Windows 8 Developer Preview: What I Don’t Like
UPDATE: I found this link to some tweaking software for the Developer Preview which fixes a few of these problems. You can add shutdown, restart and sleep buttons to the start menu now and also completely remove the Metro Start screen. Here is a link to the download
By now we've all had a chance to play around with the Windows 8 Developer Preview. Now, I know this isn't the final version but there are several things which Microsoft has done which annoy me to no end.
Firstly, there is the placement of the shutdown button. One of the most known commands on every single computer is usually kept in the most conspicuous place possible. What puzzles me to no end is why Microsoft chose to put it in the Settings menu. It makes no sense and to most people who think logically, it is the last place they would look. Clicking on the username gives the user the option to log off but not to shutdown. Obviously tablet users will not be bothered by this since most will just put their tablet to sleep but since this is meant to be a full blown desktop OS, many users will want to shutdown at the end of the day. It seems like a bit of an oversight to me.
The new Metro interface seems pretty cool when you first try it out but it's only when the fun is over and you need to do actual work that you realize how useless it is for productivity. First, it is not very clear what applications are currently running in the background. If you have 2 apps open you can easily switch between them by dragging from the left side of the screen but when there is more than this, it just becomes annoying. You have no idea what you are doing and having to keep returning to the Start screen to open new apps and search just adds an extra click to every process. A feature similar to Expose (but not a copy) on Mac OS X would be awesome for this purpose so I could have a birds-eye view of everything which is happening.
The Perfect Laptop – Impossible
Recently, I had to come up with the task of choosing a new laptop to buy. It seems like an easy task until you actually try it. Everywhere you go, every brand, every model - nothing is perfect! You start off with a good idea of what type of laptop you want, the amount of power, the battery life and you find that this laptop you've been picturing in your head simply doesn't exist.
Personally, I wanted a laptop which had a decent graphics card, at least an i5 processor and an anti glare screen for around $1700. The problem being that no one who wanted an anti glare screen had any need for a powerful laptop so you either had to go for an under powered laptop with the screen you want or a laptop with all the power you could need but a screen you can never see unless you close all the curtains and turn off the lights. Anything which looked to be perfect ended up costing around $3000 because it had all these other features which i had no need for.
I'm sure other people have had similar dilemmas when trying to buy a computer, there is nothing which quite fits everything you require for. This means that your purchase ends up being a series of trade offs. For me, I valued power so I got something which was not very expensive, had heaps of grunt and had a full HD screen (still glary). It seemed like an almost perfect laptop, until when I brought it home. I realised it only had a 1.5 hour battery life!
Review: ESET Smart Secrity 5 beta
Pros
- Excellent interface
- Easy to use
- Good detection rate
Cons
- Ambiguous on how to configure automatic firewall
- Password setup is annoying with interactive firewall
- Not as many extra features as competitors
Review
After sticking with Avira Security Suite for almost a year a decided it was time for a change. ESET has released a free public beta version of their Smart Security suite and I thought I would give it a whirl. Once downloaded, installation was a breeze. The one thing I didn't get was that it made me set a password for going into setup. It makes sense since it stops random people messing around with your settings but after a while it got REALLY annoying (more on that later).
Review: Telstra Post-paid Mobile Broadband
Most people when they hear the name Telstra, they run. Not only have Telstra got a bad reputation from past customers but their plans are notorious for being over-expensive and not even remotely competitive with other mobile carriers. Up until now I believed the same thing, that was until I tried Telstra's mobile broadband offering.
First, the plan i chose was the 7GB Liberty which I got for $39.95 a month (a $20 discount because of having other services with Telstra). Seeing as the normal price is $59.95, this plan is incredibly expensive compared to what you're getting. The $39.95 price makes it slightly more reasonable. Other carriers like 3/Vodafone and Optus give you between 8 and 12GB for $39.95 a month. The biggest problem with all these carriers is their data services are unreliable and not upto scratch. Using a mobile phone as a modem with 3, I got a maximum speed of around 1mbps but it was usually around 400kpbs. This barely qualifies as broadband and it is painfully slow. So despite the extra data you get, it really isn't worth the trouble. Another issue is the coverage. Both Vodafone and Optus are notorious for having poor signal in amny areas and lots of blackspots, most likely due to their overloaded networks. 3 has decent coverage in metropolitan areas but you get hit with roaming charges if you wander out of their coverage area which is anywhere outside major cities and towns.
With Telstra, they give you a free "Ultimate" wireless modem depending on the plan you get. This modem gives you a theoretical maximum speed of 21mbps. In the real world, this is practically impossible but in practice, my internet speed is at 13mbps and has gone as high as 15mbps. Although you have to be living fairly close to the CBD to get these speeds, outside these areas you will still get upto 8mpbs theoretically. The main difference is that these speeds are much faster than any other networks and you can have internet access almost anywhere in Australia with fairly decent signal and speed. So, is it worth the extra cost? Personally, I think it is since with the other carriers you will end up being frustrated trying to get decent signal and the high data allowance will be useless. The other advantage is that with Telstra there are no excess usage charges as with other carriers, once you reach your monthly allowance it is shaped to 64kpbs.
The Trouble With A Cheap Case
Many people are tempted, when building their own computer, to dedicate the majority of their budget to get the best performing components they can afford. This leads to parts like the case which are deemed as unimportant to get very little of the budget. You may be tempted to go to your local computer shop and see a whole bunch of cases around the $120 mark but see one no-name brand case which looks pretty cool and is only $80. STOP!
Before buying this case, have a look at it. What does it feel like? Do the parts seem cheap? Do the different panels fit on properly? Some cheap cases can be an absolute bargain, getting good quality at a low price but there are some fancy cheap cases which may come with LCD screens and cool LEDs but there are areas where there have been cut backs. For example, if the case comes with a fan, this could be the cheapest and noisiest fan available. Sure you could always invest in a better fan, but what if you end up with a more serious problem than that?
An issue you will probably not even consider is the wiring inside the case. The wire which connects the power switches to the motherboard and the card reader to the USB slot. Recently, a firend wanted me to build him a computer. He decided to buy the parts himself and asked me to assemble it. The parts he bought were quite good but he decided get a cheaper case. Once the computer was built, we tested it out and checked everything was working. It was working okay but we could smell something coming from the computer. It got worse when the computer stayed on for longer. We searched around but couldn't see any smoke. Eventually after about half an hour, we took of the front panel and saw that the wire leading from the power switch to the motherboard was smoking. The casing had melted and the nearby wires were also getting affected.
The reason for the smoke was dodgy wiring. The case manufacturer had tried to combine two wires into one and they ended up shorting. This is a problem which you would not expect in a case and if left unnoticed, could cause a fire and ruin the computer and potentially burn down a house. The fact is that with well known manufacturers, you can trust their products and you know there is a degree of quality to them. Cheaper cases often don't have the same quality and this can lead to big problems down the track.
So next time you are building a computer for yourself or someone else and think of skimping on the case, think again.
How Secure Is Your Computer?
As most people do, I used to believe that in order to secure your computer you just put a password for Windows and then it is impossible to access. This all changed when a friend of mine came to me because they had forgotten their password. They wanted me to try and reset the password. I honestly had no idea what to do but I said I would give it a go. A quick google search later, I found several pages detailing how to reset a 'forgotten' password. After about 10 minutes I found simple to use program. All it needed was a USB stick and the computer where you had forgotten your password. It took me about 10 minutes to erase the password and get into the locked computer. I could access everything no problem and I am a complete amateur when it comes to hacking.
Now, obviously, if someone stole my laptop they would be able to do the exact same thing. Its like setting a PIN code and telling everyone what it is, it's useless! So if your operating system password doesn't do anything to secure your computer, what do you do?
Well, if your files are top secret and need to be secure, encryption is the answer. There are many programs to encrypt all of your files but one of the easiest to find and use is Windows Bitlocker. It comes built in to all computers which have Windows Vista or 7 Ultimate edition. Bitlocker uses either a recovery key and password or a TPM chip inside your computer. By setting a password, you need to type it in every time you start the computer and if you forget it, there is a recovery key which you save to a USB stick so you can recover the data of your hard drive. If you lose the recovery key, your data will be forever lost. A TPM chip is built in to your computer and it basically stores the encryption keys. When your computer starts up, everything on your hard drive is decrypted and so you can access it.
A TPM chip is useful because if an attacker removes your hard drive and installs it in another computer, the hard drive will remain encrypted and will be useless. IThe chip comes built in to many business laptops as these people are the ones with the most sensitive files.
So, if you think your computer is secure because you have set a password, think again. Try other methods such as encryption to keep prying eyes away from your files.
Review: Google Chrome 9
Pros
- Support for HTML5 and WebGL
- Super fast
- Chrome Web App Store is fun
- Minimalist design
- Instant works on both search and web pages
Cons
- Sometimes pages fail to load properly or at all
Review
The latest version of Google Chrome has been released. Although Google releases a new version every couple of months, the browser is constantly evolving and getting faster with each release. I have used all of the main browsers in their latest iterations and although they all claim to be fast, Chrome is by far the fastest. Start up is almost instantaneous and you can basically get straight into your web browsing. With the new Google Instant feature web browsing is even faster and easier than before. All of your web pages and searches start loading as you type which is really good because you can quickly see if there ahve been any updates on the pages and searches become much more efficient.
Does the New PSP (NGP) Pose Any Threat to the iPod Touch?
Sony's main competitor for the PSP2 is the Nintendo 3DS but then you go onto think, the iPod Touch has a pretty large gaming presence with heaps of support from developers who are willing to create new and innovative games for the iPod Touch. The PSP2 is actually very similar to the iPod Touch in terms of things which it is supposed to do. No doubt it will be able to play music and video as well as awesome games but is pure power enough to beat both Nintendo and Apple? Based on the previous generation, the Nintendo DS sales far surpassed that of the PSP yet it was technologically inferior. Sure it has a touch screen but it wasn't amazing. The same thing could happen with the iPod Touch vs PSP2.
Obviously, Apple has the whole logo thing guaranteeing popularity for the product but the PSP2 boasts graphical power comparable to the PS3 and touchpads on the back and the front basically adding a whole new dimension to gaming. Having not really seen the interface of the new PSP, I can't comment on whther or not it is better than iOS but the familiarity of iOS will give it the upperhand. As more console games such as FIFA are released on iPod Touch, it has become more and more orientated towards gaming.
An iPod is something most people carry with them all the time. If you could fit games with good graphics and length on it then clearly there is a huge potential to use it as a handheld gaming device. Rumour has it that Apple could upgrade the already decent A4 processor with a dual core A5 processor making it an even more capable gaming machine. So how can the PSP2 compete with a device with so much exposure already?
The PSP2 and other handheld gaming devices hold several advantages over the iPod Touch. Firstly, there is the fact that it actually has physical buttons which makes a game so much more playable. Touch games are incredibly playable with the iPod Touch, often using innovative interfaces but when it comes to first person shooters and sports games, you need to have physical buttons. Personally, I cannot play those sorts of games on the iPod Touch even though others can manage.
Secondly, the iPod Touch doesn't really have the support of hardcore gamers and PlayStation exclusive games. The PlayStation has been around for a long time and over this time it has built a huge base of supporters and game series which everyone likes. Some games which will come out on the PSP2 include Resistance, Little Big Planet and Call of Duty which are games that will probably never come to iPod Touch.
Finally, the PSP2 outdoes the iPod Touch in specifications. The 5 inch OLED touch screen looks amazing, the physical buttons and dual analog sticks add so much more control to the game. As well as this, current PSP games and PS1 classics will be able to be played on the device. Add connectivity to social networks and you have a pretty good looking gaming device.
There is the matter that people will not want to carry a million devices in their pockets. If a phone can replace a handheld gaming device and an mp3 player well, people will take it. So the PSP2 has to be something pretty awesome to convince people to use it.
What Is The Best Value Computer You Can Buy?: Part 3
First of all, I would like to apologise that I forgot about this series of posts I was going to do. But anyway, here is the third part in the series.
So, today I am going to talk about the best hard drive to buy. There are so many different capacities to buy and so many different choices in terms of speed and interface. For the sake of future proofing and getting the best speeds out of your hard drive, I would recommend getting a 7200rpm SATA II or III hard drive. This is pretty much standard now a days but there are a few cheaper hard drives which are 5400rpm in order to lower cost. In terms of capacity, the best way to look at it is cost per gigabyte as with modern desktops, you can usually fit four or so hard drives so the biggest priority is not getting the largest hard drive but the best value. This could mean that instead of buying a 2TB hard drive, you buy two 1TB hard drives. This will help give you as much capacity as you want for the lowest cost. Generally, the brand doesn't matter too much. I personally like Seagate because of the 5 year warranty and I find them quieter than some other hard drives.
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