web connection. How thats achieved varies slightly, though. Apple iTunes Match is a subscription service that scans your library and matches tracks with the same ones in a cloud store you can access on Macs or iOS 5 devices. Those not in Apples library you can additionally upload. Google Music doesnt match the songs in the cloud space; you need to have bought them from Google Play or you can upload up to 20,000 of them. However, its free and works on Android, computers and iOS. Amazon Cloud Player is similar to Google Music in that it doesnt match your files; they need to be Amazon purchases or uploaded. Unlike Google its not free: $20 per years gets you unlimited uploads and 20GB general cloud space too. Its cross platform too, but its only available in the US at the moment.

In the future well see even more power in your pocket

Surprisingly, one of the issues holding back mobile media is the UKs increasingly archaic mobile network. In the world of cloud data and HD video, 3.5G mobile internet is not going to cut it, especially when capped at a measly 1GB or less per month. Freedom will increase further when we gain not only truly unlimited mobile data, but a super fast network on which to use it. With this freedom will come an increase in the use of cloud data. Were beginning to see video stored alongside sound and documents. Soon well have mobile networks approaching the speed of home networks a few years ago, with your media always being available to you anywhere. Theres increasing talk of digital music stores such as iTunes offering a similar subscription package to Spotify. It may come to a point where we pay media rental in the same way we pay line rental for phones, taking the iTunes Match system that bit further. In the future well see even more power in our pockets, with high-definition, 1080p screens and playback becoming the norm. Well begin to see a wireless HDMI standard emerge that will allow you to play video on yours or a friends compatible TV without a tangle of wires. Combined with your cloud data and high-speed mobile broadband, you can be a walking, on-demand, high-definition media centre. Finally, we may even begin to see the emergence of highdefinition sound; 24 24-bit bit 96KHz sound files with a greater dynamic range than anything before are beginning to appear. Many will argue that MP3 is doing just fine for Joe Public, but with high-quality sound equipment becoming more commonplace, combined with the record industrys fetish for endless repackaging for profit, high-definition sound could well be more commonplace in the future. So while were still awaiting jetpacks and matter transporters, the current state of mobile media is practically ripped from the celluloid of Kubricks 2001. The futuristic media player on Going Live in 1989 - we had that 20 years later, and now we have thousands of songs, all streamed from the internet to our connected devices. Its pretty amazing, and if theres a benchmark to show that the future is here, its arguably the world of mobile digital media. mm

Coming Soon?

Netflix - full movies, anywhere

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THE UBUNTU SERVER PROJECT

Over the next few weeks, Leo Maxwell will be describing how to build and configure various types of server on an Ubuntu base system. This week he lays the hardware and software foundations 64
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THE UBUNTU SERVER PROJECT

Load factor: 0.01 Packages required:Ubuntu Server ISO, SSH Hardware required: PC with optical drive or USB stick. Command count: 5

What You Need

The interior of the mini-ITX server, showing the motherboard with its passive heatsink (power cable unplugged for clarity) My mini server. Unfortunately the piano-black finish makes it quite difficult to get a good photo. The 23 monitor above it is showing the MythTV menu

s my day job, I manage a small but quite complex company network of around 30 computers, and support our customers in the field. I work on a mixture of Windows, Mac, Linux and BSD systems, as well as devices based on all of them. So no two days are the same. Like most Windows users, I lean towards graphical tools, even in Linux. However, these days, the command line and scripting are becoming more common, even in the Windows server world. I started this project as a sort of personal training course, determined to force myself out of my comfort zone and really learn how to manage a server at a low level, and document it along the way as a sort of aide-memoire. I was surprised by how easy it actually was. I learned that there are several ways of using graphical interfaces with a headless box, some of which you may find surprising, and I ended up with a nice little home server as a bonus. The fact that were using a headless box means that the command line is unavoidable. The tools that well be using are very powerful, but I will be keeping it to a limited subset for you to get a taster of what they can do, perhaps to encourage you to experiment further yourself. Ill also be posting the commands on

the Micro Mart forum (forum.micromart.co.uk), so they can be cut and pasted into a terminal. The command line is often quicker and more effective than point and click tools, and in the server world, its frequently more reliable. There are many types of server that can be used in a home. This week well be laying the foundations - the hardware and operating system but over the coming weeks well look at web servers, file servers, media streamers, security managers, etc., all of which can be built on this foundation, without too much typing. As we go along, you will notice that components are often reused. Many of the projects use MySQL, Apache and PHP or Perl. These building blocks are the basic foundations of the World Wide Web, many websites depend on them. All of these projects will happily coexist on the same hardware, simply incorporating themselves into the existing software base. For example, installing Zoneminder (a camera manager) on top of MythTV (a TV and media server) will simply insert the Zoneminder database structure. All of these projects have been tested in a virtual machine as well as on hardware, and in different configurations, but I cannot

Why A Home Server?

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The package selection menu, where we need to select the SSH server The Ubuntu installation menu. Perhaps the most exciting screen-shot of the entire article

guarantee that they will always behave consistently on different distros or hardware. For the purposes of this series, I will assume that you have a network (or the server wouldnt be much use!) and also a broadband router that gives out IP addresses automatically. This is by far the most common scenario in the UK. A 100Mbit network is the minimum requirement for many of these ideas, and gigabit is probably more desirable for some. Older wi-fi and Powerline adaptors tend to struggle, especially when shifting large media files around.

Step One: Select And Assemble The Hardware

The D2700 has such a low power draw that it can operate without a fan. The case does have a small fan, but I found that the processor heatsink only got slightly warm in use, so it could probably be dispensed with. The server OS is the basic foundation on which the various server roles can be built. I have opted for the free Ubuntu Server OS as the base for our experiments, running as the sole OS on a hard drive, which will be wiped during the installation. You could use a small SSD for the operating system and turn over the whole of the hard drive to storage. A graphical environment is quite a resource hungry application, which is unused on a headless server, so Ubuntu Server is by default CLI only. If you wish, you can follow these articles with a full Ubuntu desktop installed, but that increases the resources required and is quite unnecessary, as youll see. Some of these tasks might initially seem easier using a GUI, but using the command line is far more flexible and gives you an insight into the system workings that you can never really get from waving a mouse around. First, we need to download the Ubuntu server .iso image from tinyurl.com/62tyqf. You can burn it to a CD or install it on a USB stick. My case does not have an optical drive, so I used Unetbootin, a tool for creating bootable USB drives. This can be downloaded from tinyurl.com/pjkp3s, where you can also find instructions for its use. Boot from the CD or USB drive on your target PC, and select Install Ubuntu server. By default, this will wipe the hard disk and install a basic server system. The initial screens ask you for your location and keyboard type, etc., much like a Windows installation. You navigate the menus using the up and down arrow keys, select using the space key, exit a menu with the Tab key, and continue by using the Enter key. Most of the options will just need you to hit Enter, apart from selecting a UK keyboard. You will also be asked for a username and password. Installation time will vary depending on the speed of your system and your internet connection. On my test PC it took about 20 minutes. Towards the end of the installation, after the base system is installed, you can select from a range of preset packages. The most important of these to add is the SSH server, which we will use to gain remote access.

Step Two: Install The OS

The server OS is the basic foundation on which the various server roles can be built
This server is intended to sit quietly somewhere in your home, serving as a central store for your files and media and, as such, after initial configuration, it does not require a screen, keyboard or mouse. A virtual machine was used for initial testing, and I chose to use a new mini-ITX PC for my server, but you could easily use a retired desktop machine, because the resources required arent great. If you want to stream HD video to multiple machines, a gigabit network is advisable, and if you want the server to assume some of the more demanding roles, a dual-core processor might be in order. Obviously, if you want to use it as a file server, disk space is important, and as it is going to be on constantly, you probably want a low energy system. The video card, as long as it works long enough for the installation, is unimportant. An optical drive is useful for installation, and possibly for ripping media discs to the hard drive, but its not essential. For this series, I used an Intel D2700MUD mini-ITX board, which has an Atom D2700 dual-core processor, running at 2.13GHz, with 2GB of RAM and a 500GB SATA disk in a compact case. The total cost was less than 200.

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Besides typing commands, there are a few useful tips that are worth knowing: The up and down keys will scroll through recently used commands. The Tab key will auto-complete file names, commands, etc. Ctrl+C will stop a running process. Commands can be copied and pasted into the terminal from websites or documents, etc. (I will be posting them on the Micro Mart forum for this very purpose). Exit will log you out. Commands Throughout these tutorials, well be using a few commands repeatedly, some of which are listed below. All of these commands have many options, but Ill only list relevant ones to keep things simple. During the series, well come across other commands, and theyll be explained as and when theyre used. Those of you who do not have any experience with the Linux command line should note that unlike DOS, its case-sensitive. so Desktop is not the same as desktop, for example. Commands are usually all lower case, but not always, and folder names are sometimes capitalised. As we travel through the tutorials, well see some of the power of the Linux command structures. sudo - This temporarily gives us superuser status, which is needed for installing software or making changes to the system. The rest of the time, you operate as a standard user. This is a security precaution, a little like User Account Control in Windows. Usage is sudo command. You will then be asked for your password. cd - The change directory command. cd .. - Will move up one level. cd / - Will move to the root directory. cd /etc - Will move to the /etc directory, and so on. cp - The copy command. Usage is cp sourcefilename destinationfilename. For example, cp mypicture.jpg mypicture2. jpg; copies the file mypicture.jpg and names it mypicture2.jpg or ;cp /home/leo/pictures/mypicture.jpg /home/leo/Desktop/ copies the same file, but puts it on the desktop. ls - The list command, used to list the contents of a directory. ls will list the contents of the current directory. ls /etc will list the contents of the /etc directory. mv - The move command, also used to rename files. For example, mv mypicture.jpg mypicture2.jpg will rename mypicture.jpg to mypicture2.jpg or mv /home/leo/pictures/ mypicture.jpg /home/leo/Desktop/mypicture.jpg moves the same file to the desktop. pwd - Print working directory. Returns the current directory, which is useful if you lose your way. [Continued on next page]

Navigating The CLI

The first login screen, from where we can get the IP address

Once installation is complete, you will be asked to reboot, and then you can log in. When logged in, you will be able to see the automatically configured IP address of the server on the screen. Mine was 192.168.0.14 (addresses beginning 192.168. are reserved for private networks, and should not appear on the internet).

Step Three: Dump The screen

From now on we can dispense with keyboard, mouse and screen, and use another PC to manage the server. Its worth checking the BIOS settings to make sure that start-up wont halt if the keyboard is not plugged in. On another PC on the same network, you can open a terminal and type: ssh ipaddress e.g. ssh 192.168.0.14 However, if youve specified a different user, type: ssh username@ipaddress e.g. ssh leo@192.168.0.14 Youll be asked if you want to register the servers key. Type yes, then enter your password. Vista and Windows 7, unlike Linux or XP, do not have a default SSH client, so if you want to use a PC with those OSs, youll need to install one of the various free SSH clients such as PuTTY, available from tinyurl.com/2r4w.

Step Four: Basic Conguration

Now we can administer the server. The first thing to do is to ensure that you can access it across the network reliably. For this reason, we need the IP address of the server to remain static, because if it changes, well have to install a screen to find out what it has changed to. This involves editing a couple of text files. You will need the following information: The IP address that you want the server to have. It will have obtained one automatically from your router via DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol), but that could change for various reasons. Mine has obtained 192.168.0.14 automatically, but I want to change it to 192.168.0.95, which will put it well outside my routers DHCP range.

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Navigating The CLI (continued)

rm - the remove command, used to delete files. For example, rm mypicture.jpg deletes the file mypicture.jpg. ssh - Used to create a secure encrypted connection between two PCs. When first launched, it asks you if you want to install the servers SSH certificate on your PC. The shared certificate is then used to encrypt future connections nano - A CLI based text editor. Unlike some of the more complex offerings such as vi or emacs, its fairly intuitive and easy to use. Usage is sudo nano filename. top - Shows processes running, memory used, system load, etc. The load is calculated as a combination of resources. This includes processor, memory, swap, chipset and network. This figure can guide you as to the stress on your PC. Ideally you want it below 75% for reliable performance. A load figure of 1 means 100% load for a single CPU. My hardware has 2 cores with Hyper-Threading, so its counted as four CPUs, making 100% total load equal to a load factor of 4.0. Ill be happy if it stays below 3.0. If it rises above 6.0, the system will be really struggling. The basic system as configured on this hardware gives an average system load of 0.0 to 0.1. Pressing 1 (the number one) will show the CPU figures separately. Press q to quit. I will be giving the load average from top for each project in the series. This is a rough guide for comparison purposes only, but it can give you an idea of how your hardware will perform on different tasks. shutdown - Logically enough, this shuts down your PC. Although a server usually runs constantly, occasionally you need to shut it down or reboot. You have to specify a shutdown mode and a time. sudo shutdown -h now - Halts (powers down) your PC. sudo shutdown -r now - Reboots your PC.

The SSH login screen, showing the certificate request

Typical output from the top command

From now on, I will use my settings in the text, and you will need to change them to suit your personal setup. Lets get started. Type: sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces. This will open the network interface configuration file. We need to edit the lines below: The primary network interface auto eth0 iface eth0 inet dhcp Modify the last line to read: iface eth0 inet static Then add the following lines right below:

The subnet mask. This will need to be the same as other PCs on the same network. Mine is 255.255.255.0, which is very common, and means that the first three numbers in all network addresses must be the same. The last number must be between 1 and 254, and must be different for each device on the network. It allows a maximum of 254 local devices. e.g. my devices are 192.169.0.1 (my router)192.168.0.2, 192.168.0.3, 192.168.0.95 (this server), 192.168.0.99 (my printer) and so on. The gateway address, if you want access to the internet. This will be the address of your router. Mine is 192.168.0.1. The DNS server address. Most routers act as DNS relays, so this will usually be the address of your router. If youre using a Windows PC on the same network, typing ipconfig /all in a terminal will give you most of this information.

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THE UBUNTU SERVER PROJECT

Using the command line is far more flexible and gives you an insight into the system workings that you can never really get from waving a mouse around
address 192.168.0.95 netmask 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.0.1 Of course youll have to make entries appropriate for your own local network. The file should now look like this: The primary network interface auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static address 192.168.0.95 netmask 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.0.1 Press Ctrl+O to save it, press Enter to confirm, then Ctrl+X to exit. Next we need to check the DNS settings, to be sure that our server can find its way on the network, and be found by other PCs. Type the following: sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf Because I have set my router to issue the domain name HOMELAN, mine looks like this: domain HOMELAN search HOMELAN nameserver 192.168.0.1 nameserver 192.168.0.1 If the domain names differ from the domain or workgroup name on your other PCs, you need to edit them to match. If they are the same, just exit with Ctrl+X. (Note: domain and workgroup names must be entered in uppercase.) Common Windows workgroup names are WORKGROUP (business editions) or MSHOME (home editions).

There are several options for doing this.

Installing Software From The Command Line

apt-get install - This will download and install a package and all of its relevant dependencies. Provided that the package you want exists in the Ubuntu repositories (and there are literally thousands of packages), you can use apt-get to download and install it and all its dependencies in one operation. Usage is apt-get install packagename. You need to know the exact name of the package. For example, to install Java execute these two commands, one after the other. sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jre It is always advisable to run apt-get update before installing a package, as that ensures that your local apt database is up to date. The install command gives you a list of packages that will be installed. Type y and hit Enter to continue. As we shall see, using apt-get its possible to install some surprisingly complex packages. aptitude - This will launch a menu based interface for installing apt packages. tasksel - This will give you a menu-based interface for installing particular application bundles, such as a LAMP server, already configured. Not In The Repository Unfortunately, some packages are excluded from the standard Ubuntu repositories. This can be for a variety of reasons, such as a non-free license, a dependency on non-free libraries, not meeting compatibility or reliability standards, or just because nobody has packaged them. Well discuss options for installing this sort of package later in the series. This downloads the latest package information from the Ubuntu repositories, so that you have the most up-to-date data. Then we should update the software itself: sudo apt-get upgrade This will apply all of the updates and bugfixes since the server CD was released. Note: This does not upgrade the distro version. You should now have a working server. Over the course of this series we will look at using it to fulfil various roles. If you wish, you can try out a few commands from the boxout. When youve finished, you can shut down your server until next time, with this command: sudo shutdown -h now mm

Step Five: Prepare To Add Applications

Before we start installing software we need to update the application database. Type: sudo apt-get update

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Tips, tricks & tweaks: Windows Media Player

Y
ou have to feel sorry for Windows Media Player (WMP), because its usually one of the first applications to get replaced by something better, faster and generally more modern. Indeed, Windows Media Player does get something of a bad press, but its actually not that bad as a standard video player, but where it really shines is as a music player. Over the next couple of pages, well be having a little look at what tricks, tips and tweaks can be applied to Microsofts mighty musical media monstrosity. Top WMP Plug-ins Plug-ins add and enhance an otherwise standard bit of software. Here are some of our favourite WMP plug-ins: Lyrics Plug-in (bit.ly/IUqhGd): Now you can see what Bob Dylan was actually singing. Last.fm Scrobbler (bit.ly/JDF3lL): Add the music you listen to into your Last.fm profile. WMPKeys (bit.ly/L2TwW8): Edit those shortcut keys for WMP. DFX Audio Enhancer (bit.ly/L6cMrW): Tweak your sound settings even further.

David Hayward shows you how to get more from Microsofts media software

Internet Radio

If for some reason youre a little bored of your vast collection of music, why not try out a selection of radio stations available via the internet. To listen to these via Windows Media Player, do the following: Open WMP Click on the Media Guide button in the bottom left of the screen. Dont worry if it doesnt say Media Guide; just click on the down arrow next to the wording, then choose Media Guide from the list. You might get a message in the main windows saying something like, The requested page cannot be found: www.windowsmedia.com. Dont worry, just click on the hyperlink and youll be redirected, within WMP, to the correct page. Click on the link in the top right, Internet Radio. Choose from the vast array of genres, top picks and so on.

and plug in your iPod. Hey presto; WMP can now sync and talk to your iPod! Once the software is installed, and WMP has been opened, plug in the iPod. Go to the Sync tab in the Library view. Drag and drop the music you want to have on your iPod. Click on the Start Sync icon, above the iPod image, to complete the sync.

Using Automatic Sync

If you use an MP3 player often, and youre forever syncing new music manually across your collection and the device in question, then youre doing something very wrong, because you can autosync whenever the device is next plugged in: Open WMP and plug in your MP3 player. Go to the Sync tab and make sure WMP has picked up the device and its functioning. Click on the drop-down menu, under the title of tab, and choose Setup Sync. Click on the tick box titled, Sync this device automatically. Choose from the available playlists, or create a New Auto Playlist by clicking on the button at the bottom of the screen.

Make An iPod Work With WMP

Apples dont want to work with oranges, or so it would seem. If youre the proud owner of an iPod, then iTunes, and a few others, are youre only choice of syncing applications that will work with Windows and the device. However, some clever coders have created a WMP plug-in that will talk to iPods. Youll have to pay for it, but it does come with a 30-day free trial. All you need to do is head to bit.ly/IVtRPa and download the software, then install it

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TIPS, TRICKS & TWEAKS

Be warned though, if you have a large collection of music and media, the wrong click of a button can begin syncing everything across to your device.

WMP Enhancements

Windows Media Player 12 has been Setting up an auto sync can be fiddly, so care is needed designed to replicate many of the features you would expect to see on a Some of the extra enhancements you can make to your traditional home stereo, complete with a listening experience. mixer, equaliser and other audio tweaking Internet radio is very cool and easy to listen to in WMP devices. The software equivalent of the myriad of knobs and sliders youd see on high-end stereo equipment are known as playback enhancements in Windows Media Player, and theyre even easier to use than their physical counterparts. Using the built-in playback enhancements for Windows Media Player, you can adjust and optimise audio and video on the fly to best suit your situation, speaker system and tastes. To access playback enhancements, you must be in the Now Playing Mode. Click the icon in the Keyboard Shortcuts bottom-right of the Player Library to switch to Now Playing Mode. Alt+1 Right-click anywhere in the Now Playing window and choose Alt+2 Enhancements to see the list of available playback enhancements. A brief handful of these enhancements are: Alt+3 Crossfading: In the Crossfading and auto volume levelling window, click Turn on Crossfading to have Windows Media Player gradually fade out the song at the end and then have the next song on the playlist gradually fade in. Move the slider to the left to shorten the overlap between songs. Move the slider to the right to lengthen the overlap. Auto volume levelling: In the Crossfading and auto volume levelling window, click Turn on Auto volume levelling so that Windows Media Player automatically adjusts the volume level between songs to make them more similar. Windows Media Player does so by analysing the song during playback, and then adding the auto volume levelling information after the song has played all the way through. Clever, innit? SRS Wow Effects: These allow you to enhance the lowfrequency bass and stereo sound performance (i.e. panning between left and right channels). The options here are pretty straightforward. Move the TruBass slider to the left to reduce the low-frequency effect, and move it to the right to boost the low-frequency sounds. Move the WOW Effect slider to the left to decrease the stereo sound performance and move it to the right to increase it. This enhancement creates more of a surround sound kind of effect. You can have SRS Wow optimised for your speaker type by clicking the text in the top-left with the arrow next to it. Choose from normal speakers, headphones or large speakers. Dolby Digital Settings: These settings are similar to the speaker type setting in the SRS Wow effects. However, these settings only affect Dolby Digital content, which is great for remastered music or live bands. Within this menu you can choose from three different presets: Normal: Reduces entire range of Dolby Digital for quieter playback. Night: Boosts dialogue while toning down other sounds. Good for laptops.
Alt+Enter Ctrl+1

Video size 50% Video size 100% Video size 200% Toggle display for full-screen video Switch to Player Library

Ctrl+2 Ctrl+3 Ctrl+7 Ctrl+8 Ctrl+9 Ctrl+B Ctrl+F Ctrl+H Ctrl+J

Switch to skin mode Switch to Now Playing mode Add to playlist Add to burn list Add to sync list Previous (item or chapter) Next (item or chapter) Turn shuffle on or off Eject CD or DVD (this doesnt work on computers equipped with two or more CD or DVD disc drives) In the Player Library, show or hide the menu bar Create a new playlist Restart video Switch the view of items in the details pane Show shortcut menu

Ctrl+M Ctrl+N Ctrl+Shift+B F4 Shift+F10

Theatre: Increases dynamic range of all sounds for more dramatic differences between soft and loud sounds and a fuller listening experience.

Its down to what works best with the type of music youre listening to and your stereo/PC setup. mm

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T E K C PO
Intel enters the smartphone market, and Kevin Pocock takes the call
ntel may once have been denied the chance of copyrighting the letter i, but in hindsight the failure to make such a brand statement was trivial. Today the name is synonymous with computing and, of course, processors. Well, system, server and notebook processors. Up until now Intel hasnt been a huge name in the mobile space, but all that seems likely to change.

A Good Aim

I witnessed what seemed part of the realisation, 32 floors above ground level in Central London. If Intel wanted to make a suggestion as to the height of its ambitions, this was a way to do so. However, the gathered journalists were on-hand to admire only the Orange

San Diego. Codenamed Santa Clara, the San Diego is Intels first foray into smartphones in Europe, and its a rather attainable and, on first glance, impressive one at that. The San Diegos no iPhone-beater or Galaxy S3 smasher, but then its not supposed to be. Orange confirmed the pricing: Until 24th July, the handset will be free on a 15.50, 24-month contract and 199 for Pay As You Go customers buying 10 of top-up credit. The immediate desire, or tactic if you prefer, is clear: to provide a good-quality smartphone at a similarly smart price, and to secure a strong foothold in the mid-range market. Whether the San Diego will deliver on the promise is really up to users, but the hardware seems to be doing its best to play the part. In some hands-on time, I was immediately impressed by the phones responsiveness and browsing speed, which when connected to wi-fi took as little as four seconds to load a page. Both of those will be important for Intel and, combined with a smart but understated design and some nice hardware specifications, the handset left many a journalist nodding initial approval.

will be the companys first launch in Europe, form factor reference designs (FFRDs) have been about for some months, and indeed two Medfield (the name of the

Up The Sleeves

To think of the San Diego as Intels wary toe in the water is to ignore the bigger, global picture. Although the smartphone

The San Diego isnt quite up there with the S3

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POCKET INTEL

Intel platform) devices have already been spotted elsewhere in the world. First out of the traps was the Xolo 900, launched in India in mid-April. Then at the end of May came Lenovos K800, the first Medfield device in China. That makes the San Diego smartphone the third of Intels new Medfield-based devices. Yet the San Diego looks very, very similar to the Xolo 900. Why is this important? Partly because it has a touch of the iPhone about it (metallic trim anyone?), but also because it hints at a bigger achievement for Intel. In building such a smart FFRD as a way to showcase the Medfield platform, Intels design team has demonstrated an appreciation of smartphone aesthetics, just as the technical specs of the Xolo and San Diego hope to deliver on an appreciation of performance requirements.

customers to deliver compelling handheld devices. That never really happened. Although the platform was shown off in form factor designs and did come to light in a few tablets, several factors including the arrival of 32nm fabrication processes and a particularly strong grip on mobile processing from ARM meant the 45nm Lincroft processor in Moorestown was never to fulfil its potential. Intel learned from that, though, and it seems to be putting Medfield on the same level as its other platform interests. That being the case, its not just the San Diego we should be watching carefully. Motorola mobility, now a part of Google, is believed to be preparing an Intel-based SoC device, not necessarily lending itself to the singlecore Saltwell processor that is present in the San Diego. Medfield is the platform for the San Diego, but its likely to not be the only SoC platform we see from Intel. The Medfield platform that the San Diego uses is powered by the Atom Z2460. The CPU side of things is handled by the 1.6GHz Saltwell core, while the GPU growl comes from the 400MHz PowerVR SGX540. Just to delve a little into the graphics side of things, its fair to say that the SGX540 is a much-loved graphics counterpart for system-on-chip solutions. Its not exclusive to Intel by any means, and to give an idea of its credentials members of the PowerVR 5 (SGX) series can be found inside the A4 processors that grace some models of iPhones, iPods and iPads. Theyre also present in Texas Instruments OMAP SoCs, found in the BlackBerry Playbook, Galaxy Tab and others. The 5 series slightly more powerful sibling the 5XT (SGXMP) is utilised in the PlayStation Vita, as well as the iPad 2. Graphically, then, Intels SoC should be comparable with SoC solutions produced by ARM and Texas Instruments. The key difference, though, is that Intels SoC is based on an architecture it knows well: x86. Its fair to say that bringing x86 to the smartphone market raises a few questions. Though graphics capabilities will be competitive with many devices, the Atom processors will be directly competing against other SoC providers, meaning that Intels cores - the Saltwell core of the San Diego being the first - will be directly

competing against the cores of other SoC manufacturers. The fact that Intel is actually launching products consumers can put in their pockets (unlike with Moorestown) should hint that the company is fairly serious about its chances here. Intels cores utilise an x86 instruction set, and running an x86-based smartphone is a problem if theres no operating systems you can run on it. However, thats not a real problem at all. Writing in a piece on the Anandtech website, Anand Al Shimpi reported Intel had been contributing x86 patches to the AOSP [Android Open Source Project] and Googles internal developer branch for the past two years. Such optimisations could theoretically have been included in new versions of the OS, and according to the same piece, All of Intels x86 support should be included as of Android 2.3.7. Androids x86 credentials were given a further boost in December when Android 4.0.1 was ported to work on x86 processors. And of course theres the ongoing work of the Android x86 project,
A familiar sticker in unfamiliar surroundings

Its x86

I See You

Tech In Strides

Intel has approached mobile before, though, specifically with Moorestown. In 2010 it was aiming to deliver a platform with a system on chip (S0C) codenamed Lincroft, alongside an OS few will probably even recall, named Moblin. The system would have at its heart a 45nm Intel Atom Z600 processor, and as a Backgrounder document from the Intel Archives relates, it was intended to represent a complete hardware and software platform, making it easier for

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dedicated to this specific marriage of originally non-mobile architecture to a completely mobile-orientated OS. Most telling in regards to the question of an OS is the fact that as recently as the end of May, Intel released an x86 emulator for Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich - ICS). That gives the rather strong impression that, like Gingerbread before it, ICS will be hitting x86, and therefore devices utilising Intels SoC solutions, pretty soon. This was corroborated at the San Diego event in London where Intel representatives confirmed that though the device will launch with Gingerbread, Intel anticipates an update in the nottoo-distant future. Presumably that will be once x86 apps are more available. Currently around 70% of available Android apps will run on the Medfield platform. Thats not too impressive, but if Intel can wow on a performance for price front, any users opting for the San Diego shouldnt have to wait too long for Ice Cream Sandwich. Of course, if the aforementioned emulator does its job in enabling the speedy debugging of x86 apps, the arrival of ICS to the San Deigo should then also bring a more impressive percentage of compatible apps. The other issue that the arrival of x86 to smartphones raises is one of power capabilities - specifically, whether Intels SoC solution can match up to ARMbased ones while still delivering punchy processing. This question stands to reason, as Intel is scaling down an architecture most traditionally associated with dekstop performance, and a range of cores primarily developed for laptop/tablet performance. Getting the balance between x86-style performance with mobile power considerations is a rather tricky juggling act. Certainly from the brief glimpse offered to us, performance isnt much of

Power Ranges

an issue. The CPU Intel Atom Z2460 (1.6GHz) Saltwell core in the Z2460 Memory 16GB internal (non expandable) is single cored, but has HyperDisplay 4.03, 600x1024 Threading to boost its Cameras 8MP rear, 1.3MP front productivity. However, its Video Capture 1080p not quite the same situation Connections HDMI-out for power consumption. Weight 117g At the time of writing, no Other Features 8x digital zoom, HD voice calls, independent NFC, burst capture 10fps battery tests have been a good price, both users and Intel should completed, but the information available be satisfied. suggests that theres room for improvement But even if, for some reason, Medfield (isnt there always?). Intel says that the doesnt take off, Intel is now intellectually and financially invested in SoC solutions San Diego should last up to eight hours on for smartphones. Clover Trail and the standby while connected to 2G, and 14 dual-core Atom Z2580 are just around hours while connected to 3G. No figures the corner, and with all of its financial for talk-time or high-performance use and technological clout, itd be a brave have been suggested, but its fair to say person to think one phones arrival that gaming and other similar activities in Europe will probably deplete the battery pretty p is anything y g other than a statement of intent. mm quickly. We shouldnt forget about Smart Idle Technology (SIT), which will allow the Z2460 to effectively switch off while the OS remains on, but we shouldnt expect too much from it either. SIT will put the Saltwell core into what Intel terms the C6 state, or deep power down. It should help Intel to manage the power somewhat, but this is a technology developed in the first instance for laptops and tablets. Even in the technical details provided to us by Intel, a concession is made: Leading performance with competitive energy efficiency. We shouldnt really be expecting leading battery life, though. Not yet from Intel, and not at the price of the San Diego. But even then the company is planning ahead. With 22nm , and 14nm fabrication processes planned, deficiencies in power draw will be certainly addressed going forward.

Future Thoughts

Intels success in smartphones (and any move towards other mobile devices for which Intel would like to provide SoC solutions) will depend somewhat on the reception of the San Diego. Not completely, though. Users will care far less about the technology behind the Medfield platform than the performance of the device, and if the San Diego can get et across its message of high performance at t
Intels Inte els c current urr r ent en n So SoC oC s solution olutio olu l tio on

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COMPANY PROFILE

Company proles:

This week, a look at the company behind one of the newest social networks
profile directory for a fee - but its not enough. Sooner or later, its going to have to figure out how to monetise its users. But considering there are currently around 57.6 million blogs being run through Tumblr, and 50% of its users are under 25, it seems likely therell be a way to make money out of the platform. If Tumblr follows the same trajectory as a zillion other tech start-ups, itll start looking around for a buyer, or else decide to go public. If it does, itll be interesting to see what the platform is valued at. My guess would be well, quite a lot.

here are a lot of blogging tools around, all designed to make sharing your thoughts and ramblings with the world very, very easy. But in 2007, a new kind of blogging platform was launched. Tumblr is all about community and sharing: its a very easy platform for sharing not just words but pictures, music and video and, like Twitter, it allows you to repost things other users have posted, making everything feel very interconnected. Its a simple idea, but a very clever one. The credit for the site goes to David Karp, who came up with the idea when he was just 20. He was working as a software consultant for UrbanBaby when he noticed a growing trends for tumblelogging - a kind of microblogging, not as succinct as tweets but mostly short-form, dashed-off blog posts. Since no dedicated platform for that kind of blogging existed, he decided to build one. Tumblr was launched in April 2007, and within two weeks, it had over 75,000 registered users. Many social networks or blogging platforms find that while a lot of people sign up, many of them stop bothering to update after a while; Karp reckoned that if he made things easier, users would stick around. It seems to have worked - Tumblr has an 85% retention rate. In October 2008, Karp sold 25% of the company to investors, including venture capitalist Spark Capital. The company was valued at $3 million, and the buyout made Karp rich and allowed him to develop Tumblr further. In 2009, Tumblr acquired Tumblerette, an iOS app that let it produce its own official iPhone app. Blackberry and Android apps followed in 2010. As always, Tumblr wanted to make things as easy as possible for its users, to keep them constantly engaged. So far, so sickening: Tumblr was an overnight success masterminded by an incredibly young entrepreneur, making us all feel like awful underachievers. But there are two main problems Tumblr has yet to sort out. One is that, since Tumblr makes it so easy to share images, music and video, it makes it very very easy for piracy to flourish. Under US safe harbour laws, its unlikely to get shut down as a result - its the user, not the service thats held responsible for copyright infringement on Tumblr - but it will need to find effective ways to clean up problematic material. The other is money. There are a couple of ways Tumblr can make money out of its users - selling premium blog designs, for one thing, and offering users a chance to be part of a high-

Tumblrs founder, David Karp

At A Glance Founded: 2007 Founders: David Karp Based in: New York Known for: Blogging, sort of Annual turnover: Unknown Staff: 150 Website: www.tumblr.com

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Specialists

Where's The Beef?

This week David Hayward looks at Fedora 17, Spins, and all the beefy miracles you can get your hands on

O
David Hayward has been using Linux since Red Hat 2.0 in schools, businesses and at home, which either makes him very knowledgeable or a glutton for extreme punishment

n 29th May, the Fedora team released its latest creation to an ever watchful Linux population: The Beefy Miracle. And its blooming brilliant! Which is why Ive dedicated this weeks entire Linux News section to it.

Fedora 17

Linux

Since Fedora adopted Gnome 3, many users, except for the hardcore Fedora fans, have been exiting in droves. Gnome 3 ended up putting a foul taste in the vast majority of users mouths, and with Ubuntu going the way of the Unity, it meant that Linux desktop users came flocking back to old Gnome favourites, and the likes of Linux Mint took up the slack and created a new Gnome/Unity getout clause. But times have changed; Gnome 3 is here to stay, much the same way as Unity is, and the version that comes shipped with the main release of Fedora 17, Gnome 3.4.1, has become a more mature environment. It handles better than ever before, the bugs have been zapped

and it looks the biz, plus we now have Boxes. In case youre wondering, Boxes are a new Gnome 3 application that can be used to access other computers and virtual machines, or another computer. Indeed Fedora has introduced a number of cutting edge technologies into its latest distro, which in my opinion, is something that Linux desperately needs to keep it a desktop operating system thats good enough to be used by all, and not just those who fancy playing with an alternative.

Spins

Fedora, being the clever marketer that it is, has decided that although Gnome 3.4 is very nice, not everyone is going to come running at the sound of a new Gnome. Therefore, its come up with Fedora Spins, and the tag line, Different people, different tastes different Fedoras. A Fedora Spin is basically an alternative version of Fedora, which is tailored for a particular user market, containing tailored applications to reflect that

market. So, aside from the default Gnome flavour, we have a KDE version of Fedora 17, an LXDE version and an XFCE version, but we also have Security, Games, Scientific, Design-suite, Electronics Lab and Robotics spins to cover some niche markets. The idea behind a Spin is nothing drastically new, I admit; there are loads of distros that offer one or the other that are based on Ubuntu, or something else, but its nice to see Fedora keeping everything under one umbrella. Also, you can make your own Spin, should you desire; just have a look at the Spin wiki for more information: bit.ly/KFC1zJ.

Other Goodies

The list of new features are far too big to put in here, as Robyn Bergeron, Fedora Project Leader, said on one site, Weve got over 50 features. Many of these features are well beyond the scope of the normal user, but in their way, contribute to the overall Linux community by offering more choice, more technologies and more flexibility for Linux users of all experience levels. Why not pop over to the Fedora page and download the main Gnome distro, or if you really cant stand the thought of Gnome 3.4, then at least have a play with one of the Spins. Im sure youll find something worth experimenting with, and you never know, you may end up loving it. You can find the Fedora good stuff at fedoraproject.org, with links to all the Spins and whatnots from there. Have fun.

Superfast

Finally, fancy making Fedora boot in 2.5 seconds? Try this boot optimisation: bit.ly/ N5uzzn. Good luck!

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Amiga News
Sven Harvey rounds up the recent news from the Amiga sector

n official knowledge base for the Amiga OS documentation, both for developers and users, has been set up as a wiki. This is intended to fill the documentation gap since the launch of AmigaOS 4, since no manuals as such have been made available, though of course other support methods have been put in place such as the developer kit. Due to the nature of NDAs still in force on some of the OS components, the wiki is currently populated by the most up-to-date documentation that could be made available. This means that some parts may be a little out of date or in some cases obsolete. However, as further documentation and updates can be made available the knowledge base will grow and be more useful. Being as the

majority of the information is applicable to AmigaOS 4.1 onwards anyway, it was felt right to get the wiki up and running for the future with the information available rather than have blank wiki pages!

products you select In Development. What are Trevor and team planning?

Xena Tools

A-Eon

A-Eon technology has relaunched its website after a short period of downtime. The old site was criticised for being a little too amateurish, and perhaps its gone a little too far the other way, with the clean minimalistic website it now presents. However, its clear and a doddle to navigate, which is always nice to find. The site now includes a user account system for AmigaOne X1000 owners as well as support documentation, and all the previous site content. Plus theres a rather tantalising coming soon when under

As you will be aware, one major point of difference for the AmigaOne X1000 is that the Nemo motherboard within each machine features the nextgeneration Xorro bus with what is romantically monikered Xena connected to the main CPU. Xena is, of course, the Amiganised name of the XMOS XS1-L2 co-processor, which now has a set of tools to allow users to program that soft silicon. The tools developed by LyleHaze are now available directly from the Hyperion Entertainment website for registered OS4.1 users with AmigaOne X1000 hardware. Now its a case of seeing quite what can be done with this little co-pro on the Nemo board inside the X1000...

Sven Harvey has been our Amiga specialist for over 12 years, drawing on his vast computing knowledge which is itself the result of 21 years of retailing computer and video games

Gideon Zweijtzer (of 1541-Ultimate fame) and Rutger Bevaart have announced their collaboration on a new PowerPC CPU daughterboard for the later big box Amigas: UltimatePPC. The board features a 33MHz 68040 and a 1GHz Freescale PPC CPU, though which one is another question. It will of course be hugely in advance of any PPC ever available to put in a classic big box Amiga, regardless! It will come with a minimum of 128MB of RAM for the 68040 side and a SO-DIMM slot populated with at least 2GB for the PowerPC. Very much a system on a board in itself, it will have a minimum of a USB 2.0 controller with integrated four-port hub, SATA 2 controller with two ports, a gigabit Ethernet controller and embedded 2D GPU with a DVI out will be present (though a disclaimer is present to say things may change, so dont take it as gospel). One can perhaps hope that the video controller gets upgraded to something a bit more 3D Radeony. The prototype also appears to have an SD card slot too, perhaps as a quick boot for OS4 or Kickstart replacement. You can find out more at ultimateppc.nl.

Classics PPC

Amiga
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Incoming!
Look out, there's more new phones on the horizon. Ian McGurren checks the specs
his time last year you couldnt move for new HTC phones. It was like HTC had a giant dog that had given birth to an unexpectedly large litter of puppies and it just couldnt afford to keep the little mites. Recently HTC has been a little quieter, maybe getting the hang of only releasing a few handsets at a time (though its naming convention has still some way to go before its helpful). This break has given a few of their competitors time to pop out some of their own, so lets take a look at whats coming our way.

decent midrange handset with an interesting 1024x600 4 screen and is available now for 200 on pay-as-you-go in an Orange shop near you.

Sony

Ian is a professional IT analyst, a semiprofessional writer and a pretty amateur electronic musician. He likes gadgetry and loves making gadgets do things they were never designed to do

Intel San Diego

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Mobile

First up is Intels curio, the Orange San Diego. Coming soon on Orange (yes, really), this is Intels first step into the wide world of mobile devices after seeing ARM practically run the racket so far. Unlike ARM processors, the Intel chip inside, better known as Medfield, is not ARM based, but sticks to the x86 instruction set - indeed, its an Atom Z2460 CPU. In practice this isnt a huge change, with Android 2.3 Gingerbread running with all bells and whistles present and correct. There are some applications that wont run until recompiled for x86, but at present this appears to be in the minority, and come September-time you may well see a more ICS flavour to the device. The San Diego is a

Taking up the mantle from HTC, Sony has seen fit to release another three devices to add to an already plump array, though with a slight twist. First up are the Xperia Go and the confusingly named Acro S, and both are tough guy manphones for those who might build things with their bare hands or hunt their own food (for example). The Go is the smaller cheeky scamp of the two with a 3.5 screen, Android 2.3, dual-core

1GHz CPU, 5MP camera and IP67 certification for dust and water resistance. Coming in black, white and yellow, its due to land here around the end of July. The Acro S, meanwhile, is more your Nathan Drake kind of device - fast, powerful, smart and still able to take a fair beating. The screen is bumped to 4.3, the CPU to dual 1.5GHz, the camera to 12MP, 1080p video recording and, notably, Android 4.0. Its also proofed against all sorts of trouble from scratches, dust, water and tigers (well, maybe not tigers), so if you want to explore in style, the Acro S could be your ideal digital companion. Like the Go, its going to surface around July, though this time in pink as well as black and white, presumably for Lara Croft. Finally, we have a more dainty device compared to its tough brethren above, its the Xperia Neo L. The eagleeyed among you will have already made the connection between this phone and the V-d up Xperia Neo of 2011 fame, and unsurprisingly it does follow in its forebears footsteps, possibly a little too closely. In its favour is a 4 IPS LCD screen at 480 x 854 and Android 4.0, but other than a slight design tweak its much the same as before, with a single-core 1GHz Snapdragon CPU purring away under the hood. Not sure on that one Sony, unless the price is very right... Until next week...

WorldMags.net

Scorched Earth
There's new Commodore 64 and Atari XE XL software afoot, as Shaun Bebbington reports
heres an unreleased Atari XE/XL game from 1994, which is finally being readied its public debut after the original development disk was uncovered. Its called Scorched Earth, which is based on Artillery Duel, released for the Commodore VIC-20. Commodore 64 and Atari 2600 way back in 1983. Taking control of one of two armoured tanks at either side of a mountainous region, you must aim your fire power at the opposing tank after selecting through and purchasing the available munitions. As you only have a limited supply of cash to begin with, you must work out the best and most effective arsenal before the battle commences, with the obvious consideration being that the better weapons are more expensive. There is directional wind, which seems to be the only environmental factor to take into account during play. It isnt clear from the information currently available if theres a CPU-controlled player, but this sort of entertainment software is better with company anyway. Despite having its roots in 1983, Scorched Earth is based on a Commodore Amiga shareware game, from 1994,

Soulless is one of the most anticipated Commodore 64 games of recent times

called Scorched Tanks, but with simpler graphics, not that the aforementioned Miggy production was anything to shout about in the visual department. Anyway, good gameplay is whats important, isnt it? To find out more, head over to tinyurl.com/ ScorchedTanks. The eagerly awaited Soulless, designed by Trevor Storey, coded by Georg Rottensteiner, and with music by Mikkel Hastrup, is finally available for the Commodore 64 thanks to a joint venture between Psytronik Software and RGCD. This vast and detailed 2D platform and explorer game tells the story of the mighty Warrior King Rizek, who forged a frail peace across his realm. A secret plot was enacted by his warmongering generals, who planned to overthrow Rizeks rule, and an malevolent and sadistic wizard cursed the sovereign using unholy magic. A once

Find Your Soul

proud and handsome liege had now taken a beastly form with his human soul taken from him. Many loyal subjects turned on the beast, and the king found himself locked away in a tomb while a bitter and unending war ravaged the lands. A millennium passed before the chance came to escape the tomb and an earthquake turned his jail to rubble, which he fortunately survived. And now is the time to reclaim his human soul and bring peace to the land once more. This game is available on cassette tape and disk from Psytronik, and cartridge from RGCD. As usual with Psytronik projects, the premium versions of the game will include lush extras, such as an A3-sized poster and a special companion CD-ROM and a 14-page comic, which are available to purchase separately at any time. Further information is available from www.psytronik.net and rgcd.co.uk.

Shaun has a passionate interest in 8-bit computing and gaming, and has been finding novel ways to use retro technology since 1994

Retro
Issue 1213 Issue 1194

If you have any 8-bit related memories, news, opinions or comments, then please get in touch by emailing shaun@ micromart.co.uk, or you may use the dedicated retro forum over at forum. micromart.co.uk.

Get In Touch

The good old Atari has seen a resurgence in software in recent times

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Specialists

Ryan Lambie has loved video games since he first stared up in awe at a Galaxian arcade cabinet in his local chip shop. 28 years on, Ryan writes about gaming for Micro Mart. Hes still addicted to chips and still useless at Galaxian

s u o i c e Pr Lego
Gandalf gets a mini-figure makeover in Travellers Tales forthcoming Lego Lord of the Rings, out in the autumn

GAMING

This week, Ryan gets a first glimpse of Travellers Tales new Lego game, and finds out exactly why Blizzard is in trouble with Koreas Fair Trade Commission...
For the past seven years, the UKs own Travellers Tales has been steadily churning out a charming series of action adventure games that recreate classic movies and comic book properties with Lego bricks. Beginning with Lego Star Wars in 2005, the series has provided charm and amusement in equal measure. And if the basic ingredients of light-hearted combat, exploration and collection hasnt changed a great deal between those early George Lucas-themed games and the more recent Harry Potter titles, then the Travellers Tales Lego games have at least provided enough amusing references and sheer fun to make them more than worthwhile. Simply put, the studios found a videogame formula that players of almost any age can enjoy, and its to be expected that its stuck to it - at least, it seems, until now.

Plug And Play

Now, its the turn of Peter Jacksons Lord of the Rings adaptations to get the plastic brick treatment, with the characters and key scenes from those movies all lovingly recreated in Lego blocks. This time, though, theres a subtle alteration to the familiar Lego game template. Where previous Lego games were essentially mimed, with no voice-over dialogue to speak of, Lord of the Rings will be the first game in the series to feature speaking characters. This means that such lines as You shall not pass! will all be present and correct, making Lego LotR far closer to a cartoon-like remake than any game in the series before it. That apparently small change to the Lego formula is probably a sign of how familiar its become, and it has to be said that the choice is an interesting one; the lack of voice acting in the previous games gave them

a quirky identity all their own, and its a shame to see this particular aspect of the series suddenly jettisoned. The real question it, raises, though, is whether Travellers Tales has changed anything else in this latest entry. Certainly, the first teaser trailer for Lego LotR (bit.ly/L3DLxP) hints at a more detailed aesthetic than some of the earlier games, with Peter Jacksons atmospheric lighting and sweeping camera moves all applied to the games plastic world. With the teaser trailer offering little insight into Lego LotRs gameplay, well have to wait and see whether well see the series take a left-turn into light RPG territory to match the propertys fantasy genre, or whether itll simply offer more of the same combat and collecting that has become a series staple. Lego Lord of the Rings is due out in the autumn.

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GAMING

It may be selling millions of copies, but Diablo IIIs server issues have sparked an investigation from Koreas Fair Trade Commission

Online Gaming

For most of us, the long awaited Diablo III has lived up to all expectations, even if its launch was beset by teething problems. Over in Korea, meanwhile, Blizzards fantasy epic has had an even bumpier start than it has in the rest of the world. According to a news report on the website KoreaTimes.co.kr, repeated Error 37 messages have aroused the interest of the nations authorities. The story goes that, irked by repeated login difficulties, a number of Korean gamers asked Blizzard for a refund. When the company refused, Koreas Fair Trade Commission got involved, and reportedly raided Blizzards offices in an attempt to find any incriminating documents. Blizzard, the FTC says, is suspected of having violated the countrys law on electronic commerce and commercial contracts, and to this end, secured related documents and other evidence with which it will determine whether Blizzard broke the law, according to Korea Times. Although this may all sound like a storm in a teacup, Korean

law apparently states that consumers have the right to a refund within seven days if the product theyve purchased isnt working properly - something that could prove quite costly for Blizzard if the Korean courts agree that a game that cant connect to overloaded servers can indeed be classed as faulty. Having laboured over Diablo III for the best part of 12 years, the sheer volume of internet traffic appears to have overwhelmed Blizzard, and the resulting connection errors (which still persist, in part, even after the application of patch 1.02, some players have reported) must make for grim reading. Still, Blizzard can at least take comfort in the fact that, at the time of writing, Diablo III has sold a remarkable 6.3 million copies.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Designers Form New Studio

A few months ago, we brought you the rather depressing news that GSC Gameworld, the Russian studio behind the marvellous S.T.A.L.K.E.R series, was closing its doors, leaving S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 unfinished. In the wake of GSCs closure, we heard that some of its key staff had formed a new studio called Vostock, and earlier this month, we also learned that another development team had been created from GSCs ashes. Called Union Studio and founded by the former team leader at GSC, Eugene Kim, its been revealed that itll be working on a cross-platform action shooter which will be available for PC, Mac, PlayStation and Xbox. Will this as-yet untitled shooter match the brilliance of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games? Were certainly looking forward to finding out.

Incoming

Youd be forgiven for thinking that itd be nigh on impossible to make a bad action game about giant, transforming robots beating each other to a pulp, but plenty of developers have tried and failed. With Transformers: Fall

of Cybertron , however, theres a ray of hope. After all, with all the wonders of modern technology, its surely

Giant robots slug it out in Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. Its out on 28th August for PC

not beyond the realms of possibility that, after terribleto-middling efforts such as the infamous Mystery of Convoy in the 80s to 2011s Dark of the Moon tie-in, someone will finally make a decent Transformers game, is it? Fall of Cybertron promises to offer lots of laser gun battles and robot fisticuffs, and the PC port, weve learned, is being handled by a relatively new studio called Mercenary Technology. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron will be available for PC on 28th August.

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ASK AARON

CD Business

I have a big problem with my laptop, which is a Dell Studio XPS 16. The laptop itself is a pretty powerful model, and it works fine, but Ive had a big mishap with the CD drive. Basically, its eaten one of my discs, and I cant get it back. Ive tried ejecting the disc several times, but the drive just makes a noise and doesnt do anything. I cant access the CD, because when I try, Windows just locks up and cannot read the disc. Im not exactly sure what to. There doesnt appear to be a way to eject the disc manually, other than the touch-sensitive button on the keyboard. I tried ejecting it via Windows context menu, but it didnt work either. Restarts dont do any good; the laptop just doesnt want to give me my disc back. Is there any way to fix this problem? A friend said that all CD drives have manual release mechanisms, but I cant find one. I really would like to get my disc back if possible; its one of my favourite albums. Lucy Thanks for your mail Lucy, but sadly, Im afraid I have bad news. Theres no easy way to remedy this situation. The problem you have is with the type of optical drive. The Studio XPS range often used slot-loading optical drives, much like the ones seen in cars and on devices like the PlayStation 3. These drives have no disc tray, and instead load the disc automatically. This is easier to use, but theyre also notorious for problems. Should a mechanical failure happen, which is the case here, then youre stuck.

Meet Aaron Birch. Hes here to help you with any general upgrading, software and system building problems. Hes got advice aplenty, and youre very much welcome to it!
Send your questions to:

Its a very common problem, and has happened to a great deal of XPS owners, not to mention owners of other devices that use this CD drive type. Your friend is correct about the manual release on most CD drives, but this usually only applies to standard tray-loaders. In this case, theres no such option. You basically have two options here, with one possibility depending on how old your laptop is. First, and the method Id advise, contact Dell. If your laptop is still under warranty, Dell should fix the issue, and replace the faulty drive. Some people have even got whole new laptops due to the issue. This will take time, of course, but youll be sure the problem is fixed. If the laptop is out of warranty and you dont want the expense of a PC repair shop (which, depending on your technical prowess, may still be the best option), you could remove the drive yourself, and open it up to retrieve the disc. Many people have said they managed to get the disc out using a credit card, or even a knife. This is something Id highly advise against. Not only because of the potential damage to the laptop, not to mention yourself, but also because youll probably damage the disc in the process, making the whole situation moot anyway. If you decide to open up the laptop and remove the disc manually, be sure to consult the official support manual at tinyurl.com/6m25cvx. This will show you how to remove the optical drive. Be aware that this will likely invalidate any warranty you have, so you should only really attempt it as a last resort. Good luck.

Aaron Bich Micro Mart Dennis Publishing 30 Cleveland Street London W1T 4JD

Contact Aaron by email at:

aaron@micromart.co.uk

Please try to keep your queries brief and limit them to just one question per letter, simply so we can squeeze in as many as we can each week. Please include relevant technical information too.

Aaron
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Removing a broken optical drive from a Dell Studio XPS isnt difficult, but will invalidate your warranty

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THE EXPERTS

Streaming Mimi

Ive noticed of late that I seem to have quite a few problems when it comes to streaming video. Often, the video has issues when Im streaming online, and I get a lot of buffering and stopping. I had put this down to a poor connection speed or something, but then I noticed I was getting issues when streaming video at home. I often watch videos out of my network share, and Ive noticed that I have hiccups there too. I do usually do this wirelessly, so again, I assumed it was connection related. Then I read that streaming video and general internet performance can be TVersity is just one free home media sharing solution that can help improve buffering issues affected by more than just your connection. This led to me investigating my PC, and finding out that its now without excessive buffering in Firefox, for example, may play fine quite an old spec system, only 1.2GHz CPU and 512MB RAM. in Chrome or IE. Its always worth a try. Im assuming that this is part of my issue and was wondering if You mentioned issues when streaming video across your own you would agree. network too. Again, this will certainly be affected by overall If so, what can I do to remedy the issues? Should I upgrade, or connectivity, but it can also be down to the technology you use. invest in another network device to watch video from? When youre playing video, do you use a hardware or software streaming solution, such as a media player, or are you simply Neil playing the file from a network share? If the latter is true, be aware Streaming video, both online and on your own local network can be troublesome. You are correct in that the primary concern here is connection speed/quality, but there are plenty of other things that can contribute to overall performance. CPU power and RAM can have an effect, especially as the CPU is still in charge of handling the data. The CPU can also govern overall download speed of the data too, which will, of course, affect playback. Theres also the actual streaming player software to consider, and over the years, this has required more power. The YouTube of today requires more horsepower than it did not that long ago, and most users will have run into various performance issues simply loading some embedded media players. In some ways, a more powerful CPU can help, but its also true that in many cases the results will vary wildly. Some users may notice a substantial speed increase, while others will wonder what the point of an upgrade was. Certain browsers can also make a difference, with some being more sluggish than others, so its always worthwhile trying an alternate browser when streaming from a particularly troublesome site. Often a streaming video that wont play

A media sharing device can intelligently share and broadcast the footage
that this simply accesses the file, and has no added buffering or playback capabilities offered by media server or software options, and thus, can result in problematic performance. A media sharing device or software package can intelligently share and broadcast the footage, and, in most cases, will make for a far more pleasurable experience. There are plenty of free software-based media servers online, so be sure to check them out. One example is TVersity (tversity.com), and another popular option is Media Portal (www.team-mediaportal.com). Both can turn a normal PC into a fully functioning HTPC, and youll gain the benefits of proper streaming.

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ASK JASON

Last week, I bought a cheap MP3 player. Its a clip-on model - a kind of clone of the secondgeneration iPod Shuffle. It cost g 3.50, with a 2GB micro-SD card costing the same again. ca The sounds a bit tinny, but Th for use at the gym its great. fo However, I cant seem to load H more than about 500MB of m music onto it. I get a Windows m er error saying the cards full. A At first I thought the card w was counterfeit, really just a 5 512MB affair, but Ive tested it w with H2testw and its passed p perfectly. Any ideas?

The Long And The Short Of It

Joe Walker, via email

Its aI think this is a file-system issue. Most memory cards of 2GB and less are formatted using FAT (FAT16), and this only

supports 512 entries in the root folder (most cheap MP3 players cant read from any other folder). In the old days, 512 entries equated to 512 files, and thats still true if all your files use short names - names conforming to the 8.3 standard (a maximum of eight characters for the body and three characters for the extension). Nowadays, of course, we all use long file names, and support for those in FAT is a kludge. With FAT, the extra letters in a long file name get split into groups of 8.3 - as many as needed. Windows joins these groups together (the kludge is seamless and really quite elegant), but each one takes up a precious file-system entry. Entries are gobbled by other things too, such as the alias, an 8.3 representation of a long name that ensures the file is

still readable in DOS (which doesnt support long file names). As you can see, Joe, it becomes easy to hit FATs 512entry limit, way before youve created 512 files. This and other limits are lifted with FAT32. This is the file system used on memory cards with capacities beyond 2GB (the main reason being FATs 2GB maximum partition size). Thankfully, most devices, even cheap MP3 players, can usually read and write to this, so your card merely needs to be reformatted. Plug in your player, right-click its drive letter in Windows Explorer, and click Format. Choose FAT32 and click OK. Bear in mind that everything already stored on the card will be wiped Note - Joe mentions H2testw, a tool for testing flash-memory integrity. Its also used widely to confirm whether a devices reported capacity is its true capacity - the capacity of cheap cards and USB sticks is often faked. Download it at bit.ly/6p7fmL.

Meet Jason DAllison, a veteran of Micro Marts panel of experts. Jasons here to help with any technical questions to do
Send your questions to:

Jason DAll.ison Micro Mart Dennis Publishing 30 Cleveland Street London W1T 4JD

Contact Jason by email at:

jason@micromart.co.uk

H2testw is an essential piece of software if youve just bought a flash-memory product off eBay...

While we try to cover as many questions as we can, we regret that Jason cannot answer your questions personally, but hell cover as many as he possibly can each week. Please ask one question per letter and remember to include the full specification of your computer, including its operating system.

92 92

Jason
Issue1193 1213 Issue

My neighbour has given me his laptop to sort out. Its a Toshiba Satellite L300D-243, and it was so slow it took nearly ten minutes to boot! After removing all the bloatware, clearing out

Jimll Fix It?

the toolbars and other nasties, and performing the usual maintenance tasks, Ive now got it going at a decent clip. Vista still needs updating, though - its not even running SP2. However, Windows Update wont launch - I get an error

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THE EXPERTS
saying theres a problem with certain services. Any ideas? Once the laptops updated I can hand the wretched thing back!

Warren Murray, Hotmail

Lots of folks come a cropper with this. Ive fallen foul of it myself - numerous times. As the error suggests, Warren, some vital Windows service has probably become corrupted or disabled. Exactly why or how is anyones guess. Maybe it was the work of a virus. Maybe a recently installed program made an inappropriate registry change. Or perhaps its all because you had alphabet spaghetti for lunch last Thursday instead of your usual tuna wrap? Dont bother trying to fix the problem manually. Youll waste your weekend trawling through forums offering conflicting advice and increasingly circuitous solutions that dont work. Instead, hop along to bit.ly/p8o3rK and download and run Microsofts relevant Fix it tool. This will inspect your system and correct any areas that might be causing Windows Update to fail. Nine times out of ten this has got me going again within seconds.

Windows has so many Fix it tools you might wonder why Microsoft didnt Fix it in the first place...

Many years ago I bought a Dell Inspiron 1200 laptop. Ive not used it much, but a close friend has recently moved abroad and I want to keep in touch via Skype. Will the Dell cope? I know Ill need to buy a webcam. Also, Ive just got broadband, and I cant seem to connect wirelessly. If I press Fn+F2 on the laptops keyboard, an icon appears on the screen showing that Im switching wi-fi on and off, but nothing else happens. My sons phone connects fine, but Im stuck with using a cable, which isnt practical. Jackie, Merseyside On the Inspiron 1200, the wi-fi card was an optional extra. In most instances, it wasnt fitted, even though the on/off function remained operational. My guess, Jackie, is that this is where youre at. The optional card was fitted into a standard mini-PCI slot. Compatible cards are still available, but accessing the slot requires the laptop to be almost completely disassembled. Also, models with the card pre-fitted had an antenna in the bezel around the screen. You probably wont have that, so a card fitted now would probably give a rubbish signal. Its not game over, though. There are two other roads to wi-fi on the Inspiron 1200. First, you could fit a USB dongle. Something like this Tenda 802.11b/g/n device would do nicely: bit.ly/HiG9Up. At under a fiver, can you go wrong? Its also one of those short, stubby jobs, so it wont stick out by three feet, waiting for someone to brush past it and snap it off. Another option - the one I prefer, as its likely to result in a better signal - is a PC Card. These are also called CardBus and PCMCIA

What The Dell?

cards. Youre after a Type II affair, and this will plug into the bay on the laptops left-hand side. Currently this will be populated by a spring-loaded retaining plate. At 7.99, consider this Belkin 802.11b/g/n model: amzn.to/KPR2Po. Will the laptop cope with Skype? Yes, it should. Skype doesnt require a powerhouse, which is good, because the Inspiron 1200 isnt one. To be fair, though, Jackie, Laptops that pre-date wi-fi the Celeron M processor and or have a shafted internal wi-fi GMA 900 graphics are quite adapter can often be upgraded or mended with an old-style PC Card good enough for a basic home system. Youll probably Bits And PCs have just 256MB This week I have been... of RAM, however - paltry even for ...reading that the Wii U controller (the gigantic touch-pad Windows XP (the thingy) will have a battery life of between three and five hours default OS). Youll (thats got fail written all over it, but Ill still be first in line). get a massive ...playing the fool on the dodgems at the Bower in Lichfield performance boost (far too many cars, bumping wasnt banned, and there by adding some more seemed to be no right way to go round - brilliantly chaotic fun into the free slot for everyone!). (under the flap on ...watching ViVARDs blue-and-white DOS-based diagnostics the machines base). screen while testing a never-shrinking tower of used hard You need a DDR333 drives (when I close my eyes I can still see the cursor crawling SO-DIMM - thats along the sector map - its like screen-burn). DDR (DDR1), not ...listening to the howls of laughter and derision from DDR2 or DDR3. The friends at the pub when it became clear I hadnt a clue what slot will take 1GB, Windows RT was (when did Windows-on-ARM get officially but even an extra christened?). 256MB would be ...buying wellies, ponchos, and extra-thick blankets in worthwhile. A stick readiness for Download (Ill tell you all about it next week, but that size on eBay will judging by the forecasts, we might do better taking an ark cost less than a tube instead of a tent). of Pringles.

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ASK JAMES

Bank On It

Im about to be away from home for a few weeks, so Im only going to have unfamiliar broadband connections to deal b with - mostly public wi-fi, such w as web cafes and hotels, but a also the 3G modem I bought a for my laptop. fo My question is whether its safe for me to access my it online banking on this kind o of connection. I rely on the o service for my business, but for se that reason I dont want to risk th it getting hacked. How safe am I, and is there anything I a can do to make it safer? c

The 3G mobile broadband connection is probably your safest bet

think itd be safe, but heres the thing: how do you know what network youre really connected to? Its simple for someone to set up their own hotspot, label it to match the location theyre in, then intercept the data you send while thinking youre on a safe network. Even if the hotspot is apparently legitimate, you also have to ask yourself how much you trust the business and its employees not to be scamming you. Although a secure connection should prevent your data being intercepted in transfer, theres no guarantee their router isnt serving you bogus pages to collect your login details instead. Its not likely, but is it worth the risk? As it happens, the 3G mobile broadband connection is probably your safest bet for mobile banking access. Its very difficult (although not impossible, admittedly) to spoof a cellphone tower, whereas an imitation wi-fi network can be created on even a halfdecent smartphone. Using a 3G connection means that you know your phone is connected directly to a broadband service, with negligible possibility for snooping in between you and your bank. If you want added security, the best thing you can do is get a VPN account and use that to encrypt and shield all of your traffic. This will allow you to use even free, public wi-fi connections with confidence. Choosing a VPN provider is tough (and heavily depends on your needs) but have a look around and you should find a service thats right for you.

Phillip, Cardiff
It depends on the situation. Sometimes, youre safe, sometimes, not so much. Ill try to explain how you can tell. The first way to know that youre unsafe is if youre using a computer that belongs to someone else. You should never use your banking details on a computer that isnt solely accessed by you (and people you trust). In an internet cafe, for example, you have no idea whether the previous user has installed a keylogger or set up some malware to invisibly redirect web traffic. Even if its not deliberate, you dont know how well their virus scanners perform. Never, ever, ever put your banking details into a public PC. You should be wary enough about checking your email on one. Now, if youre using your own computer on a public wi-fi network, you might

Meet James Hunt. Hes here to help make sure you stay protected. If you have any virus, spyware or malware-related issues, please get in contact!
Send your questions to:

James Hunt Micro Mart Dennis Publishing 30 Cleveland Street London W1T 4JD

Contact James by email at:

james@micromart.co.uk
While we try to cover as many questions as we can, we regret that James cannot answer your questions personally. Please ask one question per letter and please keep your questions brief.

James
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APP OF THE WEEK

App of the week

StrokesPlus
David Hayward tries his hand at mouse gestures, and recalls that art was never his strong point

t came to me while testing StrokesPlus that we often find ourselves taking shortcuts to make our technical lives easier, whether thats simply tapping the screen to bring up our emails, or via voice recognition, where shouting, Google, at your smartphone several times will hopefully fire up a web browser. This is an area where the PC has been dormant for some time. Although attempts have been made in the past to create an almost Star Trek-like system for PC task automation, they more often than not, failed miserably. However, the future of PC command automation may be just around the corner; a new star is on the horizon and its called StrokesPlus. Its a mouse-driven gesture recognition application that will allow you to automate repetitive tasks by simply drawing a symbol or letter on the screen. StrokesPlus can be downloaded from bit.ly/y0fupm, with version 1.7.2 being the latest edition (at the time of writing) for both the 32- and 64-bit variants. Being only something in the region of 1.5MB, the program shouldnt take long to download, after which its a simple case of double-clicking the MSI to initiate the installer. Once installed, it sits quietly in the system tray, waiting patiently for one of the default gestures to be drawn on the screen via the initial right mouse button set up. Right-clicking the icon in the system tray will bring up a menu containing a wealth of options, from choosing the drawing button (right mouse button by default, but can be middle button, or any combo of keys), to creating an ignore list, listing the current actions, changing the preferences and disabling the software. Within the preferences you have the option of changing the colour, the width and the opacity of the draw gesture, alongside some experimental options that include memory management of the application and playing a sound if the gesture is unrecognised. The actions menu contains a lengthy list of defaults, which can be altered and tweaked, plus the ability to create new gestures and actions for use in different applications. Once up and running, youll be drawing away on your desktop like its second nature. Or so youd think.

Unfortunately this is where StrokesPlus falls apart. In essence, drawing an e on the screen may sound perfectly fine to launch Explorer, but after the third attempt to get the gesture working, and the poor quality of the e being drawn (admittedly, using the mouse to draw with was never my forte), it would instead have been much quicker launching Explorer from the start menu. The same goes for drawing a c, which closes an application; surely clicking on the X in the corner would be quicker? But perseverance is the key here, and after a while you begin to see the benefits. In short, it can be a difficult recognition system to get to grips with and at first it does seem to take longer to draw a gesture than it does to do the action normally. It can also be difficult drawing symbols well enough for them to be recognised. However, if you take the time to practise the mouse gestures, drop into the settings and simplify the movements, then youll soon be opening, closing, launching new tabs within your browser, kicking off new Word documents and shutting the system down without ever having to bother with those pesky three little icons in the top corner of the window, or having to ever touch the Windows Start button again.

Image taken from the StrokesPlus site, because our attempt looked like a three year old had done it

Features At A Glance

Training mode Customise your own gestures Tons of added options Uses only 250-500KB RAM

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ADVERTISING Group Ad Manager:
Andrea Mason Tel: 020 7907 6662

o you own a PVR? Do you watch the adverts that you record between shows? No, me neither, because as disappointing a reality for advertisers as it is, I watch for the shows, not the mostly rubbish adverts. You may know this already, but technically its possible for a PVR to detect an ad break, and not record it, creating a seamless recording of whatever it was you wanted. However, I cant see Sky (who Im a custromer with) providing that feature, as it

entirely undermines its advertising business model and its customer friendly. Regardless, to highlight just how seriously some take this ad-skipping problem, theres a court case underway in the USA between Dish, Americas second biggest satellite TV business, and the TV networks Fox and NBC. Dish implemented a feature on its PVR boxes called Auto Hop, which eliminated recording adverts, and stirred this particular hornets nest. Apparently, the legal argument being presented is that by removing the adverts that Dish is infringing copyright by altering the content, which seems at best thin to this legally unqualified mind. This isnt the first of this case type. In 1999, a company called Replay TV launched a DVR with a feature called Commercial Advance, and in doing so irked copyright holders. In that instance the cost of legal representation eventually bankrupted the company. However, what didnt happen in that case was a definitive ruling, so we now have the Dish case to explore that territory yet again. I see this as symptomatic of a bigger issue to do with how we consume TV these days, which doesnt fit the comfortable model that fed a multi-billion dollar advertisement business through the 60s, 70s and 80s. Shows that would have been cancelled with half the viewers a decade ago get another season, because expectations are drastically lower now. Advertising revenue is flowing away from TV to new media, as PR companies like to call it, where the message can be targeted at those most likely to buy, and not spread it around uncontrollably, and a proportionally high cost per additional sale. It will be interesting to see where this case goes, because should it succeed, we might see the ability to fast forward through ad sections

EDITORIAL Editor: Anthony Enticknap theeditor@micromart.co.uk Designers: Kevin Kamal,

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THIS WEEK'S CROSSWORD

stopped, and then our eyes will be forcibly held open during ad breaks. If you think that last comment was flippant, a patent has been issued in the states for a device that senses if youre watching, so it can repeat the ad if you werent. However, all of this misses the point that were all watching much less TV, and therefore fewer TV adverts, and no amount of legal persuasion is likely to change that. The unpalatable truth is that the era of advert-subsidised content, as presented by TV in its current form, is dying, and along with it the whole syndication model for television shows. Going after hardware makers who are delivering the features people actually want wont actually change things or even slow the decline in ad revenue. There are new opportunities that the internet, among other outlets, has delivered to the advertisers, and its companies like Dish that are interested in representing the customers interests and not those of the advertisers, that are more likely to succeed.

Mark Pickavance

LAST WEEK'S CROSSWORD

Across: 7 Megalomaniacs, 8 Modern, 9 Lowell, 10 Acetate, 12 Snobs, 14 Orbit, 16 Problem, 19 Silver, 20 Frisch, 22 The Down: 1 Lego, 2 Patent, 3 Roy Nutt, 4 Paula, 5 Win-Win, 6 Scalable, 11 Corniche, 13 Traffic, 15 Invert, 17 Bridge, 18 Irony, 21 Chat.

Running Man.

Across 7 A region in California to the south of San Francisco noted for its concentration of high-technology industries. (7,6) 8 Bring to a desired consistency, texture, or hardness by a process of gradually heating and cooling. (6) 9 A repeating process whose outcomes follow no describable deterministic pattern. (6) 10 An arrangement by which a body holds funds on behalf of a client or supplies goods or services to them on credit. (7) 12 That is to say; in other words. (2,3) 14 The central research and development organisation for the US Department of Defense; responsible for developing new surveillance technologies since 9/11. (Acronym) (5) 16 Differing from a norm or standard. (7) 19 One dozen. (6) 20 An incorporated society of insurance underwriters in London, made up of private syndicates. Founded in 1871 originally to deal only in marine insurance. (6) 22 Any of the less common and valuable elements often used to make coins or jewellery. (8,5)

Down 1 Mark with ones signature. (4) 2 A linear unit of the size of type slightly larger than an em. (6) 3 One of the top ten contributors to open-source software by amount of code and member of the core steering committee of PostgreSQL. (3,4) 4 Not secret or hidden. (5) 5 Made multiple identical copies of; e.g. software or DVDs. (6) 6 An American engineer who co-founded Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1957 with colleague Harlan Anderson (3,5) 11 Derogatory term for software noted more for its quantity rather than for its quality or usefulness. (8) 13 Born in 1929, he was a silicon pioneer and a member of the so-called Traitorous Eight that founded Silicon Valley. (3,4) 15 A course or principle of action adopted or proposed by an organisation or individual. (6) 17 A line on a map connecting points having the same duration of sunshine. (6) 18 Extending underneath. (5) 21 Consisting of or involving two parts or components usually in pairs. (4)

DISCLAIMER
The views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the publishers. Every care is taken to ensure that the contents of the magazine are accurate but the publishers cannot accept responsibility for errors. While reasonable care is taken when accepting advertisements, the publishers cannot accept any responsibility for any resulting unsatisfactory transactions. They will, however, investigate any written complaints. Images used on the front cover are for illustrative purposes only. This week, of course, was dominated by the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, which we managed to do a pretty good job of ignoring. Unfortunately, it meant we had to work particularly hard to get this issue finished, because everyone had two days off work. On

the plus side, everyone had two days off work. Our one bit of interest in the festivities was watching, on TV, a young lady by the name of Jessie J singing some rubbish pop songs with a chap called will.i.am (we think youll find that should be William). Anyway, that was no fun at all, and we switched it off after about two minutes. Somehow, we cant imagine the Queen, god bless her, is particularly into chart music. Whatever you think about the Royal family, you can probably credit them with having a bit more taste than that. Apart from the whole 50 years of Elizabeth II, we also watched Andy Murray not winning in the French Open and read some stuff about some football tournament thats apparently happening this month. Brazil wont win it for obvious reasons, but theyve probably got a better chance than England.

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