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Some of these terms may be unfamiliar to you. If they are a problem, try my glossary. But use the back arrow to return here. This page was 'cleaned up' in August 2009.
Google Earth : Directions not only gives you directions how to get there but includes satellite photos of every junction !
iPhone have cooperated with Teletextmobile.com to sell 'Apps' that will speak foreign languages for you. Press a key to ask "Ou est la toilette, s'il vous plait ? "
July 2010 Important to me is the announcement that mobile phones will eventually have High Definition (HD) Voice. Deaf people have great difficulty with the quality of telephones. HD voice increases the speech bandwidth from the standard 300 - 3400 Hz to 50 - 7000Hz. This will mean people with high or low frequency deficiencies will have a much better change of getting the message. Hopefully, the pushing mobile phone sector will influence advances on land lines and their receivers.
July 2010 Support for Service Packs 1 and 2 for XP has now virtually finished. XP users should be sure to get SP3. This is a very large download and almost impossible for people on a dial-up connection. They should try to get it on a memory stick from a friend or CD from Microsoft. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322389 They don't make it easy, do they ?
June 2010 The iPad has finally made its way to our shores.
It is a tablet-style computer from Apple operated using its touch-sensitive
screen. It has 9.7in screen with just three buttons and one switch. There
are no USB ports (!) or memory card slots, but there is an Apple dock
connector (extra). This can be used to attach keyboards and a memory card
reader, but as yet the only accessories available are from Apple and cost
more than the basic £425. It comes in 16, 32 and 64GB varieties. There
are two versions, one of which has a 3G mobile phone connection to connect
to the internet. There are extra charges for this, similar to when using
a mobile phone and the other connects to the net wirelessly. It weighs 700g.You
can use the Amazon Kindle application to download and read books. Like the
iPhone, the iPad can be extended by downloading programs or ‘apps’.
Apple manages all software distribution so you can only get approved software.
The battery is sealed inside so there's no way to carry a spare so perhaps
you have to throw it away when it it is worn out ? However, battery life
was impressive, exceeding Apple’s claimed 10 hours for viewing video.
In general use we managed to go up to three days between charges. Computer
Active says "It’s not for people who want to edit video or run
several programs at once but the simple-to-use iPad is a great computer for
less demanding users".
My netbook cost a third of the price of the iPad and has three times the
hard drive capacity of the biggest iPad, has a card reader, two USB sockets,
cable and wireless internet connection nd a reasonable keyboard. But
the iPad battery life is very impressive. CA had one go for three days between
charges.
May2010 Bad news for music fans. U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood granted summary judgment in favor of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), ruling that Lime Group, parent of LimeWire software maker Lime Wire, and founder Mark Gorton committed copyright infringement, induced copyright infringement, and engaged in unfair competition.
May 2010 Office 2010 is out in the States next month.
The Professional version costs $499 and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access, in addition to SharePoint Workspace
for collaborative tools, and InfoPath Designer for standardized forms. The
lowest tier Office, Home & Student at $149 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
and OneNote. Office 2010 Home and Business adds Outlook 2010 to the Home
and Student version and costs $279. ($130 for email !) Office Professional
Academic 2010 is available through authorized academic resellers only and
costs $99. Unfortunately, there is no upgrade pricing for Microsoft Office
2010, because Microsoft found that most people buy Office when they buy a
new computer and there was little interest in upgrades at retail outlets.
Well, that's their story.
This is the LAST version of the Office suite ! They are to focus on
improving the online version. As the President of the Division said
(with disarming honesty) "We ran out of ways to improve the software years
ago. Since Office XP it's just been rearranging things. Users aren’t
going to be fooled any more by the cosmetic changes we make, so it’s
time to end this charade.” Frankly I wish they hadn't messed with
the 2003 version. You can always get their free Docx , Ppsx and Xlsx
readers. -
KP
May 2010 Beam me up, Scottie ! Imagine being able to charge a device (e.g. phone) without even connecting it to the mains. This is already possible using a Powermat and Nissan is working on an electric car that will charge in the same way. It's all done with magnets.
May 2010 In 1965 George Moore predicted that the speed of computers would double every 18 months. In fact Intel calculated that it was about 20 months on average. Is there a limit to this? Well, yes. In fact you may have noticed that the speeds quoted for chips stalled somewhere around 3.6ghz a while back. So, what's up, Doc? The big problem is that the faster the chips 'buzz' the hotter they get and there is a problem dissipating this heat. Not to be outdone, the two main chip makers, AMD and Intel have begun to multiply the number of processors sitting on one piece of silicon. So, now, the average PC has a dual core chip. This enables one of the processors to tackle the Operating System (e.g. Windows) while the other one gets on with the 'application' that you are running. We also have Quad core PCs. So, is there any limit to the number of 'cores' ? Intel are talking about 6 (soon) and 8 and 16 cores. But does that help the average Joe? Well, not right now, because every time you introduce a new core the software writers have to adapt to that. And, unless there are a lot around they will probably not bother. There ARE other ways to make PCs faster and you may have heard about memory caches and, of course, the amount of memory that can be accessed. Most modern PCs have 2 or 4 Gigabyte of memory but some will soon boast as much as 16Gb. Then, for the game players the real speed increase is helped by the use of expensive graphics cards, which also contain memory. But, unless someone comes up with some new technology it does seem likely that Moores Law will not be applicable indefinitely. Right now the only reason to get a 6 core Intel machine would be to boast about it ! It is a bit like having a Rotweiler for a pet.
May 2010 At a recent conference it was announced that there will soon be 900GB 2.5-inch drives spinning at 10,000rpm. A 15,000 rpm 2.5-inch drive with 300GB capacity is coming, too. This would be the fastest small form factor disk drive available.
April 2nd 2010 Google Wave is an Open Source program that will enable on line collaboration between people anywhere in the world, using a mixture of text and graphics. It is like collaborative word processing or spreadsheets but even more so, as it can involve a number of people, whose computers are constantly updated. If you have a spare hour there is a Youtube video HERE
April 2010 Google's Chrome Browser is gaining in popularity but is still under 7%. The latest 'Milestone' is 5. It will have autofill facilities, PDF support, synchronisation of things like bookmarks with mobile phones and a built in Flash updater. Websites may also have 'geolocation' ability... knowing where you are connecting from.
March 2010. From January 2011 hard drives will be able to support Advanced Format. This will increase the size of each sector and allow an increase in capacity of around 10% as well increased performance. Although such drives will work with Windows XP incompatibility may result in the drives running 10% slower with that operating system
2rd March 2010 SanDisk have released a 32Gb MicroSD card which will find its way into things like smartphones. At £145 and 0.5gram it is 12 times as expensive as gold !
1st March 2010. USB3 is the new USB (blue) socket that will transfer data ten times the speed of USB2. And it is still back ward compatible with older USB devices. Unfortunately you cannot just put a USB3 card in your old desktop as they only fit PCIe (Express) slots. So I am afraid you are going to have to wait until you have a new PC with USB3 sockets or at least a PCIe slot so you can add a USB3 adapter. The picture shows the various type of slots. The longer ones are capable of greater speed (up to 16x) The bottom one shows the old PCI slot common in most older computers.
26th Feb 2010 Virgin has promised to roll out 100Mb broadband starting at the end of this year and completing by the end of 2011 has not yet announced who will get the service first. Obviously this is going to cost more. The new speed tier will be able to download a music album in as little as five seconds, an hour-long TV show in 31 seconds and an HD movie in seven minutes 25 seconds.
Feb 2010 Make no mistake a war is waging between the big Internet and Mobile Phone players. The stakes are high. Mobile phones such as Apple's iPhone, Blackberry and even basic mobiles are able to connect to the net. Apart from the rental and call charges the big prize will be advertising. Already most of Google's money is made this way. Suddenly Microsoft wake up to this and make an alliance with Yahoo. They will use Microsoft's BING browser but share Yahoo's advertising revenue. Google is never outsmarted and is launching a mobile phone and developed an Operating System (Android) for phones and other devices.
Feb 2010 Google Voicemail. This looks interesting as it promises to be able to save phone calls to Voicemail, then enables you to SEE what was said. Watch this space and visit http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html to see and hear videos
Try this link for good Text to speech http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php?sitepal
Jan 2010. See Broadband page for the latest developments in that field - using 4th generation technology and LTE (Long Term Evolution) But to see how far Britain is behind France regarding broadband speed see this example I had from a friend. And the average speed in France is now 17 Meg. And that is down telephone lines not cable. Amazing !
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January 2010 The BBC's governing body, the BBC Trust, has given the provisional go-ahead for the BBC to participate in Project Canvas - an attempt to develop a standard for internet-television services in the UK. Project Canvas is a partnership between the BBC, ITV, BT, Five, Channel 4 and Talk Talk to develop a common interface for Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) in the UK. It aims to set a common standard for internet TV IPTV allows you to access programmes via the net rather than through the air. Canvas is an attempt to replicate the success of Freeview for internet. It is currently testing a service called SeSaw, which will begin in March 2010. And you saw it first HERE !
January 10 The Western Digital WD TV is an HD media player.
To put it another way - it's a small box that plugs into your telly and will
let you watch High Definition video content in a range of formats, as well
as listen to audio and browse through your photo collection. Just plug in
your memory stick or USB hard drive for full screen pictures. Around
£69.
For Gmail users who, like me, can never remember the shortcuts, comes a little keypad with all the shortcuts labelled. See http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-370383.html
December 09. The Nexus One, Google's move into the mobile phone business is expected to be on the shelves (in the USA) by 5th January. There is no stopping Google.
December 09 Next year Microsoft will be issuing a free 'light' version of Office, called Office Starter. Works will be dropped. It won't be as powerful of Open Office and will contain advertising. If people don't buy Office and Windows (see Chrome OS below) what will Microsoft have left ?
The new Acer laptop (Aspire 5738DG) is capable of displaying videos in 3D. You need glasses from Tri-Def, along with Tri-Def software. It can even make 2D images stand out.
Operating System wars ! While Microsoft has announced that Windows 8, due in 2012, will be a heavyweight system and will be 128 bit compatible (I still haven't caught up with 64bit), Google has announced full details of its Chrome OS, although admitted that the full operating system is still a year away from launch. Before that they are to launch a Linux based system for netbooks that will NOT bea ble to run Microsoft programs. In fact it will depend heavily on "The Cloud" not only for programs but for storage. The Chrome OS effectively turns a netbook into a thin client. All applications will be web apps, all data will be stored in the cloud and the operating system will be booted from Flash - no hard disks will be supported. "We want Chrome OS to be blazingly fast," said Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management at Google. "We want it to be like a TV - turn it on and you're in your web application."
November 09 Simplified PC for the elderly. Video at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8352606.stm
AOL has been spun off from its disastrous amalgamation with Time Warner.
It will shed a couple of thousand jobs worldwide. At least they
still have the sole copyright for the song
"Happy Birthday
to You" which brings in a couple of million a year ! Are you paying your
share ?
Oct 09 Windows 7 has 'touch screen' facilities built in as long as you have a touch screen. Acer has unveiled its first touchscreen Windows 7 laptop. The Aspire 5738PG is a 15-inch model running Windows 7 Home Premium, and launch ed this month. Its finger-friendly touchscreen lets you navigate the entire operating system without using a mouse, or even the laptop's multi-touch trackpad. Just think of all the fun you'll have rearranging desktop items.
Oct 09 The Zetronix Multi-Media Virtual Video Glasses simulates
a 50” television screen allowing you to watch anything you want in privacy.
The picture is displayed right in front of your eyes as a virtual big screen.
The glasses come with a video processor built into the glasses with 4GB of
built-in memory. You can upload your favorite TV Shows, Movies, Music Videos,
Photos and MP3 files. With a built in Micro SD card slot, you can plug it
in for up to 32GB of space. It is advisable not to drive at the same time
! My interest stems from the possibility that it is step nearer my 'hearing
glasses' invention. See Help28
Sept 09 It is not just MY memory that is getting smaller. I
just got 2Gb for my phone !
Sept 09. After being a little disappointed by the range of software that would work with my Acer Netbook, running Linpus Linux I was pleased to see that it worked fine with an Internet graphics program called Picnick. Although the free version did no more than Picasa (which DID work on the netbook) it demonstrated that 'Cloud Computing' will be an answer to this type of PC. It is not necessary to install everything on it to make programs work. So, software writers are going to be able to produce programs that will work on most machines without having the job of having to convert them to various Linux versions, Apples etc. This is a real step forward for computing.
Sept 09. I couldn't quite see the advantage of Google Docs until I noticed an article about sharing a spreadsheet. I can see that it would be an advantage in business or privately to be able to share a spreadsheet that can be updated. In Google docs click on the Share button and click Share as a Web page. This displays the address of the page on the web and both parties can access it. If both sides need to update the spreadsheet then click the link to 'Invite People'. Google docs comes in Basic and Premier versions (the latter costs $50 per person)
September 09 Solid State Hard disks (SSDs) I have often wondered how long the old spinning hard disk will be with us and advances in Solid State devices mean that you can get a faster, quieter, more durable and lighter hard disk to do the job. So, what is the hold up? Firstly, they are, so far, only up to 80gb (as opposed to the normal 160 to 1000Gb (1Tb) now found in PCs. Secondly, at £200 the 80Gb SSD will cost you four times as much as a 1000Gb traditional disk. Ah well, they all come down, don't they? But there are other problems with SSDs. In most cases they 'wear out' i.e. you can only write to a particular 'cell' a certain number of times. In addition you can't 'defrag' them like a traditional disk, so fragmentation of files eventually will slow them down. I feel sure that these problems will be overcome in time. But, for now, they are more suitable for up-market 'Netbooks', where the weight, durability and low battery consumption make them preferable.
September 09 Mobile Broadband. Most mobile phone companies are now offering a USB 'dongle' which allows you to get an Internet Connection without having to be connected to a land line or even a wireless (wi-fi) connection. These companies include 02, Vodaphone, T Mobile, Orange, Virginmedia and 3. So, if there is a signal on top of a mountain in Northern Scotland you are in. Payment methods vary but include Pay as you go, where you just pay for the time you are on. But before you run out and get one do check that you can get a good signal in your area. One contact told me that , at home, he was only getting speeds like a dialup modem, whereas in other areas he gets something like Broadband speed. For prices and costs see HERE
25th August 09 LG sell a 2 Gb USB drive with fingerprint recognition for £13. Might be a good idea for all government employees !
15th August 09 Solid State Drives (SSD) are the future. Samsung now sells a 64Gb drive for notebooks (£86). The SSDs are lighter and more durable than conventional hard drives, further increasing portability. They also use less power, giving longer battery life. Soon we will wonder why we put up with noisy, power hungry, spinning disks. Remember where you first read this !
21st July 09 Google Chrome OS is still scheduled for later 2010. It will be an open source operating system intended for netbooks. It will have speedy startup and is designed to get you online in just a few seconds. Google is promising that Chrome OS users won't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. All applications will be web-based, which means they'll also run on Mac, Windows and Linux computers. Chrome OS appears to be a direct competitor to Microsoft's Windows 7, or maybe it's just proof that nobody really cares about the operating system any more -- people just want to get on the web and not worry about things like installing software, security updates and defragging. Apart from this, think of the reduced development costs of not having to re-write the whole thing for different systems... Windows varieties, Macs and a myriad Unix and Linux programs. Also Google's Engineering Director has promised that Chrome OS will see 'the end of malware'. Wow ! That would really be something.
Speaking of which, while I am impressed by the little Acer One netbook and have been able to access the net via various wireless connections, I am still having great problems taking it further than the original installed software. I would recommend that anyone contemplating using Linux should get one of the more well-known versions such as Ubuntu, for which there is a great deal of software.
8th July 09 Announcing the existence of the Google Chrome OS project today, Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management and Linus Upson, Google’s engineering director said it would be “our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.” It is likely to be available later in 2010. This is ground breaking stuff. An Operating System is what we call Windows XP, Vista and 7. Watch out Microsoft, this one is FREE! No more : "Have you got a license for that ?" It will be a very small program, so will work on low end machines such as Netbooks. Its software will be largely web based, so your word processor will be on the internet, not your local PC, as will your documents, unless you choose to keep them locally. So you wont fill your machine with expensive and massive programs and your documents will not be lost if your machine crashes or because you have upgraded to a new PC (or someone nicked your laptop)
July 09 I have just bought and Acer Aspire One Netbook with Linux Operating system. I must say that, from first impressions, I am very impressed with it. It cost £150 and I just plugged it into my router and it connected to the net. I entered my Gmail address and got my email. Not only that, it used Firefox to browse the net and presented me with the same page I had been using when I last accessed the net with Google's Chrome (see photo) ! I then plugged in my trusty HP printer and the little fellow said it was ready for printing. It didn't and I had to go into the printer setup and was offered a connection via USB (which it was) I typed a message in Open Office (supplied) and printed it. I went to the settings screen and there was a Download updates item so I clicked that and it went to the Acer site and downloaded all the latest patches. There were quite a few but there is 120Gb of space on the hard disk. I don't like fiddling with the touch pad, so I attached a little USB mouse I got from Aldi in a kit. I also attached a USB keyboard, though that wasn't so necessary. Changed the keyboard to English UK - no problem - there is a keyboard layout icon. It was all so much easier than Windows ! Why was I worried about Linux ? This version is more intuitive. When it comes to computing, the old days of spending hours just to figure out how to do things seems to be over. However, see the notes below the photos regarding the problems of adding to non standard operating systems.
Here it is :
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However, I did hit a problem when wanting OTHER software. The problem is that, because Linux is OPEN software, anyone can amend it and create their own variety. The one on the Acer is called Linpus Linux but there are numerous others such as Ubuntu and Red Hat, Debian, Suse, Fedora etc. So, when I went to install Google's Linux version of Picasa it downloaded but then there was an error while installing. In fact you are offered software on various sites but Linpus is not mentioned except on an Acer One site
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Buffalo HS-DH320GL 320GB Linkstation Live Shared Network Storage Gigabit Ethernet. A 320 GB drive accessible on a home network for under £50 (Ebuyer)
Back in a flash is a new concept in backup. You get a special flash drive and it keeps backing up the data you choose while you are working. Special prices (now) are around £30 for a 3.5Gb flash drive to £133 for a 31Gb version + plus delivery. That is about three times the usual flash drive price. Look for competition in this field.
June 09 Microsoft is fed up with everyone Googling, so have brought out a new Search Engine called Bing. It does include some new features. See HERE for Bob Rankin's expert opinion
16th May 09 Eeeh! Asus are about to release the EeePC. So
what's new? Well it is just a PC in a keyboard and it is also wireless. We
lost the spinning hard disk, now we have lost the box. It has a little screen
on the right : 
11th May 2009. Ebuyer is advertising a 128Gb SOLID STATE hard disk. The days of the spiining hard disk seem to be numbered as soon as the cost comes down.
10th May 09. While it was originally thought that wi-fi internet connections were being slowed up because of the heavy use by some net users it is now thought that it is almost certainly interference from non-Wi-Fi devices such as microwave ovens, Audio Video senders, security cameras or baby monitors
7th May 09 A new internet search system, Wolfram Alpha, showcased at Harvard University in the US last week, takes the first step towards what many consider to be the internet's Holy Grail – a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does. It is very much a work in progress and for some questions Google does a better job. But don't underestimate the brilliant British born instigator, Stephen Wolfram. People are saying this could be bigger than Google (and you can't get much bigger than that)
1st May 09 I sold an XP machine to someone locally and he asked me to add a 'Dongle' to one of the USB ports. It was supplied by his mobile phone company "3". To my amazement it installed itself with no assistance, connected itself to the internet, then updated the software automatically. From £10 a month and up to 3Mb broadband speed. Now that is what I call clever.
7th April 09 Microsoft has agreed to allow Windows 7 customers to downgrade not just to Vista but also to XP even though mainstream support for XP is about to end
6th April 09. Scientists at MIT have developed a new design for lithium-ion batteries that could cut recharge times down to seconds. Important ? You can bet on it. Imagine if you could take your hybrid car to a petrol station and recharge as quickly as you can fill up. Mind you the energy requirement for that might dull the lights for miles around but really, for many applications, this could be a great breakthrough. Give it a couple of years (and a couple of million $)
19th March 2009 The Met. Office is getting a new computer, costing £33 million. To calculate complex climate models it will be able to nip along at 125 trillion calculations per second. That sounds even bigger than our post crisis National Debt ! 125,000,000,000,000 give or take a few noughts.
Remember Dick Tracey's two way wrist radio ? It was pretty far seeing
This month LG launch the GD910 3G wrist phone. See video
HERE
19th February 2009. Microsoft are still beavering away on their latest version of Internet Explorer (V.8) It seems that there are thousands of web sites which will not comply with it and so will not 'render' correctly i.e. where words of graphics look fuzzy or unreadable. This is mainly because IE8 is assuming sites will comply with a set standard called CSS 2.1. Although Microsoft intend to have a compatibility mode, folks will have to turn it on just to be able to use many popular sites, including the BBC, Barclays, Tesco et al - or move to one of the alternatives such as Firefox or Chrome. But 'there be dragons' whatever you use, it seems.
Google Phone Spy With the owner's permission it will soon be
possible for people to track folk who have a mobile phone. Their
whereabouts will be seen as a blue spot on a Google Earth map anywhere in
26 countries. Good way to keep track of your wandering kids, (wives, husbands
?) In the case of satellite connected phones (e.g. Blackberry) it will be
accurate to within yards. It may also be possible to track from which computer
e-mail has been used.
And, under a new law telephone companies and ISPs will have to keep records
of calls, emails and website visits for one year. The information will
be accessible by police, health authorities and even local councils. George
Orwell was ahead of his time. 1984 is long past.
Virgin is enabling 50 Mb broadband, starting in parts of Scotland, the Midlands and South London, extending to the full network by the Summer. It will be £51 a month or £35 a month with a phone line costing £11) With BT upping charges ahead of inflation Virgin may, at last, reap the benefit of all that fibre optic installation. BT lines are stuck on an 8Mb limit, insufficient for HD video.
The mini PC being made by Elonex, which will cost under £100 will even be sold in shops such as M & S and Next as an alternative to accessing the net by 3G phones.
30th December 2008 the DXG DVH58 is the world's first integrated geotagging camcorder. When you take a picture or video it works out exactly where it was taken !
Lightscribe is a DVD writer technology which etches words and patterns onto a DVD. The special, coated disks, which can be coloured, are only slightly more expensive
Modern Hard disks. These days most of the hard disks on offer are the SATA (Serial ATA) type. Older PCs will NOT have suitable connections for these and it would be necessary to add an additional card to one of the white PCI slots and, additionally, get an adapter for the power plug.
One thing that took off in 2009 was Mobile Broadband. Mobile Broadband gives you internet access via your mobile account. You do not need a telephone line, or to be in a Wi-Fi area to get online but instead by using a USB Modem with your Laptop or PC you can have access to fast broadband, when you are on the move. There is no complicated set up, which means you can have access to the internet as soon as you plug the USB Modem into the USB port of your PC or Laptop. It is compatible with Microsoft and Apple Mac operating systems. Using your USB Modem to access the internet is easy. All you have to do it insert the SIM card into the USB Modem, insert the USB Modem into the USB port on the PC. The SIM cards are available from Orange, 3 and T-Mobile and prices are from £10 a month.
3rd November 08 What if you could combine Email, Phone, Instant Messaging, Fax , video and file sharing ? VoxOx by TelCentris is a new free program that allows this
1st November 08 The 'in' computer seems to be the mini notebook or 'netbook'. For interesting videos on these see HERE
4th Sep 08 Pen drives are getting bigger and cheaper. See www.ijtdirect.co.uk for USB drives up to 64Gb. Why are we still using hard disks ?
4th Sept 08 Moore's Law lives on ! Intel is set to release its first six-core processor . Codenamed Dunnington, it will include all six cores on the same piece of silicon. That's in contrast to Intel's quad-core processors.The new Xeon 7400 Series will fit in the quad core socket. The company is also developing an even more advanced "Nehalem" architecture , which will be termed Core i7.
19th August 08. Intel have announced USB 3. Although backward compatible with USB 1 & 2 it will be 10 times as fast as USB 2, meaning that it could transfer a very large video in 70 seconds instead of 15 minutes. It will also have better power supply facilities so that many pieces of equipment can be charged by (or run off) the USB cable (without an additional power supply) You heard it first on Silverhairs !
4th August 08. There is news that Microsoft's follow up to Windows is called 'Midori'. It is likely that it will be net based (rather than being on each computer). But they are being very cagey saying . "Midori is one of many incubation projects underway at Microsoft. It's simply a matter of being too early in the incubation to talk about it." I think, before that, we have Windows 7 (W7) and that will be well before XP finally dies.
25th July 08 Much as I hated being tied to a mainframe in the early days, the speed of the net now means that we must rethink things. There is no need to clutter our machines with software because it will be on line. Your pictures and music and videos will all be kept on line - this is happening already. So the amount of stuff an anti virus program will have to check on a machine will be less. And your email program will keep your emails on line where they can be thoroughly and automatically checked for viruses by some powerful machine. We will be back to dumb terminals in the end and they will cost just a few ponds and will be everywhere.
15th July BT are finally committing themselves to a program of replacement of their old copper wires, which limit broadband speeds. This will just be to the green boxes in the road, not to everyone's house. This is a turn around after some committee reckoned that BB was not essential to the prosperity of a country. Idiots ! Dinosaurs ! With the price of copper I would imagine that BT will find the exercise quite profitable. And you can't flog glass fibre at the local scrap yard !
10th July Can you use you mobile phone as a modem to download videos while abroad ? The answer is a cautionary YES, if you want to increase your mortgage! Read on:
A Manchester-based IT consultant was shocked to find a £31,500 telephone bill waiting for him when he returned from holiday. He had used his mobile phone as a modem while on holiday in Portugal to download an episode of Prison Break as well as several MP3s. "The original figures looked like they had come down from the moon. I just laughed. There had to be some mistake. I knew I had used a lot of data while abroad, but not to the tune of £31,000," says Mr X, who failed to check the limits of his data plan. Mr X disputed the bill using a firm of solicitors, and the company has now agreed to slash the charges to just £229.
20th June Many people were surprised to find that their new computer had no dialup modem. They will all have an 'Ethernet' port to connect to broadband. Also it was found that old modems were not acceptable to Vista. If you want to use a PC for faxing you need a modem. This has now been overcome and a Vista compatible modem is now available at little cost.
17th May WiFi from http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-9936132-12.html?tag=nl.e415 is a Hot Spot sniffer that will enable your wireless laptop or Smartphone to find internet connections and also do some social networking !
11th May Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Windows XP is now on general
release. It downloads as a 316 Mb compressed file called KB936929. It
took 30 minutes to download on my 2Mb/s broadband and a great deal longer
to install. I think that people on dialup connections should buy the disk
from Microsoft (£8) as it would take many hours to download even at
50k. If you have a friend who has broadband they could copy the installer
program onto your machine via a CD or memory stick.
April 24th Virgin Media must be feeling the heat. They
have cancelled their 25p a minute technical help by phone and are offering
£50 off your bill if you find new customers.
The Blu-Ray Format of next generation of DVD's has won the battle and the HD DVD group headed by Toshiba formally gave up the struggle on the 17th February.
Will they ever learn.? Last year Microsoft has lost its appeal against a record 497m euro (£343m; $690m) fine imposed by the European Commission in a long-running competition dispute. The European Court of First Instance upheld the ruling that Microsoft had abused its dominant market position. A probe concluded in 2004 that Microsoft was guilty of freezing out rivals in server software and products such as media players. Microsoft has two months to appeal at the European Court of Justice. "The Court of First Instance essentially upholds the Commission's decision finding that Microsoft abused its dominant position," the court's statement said. Microsoft's top lawyer said it was important now for the company to comply with EU competition law.
That inveterate inventor, Trevor Baylis, who thought up the wind up radio, has now brought out the Eco Media Player. Not only will it play hours of music for a few turns of the handle it will recharge your phone, play video clips and photos on its small screen. Trevor is now working on a mobile phone that works on the same principle.
Knol is the latest idea from Google. Like Wikipedia, it will rely upon information updated by on line contributors. It will cover all subjects, from inventions, health to DIY. The authors of each entry will be publicised. As with Wikipedia the information cannot be guaranteed to be accurate.
www.solwise.co uk is offering a 'Simpleconnect' plug that goes into your domestic power socket and enables you to network to a computer in another room at speeds even faster than the normal ethernet method. Instat.com reckons this method will be a winner in the race for home networking systems. Wireless can be a bit of a pain.
Copying music from a CD to a home computer could be made legal under new proposals from the UK government. Millions of people already "rip" discs to their computers and move the files to MP3 players, although the process is technically against copyright law. Intellectual property minister Lord Triesman said the law should be changed so it "keeps up with the times". Music industry bodies gave a cautious welcome to the proposals.
The new Blu-Ray drives are appearing with 35Gb write-once disks costing around £8 each. Most of Hollywood's studios (20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Sony, Walt Disney, and Warner Bros) are opting to produce their films on Sony's Blu-Ray and Paramount looks likely to join them. Even without Paramount, Blu-ray now has 70% of Hollywood's next generation. So, the Blu-Ray v HD DVD war is over.
Videos on Apple products :http://www.apple.com/macbookair/#ad http://www.apple.com/iphone/gettingstarted/guidedtourupdate2/small.html
Google is processing 20 petabytes of information a day. A petabyte is 20,000 terabytes. So, I reckon that makes it 400,000,000,000,000 bytes. A byte is a unit such as a letter or number. But a byte is made up of 8 bits so that is..... oh! work it out amongst yourselves !
January 2008 Vodaphone is increasing its download rate for mobile video to 7.2Mb/s
USB Microscope. 200x and you can see the individual hairs on your arm or the separate ink dots on a piece of paper. Plus you can record what you see as either a picture or a video and save it.
IBM has joined Open Office.org to give it credibility. It is the alternative to Microsoft's expensive Office program. Open Office is free to download and also appears on many cover disks.
BT is offering an email anywhere phone. See www.bt.com/officeanywhere/ the HTC S620 phone is like a Blackberry with full keyboard and is free with a contract. Find wifi hotspots in the UK at http://btopenzone.hotspot-directory.com/
The latest mobile phone from mobile operator 3
(www.three.co.uk) is capable of make
free calls via SKYPE. An analyst from Ovum says... "This could be an
own goal for mobile operators who depend up call income".
By September 07 the population of the world was estimated at 6.5 billion.
Of those 1.24 billion (19%) used the Internet ! Which is surprising
if you eliminate young children, old people, the illiterate and those beyond
the reach of electricity. 41% of Europeans and 70% of North Americans
are connected. One must conclude that this is more important than the
invention of printing and must contribute billions to each country's economy.
Just bought a 42 inch LCD TV ? They could become obsolete when replaced by field-emission displays using light emitting carbon nano tubes. The human animal really is the most amazing hairless ape, especially in the last 50 years!
Becker has brought out a new Sat-Nav device which will allow you to view a video. " Well, officer, I had one eye on the road, another on my mirror and another on the rugby game !" It will also work out a detour if it becomes aware of a traffic jam. And I thought he was just a tennis player.
CMCIA has developed the ExpressCard™ standard. ExpressCard technology (www.expresscard.org) is the latest high-performance, hardware expansion standard for notebook and desktop computers. It replaces the current PC Card™ Standard. ExpressCard and PC Card technologies are found in more than 95 percent of all notebook computers. There is a variety of ExpressCard products, including digital TV tuners, mobile docks, hot pluggable adapters for data transfer (IEEE 1394 and serial ATA), Ethernet adapter modules as well as standard applications such as CompactFlash adapters, smart card readers and flash memory cards.
Wireless USB using UWB (Ultra Wideband Technology) has now been approved by OFCOM. UWB is theoretically capable of transferring 2Gb of data per second over 30 metres. It will enable people to connect all kinds of peripherals, media Players, set top boxes, printers, Digital TVs without cabling. I can imagine a wireless keyboard and mouse connecting to the upstairs PC, displaying the results on a widescreen TV in the living room.
Online Storage is not exactly new but growing in importance . There was a time when I would have shuddered at the thought of being tied to a mainframe computer. But these days, with access being so rapid, it is now possible to think of a local computer with very limited storage with the majority of your work being on some distant PC (it matters not where). See a list of such facilities and an explanation at http://www.extremetech.com/ One such provider Mediamax will allow you to upload up to 25 Gb of files free of charge ! If you want even more you can get 100 gb of secure space for $4.95 (around £2.50) a month. There may be limitations on how much use you can make of this space each month. The free one is limited to 1 Gb, which would not be a lot if you were storing videos on there. But think of the advantages. Apart from the fact that you can look at it from any computer which has access to the net, it may very well be safer there than on your hard disk. Many services offer automatic backup of files or folders that you have chosen. So, why do they do it ? The chances are that most will be supported by advertising. But also, they may hope that you opt for more storage and a monthly or annual fee. ALL of the sites I looked at had a green Mcafee Site Adviser label as being OK.
You have never seen a video like this! Click HERE. Now that is what I call High Tech !
Most recently manufactured cars have a standard socket which would enable you to connect a laptop (using equipment and software from around £100). This enables you to check on many of the electronically controlled features of the vehicle. See www.troublecodes.net, www.enginecheck.co.uk, www.ukobd.co.uk, www.scantool.net , www.peacockandpurvey.co.uk and www.elmelectronics.com/obdindex.html.
2008 Volvo are introducing a device which will immobilise your car if your breath contains more than a certain amount of alcohol. It works wirelessly with the engine and is based on a fuel cell which reacts to the ethanol you breathe into it. Idea ? Maybe some people could recharge their laptop by breathing on it ?
Google Maps have now introduced street level views And their latest Google Earth program will let you take a tour of the universe and a rove around the moon !
A new device has been developed by MIT using a small camera and a PDA to detect whether the person you are talking to is bored ! It vibrates when this is detected. I will wear mine round my neck to give me a regular massage !
After a trial in Scotland, the facility to make an appointment with the doctor via digital TV is being introduced countrywide. Eventually it should also be possible to order repeat prescriptions in this way. People who have cable, Freeview or Sky TV will be able to access this service via the 'Looking Local' portal
Slingbox : This is a device that enables you to watch you home TV on a laptop or PDA ANYWHERE in the world ! The Slingbox device plugs into your television source (cable, satellite, set-top box or DVR). The network connector on the Slingbox then connects to your Internet router with a standard ethernet cable, or wirelessly with a special bridge adapter. An infrared cable from the Slingbox, pointed at your TV or DVR gives you the ability to remotely control them from your computer. http://uk.slingmedia.com/page/slingbox.html
Japan, Sweden, Korea and Finland offer 100Mbps broadband connections, as all four countries have switched to fibre optic networks. I wonder of the elves have got it in Lapland.
Useful site http://www.windowswatch.co.uk/
Apple have developed a cool looking Browser (instead of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera etc) for Windows users called Safari.
The fingerprint scanner installed on some Dell laptops can now launch various programs !
The RIM Blackberry, the mobile phone you can use at the top of Mount Everest (and pick up your emails while you are there) is about to seal a deal in China, which already has millions of mobile phone users. Profits are up from $126 million to $232 million in the quarter. Shares have almost doubled since January 07
Wont buy on the net? The UK Internet market is now worth £21.4 billion and 20 million people are said to have bought something that way.
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEED?) has come into force. Distributors are now be responsible for the pick up and disposable of such equipment (even electronic toys) UNLESS they pay a one off charge of between £6,500 and £9,000 in respect of each Council tip in their area. We wait (with bated breath) to see how (if) that will work. The playing field has changed since this was thought up and much of this stuff is now bought remotely. So what do I do with the washing machine when it is past its sell by date ? I got it on the net. And I know the supplier of my VCR/DVD has gone to the wall.
Do you wonder what your TQ is ? That is your Technology Quotient. Take the test at www.whatisyourtq.com. (UK) The Supermarket game is fun, too
You can browse the net from your mobile phone... if you can afford to ! Rates vary but can be as high as £7.50 per megabyte (Vodaphone pay as you go) So what can you get for megabyte ? Well that is about ten web pages, so check the small print for those charges.
Mobile phones used to be as big as a brick and were used for telephoning. These days the spec is more likely to be like the Samsung U600 which features Quad Band (worldwide), Weight: 81 grams, 3.2 Megapixel Camera, MP3 Player, microSD Card Slot (memory) , Document viewer (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF), GPRS (satellite), FM Radio, and only 103.5 x 49.3 x 10.9 mm . In old money that means, er... small !
Prices of PCs with Vista Home Basic and Premium are still coming down. Dell Dimension C521 Desktop with 17" screen (AMD chip) £319 delivered. And another model the E520 (with Core Duo chip and a 20" monitor and Vista Premium is £469. When you consider that the retail price of Vista Premium at Pcworld is £210.99.....
Something is afoot in the world of the Internet. It is like a new democracy with 'Power to the People'. Instead of being dictated to by the likes of Microsoft or some parliamentary group, people are sending up their photos, videos, and stories for the world to see. Unfortunately, some of the videos appear to be copyright material and Google, who bought out Youtube recently is being sued for one billion $$$. For an explanation of this phenomena take a look at what Bob Rankin says .....
http://askbobrankin.com/what_is_youtube.html http://askbobrankin.com/social_bookmarking.html http://askbobrankin.com/beyond_myspace.html
And there is that site at http://www.petitiononline.com/, where you can start a petition on almost anything from saving whales to Harlow Square and football transfers you don't agree with. Not to be outdone the Prime Minister has now got his own at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/
And even Wikipedia is an encyclopedia run by volunteers and updated by the man/woman in the street.
Then there is strange world where people take on another existence http://askbobrankin.com/what_is_second_life.html
Nanoscience subsidiary, Toumaz, has produced a 'digital sticking plaster' which will transmit vital information about a patient's condition to a hospital computer.
The government has set up a useful Search and Email site at www.myguide.net. It is extremely simple to use and you can obtain an e-mail address if you register. It would be useful for people who just wish to sign on at a library. The email facility allows you to be notified when e-mail arrives by a message to your mobile phone. I wonder how it will avoid spam.
One step forward, three steps back. See this grotesque video of a poor guy trying to do programming using Vista's new Speech Recognition engine : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyLqUf4cdwc&eurl=
The beat goes on! No sooner have we got used to the idea that processing can go even faster (and with more things being done at the same time) with Dual Core processors - two computer chips working together - than Intel bring out Quad Core. I replaced my computer with another Medion. It has an Intel Dual core chip, which retails at £198 (Novatech) and Vista Premium retails at £219 (Pcworld) and I got the whole machine for £499.
Cool ? You want cool? The iPod phone is positively freezing
!
http://www.apple.com/iphone/internet/
Takes a while to show, but wow!
Another cool gadget capable of a great deal is the T-Mobile MDA Compact III.
Portable Satellite nav., Radio, MP3 player, emails, surf the net, take pictures
and - almost forgot - you can use this telephone as a telephone. See also
www.nokia.co.uk
Zune ? What on earth is a Zune ? It is Microsoft's answer to the iPod. It has a similar spec and price to an 'ordinary' iPod. So it will play music (WMA, MP3), video (WMV) and display pictures (JPG). It also is wireless, so can connect to PCs and other Zunes
A talking pill box! MedivoxRx ® has produced disposable talking bottle that provides audible label information and thus makes information about their medications more accessible to people who are elderly, visually and cognitively impaired, illiterate, or speak a different language. See http://www.rxtalks.com/
Amazing USB gadgets these days. Is there anything USB cannot do ? Here is a Freeview adapter from http://www.techfocus.co.uk/index.php. Just plug it in to your laptop or PC - as long as you can get Freeview in your area. TV on the move.
Manchester could become the biggest free wireless internet hotspot in Europe under plans unveiled by the city council.
Haptics is a new technology that will enable you to 'feel' a product you want to buy on line. Never mind the quality feel the width !
vSkype (Video Skype) is an add-on to Skype that lets you see people on a Skype call. How is vSkype Beta different from other Skype video plug-ins? It provides fast real-time video between you and all of your Skype contacts - up to 2.3 fps for anyone using a standard 56K modem, and up to 24 fps for anyone using Broadband. vSkype Beta also allows you to share display any open application, or even the entire desktop. You can add other callers during a call. With vSkype Beta it is possible for up to 200 people to participate in a single call or meeting without degrading overall performance ! All those people can broadcast video at the same time, if they choose, and each participant can view any 8 people at a given time.
If you really get fed up with Internet Explorer try the Firefox Browser. See Help9. It is free and very well thought of. You don't have to dispense with IE. In fact, you shouldn't try.
Windows Live Messenger is the latest version : See http://imagine-msn.com/messenger/launch80/?locale=en-gb it includes video, telephoning, file sharing etc.
Infima is patenting a new method of compressing files (Music, video, Mp3s etc) which they claim will reduce them by up to 80% without loss of quality. You can get a free Beta copy (12Mb) from (www.myinfima.com)
19" and 21" LCD monitors are now a more reasonable price I got this Videoseven model from Ebuyer. Good apart from the tiny speakers. I kept my original ones.
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If you would like to access your PC from anywhere take a look at
www.gotomypc.com. Free 30 day
trial. Mind you you would have to leave the thing ON
The latest version of Microsoft Works (8.5) is less than £8 from Amazon. The problem with some Works versions has been its incompatibility with Word and Excel and I have had to suggest 'workarounds' to enable people to read or transfer their word processing and spreadsheets. Now, at least, 8.5 is said to enable you to 'Share and Edit files with Word and Excel'. Considering that it is a full suite with Drawing facility, database, address book, dictionary, thesaurus and lots more it really is being given away. If you have an older version watch out for security updates HERE
Microsoft releases new software patches on the second Tuesday of every month. If you have Windows XP, 2000 or Vista, you can download security updates by going Start, Help and choosing Windows Update or Microsoft Update. In Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Windows Update and then click the "Express" button. If you have an older version of Windows, I have some bad news: there are no patches available for your operating system. From July 2006, Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows ME. No more security updates, no more technical support, nothing. I do have a consolation prize for you, though. Check out this article on how to protect your 'legacy Windows operating system' from future attacks. http://www.netsquirrel.com/articles/securing_win9x.html Also, Guru Patrick Crispen recommends that, if you continue to use Win 98 you should be sure to have good security protection such as anti virus and firewall. He also adds that, in his view Internet Explorer will continue to be a vulnerable Browser and recommends that you change to Mozilla Firefox.
Google are introducing a number of tools, alongside their ubiquitous search engine. Personally I use it as my home page. They are also adding Google Trends (a search through past queries), Google Gadgets (additional info such as news on your Google page), Google Desktop, Google Coop and Google Notebook (save text and pictures), which used to be called Writely.
Dual and Quad Core processors.
You may have noticed that there has been a hiatus concerning the increasing speed of computer processors over the last year ot two. But this has not stopped, with the two main companies attempting to continue the progress of what used to be called "Moore's Law". Guru, Gordon Moore suggested in 1976 that computer processors would double in power every two years for a considerable time, mainly due to the increasing number of transistors that manufacturers managed to cram onto a piece of silicon. ( The first Pentium 4 chip had about 42 million) Although he changed his mind now and then, from one year to two year intervals, the prophesy was largely correct. Now, it seems, the developments are more likely to be in other directions. It is already possible to buy a Dual Core PC for under £500. Quad core machines are a little more expensive. What is more, the processors are able to tackle several things at the same time due also to the fact that they run on a 64bit rather than 32 bit basis. I will not attempt to describe the difference here (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64bit). Just accept that a 64bit dual core processor will be able to tackle much more than one job at a time. Currently, if you attempt to look up something on the Internet whilst you are creating that novel with a word processor you may find a distinct slowing down in both processes and you may get to see quite a lot of 'hourglasses'. The nice thing about the AMD dual core processor is that it will fit in the normal socket, with only a change in the computers BIOS needed. You can therefore expect that, within a year, most computers will be sold with this option, which bodes well for the 'all singing' computer that is expected to receive TV, record DVDs and play music to you whilst picking up your emails. Are you ready ?
It is now possible to purchase USB Infrared gadgets to connect equipment but only within a short distance (just like a video remote)
I have found a remarkable 'movement' going on around us, using the Internet
and e-mail to offer unused items free to people in their area. It is
called Freecycle and is happening all over the world. To find the Freecycle
group in your area just click on
http://www.freecycle.org/and look
for your town or district. Or, if you have friends abroad you can direct
them to the International link on this page. One contact I suggested
it to instantly off-loaded and old Win 95 computer that had been refused
by local charities. Another contact in America found 460 members in her local
area. In these days of recycling it is better to give stuff away than
throw it in the bin - and charity shops wont take electrical stuff. Once
on the list you will also see offers from other people. One word of
warning : If you join a large group your Inbox may get pretty full.
But it is easy enough change the setting so you get all offers in one composite
email per week.
Certification Authorities (CAs) have been issuing certificates to Internet
sellers without thoroughly checking the seller. This could mean that
the gold padlock sign seen when you open a webseller's page could be worthless.
Verisign, and other CAs have agreed to tighten up the procedure. Eventually,
your address bar will turn red, yellow or green, indicating the level of
security. A red one shouldn't be touched with a barge pole. Although
other Browsers, such as Firefox, did this quite soon Internet Explorer
will only do this if you use Version 7, now out. Meanwhile I suggest you
get Mcafee's free Site Advisor.
Windows Live, the latest idea from Microsoft. See http://ideas.live.com/ Microsoft says :'Your online world gets better when everything works simply and effortlessly together. That's the basic idea behind Windows Live. So the things you care about - your friends, the latest information, your e-mails, powerful search, your PC files, everything – comes together in one place.'
Skype, the free telephone via Internet system, keeps on developing, though some of the facilities are charged. It is now possible to use Skype with a webcam. With SkypeOut you can call ordinary landline phones and with SkypeIn it is possible for people to call your special Skype number from a landline phone. Providing you have a handheld computer with Windows Mobile 5.0 or 2003 for Pocket PC .a 312MHz processor and a high speed wireless Internet connection it will be possible for people to call you (or you call them) anywhere there is a Wi-Fi facility.
Mobile telephones are getting more sophisticated. If you are prepared to sign up on a T-mobile contract you can get a free Motorola A780 phone which uses Linux as an operating system and can (1) synchronise with your PC. (2) Browse Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents (3) Hold and playback MP3 tunes (4) Take photos and videos (5) Accepts stylus input (6) Uses Global positioning for satellite navigation down to street level anywhere in Europe. (7) Will act as a voice recorder (8) Makes you a cup of tea ??.... And, oh yes, you can make phone calls with it, too !
ADSL2 and ADSL2+ are advanced forms of ADSL. With new modems, good quality connections and comparatively short distances from a digital exchange, the speed increases that are possible with Broadband go up from 8 megabits per second up to 12 (ADSL2), then 24 (ADSL2+). This technology is already here. See http://www.internode.on.net/adsl2/graph/
Podcasting : Allowing people to download sounds they can hear on their Ipod or other portable player. Now we have Godcasting : The Rev Ledbetter of Knowsley has 600 people downloading his messages and sermons. He says it is great for young and old alike.
Microsoft is offering some free software that enables you to return a computer to the state it was in before you started experimenting with new software - or before the grandchildren messed it up. They suggest it is used by libraries, schools etc but it also has a use at home. See the article at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sharedaccess/default.mspx
XP Pro has now entered what Microsoft calls the "extended" support phase,
which runs until Dec 31 2011: During that time, Microsoft will continue to
offer security updates for download; and will keep self-help resources available
for free via the Knowledgebase and other Microsoft.Com sites; but tech support
will be available only for a fee. In effect, XP Pro will go into a stable
maintenance period, with little or no new features added. But XP Home support
of this kind is now expected to end in January 2009
www.crimestoppers-uk.org/wanted
displays list of the most wanted criminals. I would think by now most of
them are no longer in the UK, which one might consider a success in itself
! But, if you have made a mint in a heist, you can probably afford the best
in cosmetic surgery !
The cost of plasma TV screens is falling (from thousands to hundreds) and many have a DV input, which means PC's (or cameras) with a DVI output can use them. See www.dabs.com/uk
The new Portable Media Centre (PMC) devices can play video, photographs, music and TV (WMV, MPEG2, JPG,WMA, MP3 ). There is a cable to attach to your TV if you wish to see them on a bigger screen. To connect it to your PC for downloads you need USB2 on an XP machine running the latest Windows Media Player (10) or Vista.
In 1981 (before PC hard disks were invented) I wrote in a magazine ""How would it be possible to make a truly portable computer ? Imagine a screen similar to the top of an overhead projector but half an inch deep. Displayed on the screen will be questions in the form of 'Menus'. A touch of the appropriate line with a pointer or finger will display the information you require or another menu................" The latest ideas for laptops will incorporate my inventions but will also include such things as Fuel Cells, which will provide electricity from a gas capsule, and energy efficient OLED screens and solid hard disks.
The RNIB has software that they can install on mobile phones to tell blind people about text messages, battery level etc. They charge £150 to install it. (Another scandalous rip off for the disabled). Or, ' in certain situations' they can supply a phone free, or you can install the software from a PC. How can anyone charge a blind person £150 just to install some software! When, one day, software is available to enable me to see what people are saying on my phone I imagine the RNID will charge deaf people the same, or even more, as the software is more complex.
Sharp has developed a method by which an LCD monitor (for TV, PC or mobile phone) will be able to display 3D images (without the use of glasses)
NFC (Near Frequency Communications) is being incorporated into mobile phones in Japan and Hong Kong. The phones can be primed with cash. To pay for something you will merely wave the phone at the till. Fraud is avoided because it only works within a few centimetres and only to the extent of the cash you have put in.
E-bay, the on line auction site, is popular, with 21 million items on sale worldwide, with 175 million searches a day. 150,000 Americans are estimated to have given up their jobs to buy and sell on the site. At last the US is doing some recycling . But they seem not to have discovered the 'Boot Sale' !
GPS. Global Positioning from Satellites. From next year the U.S. is insisting that mobile phones will be traceable if you phone an emergency number. Or even if you don't? "He's behind you ! Oh! Yes he is !"
OLEDs, TOLEDs and FOLEDs. The latest Light Emitting Diodes to be used in screens are ORGANIC (like everything else these days). However, they are not grown in fields spread with real sewage but are super efficient (meaning low power use). TOLEDs are semi transparent. FOLEDs are flexible. Watch this page for future developments.
Technology keeps a-moving at its relentless pace. Last year it seemed everything was going flat : monitors, TV's etc. This is the year of the wireless. So, we have a wireless mouse and keyboard. a wireless network and internet connections, print to a printer without it being connected, email from your laptop in the garden (or up a mountain via your phone connection).
Connecting to the net using "Hotspots": A number of airports and even the Kings Cross to Edinburgh train have Hotspots, enabling people with laptops fitted with Wi-Fi (and most are) to connect to the net. But you will probably have to book some time with them to enable this to happen. Starbucks cafes have hotspots but charge £5.50 for a one hour ticket. It is now possible to connect from your laptop on some aircraft (without causing it to land in a panic) Want to know where the Hotspots are ? Click on www.zdnet.co.uk/specials/wifimap
The UK Highways Authority is trialling a Broadband network link built into traffic signs and street lights, so you will be able to access the net from your car....whilst driving at 70?
The RIM Blackberry smartphone intercepts your emails and downloads them over GPRS via satellite wherever you are in the world.
Hard disk TV recorders (PVR's - personal video recorders) are with us for around under £100. Said to be higher quality and more flexible than VCR's They can be set with an EPG (Electronic Program Guide). You get around 20 hours of TV on the smallest (40Gb) PVR
Laptop prices have fallen rapidly and can cost as little as last year's desktop PC's e.g £300. (By 2009 you could get a decent laptop for £270).
The Dept. of Trade and Industry is to implement European law regarding Cookies (those little text files that web sites leave on your computer to help them track down your use of their sites). In future it will be necessary for UK firms to alert you as to what they are doing. But many still don't.
Digital this, digital that. It seems the whole world's media can be converted to zeros and ones. And that is the way things are going. Expect to see the PC as the centre of linked systems which will download, save and play TV, Hi-fi music, videos, CD's, DVD's, movies, messaging, phone calls. And the whole thing can be done without wires ! Now where did I put that controller ? And which button...... ? Perhaps they can invent a device which helps you find the controller with a video as to how to use it.
The fastest single chip PCs run at 3.6Ghz. That is 3.6 thousand million instructions per second. It's no wonder they get hot! The original IBM PC ran at a very respectable 4.7 Mhz (4.7 Million processes a second)
CD/DVD writers - See separate page for a
full description of CD writers.
Printers - See separate page for information
on Printers.
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