http://www.connectmag.co.za/issues/ct_04_aug_09

AUGUST 2009

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ISSUE #04

AUGUST 2009

FEATURES 12 Find Your Way Directionally in-equipped? Sick and tired of maps? It’s time to invest in a GPS

16 Talk Free?

Communication has never been easier. Connect’s handy Skype guide

20 iPhone 3.Oh! You’re one software update away from sending MMS, searching with Spotlight and copy-paste functionality

22 Bank Online A great way to avoid queues, but it’s important to be secure

26 Open Source Software There’s a great selection of free programmes out there, why not try one?

30 As Easy as CMYK Printing perfect photos

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16

Audio Know-How Technology and tunes made simple

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REGULARS 04 08 Trouble-free Technobabble 10 Tamsin the Tech Tannie 72 Competition 74 Disconnect 76 Editor’s Letter

News

58

REVIEWS 40 Peripherals 44 Projectors 48 Laptops 52 Cameras 56 Cellphones 58 Home media 60 Software 64 Books 67 Top 5

65

GAMING Reviews

PUBLISHER Brett Haggard brett@connect.co.za EDITOR Tiana Alswang tiana@connect.co.za CONTRIBUTING Johann Barnard EDITOR johann@connect.co.za

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TECHNOLOGY Deon du Plessis EDITOR deon@connect.co.za CONTRIBUTORS Peter Dawoud, Ben Kelly Tamsin Mackay, Alastair Otter Adam Oxford, Craig Ritchie ART DIRECTION Infiltrate Media www.infiltratemedia.co.za

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ed’s note

YOUR LIFE WILL CHANGE FOREVER

O

k, I’ll admit it. I’ve been lost a number of times. What can I say, Jo’burg is a big place. Before I had a GPS, I’d often find myself driving through different places, wondering how I got there and how I was planning on getting back. I knew one thing, if I saw the sea, I might have gone just a little too far. It was far less adventurous than it sounded, especially when you were expected at a certain time. The hassle of trying to see where you are in a map book when the place you need to get to, more often than not, is in the spine of the book or hidden away in the middle of a hard-to-fold map, is long gone. GPS technology eliminates all that map-wrangling, showing you where you are and where you’re going in real-time. In the August issue of Connect, we talk about this useful technology, a small piece of hardware that has altered the way we drive. Which one should you buy? Connect will help you choose the option best-suited to you, and if you subscribe now, you could even win a TomTom Go720 as well as an EasyPort Mount Kit! We’re also looking at photo printers – how often do we fill up our digital cameras with picture after picture but never get around to printing any? Our image albums on our computer get bigger and bigger but that is where they stay! And when we try to print, the image comes out grainy, off balance, saturated… not any 4 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

more, thanks to our photo printing guide. From the way we move to the way we keep our memories alive, another facet of our life that has been altered by technology is communication. Chatting to family and friends across the globe is no longer a pricey affair and installing a small programme like Skype in your office or at home can cut costs altogether.

Connect looks at all the different features Skype offers in a helpful guide that shows you how to use the Internet to talk for free.

Digital music is fast becoming an integral part of many peoples’ lives so this issue we’re looking at state of digital audio technology and the issues it has raised over the past ten years or so. From DRM to the local Nokia music store, there’s a lot to audio info to sink your teeth into. The August issue of Connect also looks at Internet banking, open source software, the iPhone’s latest software upgrade as well as news, reviews and gaming advice you can use. Every page of the magazine brings you helpful and easy-to-read workshops, articles, buying advice and the answers to the technology questions you’ve always wanted to know. If anything, we’re here to make change uncomplicated, no matter how much (or how little) you include technology in your dayto-day living.

Enjoy the issue, Tiana

CONTRIBUTOR

GUGU NDLOVU Gugu joined the Connect team in June to help out with administrative, well, stuff. Before we even requested invoice files, she was in control of the subscriptions department, updating the website, image sourcing and chatting to all the advertisers. When not at the office, Gugu likes to delve into photography: she loves the camera and would like to see her self as one of South Africa’s leading photo journalists one day. She believes that people are capable of doing anything they set their minds to if given the opportunity, and that hard work and determination are the keys to success.

letters to the editor

WANT TO TALK TO THE CONNECT TEAM? E-mail your feedback to tiana@connect.co.za Fax your letter to 011- 7837886 Post your letter, addressed “Connect Magazine”, to 39 6th Avenue, Highlands North, 2192

Ergonomics After reading the article on ergonomics in Connect’s June issue I realized that all the pains I felt after work were caused by the way I interacted with my technology tools, and everything from the way my monitor was positioned to how I was sitting and using the mouse were impacting on my body and causing me pain. To help address it, I took Connect’s advice and rearranged things a bit; I bought a PC stand and things got better, less pains and after only a few days I noticed my back felt a bit better.

I also became conscious of how long I spent at my PC and made an effort to get up and walk around every hour or so; I must say, the article really raised my awareness; until now I had been blaming the creaks and aches in my body on old age.I bought a new chair that forced me to maintain my posture, I have placed my telephone within easy reach, and now I make sure I stay about an arm’s length away from the screen. The screen itself has been raised to eye level, and typing is now done with a far softer touch. It’s an effort to keep it all in mind (the body wants what the body wants), but it has certainly helped me feel better after using my PC. My pain-free body motivates me to write you a big thank you for opening my eyes, and I will definitely be keeping an eye on future issues for similar, stellar advice.

Darren P, Durban

I have always just deleted my “red eye” photos. After your “Adding Punch to my Photos” article, I learned a lot, particularly how to edit my pictures to remove things like red eyes. I can now do it through my PC thanks to your good advice, and I’m a much happier pic snapper these days! I used to not frame my shots properly and I kept capturing objects not meant to be in my pictures, but these days it’s not a problem thanks to my newfound ability to cut objects out. Some of my pics were too bright or too dark (I thought that was just the way cameras are) but after reading your article I can now play around with my photos and adjust colours and the exposure levels to the proper level. Thanks to you, I am now taking much better pictures and I look forward to learning more soon.

Thanks!

Snapper, Phoenix

I used to read ComputerActive when it was still around, and since it stopped appearing on shelves I’ve not found any magazines that explained technology and the wonderful things it makes possible in quite the same kind of way.

I picked up your magazine out of curiosity, and I was pleasantly surprised to find Connect trying very hard to fill ComputerActive’s shoes. I don’t think you’re quite there yet as parts of the magazine are be a teeny bit on the technical side for me, but it’s nice to see a local magazine striving to cater to us older people by writing practical, useful articles that don’t take a Master’s degree in computer engineering to understand.

I just wanted to write in to say “Keep up the good work”; there are plenty of folks like me out there who appreciate what you are trying to do, and I wish you all the best with it. I will be spreading the word that there is hope for us grannies that want to “keep up” yet.

Regards, Dorothy M, Kimberley Hi Connect team!

I was intrigued about iGoogle after reading about it in your mag.

I have since iGoogled myself and now have more access to far more information on my homepage than ever before. Frequentlyvisited pages appear there so I don’t have to type their names in or use my bookmarks to get there, I’ve set up weather updates, a calendar and a window that converts Rands to Dollars and back on my iGoogle page, and I’m loving my “new” browsing experience thanks to your helpful advice. I never knew Google did things like this, but you live and learn.

Great magazine, guys, please keep it up. Can’t wait for the next issue!

Gary F, Woodlands

6 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

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news

New dictation software hits local shores Nuance’s Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 10.1 has arrived locally, introducing support for Microsoft Vista 64-bit systems.

“Most people can speak at a rate of around 120 words per minute but most type at less than 40 words per minute,” says Gladwel Soko, Nuance product manager at local Dragon distributor, Workgroup. “What Dragon NaturallySpeaking does is empower users with the ability to create email, documents and spreadsheets simply by speaking.

“Dragon NaturallySpeaking works with most commonly used desktop applications, including Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer, and allows users to start programs,

use menus and even surf the web by simply talking to their computer.”

Customers can now use the solution’s full functionality in Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3, including the ability to dictate text and use a range of natural language voice commands to navigate Web pages.

The new “Commands Quick Reference” guide highlights the most useful and popular voice commands and is easily accessible on the install DVD. Further, Nuance’s online Help, which includes reference material, trouble-shooting information and step-by-step procedures, has been updated to support new features.

Intel and Nokia work on new devices Int

One for the Ladies TomTom has announced the arrival arri l of its ‘White Pearl’ P navigation devices, designed expressly for the ladies.

The White Pearl is based on the TomTom ONE, but features a luxury design and content to make any navigation experience stylish, stress free and enjoyable.

With a beautiful pearlescent finish and matching EasyPort mount, the device is a departure from the typical look and feel of a TomTom portable navigation device. It is decorated with a subtle swirl design, which is beautifully expanded on the start up screen.

The White Pearl and its mount together are kept clean and safe with a matching silk drawstring bag to complete the set. This makes the device very portable, easily slipping into even the smallest handbag.

The device also has a useful set of Points of Interest pre-installed.

With categories like ‘Places to be seen’, ‘Shop ‘til you drop’ and ‘Everyday fashion’ drivers will be able to easily navigate to the best places.

These include shops – from fashion to home

8 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

furnishings – restaurants, bars, cafes, coffee shops, cinemas and theatres, giving drivers the ability to explore.§ “We have designed this device to appeal to women, spicing up the excellent navigation experience with a bit of fun, exclusivity and style”, says Corinne Vigreux, TomTom’s Managing Director. “This important market segment has been largely ignored by consumer electronics in the past, but we have recognised its importance and developed this product in response.”

The device has the usual navigation benefits at its core – it’s easy to use, has Map Share technology and the Help Me! Menu, among other features.

It also has TomTom Text To Speech technology for spoken street names and SMS, helping drivers to focus on the road as well as a comprehensive safety camera database with alerts warning users for safety cameras on the route.

This special edition unit is available from selected retail stores.

Inte and Nokia recently announced a longIntel to develop a new class of Intel term relationship re Architecture-based mobile computing device Architec chipset architectures, which will combine and chip performance of powerful computers with the perfo high-bandwidth mobile broadband communihigh-band cations and ubiquitous Internet connectivity.

This in a nutshell means the companies are new mobile platforms, working on completely c unlike today’s t d smartphones, notebooks and netbooks.

The companies say the new devices will marry the best features and capabilities of the computing and communications worlds and will transform the user experience, bringing incredible mobile applications and always on, always connected wireless Internet access in a user-friendly pocketable form factor.

The effort also includes technology

development and cooperation in several open source software initiatives in order to develop common technologies for use in the ‘Moblin’ and ‘Maemo’ platform projects, which will deliver Linux-based operating systems for these future mobile computing devices.

Hosted by the Linux Foundation, Moblin is an optimised open source Linux operating system project that delivers visually rich Internet media experiences on Intel Atom processor-based devices including mobile Internet devices, netbooks, net-tops, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), and embedded systems.

Maemo is a Linux operating system, mostly based on open source code and powers mobile computers such as the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. The Maemo platform has been developed by Nokia in collaboration with many open source projects.

news

South African Everest team stays in touch with latest tech While not the first South African to summit Mount Everest in May, mountaineer Robby Kojetin was part of a team that took technology to new heights by using modern communications daily from ‘the hill’.

Apart from being able to use email, Internet and photo updates to keep fans updated of the team’s progress, the mere fact that the team had digital access to the world outside made life easier, says Kojetin.

“It takes in the region of 10 weeks to attempt to summit Everest, and a good portion of that time is spent 6000 meters above sea level, climbing up and down the mountain to acclimatise,” says Kojetin. “Being in touch through the technology made a huge psychological difference for my team mate [John Black] and I.”

Checking mail, surfing news sites and maintaining a sense of reality while facing their biggest challenge helped the team maintain a sense of perspective. As the weeks passed and the team developed a following, they started to receive feedback and the interaction was overwhelming.

“Messages and comments from Australia, Germany, England and South Africa reached us. Despite the fatigue, the world became a smaller place,” says Kojetin.

“I firmly believe that the need to communicate has become a priority need for human beings, and perhaps Mr. Maslow has a few corrections to make!”

“From one-click blog publishing to online photo gallery management, the Windows Live interface used by the team turned a relatively literate group of humans into a fully

interactive online studio,” explains Colin Erasmus, the head of the Windows team at Microsoft South Africa and the team’s primary point of technology contact.

We were extremely well-equipped, sporting two laptops, a satellite modem and handset, spare batteries, cables and a 62W solar blanket to power it all, says Kojetin.

“Other climbers only had satellite phones and PDA’s --- however, with their compact setups came unreliable and intermittent call availability.”

One of the greatest joys of their expedition was picking up the phone to inform family and friends of their success.

“To hear them cheer on the other side of the line is our fondest memories,” says Kojetin. “To say that technology is softening the edges of mountaineering is a little much – but while it may not raise the temperature or weaken the wind, it certainly brought home a little closer for us.”

People interested in reading about their experience on Everest, can visit mounteverestsouthafrica.spaces.live.com.

WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 9

techno jargon // BY DEON DU PLESSISS

TROUBLE-FREE

Technobabble This month’s tech jargon is focused on many of the terms surrounding the use and production of digital audio. It can be a rather confusing field with many complex-sounding words, but with these broken down into their basic concepts, we hope to bring you closer to an easy understanding of the more commonly used terms.

10 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

AMPLIFIER Amplifiers boost audio signals to drive speakers.

ANALOGUE SIGNAL A variable, continuous signal.

BASS Bass refers to low-frequency sounds. In dance music, for instance, the very deep and repetitive BOOM that reverberates through your chest when you’re on the dance floor is the song’s “bass line”. The deeper and louder this effect is, the “harder” the bass is considered to be.

BASS REFLEX SYSTEM This is the speaker enclosure with a hole in it that houses your sub-woofer (see sub-woofer further down). You can feel air pulsing from the hole during bassintensive songs or movies. It helps in the accurate reproduction of low frequency sounds.

BIT Digital information is made up of ones and zeroes, and each one and each zero can be called a bit. Digital-to-analogue converters turn strings of bits into audio signals.

CD-R CD-Recordable. It is a special blank disc that can have data written to it by a writeable CD-Recordable drive. Recordings are permanent, but CD-Rs can be played in standard CD players.

DOLBY DIGITAL A home cinema surround sound system from Dolby that uses five separate channels of digital audio plus a separate subwoofer channel to reproduce cinemalike sound quality.

CD-ROM Stands for Compact Disc Read Only Memory. As the name implies, CD-ROMs can only be read by a computer, not written to. When they first emerged in the early nineties, their 700MB capacity was considered to be rather large in relation to the common storage systems of the day.

DOLBY SURROUND Encodes sound for rear effects channels into the stereo tracks. It needs to be replayed through a decoder to reproduce the effect (or illusion) of sound originating behind the user.

CHANNEL A dedicated outlet for sound. Multi-channel sound sources can play several tracks of audio at the same time as each track is allocated a channel belonging to one of the speakers in the set. This is how only certain sounds play through rear/front/centre speakers in a surround sound set.

CROSSOVER A crossover is a circuit inside speakers which splits sound frequencies, sending the highs to the tweeter and lows to the sub-woofer.

DAC Digital-to-analogue converter; this turns the ones and zeroes of digital data into analogue sound. CD players and DVD players have DACs built in, as do sound cards for computers and any musicplaying device like iPods.

DECIBEL Measures changes in sound pressure, written as dB. A change of 1dB is just about audible, while +10dB sounds like the level has been doubled.

DIGITAL Digital data is essentially a series of ones and zeroes representing on or off switches, which collectively recreates data in a computer-readable format.

DISTORTION Unwanted signals or signal changes added by the interfering electrical signals generated by nearby equipment.

Microwaves in operation can, for instance, interfere with the reception of radio signals, leading to distortion in what you hear.

DVD Digital Versatile Disc: round plastic discs with a thin metal layer sandwiched between two clear plastic plates. This layer is “read” by a laser that picks up on intentionally-created irregularities in the metal’s surface, which is then translated into computer data. These can store up to 8.5GB of data, roughly 12 times more than a CD can.

DVD AUDIO The standard is based around 24 bit/96kHz sampling, which results in much higher audio quality than that offered by CDs. DYNAMIC RANGE This is the range, measured in decibels, between the largest and smallest signals audio equipment is capable of producing.

FREQUENCY High-pitched sounds have a high frequency, low-pitched ones a low frequency. Audible sounds range from around 20Hz to 22kHz. HERTZ (HZ) The unit of measurement for frequency, named after German physicist Heinrich Hertz. It is an indication of how frequent an event occurs within a given time frame, usually one second (hence “frequency”).

1Hz is one cycle or event per second.

IMPEDANCE Impedance is a property of electrical equipment, measured in Ohms. Equipment with low impedance draws more electrical current from the power source, while a high impedance only draws a little. Speakers with low impedance (lower than 6-8 Ohms) are therefore more difficult for an amplifier to drive as they require more current.

MINIDISC Sony’s 64mm disc that can record up to 74 minutes of sound. Looks like a mini computer disc but works optically, like CD. OHM The unit of resistance to current.

Impedance of a speaker is measured in ohms - generally the lower the figure, the harder it is to drive.

PMPO Stands for Peak Music Power Output, and is used on equipment that needs to look more powerful than it is. It’s a marketer’s dream term, but as a discerning consumer you’d do well to ignore high PMPO figures and instead concern yourself with the device’s RMS rating. See RMS. RMS Root Mean Square. In sound terms, this is the average power output of any given speaker set, and is a far more accurate measure of a speaker’s power or “loudness”. When speaker shopping, ignore any PMPO ratings and instead check the RMS figure before making a decision.

SAMPLE To record a sound digitally, “snapshots” of an analogue wave (the sound’s original form) are taken at various intervals. These snapshots are called samples, and when all samples are played back one after the other very quickly, the original sound is reproduced.

SAMPLING RATE How fast a digital recorder or player samples a signal. CDs use a rate of 44.1kHz – i.e. 44 100 samples per second.

SHIELDING Typically used in reference to a cable’s construction; it is achieved by wrapping the metals used in the cable’s construction with material that prevents the electronic signals in the cable from escaping the cable’s confines, and outside signals from interfering with the signal being carried by the cable.

SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO This describes the difference between the level of the audio signal and the level of unwanted noise. The larger the figure, measured in decibels (dB), the lower the noise will be.

SPEAKER DRIVER A transducer that converts electrical signal into sound waves.

SUB-WOOFER A box separate from your main speakers that produces the deep, low sounds smaller speakers generally can’t handle without introducing distortion.

THX Developed by LucasFilm, this is basically a set of standards for Dolby Pro-Logic gear, which should guarantee a certain quality of home cinema sound. Needs electronics and speakers made to exacting specs to qualify for THX-certification, so they tend to be rather expensive.

TREBLE High-frequency sounds. These are very high-pitched sounds that range from audible to the human ear to sounds that can only be heard by sensitive equipment and dogs.

TWEETER A speaker driver specifically designed to handle high frequency sounds (treble).

VALVE A valve is made up of electrodes in a glass vacuum enclosure; this generally produces a warm, seductive sound, and is preferred in the construction of high-fidelity audio equipment by people that take their sound mighty seriously.

WATT Unit of power. More Watts mean more power, but how loud a system is also depends on speaker sensitivity and room size. See PMPO and RMS.

WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 11

buying a GPS //BY CRAIG RITCHIE

FIND

YOUR WAY Maps outdated? Directionally challenged?

It’s time to invest in a GPS! 12 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

A

fter a few years of scepticism from cautious South African consumers wary of entrusting their driving directions to a talking box, the GPS has really started to take hold over here. Connect takes a look at satellite navigation technology to provide you with all the info you need to choose the GPS device that is perfect for you.

But why do I want one?

Quite simply, because of the number of destinations you may not know how to reach. Maps can be difficult to read (and impossible to fold) and there’s the old stereotype of men not wanting to stop to ask for directions. Now, thanks to GPS you can get maps that don’t need folding and you don’t need to stop to ask for directions. Plus, they’re much easier to use than a sextant.

Important features For the completely uninitiated, most devices show a real-time 3D map view with either an arrow or a car icon indicating your location and the direction in which you’re heading. Once a destination has been selected via a simple touch-screen interface or by selecting from previously visited or pre-programmed ‘favourite’ destinations, the GPS device then offers turnby-turn assistance with a voice telling you to “turn right after 100 metres” and so on.

More recent developments include real-time traffic information to help you take less congested routes.

Some units also offer a database of Points of Interest that include famous landmarks, tourist attractions, petrol stations and so on.

Fun facts One in five South Africans singled out Johannesburg as the most confusing city to navigate around.

More than a third of Johannesburg residents admit to giving lost strangers wrong directions so that they seem knowledgeable.

If you think that’s bad, just bear in mind that East Rand residents admit to doing the same thing simply for amusement.

South Africans use road names as the most popular points of reference to give directions.

HOW IT WORKS The GPS network consists of 31 satellites orbiting the earth every 12 hours. These satellites communicate with five ground stations that monitor both their position and operating status, ensuring that these fancy balls of metal flying through space keep working as intended.

Each satellite constantly beams information down to earth, which is then picked up by a receiver in a GPS device. In order to accurately determine your position, a GPS receiver needs to have line of sight to four satellites at once so that it can calculate its location via a fancy mathematical process called trilateration. Thankfully, the satellite orbits are planned in such a way that there are usually 7 or 8 within line of sight at any one time.

The signal can occasionally be interrupted when driving in the middle of a city full of high-rise buildings or when driving through a densely wooded area, but most of the time reception will be just fine and you’ll have no problem knowing where you are and where you need to be.

WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 13

buying a GPS Certain devices, most notably mobile phones, now automatically tag your digital photographs with metadata that contains the GPS co-ordinates of where the photo was taken. You can then upload the images to web applications such as Flickr or Google Earth and have the image automatically linked to its corresponding location. One creative way of putting this to use is to allow friends and loved ones to follow your journeys while travelling abroad. They can track your progress on an online map and click on icons representing each photo that you have shared – the equivalent of instant, free digital postcards. Cell phone photo geotagging would also make for a cool way to bust the bad guys in an episode of CSI, if the idea hasn’t been used already.

MOBILE NAVIGATION Convergence is definitely the buzzword of the moment as technologies and handheld units become increasingly more powerful and featurerich, all-in-one devices. In addition to now playing MP3s, taking photos and whatever else, more and more cell phones are integrating GPS capabilities and can automatically download new maps and other information to stay up to date. At the moment, Nokia is regarded as leaders in the field of cell phone GPS and its Nokia Maps 2.0 software is cutting edge, but keep an eye on other manufacturers as the demand for this feature grows.

It’s not only cell phones that are integrating GPS technology, however. Watches such as the Forerunner 405 – billed as a wrist-mounted ‘fitness computer’ – make use of GPS to accurately measure pace and distance covered, also allowing users to upload data via Garmin Connect to share their workouts, as well as analyse and track their training programmes online.

For professionals, your GPS can be used to plan the best route for couriers or to plot the optimum route for people who need to see a number of clients each day.

Users can also buy additional maps if they’re heading out of their usual area. These are all easily downloadable either for free or for a nominal fee, depending on the features your want.

Of course, someone fiddling with their GPS while driving is about as safe as a pilot typing an sms while landing a plane. As a safety feature, then, some GPS’s lock up and prevent input while the car is in motion.

Thankfully, some of the more advanced units, such as the Garmin Nuvi 880, now feature speech recognition for voice commands and getting information from the device.

As a bonus, some models now sport memory card slots and offer MP3 playing capabilities so you can listen to music or audiobooks while on the move.

Devices such as the TomTom Go 720 have a built-in FM transmitter so that, similar to an iTrip, you merely have to tune your car stereo to the right frequency and you can listen to your favourite audio tracks.

A few even offer image viewers to browse your collection of digital photographs – although an image viewer on a GPS feels more like an attempt to add bells and whistles rather than bringing something genuinely useful to the table.

So which do I choose?

With an ever-growing array of units on offer, those looking to buy should ensure they’re not paying for features they won’t be using, nor under-purchasing and missing out on particular benefits.

TomTom and Garmin are two brands that have been leading the charge since the inception of consumer

14 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

Fun facts...

Pretoria has the highest usage of satellite navigation in South Africa, with 43% of drivers using GPS devices in their cars.

GPS devices, and prices range from around R1 500 for the most basic models. The Garmin Nuvi 215 is a great midrange device coming in at R2 999.95, that offers a high quality QVGA screen, clear visual and spoken directions as well as a wireless FM transmitter and a Garmin lock anti-theft feature.

The higher end of the scale sees prices close on R10 000 for the Garmin Nuvi 880, which is one of the most advanced and feature-rich consumer-level devices on the market. Such top-end models feature Bluetooth connectivity to use your GPS as a handsfree car kit for your phone, the above-mentioned MicroSD slots and FM transmitters, personalisable maps, as well as multi-language support and even street name announcement.

Things to bear in mind While they may be tops when it comes to telling you, quite literally, just where on earth you are, some GPS devices still have a way to go in terms of route planning. Some devices, in particular, will give you directions for the shortest route to your destination – but not always the quickest or most convenient, as the speed limits and number of lanes of each road are not always taken into consideration.

Thus, you might find yourself taking half an hour to drive 20 kilometres, when an alternative route – although a couple of kms longer – could be driven in under 15 minutes. Still, a GPS will pretty much always get you where you need to go, even if it’s not the route the locals would have taken.

Plus, remember that users are constantly uploading corrections and maps are being updated all the time, and these are then easily downloaded from the Internet whenever you connect your GPS device to your computer.

Another consideration is that a car charger is often an absolute must. If you’ll be using GPS for more than a couple of hours a day, make sure you get one that can plug into the car’s cigarette lighter as opposed to one that can only be charged at home.

About 15% of Port Elizabeth residents have missed a romantic date due to getting lost.

One in five East London residents has missed a wedding for the same reason.

internet telephony //BY DEON DUU PPLESSIS LES LE ESS SIS SI S

MAKE CALLS FOR FREE.

YES …

FREE! 16 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

One of the many wonders of the Internet is how it’s simplified communications, which is probably best demonstrated

by Skype – an Internet-based telephone and video-conferencing service. Although the basic service is free to download and use, there are many added benefits that can be accessed by paying a nominal fee for the added functionality. Connect’s reviews editor Deon du Plessis dials in for a closer look.

What is it?

Skype is a free-to-use downloaded programme that lets you communicate with other Skype users over your Internet connection. You’ll need a computer bought in the past five years, an Internet connection, speakers and a microphone, and that’s it.

Best of all, Skype is available for all operating systems – Windows, Mac OS, Linux (open source), mobile phones and even Sony’s mobile gaming device, the PSP – so there’s no excuse to not be contactable.

What can I do with Skype?

Plenty. Skype is an all-in-one communication solution that lets you participate in voice chats, one-on-one video calls, video conference calls and instant text chats; and all you need is a computer and an Internet connection.

The only real “catch” is that calls are free as long as the person you call also has Skype installed – and has the necessary hardware to talk back – and is online at the same time as you.

Once you start using the service you will quickly see and apreciate the benefits of Skype – which are numerous.

The quality of calls between computers, for a start, is better than anything local telecommunications companies can offer; people literally sound as if they’re in the same room as you, even when they’re on the other side of the world.

And once you’ve acquired the necessary hardware, your calls are “free” to the extent that voice and video calls will cost you no more than your Internet connection fee, and the only resource consumed is bandwidth.

Don’t worry about exceeding your cap, either – thanks to the technology Skype uses, bandwidth usage for voice and video calls is minimal.

Head over to http://www.skype.com, download the latest version of the application, install it, set up an account, and you’re ready to go.

What kind of connection do I need to run Skype?

Amazingly, the application can run adequately even on a dial-up connection, so regardless of how you’re connected, Skype will work for you.

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internet telephony DID YOU KNOW? You can run Skype on Wi-Fi-enabled devices as seemingly unfitting as Sony’s Playstation Portable handheld gaming console, Apple’s iPod Touch (a portable media player and Nokia’s Internet Tablet.

You mentioned paid-for Skype services?

Unfortunately, some of these paid-for services are not available in South Africa. In many other countries, however, users can pay for a service called SkypeIn. This is similar to having a regular phone service because callers dial a Skype telephone number from a conventional phone that will connect callers via Skype on their PC. SkypeOut, on the other hand, allows Skype users to make outgoing calls to landlines and cell phones.

This service is available in South Africa, with calls are charged at very moderate rates compared with most local service providers.

This service is activated by way of a monthly subscription, although there are no long-term contracts so you can cancel whenever you want to.

There is a monthly plan called South Africa 400 that enables Skype calls to South African landlines. It costs €14.95 per month, which works out to about R0.42 per minute. While some local companies offer better rates than this, it remains unchanged irrespective of where in the world you make the call from.

Skype Credit Skype Credit is a similar option that allows you to make calls to conventional phones, and is sold in packages varying in cost. This is a pay-as-you-go service that you will need if you want to send SMSes using Skype.

The cost of SMSes to South African numbers is not economical as it works out to 98c per SMS, but it’s a different story for people sending text messages to South African numbers from other countries as it’s a lot less than their overseas providers will charge.

While you may not be impressed with these prices, that is likely because the service is of most use to travellers or friends and family that are overseas where telecoms costs can be even steeper than local ones.

You would have to agree that these features make Skype very appealing as a modern communications tool.

In addition to low-cost, high-quality video, voice and instant messaging services for the PC, you can also access really useful services for next to nothing that allow you to stay in touch with loved ones who don’t have a PC or who aren’t online 24/7.

Some Wi-Fi-equipped cell phones can run Skype as an application, allowing you to make calls by using wireless Internet services rather than the more expensive connectivity options like those provided by cellular companies.

Skype also offers a “Lite” version specifically for mobile phones, as well as a full-blown version for phones that run the Windows Mobile operating system. Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users can download the application free from the Apple Store.

18 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

Can Skype help lower my business communication costs?

Absolutely. For South African businesses, Skype offers the kind of inexpensive communication solution that has the potential to save business owners hefty sums of money.

HARDWARE Hardware companies have cottoned onto the fact that Skype is becoming very popular with computer users, and many have introduced products designed to maximise Skype’s ease-of-use by interfacing directly with the application.

Since all that is needed is Internet access and the hardware to send and receive audio, businesses can link branches together for the cost of the hardware and the bandwidth.

Many companies and business people internationally subscribe to Skype, so dealing with overseas suppliers or buyers who also run Skype is now not only much easier, but also a lot cheaper.

In addition to the low-cost, high-quality video, voice and instant messaging services, you can access really useful services for next to nothing.

Bandwidth consumption can be monitored and built into monthly overheads and compensated for accordingly, but with the pricing relief that the Seacom undersea data cable will bring, these costs will drop even further.

Last month we reviewed a telephone handset that not only plugs directly into your router for use with Skype, but doubles as a landline phone, too. You can therefore use it as a regular phone and as a Skype phone, but it doesn’t need your PC to be on to receive calls.

Sounds great, but what’s the catch?

The only down-side is that sometimes Skype calls drop for no discernable reason, but that’s due to the international and local Internet networks and their associated technical hiccups.

These days, with local phone companies dropping calls all too regularly, interrupted communications is becoming just another modernday irritation. The question is, are you still willing to pay for these levels of service, or are you ready to use an alternate service that still has its share of hiccups, but which doesn’t charge you nearly as much for the inconvenience?

Other innovations include Polycom’s high-quality Communicator device. This is a small, but sturdy gadget that has a very sensitive microphone and a loudspeaker that lets many people participate in the conversation. It’s expensive at around R2 000, but the audio quality and solid build are more than worth the price.

Skype Alternatives Skype is not the only application offering these features, but it certainly is one of the oldest and most refined. Skuku is another company that offers affordable Internet telephony, and uses your cell phone’s SIM card to make calls at your South African rates, no matter where you are.

The only downside to Skuku is the slight delay between talking and your conversation partner hearing you; Skype’s performance, on the other hand, varies from excellent and responsive to a little delayed and tinny-sounding. This seems to depend on Internet activity at the time you make your call, which is difficult to know beforehand.

Yes, Skype is completely free to download and use, with some very nice paid-for extras that make it even more useful than as a “mere” Internet chat client.

As bandwidth costs continue to drop thanks to initiatives like the Seacom undersea cable, its use will no doubt skyrocket. We highly recommend you download a copy and see for yourself just how easy, fun and cost-saving Skype really can be.

Other, more mundane hardware takes the form of headsets with built-in microphones from companies like Logitech Plantronics and Sennheiser among others. These perform their tasks well, but can be uncomfortable to wear after a while; they do help keep your conversation relatively private, though.

Please note, the prices used here were correct at the time we went to print. For the latest, most up-to-date list of prices for Skype services, please visit http://www.skype.com/prices.

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iphone 3.0 //BY TIANA ALSWANG

Do yo ou have e an Ap pple iPhone e?

This trrendy y and ea asy-to-use e mo obile ph hone fro om Apple recently y got a so oftware up pd date e, which means tha at tho ose e who luc cky enough h to hav ve one ca an now enjo oy all so orrts of ne ew functiona aliity.

It’s time to download d!

20 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

HOW TO UPDATE YOUR IPHONE. FOUR FUN STEPS 1. Make sure you are using iTunes 8.2. Connect your iPhone to your computer.

2. When iTunes opens, select your iPhone under Devices in the Source List on the left.

3. In the iPhone Summary pane, click Check for Update.

4. Click Download and Install. Do not disconnect your iPhone until the update has finished.

B

elieve it or a not, the early versions of the iPhone, compared to a regular phone, was missing a lot of simple functions such as being able to send an MMS. The recent upgrade from Apple promises a lot more usability for iPhone owners, who can enjoy a number of extras – so much so that it’s really like buying an entirely new phone!

Messaging must-knows iPhone owners can now quickly and easily cut, copy, and paste text from application to application. It’s as easy as selecting entire blocks of text with a tap of the stylus, but you can also copy and paste images from the web. For those who like to write long text messages or write blogs, this will make your life that little bit easier.

Copy-paste functionality was one of the iPhone’s most-asked-for features. Here is how it works: • You double tap on a word or an insertion point • A kind of magnifying glass appears with quote marks on either side of the selection • You drag the quote marks forward or back to surround the section you want to work with • You choose one of three buttons: Copy, Paste or Cut What about finally being able to forward or delete individual messages? Upgrade to the latest firmware version and messages can now also be manually selected and forwarded directly to another person via text message. You can also selectively delete individual messages.

Landscape logics If you found the screen size limiting before and needed more room to type, the iPhone can now be rotated for a landscape view that makes the keyboard that much bigger, which is particularly useful when typing in Mail, Messages, Notes and Safari. The bigger keyboard is extremely convenient and also decreases typos exponentially.

No matter what application you’re using, you can undo typing by shaking your iPhone.

If you want your text back, simply shake again. If you had some text written before you started writing the sentence you chose to undo, it reverts back to that. If this was the first thing you wrote, it simply erases it.

in one place; whether that be your contacts, email, calendars and notes, or everything in your iPod. This is how you can access Spotlight:

Scroll left from the home page • Press the home button once while on the home page • Press the home button twice from any page if you have it set up that way SETTINGS: • Go into Settings>>General>>Home>>Search Results • Choose which categories you want included by the Spotlight search

Picture perfection Sending photos or audio is something cell phone users are accustomed to and something the iPhone was missing until this point. Now with MMS, messages containing multimedia are simple to send with a quick tap to snap a picture right inside Messages.

When e-mailing, the previous iPhone operating systems did not allow you to send more than one picture at a time as an email attachment. You can now send up to five.

Search Spotlight Apple Mac users will be well accustomed to Spotlight, the powerful and intuitive search function.

Spotlight is a selection-based search system designed to help you quickly locate a wide variety of items on the computer, including documents, pictures, music, applications, System Preferences, as well as specific words in documents and in web pages in a web browser’s history or bookmarks.

This feature has now been brought to the iPhone, allowing you to look for everything

Note to self For those who use post-its, to-do lists and need to make notes, these can now be an audio recording. To capture a memo, record a meeting, lecture or anything else; these voice memos work with the built-in iPhone microphone or with the mic on your headset. To edit the audio, tap “Trim”. Notes are not only searchable through Spotlight, but you can also search exclusively within the Notes application.

Text messages and emails, but not notes, could previously be deleted by simply swiping across the page. With the upgrade, notes can now also be deleted this way.

Calendar comforts It is now easier to connect your iPhone to your computer to sync your calendars.

Meetings can be created quickly using Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and you can subscribe to calendars with new CalDAV support.

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internet banking //BY JOHANN BARNARD

D

o you bank online yet? If you don’t, you really should consider it. Its fast, simple and secure – as long as you take the necessary precautions.

As with any banking transaction, the first rule is to never, ever (that is, under no circumstances) give your personal identity number (PIN) to any bank staff member – or anyone else.

Smoke and mirrors

NO MORE QUEUES! BANK ONLINE The Internet has, in all probability, prevented untold heart attacks, strokes and insanity; and that only because it allows us to bank without standing in a queue.

22 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

One the greatest threats that online banking customers face is a practice called phishing whereby the scammers send you an e-mail supposedly from your bank, asking you to log into a fake site that looks like the real thing. When you ‘log in’ they then capture your login details.

If you do receive communication and it looks suspicious, call your bank to confirm its legitimacy.

There are two general indicators that someone is trying to fleece you. For one, check that the Web address is the correct one. A phishing site may have a similar, but not correct address. Do yourself a favour and memorise what your bank’s online address and site look like. In that way you improve the possibility of spotting a scam.

The other indicator is that a secure site will have a locked padlock or similar icon to indicate that it is secure and that the site, and therefore the bank’s, security certificates are correct and up to date.

By clicking on the padlock item, you should be presented by the security certificate, which will show to who it has been issued and when it expires.

Knock, knock. ‘Who’s there?’

It goes without saying that you should have some kind of security application, including anti-virus software, installed on the computer you connect to the Internet.

Anti-virus and anti-invasion software will prevent criminals from accessing critical information such as

internet banking

account logins, and passwords. Once installed, antivirus software must be kept up to date to ensure that it is loaded with protection against the latest threats.

Prudent e-mail management and vigilance go a long way to keeping you safe from most malicious intentions. This means that if you receive an e-mail from someone you don’t know and the name or the subject seem suspicious, then it probably is. Delete it immediately, and clean out your trash box or deleted items for good measure.

The same goes for downloading files from people you don’t know. It’s just a bad idea, and don’t be tempted, not even by offers of fortunes beyond your wildest dreams!

combination of letters, numbers and symbols: something like this C0nn3ct (which spells ‘Connect’ in geek-speak).

Trust nobody On the issue of passwords, it’s certainly convenient to select a Web browser’s option to save or remember user names and passwords; but it is equally convenient for snooping eyes to access your confidential information. So, kindly decline the browser’s assistance, and continue.

It is also advised not to add your Internet banking site into your bookmarks as this could also be compromised and lead you to a phishing site if you aren’t paying attention.

Home is where the (security) is Keystroke logging is another threat posed by devices or programmes that record the keys you type, and so gain access to your passwords. This is a problem that is particularly prevalent at Internet cafes, so avoid using them at all costs for doing your banking.

It is also a good idea to enable your computer or network’s firewall, which is done in your security settings either on your PC or via the network router.

At the very least, this provides an additional line of defence to intrusion.

While there is definitely an overload of passwords to remember, and managing them can be quite cumbersome, security experts suggest that you change your password on a regular basis – every two to three months, say.

Your password should also not be too obvious – certainly not birthdays, ID numbers or popular pet’s names – and should preferably contain a

So what can I expect online?

The web interface and features offered on online banking services vary from one financial institution to another, although offer the same standard account, payment and investment management services.

To activate Internet banking, you generally need to ask your bank to set this up by linking your bank card to the online facility. You will be provided a password, which you can – and should – change to a personal secret code.

You may be able to apply telephonically, although you will probably have to go into your branch to activate this facility.

And even if the queue snakes around the block, grin and bear it happy in the knowledge that it will be one of the last times you have to suffer the frustration.

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4/20/09 12:05:01 PM

open source software //BY ALASTAIR LA AST AS STA AIR A R OT O OTTER TTER TT ER ER

OPEN SOURCE:

THE NEW FACE OF SOFTWARE If you’ve spent any time online in the past couple of years you’ve probably come across the term “open source software”. You may also have heard of Ubuntu Linux, Firefox or OpenOffice.

26 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

I

n its simplest form, open source software (OSS) is software developed by volunteers and shared freely on the Internet. Apart from being free to share, the other major difference between open source and proprietary software is that the its underlying source code is made available to users. Proprietary software - such as Microsoft’s Windows - doesn’t reveal its source code and its licence makes it illegal to modify the application or share it with others.

The benefit of providing the source code is that anyone can modify the programme to add new features or fix problems. Of course not everyone wants to tinker with software code. But there are enough who do to make it beneficial.

A good example of the potential of open source software is Ubuntu Linux, an open source operating system funded by Mark Shuttleworth.

Ubuntu is an operating system based on an entire collection of open source applications. Each of those applications is managed by a small group of developers - sometimes just one person - who fix bugs and add features. By combining the best work of thousands of developers around the world, Ubuntu has created a solid and featurerich operating system that many see as a viable alternative to Microsoft’s Windows.

WHO USES OPEN SOURCE? Open source software is used widely around the world on some of the smallest systems through to some of the largest.

GOOGLE: One of the largest users of open source software is search giant Google. The company runs most of its hundreds of thousands of servers on the open source Linux operating system.

MOBILE PHONES: Google also has a project called Android, which is an open source mobile phone operating system that is already available on a couple of HTC mobile phones, with more in the pipeline.

THE INTERNET: More than 50% of the Internet’s websites are run on software called Apache, an open source platform.

APPLE: The world’s trendiest PC maker has based its OS X operating system on an open source operating system called FreeBSD.

GETTING STARTED WITH OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE

What’s in it for users?

While the average PC user doesn’t really care how, or by who, an application is developed, open source does still have advantages for them.

The one obvious benefit is cost. A free application that does exactly what is required of it will always trump an expensive alternative.

The thing to remember though, is that just because it is free doesn’t necessarily make it better than a proprietary application.

Sometimes the expense is necessary to get exactly what is needed. There are areas, however, in which open source is very competitive with proprietary software.

Take web browsers. In today’s online world a good web browser is critical. Until a few years ago most users used Internet Explorer, which was a decent enough browser, but never evolved very much.

When Firefox was released as an alternative it was quickly adopted by open source developers who began to experiment with the possibilities of doing things differently. Very soon Firefox had tabbed browsing windows and an infinite choice of extensions to add capabilities to the core browser. The result is that now all new-generation browsers

include tabs and extensions. Which is another advantage of open source software: it has the ability to shake up markets and force new innovations into the market.

Similarly OpenOffice, an open source office suite, introduced ideas such as saving documents directly to PDF and creating open standards such as the OpenDocument Format (ODF). From its inception OpenOffice also allowed users to open documents in multiple formats including Microsoft’s popular .doc format. Its trend-setting was not ignored and most modern-generation office suites now include these type of capabilities.

There is a perception that users have to choose between open source software and proprietary software. In truth it is not an either-or situation. Many open source applications can be run on a range of operating systems and happily co-exist with other proprietary software.

Firefox can easily be used alongside Internet Explorer on Windows, Linux or Mac OS X machines. OpenOffice also works on all three operating systems without a problem. It’s worth experimenting with a few open source applications before making a final decision on whether it’s right for you or not.

There are literally thousands of open source applications available. Some of the best include: FIREFOX: An open source web browser that runs on Linux, Windows and Mac OSX systems and includes thousands of extensions (www. firefox.com).

OPENOFFICE: An open source office suite that also runs on all popular operating systems and provides users with a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation package and drawing tool (www.openoffice.org).

THE GIMP: The Gimp is an image editing program that looks a lot like Adobe’s Photoshop. Although not as feature-rich as Photoshop The Gimp does run on all operating systems (www.gimp.org).

UBUNTU LINUX: A full operating system that can be downloaded for free and even run from a CD without affecting the hard drive. The CD-based version is good for getting a feel of Linux without actually having to install it (www.ubuntu.com).

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Choose inkjets for inexpensive, versatile and reliable performance

I

n an environment where print quality and low cost per print is of maximum importance, inkjet printers are great for consumers and small business users to get the prints they need at a price they can afford.

The inkjet printer, a technology invented by HP is the one technology that stands alone in bringing quality printing to the ordinary man in the street at a price that even the most cash strapped can afford.

The inkjet has found a home in a multitude of locations, for home users that only need a printer every now and then, for photo enthusiasts who are looking for a quality of print that almost no other technology can match to architects who need to print out plans and sketches on wide-format printers, the inkjet is truly the jack of all trades.

It is truly the most versatile printer available today being able to cater for a single user on the move right through to a busy office with multiple users.

The next evolution of this technology, namely inkjet-based multifunction devices, allow users to set up their office in a few short minutes and gain from the ability to integrate a fax machine, scanner, copier and printer into a single device.

That means entrepreneurs just starting out only need one

device when in the past they would have had to invest in four separate machines.

Although inkjets started out as personal printers more recent generations of the technology have included networking capabilities making them strong contenders for use in small and branch office environments.

The added bonus of using inkjet printers in the office environment is that they have been specifically designed to be easy to use. This means that getting the printer set up and working is a pretty easy task and because these machines are designed to be used in a business environment they are tough and designed to be used on an everyday basis.

Research has shown that introducing colour into documents increases their effectiveness and the low cost of using colour from an inkjet makes that possible at all levels of business.

With ink usage levels having been reduced in recent times, the cost of printing with ink has also dropped dramatically.

Inkjets are the undisputed champions of the home market.

And for companies that are running a tight ship and looking for printing options that can service a small team, cut down on wasted space and deliver high-quality documents the inkjet is equally hard to beat.

HP OfficeJet Pro 6500 All-in-One Printer • Home office/Micro-/Small-Business • Ethernet Connectivity • Up to 32 Pages per minute • Print/Scan/Fax/Copy

HP OfficeJet Pro 6500 Wireless All-in-One Printer • Home office/Micro-/Small-Business • Wireless Connectivity • 35 sheet automatic document feeder • Print/Scan/Fax/Copy

HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 All-in-One Printer • Micro/Small Business • Ethernet Connectivity • Duplex Printing • Up to 35 pages per minute

HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One Printer • Micro/Small Business • Wireless Connectivity • Large Touch Screen • Duplex printing

Choose lasers for quick, professional and cost-effective results

T

he laser printer is and for the foreseeable future will remain the workhorse of the printing industry. Designed to provide fast and reliable printing solutions for medium and large sized groups of employees, no other printing technology has the same reach into the business environment as lasers do.

Laser printers are also one of the more mature desktop printing technologies and as such have had a long time to evolve into the most efficient way of putting words and pictures onto paper.

The basic technology behind a laser printer is the same as you would find in a normal photocopier except that in the laser printer the original document happens to be in digital rather than in physical format.

Where the laser printer shines is in environments where print volumes start to get higher and the also where each document needs to be reproduced multiple times.

In years gone by the laser printer was used almost exclusively for black and white prints leaving colour printing to be done on a much smaller scale. Today the picture couldn’t be more different.

There are still many monochrome laser printers available at the lower end of the market, but outside of entry-level machines, colour laser printers have taken the lead.

The laser printer has also moved from a simple printer to include a number of additional functions including scanning, copying and faxing to the core printing capability.

The choice of a laser printer depends on the circumstances where it is going to be used. If the core need is for a cost effective monochrome printer then there are no other contenders that will beat a monochrome laser in the cost per page stakes.

The quiet operation of laser printers is another strong point in the business environment where other technologies may prove disruptive when running at full speed.

Although laser printers are not suitable in every printing situation, for example the nature of the technology makes it unsuitable for paper sizes larger than A3, they do offer a solution to almost every business printing need from the smallest monochrome document through to large departmental printers at an extremely cost effective rate.

HP LaserJet P1005 Small Business • 14 pages per minute • Space saving design • 150 page input tray

HP LaserJet M1120 MFP Series • Micro/Small business • 19 pages per minute • Time to first print 7 seconds • Printer/Scanner/Copier

HP Color LaserJet CP1215 Printer • Small business/ Departmental printer • 12 Pages per minute • 125 sheet output tray • 25000 page monthly duty cycle

HP LaserJet M1522 MFP Series • Micro/Small Business • 8 pages per minute • Print/Scan/Copy/Fax • 50 page sheet feeder

HP LaserJet CM1312nfi MFP • Small business/Departmental printer • 12 pages per minute • Card reader • Colour display

photo printing //BY JOHANN BARNARD RD

HOME PHOTO PRINTING:

AS EASY AS CMYK

30 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

Bask in the full satisfaction of printing photos created by your own genius.

Johann Barnard dismantles the kaleidoscope created by the blending of cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK)

C

hoosing the right tools and materials is as important to you as the choice of paint brushes, canvas and paints are to an artist. But not requiring nearly as much skill.

The first thing you must realise is that there are very noticeable differences in quality between using a bog-standard printer and paper, and using a dedicated photo printer and photo paper.

In the home photo printing sphere, your price threshold will probably be influenced by your usage patterns and how you intend using the photos: a professional photographer,

for example, can easily pay upward of R7 000 for a high-end printer, while a home user can get away with spending around R1 500 for acceptable results.

Canon SELPHY ES1

It all starts with a shutter click The quality of the print is always going to depend on the quality of the image: not even a R7 000 printer can save a photo that is out of focus, fuzzy from camera-shake or under-exposed. (For tips on how to edit your photos, see the June 2009 edition of Connect.)

Also, photos captured at higher resolutions are going to give you a better print quality, even if you enlarge Epson Stylus P50 WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 31

photo printing //BY JOHANN BARNARD RD them; so set your camera to its highest and best quality (resolution) setting.

The hardware is, obviously, the next thing that influences the quality of the print.

As mentioned, you can spend a pretty penny on a printer that produces truly professional results, or you can settle for an inkjet printer that you also use to print text documents.

Trust the technology Canon 3790

Kodak ESP5

The technology in all of these printers is truly staggering, with certain professional printers sporting up to 9 ink cartridges to reproduce tones more accurately.

The printing technology makes a significant difference, although even high-end photo printers use inkjet technology; the end result is boosted, however, by proprietary print heads, printer software and inks.

If you do want to produce decentquality prints on an inkjet printer, be sure to change the printing settings for maximum quality. It will take longer to print, but the result will be well worth the wait.

Inkjet printer cartridges are notoriously costly, and everyone who owns one of these printers has felt the pain of having to replace a set of cartridges. If you can at all manage to do so, stick to the printer manufacturer’s branded cartridges.

Sure, it hurts, but they have quality assurances and are less likely to damage your printer.

Hi-tech pros and cons Strangely, laser printing doesn’t feature as a suitable technology for printing photos, so don’t be fooled by the high quality presentation documents you see printed in the office. .

Dye sublimation printers probably offer the best quality for small (jumbo/postcard) home-made prints.

The process relies on transferring dye onto the paper, one colour layer at a time. The results are comparable with those from the 1-hour photo Kodak ES PP500 32 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

lab, both in terms of quality and longevity.

These printers use paper cartridges that have the dye unit built-in, and are typically sold in packs of 50 and 100 sheets. The per print unit cost is a little higher than inkjet prints, but the quality is worth the expense.

Choose your canvas The type of paper you choose to print on is naturally pivotal to the quality of the photo.

The first step is to familiarise yourself with the sizes your printer can accommodate.

The most popular size is the jumbo/postcard print – 10x15cm or 6x4 inches – although larger sheets from around A4 up to A3 should be readily available.

Once you’ve decided on the size you want to print, you have a choice of paper thickness – expressed as ‘gsm’ on packaging.

Available paper thicknesses range from around 80gsm to 260gsm, with your choice depending on the purpose. If you intend making nice enlargements to around A4 size it will always be better to get the heaviest stock available.

Shiny, happy people Probably the most difficult decision can be about the ‘finish’ on the paper, which is not helped by manufacturers using such a wide range of terms to describe it – gloss, matte, pearl, satin, premium, premium plus … advanced.

What you need to know is that a glossy finish, and the packing will indicate somewhere whether it is gloss or matte, will give you vibrant colours perfect for family snapshots.

Matte paper gives a more muted feel to the picture and the tones in the colours; it’s especially popular for black and white photography and moody pics.

So decide which feel you want, and if undecided buy the smallest quantity of each type and experiment to see which you prefer.

computer audio //BY

BY DEO EON D DU U PL LE ES SS SIIS S

DANCE TO THE

DIGITAL BEAT Digital music is fast becoming an integral part of many peoples’ lives; Connect’s Deon du Plessis takes a look at the state of digital audio technology and the issues it has raised over the past ten years or so.

34 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

L

istening to music on your computer is one of the easiest tasks you’ll ever do; it’s simply a matter of finding the music you want to play, double-clicking the file and your computer will do the rest.

Even if you haven’t installed a music player, Windows has one pre-installed (Windows Media Player) that will play sound files in the most common file formats. It also plays audio CDs and can retrieve album information off the Internet – song titles, album art – which can be used to help you arrange your music collection. The current version is version 11, with version 12 due out with the release of Windows 7.

It is by no means the only music-playing application, with a host of options available to improve your listening experience. Some of the more popular media players, all freely available online, include: • Winamp • iTunes • VLC Media Player • Media Player Classic.

Winamp and Windows Media Player sport the largest number of features along with attractive and intuitive interfaces.

Wave the .WAV goodbye Something you need to know about digital music files is the formats they are encoded in. Back in the mid-90s, a format called MP3 shook the music industry up by enabling the recording of high-quality sound, with the advantage that the files were substantially smaller, requiring much less disk space.

Until that point the .WAV format was the most popular, with the downside being a three-minute CD-quality song taking up approximately 60MB. Since storage space was nowhere near as affordable as it is now, 60MB for one song made downloading and storing music rather impractical.

The MP3 format changed all that, condensing the storage space needed for the same three-minute song down to just 3MB by using what is known as “lossy compression”, resulting in a 95% reduction in file size. Better yet, the quality did not take a discernable dive as a result, meaning CD-quality sound files could now be easily stored, shared and downloaded without taking up too much valuable disk space or bandwidth.

It truly was an audio revolution.

Since then, further refinements to the MP3 format have taken place, and other file formats have arisen to challenge it.

Similar to the fight between VHS and Betamax, HD-DVD and Blu-ray, MP3 has been battling it out to remain the king of the audio hill thanks to the challenges thrown down by other formats like Microsoft’s .WMA (Windows Media Audio), Apple’s .AAC, - each which is good in its own right. To the average ear, however, the quality differences are minimal despite the programming behind them being vastly different.

Despite the ongoing battle for supremacy, MP3 remains the format that the average music playing device can play; other file types are specific to devices endorsed by the companies that developed them.

Apple iPods, therefore, won’t play .WMA files, and Microsoft’s Zune doesn’t play music stored in Apple’s .AAC format.

Digital Rights Management (DRM), a way to protect music files from unauthorised copying. Songs downloaded from the Zune Marketplace, for example, won’t play on any device other than a Zune; the same goes for songs purchased from Apple’s iTunes store playing only on an iPod. In the simplest terms, the DRM software tries to ensure that a song is only playable on one device at a time, meaning it cannot be shared or “given away”.

And DRM is a hot topic these days: music companies argue that they need to protect their revenue, while free-thinkers and libertarians argue that the protection schemes punish legitimate users with strict usage restrictions.

The music companies are trying to prevent the royalty-free downloading and sharing of music; they want everyone who stores a song on a PC to have paid for it, and for each song to be playable on only one device at a time. While certainly understandable – music is intellectual property after all – it could be argued that this is nothing more than greed, as artists still make a great deal of money from sources other than pure album sales.

To be clear, it is more often than not the desire of the companies behind the musicians to protect music revenues rather than the artists themselves. Musicians are generally pleased that people are listening to their music; all exposure, whether paid-for or not, is considered a good thing as more fans mean more concert ticket sales, after all.

LOCAL IS LEKKER Service providers are slowly cottoning on the South African market, with more digital download services now becoming available locally.

For instance, Nokia’s music store launched recently, offering albums for a R100, songs for R10, and Highveld Stereo, a Gauteng radio station, now offers more than 500 000 songs for download on its online music store.

These services are focused on mobile phone users as they outnumber purely PC-based music fans.

As audio technology matures and usage patterns become more predictable, digital music will probably become even more a part of our lives than ever before.

This is not a bad thing at all, as there’s no such thing as “too much choice”, and we find ourselves anticipating future advancements with great relish.

To pay, or not to pay?

The differences between the formats boil down mostly to the way each company has implemented WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 35

computer audio //BY DEON DU PLESSIS SSIS SS S

HOW TO BEAT THE SYSTEM Now that we’ve covered the fact that copying music is a contentious issue, we’re going to show you how to do it using arguably the most common application out there: Windows Media Player.

Step 1

Step 5

Open Windows Media Player.

Retrieve the album information off the Internet. This makes storing the album with all songs correctly numbered that much easier.

Step 2 Click on Tools, then Options

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS It’s been a rather interesting decade from the perspective of emerging technologies, their impact on the average home computer user and how individuals and companies have adapted to their everyday use.

DRM is not going away anytime soon, yet neither is the ability to easily duplicate an artist’s music – if not using Windows Media Player as described, then simply using recording equipment to copy music played over the radio One of the outcomes of the free vs pay battle is that record companies and end users are finding some middle ground, which has been introduced by the many digital content services that offer downloadable songs at very reasonable prices.

The compromise is twofold: users pay a small fee for the service and record companies theoretically sacrifice profits from album sales. In the process, users are able to amass a library of legitimate music and avoid having to scour the Internet or surf dodgy websites to get what they want.

At the end of the day, it’s a win-win.

Step 3 Choose the format you’d like to rip your music to (we recommend MP3). To add copy protection to your music so that the ripped files are only playable on your PC, you’ll need to choose any of the Windows Media Audio formats and put a tick in Copy Protect Music.

Step 4 Load the audio CD into your CDROM/DVD drive.

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Step 6 Click Rip. The default location your songs are saved to is under My Music; now all you have to do is navigate there, double click on the song you want, and listen to it.

It couldn’t be easier!

It seems ironic that a big company like Microsoft will support an idea like DRM, and then provide you with one of the easiest ways to copy tracks from audio CDs into an easily-distributed, DRM-free file format.

FL Studio 8 RSP FL Studio 8 Producer Edition FL Studio 8 Producer XXL

R695.00 INCL VAT R1695.00 INCL VAT R2695.00 INCL VAT

For your nearest incredible stockist call 082 442 9095

ALIVE

STAYING

PRODUCT REVIEWS // BY DEON DU PLESSIS

I

was commenting to a friend the other day how now is a very good time to be buying technology, even despite the strained economic circumstances hovering over our heads (and budgets). When asked why, I said that’s easy: never before have consumers been offered as much value for money/ bang for their buck as they are today. You can pick up powerful notebooks with specifications good enough to do what you need to, and fast, for less than ten thousand Rand, and for less than half that, you can grab a very useful and highly portable netbook that is handy for basic tasks like e-mailing and surfing the web for when you’re on the road. Two years ago that kind of value was the stuff of dreams only.

Not only that, but both notebooks and netbooks are

REVIEWS REVIEW not limited by their battery life any more thanks to technological advances that have led to batteries that last a staggering eight hours between charges. Both Acer’s new Timeline series and their Aspire One netbooks come with high-capacity batteries that’ll keep you powered for far more than the paltry 2 to 3 hours of days past. Power to the people, and kudos to the hard-working scientists that are finally giving us what we really want in a mobile computer – value, performance and longlasting batteries.

I’m still waiting for my flying car, abundant food, water and energy for all, but I guess we have to start this tech-rich future thing off slowly, right?

Till next month, Cheers Deon

While we make every effort to ensure pricing is accurate before we go to print, sometimes through circumstances we have no control over, the prices in Connect may differ from those you’ll see on store shelves. In all cases, shelf pricing takes precedence.

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Top 5 Perippherals Proojectors Laptops Caameras Cellpphones Homee media Sooftware Books

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PERFECT COMPANIONS

Microsoft Arc Mouse If you have the best-looking notebook in class you probably need the best-looking mouse. In this category the Microsoft Arc Mouse is the way to go. It folds away to half its size and performs like a champ.

13” Apple MacBook Pro NEED TO KNOW • Now part of the MacBook Pro family • 7 hours of battery life • SD card slot and Firewire 800 • Aluminium Unibody Design • Fantastic Screen TBA

WHEN it comes to notebook computers there are a few names that stand out at the top of the market, but one has remained head and shoulders above all others for the last few years – and that is Apple.

The latest addition to the MacBook Pro range – the compact, but superpowerful 13” MacBook Pro – cements Apple’s position as the maker of the best machines in the world.

The 13” succeeds the previous generation of MacBooks, which re-introduced the Aluminium body to the lower-end Apple portable range after a hiatus of about three years after the 12” PowerBook was discontinued in 2006.

Apple decided this machine is so awesome they added it to the Pro range rather than keep it as a simple MacBook. In fact, there is only one Macbook left and that is the entry-level white MacBook, but the 13” MacBook Pro is easily the best option in this form factor.

The big change from the previous version is the unibody design, which means that although you can’t swap out the battery on the go you do get up to seven hours of use before you need to recharge.

For the first time ever, Apple has also included an integrated SD card reader in this model, allowing you to copy your photos directly from your camera’s memory card to the hard drive. You also have two USB ports, a FireWire 800 and an Ethernet port should cables be necessary and Bluetooth and WiFi if wireless transmission is a priority.

For a computer that weighs just a tad over 2kg the specifications on this machine are impressive. You get a choice of either a 2.26GHz or 2.53GHz 40 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

Intel Core 2 Duo and either 2GB or 4GB of memory depending on the model you choose. You can, of course, stuff up to 8GB of memory into this baby, giving it enough oomph to drive the most resource-hungry applications.

Graphics performance is equally impressive with Apple using NVidia’s GeForce 9400m to power the glossy 1280 by 800 display. If you need more than that you can plug in an external display and then the 13” can deliver resolutions of 2560 by 1600 pixels. Of course, you do have to invest in an additional connector to get that external display connected because Apple uses the mini DisplayPort system for video out. This means that for each different display technology you have to have a different adaptor.

Though some people will complain about the integrated battery, most buyers will be happy to get the extra battery life that the integrated battery gives. While still on the expensive side you will be hard-pressed to find a better 13” notebook than this.

Built Bags With an awesome notebook you had better have awesome protection. These notebook sleeves provide a snug-fitting home for your pride and joy. And you can pick a design that fits your personality.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • • •

2.26 GHz or 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor Up to 8GB RAM NVidia 9400m graphics 160GB or 320GB hard disk 13” LED backlit screen

PROS

CONS

• Powerful in a small package • Awesome-looking notebook • Only 2kg, everything in • 4GB memory standard on higherend model • 7 hours of battery life

• Still quite pricy for the average consumers • Glossy screen doesn’t work well in bright environments • Screen size can hamper some applications

OVERALL RATING

Apple Wireless Keyboard When connecting the MacBook Pro to an external monitor you will probably find that typing on an external keyboard is easier.

Luckily Apple have a wireless option that is as close to using your notebook keyboard as you can get without using an angle grinder.

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Lexmark X6675 Multi-function Printer NEED TO KNOW • Fax, scan, print, copy • Ideal for homes or home offices • Wireless-network ready R1 699.95

THE x6675 is a very easy to set up home office printer from Lexmark. So easy, in fact, that the only requirements for successfully installing it are the ability to read, knowledge of how to insert a CD into a CDROM or DVD drive, and motor skills adept at directing a mouse or laptop touch pad.

This is possible because the setup instructions are supplied on an autolaunching CD that walks you through absolutely everything you’ll need to get it operational. The instructions start at how to unpack the printer, all the way to setting it up on your wireless network (if you have one) and even activating its faxing function on your PC. The best part is, to set up additional PCs or laptops to use the printer, all you need to do is run the installation CD on each computer and, when prompted, specify that you’re just installing the already-configured printer on a new PC. The only way Lexmark could make it easier would be to stuff an IT technician in the box with every printer. It’s honestly that simple.

On setting it up, the only real design flaw we picked up on is a lack of a wired network port for people who don’t have a wireless network running at home. It has a USB port for using the printer connected directly to a PC and two phone line ports for its faxing functionality, but no wired LAN port.

This means you’ll need to hook it up permanently to a single PC and share it across your wired network if you want to share it; this is not a major fault, really, it’s just an odd omission on an otherwise feature-rich printer.

The x6675 is not the fastest scanner and copier around, though, with a three-page copy job processed at about a page per minute. Printing textheavy documents, on the other hand,is very nippy at around 12 pages per

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Print quality is good for text documents with some graphical elements (like clip-art), but we wouldn’t recommend printing your holiday snaps or image-intensive documents on it as its photo quality is not comparable to that of a dedicated photo printer.

Lastly, the x6675 has a card reader and USB port that lets you read files directly off cameras or USB flash drives for PC-free printing.

This printer is a good choice if you’re going to be doing a lot of PC-based printing; for copies, scans and faxes, however, the x6675 is very slow and may frustrate impatient users, despite being very easy to use.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS • • • • • • • • • •

Dimensions (H x W x D): 20.5 x 46.5 x 29.5 cm Weight: 7.5 kg Printer engine: Inkjet Connections: USB2, Card reader, Wi-fi Paper sizes: A4, A5, A6, B5, C6, DL, C5, B5, postcards Print resolution (B&W): 1200 x 1200 dpi Print resolution (Colour): 4800 x 1200 dpi Print speed (B&W): 25 ppm Print Speed (Colour): 18 ppm Scanning resolution (native): 1200 dpi PROS

CONS

• Extremely easy to set up and use • Prints, scans, copies, faxes • Wireless network connectivity • Card reader and USB port

• Slow copying and scanning • Print quality is only okay, not amazing • No wired LAN port

OVERALL RATING

HP OFFICEJET 6500 SERIES ALL-IN-ONE

Also consider HP’s 6500 series for wireless printing, scanning, copying and faxing for the home or home office.

LEXMARK X9575 PRO

The X9575 offers faster printing speed, Ethernet (wired) networking capabilities as well as high yield cartridges and a 2.7” colour LCD for easy use for only a few extra bob.

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SAMSUNG SYNCMASTER P2370 MONITOR

23 inches of screen occupies that sweet spot between 22 and 24 inches.

It’s big enough to be wowworthy, without the large price tag. No TV, though.

LG Flatron M2394D Digital TV/Monitor NEED TO KNOW • Combo TV and LCD Monitor • Multiple video source inputs • 23 inches of screen R4 499.95

WITH the lounge taking centre stage as many homes’ main entertainment area, it should come as no surprise that companies selling entertainment products are looking to cash in on the phenomenon. Enter LG’s Flatron M2394D screen on which you can watch television, movies and play console games.

Thanks to a wide array of inputs, including a socket for your TV aerial, you can watch TV, plug in your PC, Xbox 360, Wii or Playstation 3 and even output your sound to a 5.1 speaker set.

If you’re into high definition movies or you use HDMI cables to connect all your equipment to a handy amplifier, the M2394D accommodates your needs with two HDMI ports. It has integrated speakers, but only has optical digital audio out capabilities; this means you’ll either need to be happy with the integrated speakers’tinny sound or use an audio setup that accepts optical digital input.

The M2394D sports a 23-inch, 16:10 widescreen monitor, which means it will work wonderfully with high-definition games and movies, however for general TV viewing some compromises have to be made in order to get the best possible picture.

Since the M2394D’s aspect ratio (the ratio of the screen’s length to its height) is 16:10 and local TV is broadcast at 4:3, the image you’ll see will be stretched slightly out of proportion to fit the screen. Fortunately there are various zoom settings to get around this, although you end up with black blocks at the image’s edges.

42 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

We found the best compromise was to zoom in so that the top inch or so of the original image disappeared, which only turned out to be an issue when watching sport as scores are often displayed in the top corners.

Image quality is also easily adjusted, which is useful as the default settings are a tad dark and colour-saturated. With a bit of tweaking this was improved to an ideal level, again aided by the easy-to-use remote control.

Build-wise, the M2394D is a sturdy screen, although limited in that it doesn’t swivel, it only tilts and not a lot, either. This isn’t a bad thing; it just means that positioning it correctly in a living room may take some creative thinking (and possibly a phone book or three).

For less than R5 000, the M2394D is a versatile screen that can be used for anything a modern screen might be needed for, and do a great job, too.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS • 23-inch LCD VGA, DVI, 2x HDMI, 2x SCART video inputs Optical digital audio output 1920 x 1080 Max resolution PROS

CONS

• Good for console and PC gaming, movies • Easy-to-use remote control • Doubles as a TV

• SA TV not well-suited to widescreen • No swivel and only a small tilt • Integrated speakers are loud but tinny

OVERALL RATING

ACER P244W LCD MONITOR

24 inches might not occupy the monitor price/ size sweet spot, but never underestimate just how much of a difference an extra inch makes to your overall viewing experience.

PERFECT COMPANIONS Game on: Xbox 360 Gaming on the M2394D with an Xbox 360 is pure pleasure.

When you’re done, change modes easily to turn on the news; convenience at your fingertips!

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Acer Timeline 5810T NEED TO KNOW • 15.6” LED-backlit screen • Ultra-thin design • Excellent battery life • Powerful components • Lightweight build R12 999.95

WITH all the hoopla about netbooks and their ever-growing battery life, it has emerged that what people really want from their mobile devices is performance and battery life that lasts longer than only two or three hours, even with intensive use. Most people have thus far compromised by settling for adequate netbook performance in exchange for an extra few hours of up-time.

Acer’s new Timeline notebook models are a breath of fresh air, then, to the notebook arena. The Timeline series has made a splash with its ultra-slim, sleek looks, but what really sets it apart from the rest of the notebook crowd is its very impressive eight-hour battery life.

Yes, you read correctly – despite being kitted out with performance parts that won’t have your applications lagging behind your desire for productivity, Timeline notebooks can sustain average working patterns for up to eight hours. Acer is calling it “all-day computing”, and we can certainly see why.

In reality, while the 15.6” 5810T on review is physically capable of up to eight hours of operation between charges, real-world figures are closer to the six and a half hour mark, especially when the Timeline is used for constant wireless networking, a known battery-killer.

We also watched a full-length HD TV episode, typed numerous e-mails and worked on a review or two, which still makes the 6.5 hour battery life extremely impressive by anyone’s reckoning. With lighter usage, the Timeline 5810T will easily live up to the manufacturer’s expectations.

Just looking at the Timeline is enough to convince you to get closer, and rightly so. With a height of just 29.7mm, it is one of the slimmest notebooks out there, but even so, it’s packed with excellent components that power the machine’s performance. It sports 4GB of system RAM is in here along with an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, a 320GB hard drive and even a DVD burner.

Its graphics capabilities aren’t fantastic, however, and are more suited to low settings in most 3D games, but you have the option to upgrade to an ATI card for more power and cleaner visuals at the cost of battery life.

Even though eight-hour batteries are not new, this is the first time

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such performance has been packed into such a slim design. Lightweight but powerful, Acer’s Timeline T5810 is a very attractive, nicelyperforming laptop that is worth every cent of its purchase price.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • • • • • •

Mobile Intel GS45 Chipset Intel Core 2 Duo processor Intel GMA 4500MHD Graphics or ATI 4330HD Graphics Up to 4GB DDR2 RAM Windows Vista Home Premium IEEE 802.11b/g/draft-n WLAN 320GB SATA Hard Drive

PROS

CONS

• Long battery life • Lightweight, sleek build • Great performance

• Weak graphics

OVERALL RATING

ACER TIMELINE 4810T

The 5810T’s first sibling, the 4810T boasts a 14-inch screen, but slightly better battery performance for the reduction in screen real estate. Definitely something to consider.

ACER TIMELINE 3810T

Its smaller 13.3” screen means less weight in the overall build as well as longer battery life than the 5810T, with similar performance.

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Logitech MX Revolution Mouse NEED TO KNOW • No PC needed for Skype • Wireless handset • Can make landline calls R999.95

THROWING the word ‘Revolution’ into a title can ring some alarm bells – it’s definitely a loaded term, but does the item in question actually deliver anything revolutionary, or is it just ‘Fancy’? Well, that depends on the manufacturer, of course, and sure enough, Logitech has produced a truly brilliant mouse that brings genuinely new features – and not mere gimmicks – to the table.

Most notable is the free-spinning scroll wheel mounted front and centre of the mouse. Traditionally, most mice require multiple spins of the wheel to scroll through documents and web pages, but now you can give the wheel a good spin and watch as scores (or hundreds, if need be) of pages whiz by.

This is very handy for lengthy documents, books, PDFs and so on, and of course long web pages.

Next is the thumb wheel, which is basically an automated alt-Tabber in that it brings up a window showing all of your open programs. You simply move the wheel to choose the program you want and then press it and it will switch to that application. It will take a while to adjust to this method of window switching because we have had so many years of clicking on the taskbar or pressing alt-Tab, but once you get the hang of it, it’s definitely an innovation and not merely an impressive little novelty.

The MX Revolution also sports two thumb buttons just above the thumb wheel that are useful for navigating back and forth in a web browser. Again, this is not something that all users have taken to despite the technology having been around for a while, and is more something that would be missed by certain users if it weren’t there than an actual special attribute of this particular mouse.

44 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

LOGITECH MX 1100 CORDLESS LASER MOUSE

Special features aside, the mouse handles very, very well. On-screen, the cursor movement is as smooth as the mouse is comfortable to hold, leaving us with the impression that Logitech has not cut any corners with this very impressive input device. Potential buyers should know, however, that we only saw a right-handed model and have heard no news of a version for lefties.

Those who make full use of its array of features will definitely benefit from improved productivity. Hardcore gamers might be a little let down by the fact that the mouse’s sensitivity cannot be adjusted without opening up Logitech’s software and fiddling around in there.

Likewise, graphic designers and computer artists who decrease sensitivity for added detail might be frustrated with the round-about way to adjust this.

Other than that one setback, the MX Revolution stands testament once again to Logitech’s commitment to high-quality peripherals, and it comes highly recommended for those looking for far more than your common or garden-variety mouse.

Simply put, Logitech is making some awesome kit at the moment, and the MX 1100 is a slightly newer incarnation than the MX Revolution. It is somewhat pricey and requires AA batteries to operate, however, but is still worth a look.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS

LOGITECH VX REVOLUTION CORDLESS LASER MOUSE FOR NOTEBOOKS

• 800 dpi laser sensor • 7 buttons and 2 scroll wheels • Handy task-switching wheel PROS

CONS

• Lots of buttons and multiple scroll wheels • Very comfortable • Great battery life

• Sensitivity changes could be simplified • For right-handers only

OVERALL RATING

Basically, a scaled down version of the MX Revolution that works great on both Windows and Mac laptops. A tiny USB receiver, great performance and months of use on just a single AA battery make this an excellent choice.

PRODUCT REVIEWS This is the perfect choice for those whose home entertainment is powered by a media centre PC. It’s attractive as well as functional and no doubt a hint of things to come.

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Logitech diNovo Edge Keyboard NEED TO KNOW • Slick and beautiful wireless keyboard • Media centre controls • Perfect for lounge or living room R1 199.95

WITH its combination of dark, laser-cut plexiglass base, brushed aluminium palm rest, and bright lights and notification icons, the diNovo Edge is quite simply the most beautiful wireless input device to grace our desks.

This keyboard is a mere 11mm thick, has soft round edges yet a sleek look throughout, and has a great, minimalist layout that deceptively belies its incredible functionality. As such, the diNovo Edge is perfectly suited as a remote control keyboard for a media centre PC and would not look at all out of place in your lounge or living room.

The keyboard on the whole is very comfortable to use, with key-presses being very satisfying and ensuring that the diNovo Edge is far more than a mere aesthetic novelty.

Logitech has also included a small round TouchDisc, which means you don’t even need a mouse.

We really liked being able to scroll up and down by moving our fingers around the edge of the TouchDisc. This is an innovative and very handy feature that, while maybe requiring a little getting used to, begins to feel completely natural before too long.

In so doing, this keyboard actually goes some way to eliminating the need for a mouse altogether. Just be aware there were a few response issues from time to time, but these were not dealbreakers by any means.

The touch sensitive volume control is also a breeze to use and is accompanied by a mute key as well as a handy button that opens your media player. One nice thing about the latter is that you can programme this button for any other task, if you prefer to be able to launch an application with just one touch.

When not in use, the diNovo Edge is housed in an equally slick charging stand – more keen aesthetic design that reflects Logitech’s efforts to 46 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

provide aesthetically pleasing hardware in line with our ever more computerised lives.

On that note, we were also very impressed with Logitech’s claims about the battery life which, while we didn’t have the time to fully test, can supposedly last up to two months on a single charge. Battery life will probably never be of any concern to most users as the diNovo Edge is likely to be stored mostly in its stylish charger base.

On the whole, we were incredibly impressed with this keyboard. It’s attractive, works brilliantly and boasts some very impressive features.

It is a rather bittersweet purchase though: not only is it the most impressive keyboard we have ever seen, but it’s also the most expensive keyboard.

Quite a toss-up, then, because while it makes pretty much every other keyboard look and feel like chunky blocks of melded plastic, you could get some other serious computing hardware for the asking price.

Definitely have a look at this, regardless.

MICROSOFT WIRELESS OPTICAL 1000

A cheaper alternative that, while older and not nearly as pretty, gets the job done for work, play and home theatre use all in one. At R599.95, this is a good alternative to consider.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • • •

Wireless Bluetooth connection Logitech’s TouchDisc input pad 17 one-touch access controls with instant backlit feedback Up to two months battery life from a two-hour charge 3-year warranty PROS

CONS

• Incredible look and feel • Impressive array of features • Very long battery life

• Asking price is easily outside many consumers’ budgets • Plexiglass needs regular cleaning (thankfully Logitech includes a cloth for just that purpose) • No number pad

OVERALL RATING

LOGITECH DINOVO MINI KEYBOARD

The diNovo Edge’s baby brother, this is another excellent wireless home theatre PC keyboard, folds up neatly out of the way, and even works with your Playstation 3.

Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 1000 NEED TO KNOW • Mouse and keyboard combo • Fully wireless • Media centre integration R499.95

DESPITE the flak that Microsoft receives for its sometimes subpar software, the company has always done a solid job on the hardware front, and this keyboard and mouse combo is no different. So it is that we introduce the Wireless Optical Desktop 1000 bundle, another solid outing from Microsoft and an affordable piece of entry-level kit to boot.

The bundle includes a mouse, keyboard and a USB wireless receiver with a range of just a little less than two metres. Setup is quick and hassle free, as it is plug and play in the truest sense of the term. You can choose to install the accompanying IntelliPoint software, but the set works just fine without it, too.

The main advantages that this keyboard offers come in the form of built-in media centre control keys at the top, as well as extended function keys that give quick access to common Microsoft software commands such as Undo, Save, Print, and so on.

Also, there are quick buttons for accessing Calculator and My Computer, all of which do save a couple of clicks once you get used to having them available.

Some users might find the mouse to be a little basic, given that it sports only a scroll wheel and the most essential of buttons, so if you’re used to having 300 clickables on your mouse, you may need to look elsewhere.

Still, the buttons and scroll-wheel are customisable via the software, and its ergonomic design is very comfortable for both left- and right-handed folk, making it perfect for the majority of home and business users.

This is a great entry-level wireless mouse and keyboard combo at a decent price, and the extended function keys and media centre controls make it that little bit more special. A very decent purchase indeed.

Iomega SuperSlim DVD Portable Writer NEED TO KNOW • Ultra-portable DVD writer • Burns double-layer discs • Great on-the-go solution TBA

THE need for ultra-portability has seen our laptops and notebooks shrink to pretty miniscule sizes these days, and one way that manufacturers have managed to achieve this is by removing DVD- and CD-writers altogether. Even so, many people still have a need to burn discs while on the move – and that’s where this little drive comes in.

The first thing that strikes you about Iomega’s SuperSlim DVD writer is the size: it is barely wider than a DVD and just over 1.5cm thick. It’s also very light, weighing only about 280 grams, meaning it fits into laptop bags and backpacks with ease.

In terms of performance, this little machine works brilliantly and supports just about anything you can throw at it short of Blu-Ray, meaning every CD and DVD reads and writes just fine. Speeds were decent, albeit slower than a desktop burner, with a max of 8X DVD- and 24X CD-writing. Howev,er burning at maximum speeds produced no failed write-attempts.

We did, however, hear some reports that this drive failed on certain notebooks on a few write-attempts due to not getting enough power. By contrast it has no hiccups when reading discs when connected only via USB. As a result, some users might need to plug the drive into a wall outlet, which of course significantly hampers its portability.

That aside, Iomega has delivered a great option for those with Ultra-Mobile computers that also need to do the odd bit of burning, and given how small this little item is, it is perfect for those who want performance without bulk.

Just be sure to check that your USB port provides sufficient power.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS • Burns DVDs at up to 8X • Weighs 281 grams • Comes in at only 15.2 cm x 13.3cm x 1.6cm

PROS

NOTEWORTHY SPECS

• Double-Layer allows for up to 8.5GB per DVD Very light and portable Works with Windows, Mac OS or Linux

• USB wireless receiver operates up to two metres • Spill-resistant design • Extended function keys

CONS

PROS

CONS

• Nero software has some limitations • Sometimes requires additional power • Writing is considerably slower than desktop drives

• Slick and clean design • Great hotkeys • Mouse is smooth and comfortable • Very long battery life

• Keyboard is bulkier than usual • Mouse might be too barebones for some

OVERALL RATING

OVERALL RATING

WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 47

PRODUCT REVIEWS

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Optoma GameTime GT-3000 Projector NEED TO KNOW • Project your Wii on the wall • Good for DVD viewing • Includes a backpack and speakers • High brightness R5 499.95

THE Optoma GameTime GT-3000 is a projector that can be used to project your Nintendo Wii’s visuals onto a wall for a ‘larger’ experience. It even comes with a handy backpack to easily carry it around, as well as a small set of speakers so that you needn’t worry about complicated speaker setups.To anyone who hasn’t yet had the pleasure of doing so, Wii gaming on a very large screen is an experience that is highly recommended – there’s nothing quite like bowling, playing tennis or boxing with a whole bunch of friends on a screen that almost 8 metres across and 12m away.

What the GT-3000 won’t do, though, is allow you to do the same with your XBox 360 or PS3 console – its native resolution of 800 x 600 is far too low for that. While it’s physically possible to display PS3 and 360 content through the GT-3000, it will be down-scaled (reduced from its original high definition resolution). The end result is visuals that don’t do justice to those consoles’ true potential, and therefore not something we’d recommend you try.That being said, it’s perfect for Wii gaming as it doesn’t rely on highdefinition resolution.

Watching DVDs is also possible, with no down-scaling necessary and no loss of visual quality, although there are black bands above and below the image to accommodate DVD’s 16:9 aspect ratio. The noise it makes while in operation is low enough (32dB) that it won’t detract from your viewing experience. As such, it definitely has a place in the home of a 48 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

PRODUCTS Wii-mad, movie-watching family. It is also quite bright, rated at a rather impressive 2300 ANSI Lumens (the brightness rating for projectors); this translates to the ability to see vivid colours even when the room is well-lit.

The speakers, while not earth shattering, will produce adequate sound for your casual gaming pleasure and ensure that setting up away from home is quick and easy. This is a solid projector, well-suited to Wii gaming and DVD movie-viewing, with a very nice price tag that makes it affordable even for the average South African middle-class household. For a high definition projector for your XBox 360 or Playstation 3, however, we recommend you look elsewhere.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • • • • •

NINTENDO WII

Check out YouTube videos of people playing Wii games on cinema screens for an idea of just how much fun large-screen Wii gaming really is.

Contrast Ratio: 2000:1 Brightness: 2300 ANSI Lumens Video Inputs: VGA, Composite, S-video Sound input: 3.5mm Stereo Jack Speakers: 10W Stereo Lamp Life: Rated at 3000 hours Noise: 30dB PROS

CONS

• Good brightness rating • No down-scaling needed for DVDs • Large-screen Wii gaming rocks

• Low native resolution • Limited to Wii and DVD viewing

OVERALL RATING

ACER 5260I PROJECTOR

Acer’s 5260I projector boasts a higher native resolution than the GT-3000 at 1024 x 768, is brighter at 2700 ANSI Lumens and supports more input options.

RELATED

PRODUCTS

Logitech Z-5500 Speakers NEED TO KNOW • High quality 5.1 digital sound • Very powerful sub-woofer • Excellent for gaming, music and movies R2 999.95

DESPITE being almost five years old, Logitech’s Z-5500 speakers are still, quite simply, outstanding. This stands to reason given that there is only so much that can be done to achieve higher audio quality.

While competing graphics card and processor manufacturers fight to see just who can eke out those extra few frames per second, the sound hardware gang have the tougher task of trying to perfect something that is already so close to matching its real world counterpart.

Things have been pretty darn good on the audio side for a while, and this speaker setup is proof of just that.

With up to six devices supported simultaneously, very high quality satellite speakers and a very solid sub, the Z-5500 remains one of the best 5.1 channel speaker set-ups available. And while it is still a little on the expensive side, you are most definitely getting your money’s worth with this piece of kit.

The sound is crisp, sharp and incredibly clear, and the sub blows away most competitors’ home-theatre products. We experienced exceptional results for gaming as well as DVD and digital video playback, and the quality of your MP3s are only limited by the bitrate at which they’re encoded. In fact, these speakers would be a great set-up in which to experience the difference between MP3 and its more recent cousin FLAC – the audio standard now so beloved by people who know and care way too much about audio quality.

Some users might not like the size of the tabletop control stand – at almost 23cm tall and 11cm wide, it’s a serious addition to your desktop, but prospective buyers will be pleased to know there is also a very handy wireless remote control. It’s a great addition to an already excellent offering, and means the control stand can be kept in a less conspicuous location if its size is too much of a bother.

We have to say that despite some minor issues with midrange sounds not being perfect (and that’s just because we’re trying not to sound like we’ve gone into absolute hero-worship mode), the Z-5500 is still one of the best sets of speakers on the market.

This is definitely an excellent choice for those whose PC is their centre for media consumption, and we highly recommend it despite the somewhat high asking price.

LOGITECH Z-4

A smaller option, coming in at just a sub (albeit a solid one) and two satellite speakers, the Z-4 could be a good option for those who use only a laptop.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS • 505 Watts setup • THX Certified Sound • Digital and analogue inputs for adding up to six audio devices simultaneously

PROS

CONS

• Powerful and very satisfying sound • That subwoofer is HUGE • Handy wireless remote control

• The quality comes at quite a price • Tabletop control unit might not appeal to all

OVERALL RATING

LOGITECH X-240

An even cheaper and further scaled-down option to both the Z-4 and the Z-5500, the X-240’s major draw point is its cradle for ‘phones, MP3 players or PDAs.

WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 49

PRODUCT ODUCT REVIEWS

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Logitech ClearChat Comfort Headset NEED TO KNOW • Headphones with microphone • Ideal for Internet chats • USB plug, no 3.5mm jack R599.95

LOGITECH’S ClearChat Comfort is a headphone set with an integrated microphone on a sliding boom, which is suitable for voice recording and Internet chats. The “comfort” in the name implies that the headset is aimed squarely at people who like to chat for more than a few minutes at a time and to whom comfy headsets are important.

Instead of a regular 3.5mm headphone jack, it is equipped with a USB connector so that you don’t have to worry about whether you’re plugging the jacks into the correct slots on your computer – a problem that plagues even veteran computer users.

Plug the ClearChat ‘phones into the nearest USB port, and voila, the headset is hooked up and your microphone is ready to receive audio.

Its 8-foot (2.3m) cable is more than long enough to give you enough freedom to move around.

Sound quality during voice calls proved to be very good. Chat partners reported excellent voice quality, and the audio through the headphones was similarly good.

Listening to music, however, was a different animal – these headphones are clearly designed more for chatting than serious music.

The richness of sound in headsets designed for serious music lovers is noticeably absent in the Clearchat Comfort, but this is forgivable as they function brilliantly for the purpose they are intended – which is chatting.

Be warned, though – when plugging these headphones in, some 50 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

applications will have to be restarted or sound settings will have to be adjusted in the Control Panel due to some Windows quirk.

This is not the headphones’ fault, this is a Windows issue, just be aware that some fiddling may be required to get your applications playing sound through the Clearchat Comfort due to the way Windows handles USB audio devices.

Lastly, these headphones are not as comfortable when used for extended periods of time as the name suggests. Long (2 hours plus) conversations caused some discomfort, so don’t expect not to notice that you’re wearing a headset if you have long chats. This is hardly the fault of the ‘phones, though, as anything on your ears for hours at a time will inevitably cause discomfort.

Logitech makes good quality products, and the Clearchat Comfort is certainly a great quality headset that gets the job of facilitating Internet chats right; just be aware that you’ll definitely notice they’re there if you talk for a long time.

LOGITECH CLEARCHAT STYLE HEADSET

If you’re more concerned about looking good while wearing a headset, consider Logitech’s Clearchat Style product.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS LOGITECH QUICKCAM S5500

• 2.3m cable • USB 1.1 and 2.0 compatible PROS

CONS

• USB connector • Good audio quality • Nice long cable

• Extended use can lead to ear discomfort

OVERALL RATING

If communicating means more to you than just using your voice, pick up a Quickcam S5500 and broadcast yourself across the Internet using any IM programme that supports video.

PRODUCT REVIEWS

Acer One 751H NEED TO KNOW • 11.6” Netbook • Powered by Intel’s Atom processor • Full-sized keyboard • Long battery life R5 999.95

THE line between netbooks and notebooks is becoming more blurred with every passing day and vendors like Acer aren’t helping by releasing what they term “netbooks” with ever-more notebook-like specifications.

Netbooks were originally intended to be compact, low-power portable computers used for basic tasks like surfing the Web, checking and sending e-mails, writing documents and playing very basic games, as embodied by the original netbook, the Asus EEE PC. They weren’t full-powered notebooks, they couldn’t process the kind of data that notebooks do without any strain, and their screens were tiny.

One of Acer’s new products, the Acer One 751H, is the latest in a line of so-called “netbooks” that further blur the distinctions between the two. It’s very thin and stylish, has a generous 11.6” screen that uses LED technology to maintain brightness while reducing overall power consumption, but that screen gives it an overall size that is far closer to a regular notebook’s dimensions.

Throw in the fact that it runs Windows XP, has a full and comfortable keyboard and comes with a 160GB hard drive, you’d be hard-pressed to identify exactly how it qualifies as a netbook.

Until you turn it on, that is. On the performance front, the 751H’s Atom Z520 processor is the weak link that drives the rather mediocre performance of the device. This isn’t helped by the single gigabyte of system RAM, either, and the end result is a decidedly sluggish netbook whose extended use will probably lead to frustration on the user’s part.

It’s not all bad news, though. The 751H sports integrated 3G so you 52 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

won’t need a modem or a USB cable hooked up to your cell phone to surf the Web using the GSM network. Also, it supports wireless networking 802.11b and g protocols so you can use it at wireless hotspots, and its six-cell battery will give you up to a whopping eight hours of use between charges. Acer has included a high screen resolution of 1366 x 768 for crisp, sharp visuals; and more screen space means more room for your applications.

The 751H also looks fantastic thanks to Acer’s new approach of building its products slimmer and sleeker than last year’s models, and is available in red, white, black and blue and weighs a paltry 1.3kg.

Looks aren’t everything, though, and while certainly a stylish, useful purchase, the 751H’s general performance leaves a lot to be desired.

For a smaller Acer netbook that might not have 3G support, but which performs better, you might want to consider the 10-inch Aspire One D250 with a faster Atom N270 processor, or Acer’s Aspire One 531H.

RELATED

PRODUCTS

ACER ASPIRE ONE D250

While it is thicker, has slightly less battery power, a smaller screen and no built-in 3G support, the D250 will perform better at most tasks than the 751H.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • • •

Atom Z520 processor 1GB DDR2 RAM Windows XP Home 160GB Hard Drive IEEE 802.11b/g WLAN PROS

CONS

• Slim and light design • Integrated 3G modem • Up to 8 hours of battery • Large 11.6” screen

• Sluggish performance • Prolonged use might annoy

OVERALL RATING

ACER ASPIRE ONE PRO 531

2GB of RAM and the faster Atom N270 processor means this XP Pro-based 10-inch 3G-less netbook is going to chew through most tasks with ease.

PRODUCT REVIEWS

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HP PAVILION DV3Z

This notebook is in a similar performance range as the 3935, but it is a little bulkier. Check it out if you love HP notebooks; it packs quite a value-wallop.

Acer Aspire 3935 Notebook NEED TO KNOW • Lightweight, thin notebook Brushed aluminium looks Great business performance R14 999.95

ACER’S Aspire 3935 notebook is the kind of laptop that will satisfy most business users’ performance, weight and looks requirements. That’s a pretty good start, really.

While a little pricey, you get quite a bit of value for the money you’ll pay, starting with a generous 13.3-inch LED-backlit LCD screen and very appealing looks, made all the more attractive by a rather thin build similar to that of the ultra-thin Timeline series.

On the hardware front, a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo CPU does the processing honours, and Acer has included 3GB of system RAM to keep Windows Vista Business running smoothly.

For the price you’re paying, you’re getting a nice-looking notebook that can handle tasks that are done while on the move with ease.

There are trade-offs, however – despite its undeniably sexy brushedaluminium looks, the 3935 isn’t made of completely sturdy materials, with the optical drive in particular feeling a bit on the delicate side. Also, the touchpad is a little on the small side (although it is rather wide) and its onboard graphics processor isn’t very powerful, so it won’t be able to run 3-D applications very smoothly.

This notebook is definitely aimed at people who don’t play 3-D games on their laptops, and is much more a portable productivity tool than a recreational one.

Battery life is respectable, lasting around three hours on a single charge 54 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

using the included four-cell battery. Battery life is important in our highly mobile society, and anything over two and a half hours is good.

It is possible to run office applications like e-mail programs and spreadsheet apps with ease on the 3935, as is browsing the Internet and communicating with family and colleagues when you’re out and about.

It has wireless networking support, a built-in webcam and microphone, speakers, so everything you need to truly “go mobile” is here. Think of the 3935 as a lightweight, stylish productivity-focused notebook.

So, while not the fastest laptop ever, Acer’s 3935 offers a lot of value for someone in the market for a decently powerful productivity-focused notebook that is slim and light NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • • • •

ACER ASPIRE TIMELINE 3810T

For the budget-minded buyer, Acer’s Aspire 3810T delivers the goods with solid mid-level specifications, excellent battery life and Windows Vista Home Premium.

Intel Core 2 Duo CPU @ 2.0GHz 3GB DDR2-667 RAM Wireless b/g/draft-n WLAN support 250GB Hard Drive Windows Vista Business 32-bit DVD Burner PROS

CONS

• Great price and looks • 13-inch LED-backlit LCD screen • Mobile communications options • 3GB of RAM

• Some aspects of the build are weak • Graphics capabilities not gamingfriendly • Small touch pad

OVERALL RATING

COMPAQ PRESARIO CQ61-110EI

Truly entry-level value is on offer here with the CQ61’s 1GB system RAM, a Celeron M900 processor and a 160GB hard drive, powered by Windows Vista Basic.

PRODUCT REVIEWS ISO is the rating oof a camera’s se sensitivity to lilight. The higher the ISO rating, the better it can handle low-light situations.

Be aware, though, that just because a camera is rated at a maximum of ISO3200, that does not mean it automatically takes good images at that level, it just means the camera supports the feature. A camera’s competence at high ISO levels is determined by the amount of visual noise produced by its electronic efforts to make the best use of the available light – less noise means a clearer picture and thus a better camera.

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PRODUCTS

Samsung WB500 Wide Angle Compact Camera NEED TO KNOW • Takes wide-angle images • High-quality 24mm Schneider lens • 10.2MP sensor for detailed images • Excellent combined zoom R3 499.95

SAMSUNG’S new WB500 camera is a very competent compact digital camera capable of taking wide-angle photographs and recording high-definition (720p) video clips. It is also kitted out with an excellent 24mm lens, produced by renowned German lens maker Schneider, which is capable of a very impressive 10x optical zoom.

A 5x digital zoom gives the camera a total zoom rating of 50x.All the features you’d expect from a compact digital camera are also included, so image stabilisation, auto focus, and multiple scene settings that automatically adjust for the best-possible results under the circumstances are present. It even has a “Beauty Shot” mode that automatically retouches images to remove skin blemishes and dark rings around the eyes. Overall performance comes in somewhere between good and very good, but stops just shy of brilliant, which is not bad considering the price. Wide-angle images shot with the WB500 tend to bend slightly at the edges, but this is the compromise you make with any wide-angle lens.

The camera’s10.2 megapixels of resolution fills out regular and wideangle photograph details nicely, and provides lots of headroom for editing and re-sizing images without losing quality. For those wondering about the effectiveness of the camera’s zoom rating, the WB500 can take very detailed pictures of objects far in the distance thanks to the 5x digital enhancement 56 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

of the 10x optical zoom. Fiddling with the camera’s ISO settings does not yield good results above ISO400; images taken above ISO400 contain obvious “noise” (graininess) that gets introduced as the electronics attempt to compensate for lower light levels. That the WB500 can produce decently sharp images at ISO400 without significant image noise means it performs slightly better than most point-and-shoot digital cameras at the same price point. So, in the end the WB500 is a very competent digital camera, capable of impressive zoom, good photos at ISO400 and below, and it takes nicely detailed wide-angled images. For the price you’re paying, this is an excellent camera.

CANON POWERSHOT SX10

If 50x is not enough for you, consider Canon’s Powershot SX10 – it has a 20x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom for a combined 80x zoom for those really, REALLY far away shots.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • • • • •

10x Optical Zoom 5x Digital Zoom ISO3200 certified 720p Movie Recording SDHC Storage 2.7” LCD HDMI port PROS

CONS

FUJI FINEPIX S2000HD

• Takes wide-angle photos • ISO400 images are sharp • Excellent 50x zoom • HD Movie recording

• Indoor images become grainy above ISO400

The S2000HD is also a wide-angle shooter with an impressive optical zoom that works not only when taking pictures, but while filming in HD, too.

OVERALL RATING

Samsung ES55

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PRODUCTS

VERBATIM REWRITEABLE DVDS

It’s not glamorous or extremely high-tech, but nothing beats a blank rewriteable DVD for affordable, portable backup media. Fitting up to 4.7GB of data per DVD, that’s a lot of storage space, for cheap.

PROS • Fast copying Usable for ReadyBoosting Backup feature just works CONS • Somewhat lightweight feel OVERALL RATING

NEED TO KNOW • Roomy storage with backup options • Fast enough for ReadyBoosting R599.95 – 8GB R999.95 – 16GB R1 799.95 – 32GB

SANDISK’S Ultra Backup 8GB Flash Drive is a very versatile device in that it can offer you 8GB of storage for general data, 8GB of storage for use in backing up your important files or 8GB of space for use with Windows Vista and Windows 7’s “ReadyBoost” feature.

It’s a typically-sized flash memory stick that slots into a USB port, requires no additional software for your computer to recognise it, and is able to back up files from My Documents at the touch of a button without any configuration on your part.

This is handy for several reasons: 8GB is a lot of space, the most commonlyused areas of Windows that contain the kind of information that needs regular backing up are used as the basis for any backups you choose to do and nearly everyone has available USB ports.

Lastly, the drive has a high speed rating. Your average flash drives are the cheap, bog-standard variety that China spits out with little effort and whose inner workings are as basic and cost-effective as can be (read: slow).

This drive, however, is rated for speed, which means that Windows Vista and Windows 7 can use the drive for “ReadyBoost”, a feature that uses fast flash drives to store commonly-accessed Windows information. This speeds up your computer in a way similar to adding more system RAM. In the end, the drive just works as intended. Backups really couldn’t be simpler thanks to its “one touch” functionality, copying files to it is fast, and it had a noticeable impact on our test PC’s performance when used for ReadyBoosting.

Its lightweight feel shouldn’t detract from its appeal – this is a competent, fast flash drive with plenty of storage space for all manner of useful applications.

It is also available in 16GB and 32GB versions for people whose My Documents folders are packed full of the past five years’ worth of pictures, documents and videos.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS • Capacity: 8GB/16GB/32GB • USB: Slide-out USB connector

THE ES55 is a simple, yet straightforward camera, and for the price you’d be hard pressed to find a shooter that offers more than this little firecracker. Being a point and shoot, the ES55 is very simple to operate and should easily satisfy the requirements of beginner photographers, and its long list of features and shot modes is made all the more impressive by its affordable price tag.

While there are shooting modes aplenty that offer budding shutterbugs options like image stabilisation and face detection, accessing them requires manual menu navigation instead of a physical dial mounted on the camera’s body. Luckily it doesn’t take long to grow accustomed to the menu interface, even if it seems a little clumsily laid out on first impressions. Image quality is very good for a camera in this price bracket, and a nice 3x optical zoom helps get closer to your subjects without sacrificing image quality. For such a good price, the ES55’s few faults become forgivable, making it a very pleasing starting point for any budding photographer.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • • •

NOTEWORTHY SPECS 3x Optical Zoom 10.2 Megapixels 2.5” LCD screen 640x480 movie resolution

PROS

CONS

• Excellent price • Packed full of features • Good image quality

• No mode dial • Menu system a bit clumsy at first

OVERALL RATING

RELATED

Backup solutions are required for more than just casual data; Seagate’s 500GB FreeAgent Go USB hard drive is just the ticket for big backups and for transporting large quantities of data around with you.

Sandisk Ultra Backup 8GB Flash Drive

PRODUCTS

SEAGATE FREEAGENT GO 500GB

NEED TO KNOW • Compact camera • For first-time shutterbugs • 10.2MP Image Sensor R1 599.95

CANON POWERSHOT A480 DIGITAL CAMERA

For entry-level photography, Canon’s storied pedigree offers the Powershot A480 with its sleek looks and 10MP point-and-shoot simplicity for your consideration.

WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 57

PRODUCT REVIEWS One very good feature on the Navigator’s GPS is that you can select between ‘Walk To’ and ‘Drive To’ navigation to best make your way through the heart of the concrete jungle.

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PRODUCTS

Nokia 6210 Navigator NEED TO KNOW • GPS-enabled phone • Decent MP3 player • Runs Symbian S60 operating system R3 299.95

CELL phone manufacturers are constantly adding new features and functions to phones. Having started with cameras, MP3 players and the like, a growing number of cell phones now feature a Global Positioning System, too.

The N62 Navigator from Nokia is one such device, and is one of the company’s first attempts to create an all-in-one mobile solution.

The 6.1cm QVGA display dominates most of the front panel of the phone. Its 240x320 resolution and 16 million colours look great in both low-light and direct sunlight, which is of course important as the GPS function has to be used outdoors or in the car.

That being said, the 6210 Navigator’s screen is still a little on the small side to focus on while driving a car. We can’t help but feel that a properly mounted, stand-alone unit would be a better choice for anyone whose primary need is vehicle-based GPS navigation.

GPS reception is good, and although Nokia Maps 2.0 is not the most advanced navigation software available, it still does a very good, albeit not outstanding job.

It is very well suited for pedestrian use, though, which is where we imagine most people would be taking advantage of what this phone offers.

Living up to the phone’s monicker, it also sports a magnetic compass that is handy to find your way around on maps if you’re in a new city or trying to make your way to that job interview in an unfamiliar part of town.

The quad-band GSM capabilities means you can use this phone anywhere in the world, and the dual-band HSDPA supports high-speed mobile Internet access up to 3.6mbps (about ten times faster than Telkom’s basic ADSL offering).

More than just handy for e-mailing and Facebooking on the go, the HSDPA connection is also used to download maps of your region for the Navigator’s built-in Nokia Maps 2.0 software.

The microSD slot supports memory cards up to 8GB, offering scalability for users who need more storage space than the bundled 1GB card provides.

As a multimedia device, however, the 6210 Navigator falls a little short on a number of fronts. While MP3 playback is good, video playback is quite limited in that files must be converted to mp4 and resized to 320x240 pixels. That’s quite a bit of a hassle to go through to watch video on the go, 58 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

HTC TOUCH DIAMOND

and the compatibility and ease of use of more dedicated portable media players definitely outshine this phone.

In terms of software, the 6120 Navigator flies over certain hurdles while feebly stumbling into others. The Symbian web browser, Zip file manager, Adobe PDF Reader Light Edition and calendar are all excellent, but it is the Quickoffice application that lets the phone down. While it does open Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, these have to be saved in Office 2003 format, or pay for a pricey upgrade if you want to be able to use Office 2007 documents on the go.

On the whole, the Nokia 6210 Navigator is a gentle step forward in terms of GPS-enabled mobile phones. There are definitely still some creases that need ironing out, and given that there are improved models from Nokia on the horizon, better things may be on the way.

Sporting a 640x480 display, the HTC Touch Diamond has double the resolution of the Nokia 6210 Navigator, and given that it can run the latest TomTom software, it has a slight edge over its Nokia counterpart.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • •

6 months free voice navigation Dual-band HSDPA 3.6 Mbps 6.1cm 16 million color screen 3.2 megapixel camera

NOKIA N86 8MP

PROS

CONS

• GPS reception is great • Screen is sharp and vibrant • Durable and sturdy despite small size • Includes 1GB microsSD card

• Included software is a little limited • No Wi-Fi support • Media player not outstanding • Poor photo quality

OVERALL RATING

The new N86 runs the latest Nokia Maps – renamed Ovi maps – and also allows the use of third party GPS software if you prefer. It also brings with it one of the most impressive cameras ever seen in a mobile phone, and excellent media player functionality.

Samsung M8800 Pixon

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PRODUCTS

NEED TO KNOW • Touchscreen phone • 8MP Camera • Built-in GPS TBC

SAMSUNG’S new M8800 Pixon smartphone tries very hard to please those looking for a phone with a decent camera a touch interface. It‘s packed with most of the bells and whistles one would expect of a R6k-plus phone, but does it get everything right enough to justify its purchase?

First, the middling to good news: sort of. In certain functions (e-mailing, SMSing) its screen flips automatically to a landscape orientation thanks to the built-in accelerometer that detects when the phone is tilted and displays a full QWERTY keyboard to help with typing. The default font it uses is quite nice to look at as it’s a little like a high school student’s handwriting, possibly for that youth-appeal factor (this can be changed if you don’t like it).

The phone has GPS functionality that uses Google Maps, which is very useful if you get lost.

Its battery life is acceptable at a little over a day and a half of regular use (e-mails, SMSing, browsing, calling), it’s black, looks nice and has a dedicated back button. Call quality is loud and clear, too.

On the downside, its screen is not very sharp despite being pleasantly large (82mm) and the application icons look like they were designed in the late 80s using only primary colours. Also, the buttons along the side of the phone are poorly placed and too-easily pressed when making or taking calls.

The touchscreen is also disappointing, with touches not always registering; scrolling through long lists (contacts) and web pages also tends to be jerky and navigating Gmail, in particular, is difficult due to a puzzling screen layout.

The lack of wireless networking abilities round out this rather long list of negatives, but in all fairness, many of these are aspects of the phone that can be grown accustomed to, as it does have a rather impressive trick up its sleeve: the camera.

The much-touted 8MP camera is the M8800’s only real saving grace. For a camera in a phone, the M8800 takes wonderfully crisp images and its built-in LED flash lights up indoor scenes well enough for passably pretty indoor shots.

Like every other camera nestled in a phone, it won’t beat a dedicated digital camera of the same megapixel rating, but it at least feels like Samsung poured effort into its design.

The Pixon was meant to be a very impressive mobile phone that wows audiences with its 8MP camera and touchscreen abilities. In reality, it falls a bit short of these lofty goals, instead delivering touch functionality that underwhelms as a result of selective responsiveness, oddly-placed side buttons that get in the way more than they help and an interface that is not very attractive.

Even though the camera takes excellent pictures and raises the bar for all other camera phones, there is absolutely no doubt that the average consumer would be better off with an iPhone that retails for only slightly more.

APPLE IPHONE

For only a few extra hundred Rands, the iPhone delivers the kind of cell phone functionality that nerd dreams are made of.

Its reputation as the phone to have is well-deserved.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS • Screen: WQVGA, 16M colours Camera: 8MP with Auto Focus, flash Connectivity: 3G, HSDPA, EDGE, GPRS, Bluetooth, USB 2.0 Memory: 160MB onboard with a 2GB micro SD card included Audio: MP3, AAC, WMA, FM Radio Weight: 122g PROS

CONS

• Screen flips for easier typing • Dedicated back button • Very capable 8MP camera • Clear call quality

• Side buttons get in the way • Touch not always responsive • Scrolling not smooth

OVERALL RATING

PERFECT COMPANIONS

Sandisk 8GB SDHC card Music and video clips take up a lot of space; make sure you don’t run out with this inexpensive but roomy 8GB microSD card from Sandisk.

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PRODUCT REVIEWS

TuneFlex AUX SmartClick NEED TO KNOW • Perfect for car radios with AUX input • Mount, charge and play your iPod in your car • Remote control attaches to steering wheel R999.95

WHEN the iTrip and follow-along FM transmitters first came out, they became the de facto means of listening to your iPod or MP3 player in the car. It was a great innovation, but the quality of FM proved not entirely sufficient for the most hardcore of audiophiles.

More recently, the emergence of auxiliary input jacks on car radios and CD players has brought about yet another advancement to the world of in-transit audio: and the TuneFlex AUX SmartClick is Griffin’s take on this theme for the iPhone and iPod. Supplied with a full array of mounting docks for pretty much every model of iPod and iPhone, the TuneFlex AUX SmartClick is supported by a strong, flexible steel neck that allows you to position the iPod as you like. Powered by the car’s cigarette lighter or 12V accessory socket, this handy device connects via a lineout port to the AUX in (auxiliary input) on the car radio or CD player to produce a full soundsystem experience.Not all cars have auxiliary inputs, however, so be sure you have one before committing.

We really liked the remote control, which comes with a velcro-andmagnetic hybrid attachment that wraps tightly and securely around the steering wheel. With the push of a button we could access all of the iPod’s main playback functions such as pause/play control, skipping back and forth through tracks in the playlist, as well as a button to activate shuffled playback modes.

All in all, we were very impressed with the TuneFlex AUX SmartClick and, while possibly not head and shoulders above competitor’s models, it’s an excellent accessory in its own right.

Griffin PowerDock NEED TO KNOW • Multiple-charger base for iPods and iPhones • Fully certified by Apple • Works with a wide range of devices R699.95

IF your household is one of a growing number in which everyone has an iPod, iPhone or similar Apple portable device, you may well know the frustration of having your charger cable being ‘borrowed’ just as you’ve run out of battery. But now, thanks to Griffin, there’s a great that doesn’t involve quadruple adaptors and a mess of wires.

The PowerDock is available in two, catering for two Apple Universal Docks in a single charging base. Simply slot in whichever combination of iPods or iPhones you have, and you’re away.

Aside from the perfectly designed docking slots, the manufacturers have done a great structural job with the base. Made of a solid, brushed aluminium, the unit not only looks good, but is also genuinely stable, well-weighted and stays in place thanks to the rubber base that grips most surfaces.

The PowerDock bears the well-deserved accolade of having official “Works with iPhone” and “Made for iPod” certifications from Apple, so you know you’re getting a well-designed and fully compatible unit. Just note that some PowerDocks don’t have native support for 3G iPhones, meaning you’ll have to buy an additional (but cheap) Universal Dock Adaptor.

It may seem an unnecessary accessory – and it probably is to some – but for the niche market that requires such a product, what Griffin have put together does the job pretty much perfectly. If you have a need for a centralised charger for multiple portable devices from Apple, look no further.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS • Available with two docks • Solid, brushed aluminium base • Power output specifically designed for iPods and iPhones

60 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

NOTEWORTHY SPECS

PROS • Good sturdy design • Charges almost any combination of iPod models CONS • Some units do not support iPhone 3G • Not quite an essential purchase OVERALL RATING

• Wireless remote control • Powered by car lighter • Sturdy but flexible steel neck

PROS

CONS

• Feels very solid and well built • Fits almost every Apple portable • Wireless remote works perfectly

• Not necessarily better than the competition • Mounting neck could be a bit longer

OVERALL RATING

Exspect Wii 15-in-1 accessories and PS3 “V Stand” PERFECT COMPANIONS

NEED TO KNOW • Turns Wii remotes into bats/clubs/guns • Stand for PS3 R449.95 and R129.95 respectively

THE Nintendo Wii is a phenomenal gaming console and has out-sold Sony’s Playstation 3 as well as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 by a significant margin.

The reason for the success is the innovation the Wii brought to gaming with its motion-sensing controllers and original games.

Nintendo’s original packaging left a lot to be desired, however, in that all you got was your Wii and a single controller. Standing in front of your screen and swinging the Wii-mote controller instead of a tennis racket, baseball bat, golf club or sword was remarked upon extensively within the gaming community as detracting from the experience. It was a tongue-in-cheek observation, but accessories hit the market soon after that addressed this.

Exspect is one of the companies that responded, producing an accessory pack that includes a plastic tennis racket, baseball bat, golf club, pistol-grip, pool cue and steering wheel, all of which can be attached to a Wii remote so that using each item while playing feels more natural. Also included are protective covers for the Wii remote and nunchuk and new, stronger wrist straps – Wii gaming can get rather physical, making protecting the remotes a practical concern.

Each accessory is made of sturdy plastic and has been designed to stand up to the physical rigours that will undoubtedly be part of their usage pattern; they add tremendously to the fun factor of Wii gaming, even if the only new sensation is that of holding a toy racket/club/gun while playing.

This is a fantastic addition to the Wii’s already-awesome arsenal of amazingness, and if you and your family get a lot of mileage from your Wii console, this is definitely a must-have item. The only concern here is that each player will need to buy their own accessory pack (but then that is arguably the point).

On the PS3 side, Exspect hasn’t produced an accessory that will blow anyone away or scream “you must buy me”, as all it is is a stand for your PS3, much like the one we reviewed last month for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console.

The “V Stand” is a sturdy piece of piano-black plastic that perfectly fits your PS3’s base and stylish looks, with slots for up to 15 of your favourite PS3 games and Blu-ray movies. For people who don’t like clutter, this is a pretty good way to neaten up the area surrounding the console, or for parents to subtly hint to their PS3-playing offspring that perhaps they could be a little neater.

Exspect might just be hoping to cash in on the amount of gaming consoles out there, but they are at least making considered, good-quality accessories that truly do enhance the experience of owning and operating a modern console.

Playstation 3 Sony’s powerhouse console gives you everything you need to play the latest games in high-definition glory for the price of an entry-level PC.

REQUIREMENTS • Nintendo Wii • Wii Remote and nunchuk • Playstation 3 PROS

CONS

• Wii accessories really do enhance the experience • Strong plastic used in production of both

• PS3 stand not a must-own • One Wii accessory pack per controller required

OVERALL RATING

Nintendo Wii Nintendo has truly revolutionised gaming with the only current console worthy of the “next generation” title. It turns gaming from a sedentary activity to a physical one, perfect for getting fatties off the couch.

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PRODUCT REVIEWS

RELATED

PRODUCTS DUCTS

KODAK EASYSHARE M1020

This 10” digital photo frame offers much the same as the L1040N; it’s just a matter of taste, really, that will determine which one suits you best.

LG L1040N Photo Frame NEED TO KNOW • Digitally display your pics • USB Flash stick compatible • Memory card compatible R2 399.95

LG has brought out its own digital picture frame, the oddly-named L1040N; luckily, its looks, easyily accessed functionality and size are more than enough to grab your attention..

It is a 10.4” digital photo frame with 128MB of internal memory, a memory card slot and USB port as well as a built-in speaker. In addition to displaying photos, the L1040N can also play standard-definition MPEG4 videos, and can also act as an alarm. A feature that energy-conscious users will appreciate is the power-saving function by which it can be set to come on and turn off at times of your choosing.

It’s incredibly easy to operate: simply plug it in to the wall, connect it to your PC via the included USB cable and the PC detects it as a removable hard drive. You then drag and drop your photos from your PC onto the F1040N and when you’re done, the images and videos will be displayed, changing every few seconds in a slideshow-style presentation.

Since 128MB is not a lot of space, you can also use a USB flash drive as the source of your media. It also accepts various memory card types that you can take directly out of your camera and plug in to the frame’s useful card reader slot.

Image quality is excellent, and the 10.4” screen is large enough that your photos will be vividly displayed in all their glory for all to see, even from a distance.

In the box is a strange, silver “leg” that looks like it fell into the wrong 62 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

box by mistake, but it turns out to be the protrusion on which the photo frame rests. The only gripe we have is that it doesn’t click into place, and therefore feels a little less sturdy than what is required to keep the frame from falling over.

LG’s F1040N is the kind of gadget other gadgets should aspire to be like. It is easy to use, good at what it does, looks really high-tech and is full of options so you’re not restricted to only one way of doing things.

If you’ve had a hankering to show off all the snaps you’ve been taking with your digital camera, we highly recommend you consider LG’s oddlynamed F1040N digital photo frame.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS • Compact Flash (CF) Card, Secure Digital (SD) Card, Multimedia Card (MMC), • Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, and XD-Picture Card supported • Plays MPEG4 videos • 128MB internal memory • USB Flash Drives supported • Wall-mountable • Alarm and calendar function

PROS

CONS

• Easy to operate • Three storage options • Excellent quality screen

• Stand is a bit flimsy • Only 128MB internal memory

OVERALL RATING

SANDISK 2GB MEMORY CARD

For less than a hundred bucks, boost your photo frame’s storage capacity more than tenfold with this very affordable 2GB memory card.

SANDISK CRUZER 16GB USB MEMORY STICK

Truly entry-level value is on offer here with the CQ61’s 1GB system RAM, a Celeron M900 processor and a 160GB hard drive, powered by Windows Vista Basic.

16V

COMING SOON

© 2009 Electronic Arts Inc. EA and EA logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All Rights Reserved. BioWare, BioWare logo, Dragon Age and Dragon Age logo are trademarks rademarks or registered trademarks of EA International (Studio and Publishing) Ltd. Ltd All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.. owners “PlayStation”, “PLAYSTATION” and the “ ” are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. * Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies and are used under license from Microsoft.

PRODUCT REVIEWS

My Digital School: Grade 12 Volume 1 NEED TO KNOW • Interactive educational tool • Covers South African Grade 12 subjects • English and Afrikaans versions available • Includes past exam papers R299.95

THIS software’s title - My Digital School: Grade 12 - is a little misleading. The package is not presented as a school and as such, there are no interactive lessons and there is no teacher, animal or mascot of any kind leading the way through the subjects it covers. In essence, My Digital School: Grade 12 is little more than a digital textbook.

The application presents all materials necessary for an understanding of Grade 12 Maths, English, Geography and Accounting, including everything from the text books students receive at school to past exam papers, complete with answers and solutions to questions.

This is done in a style reminiscent of the Windows Help boxes that pop up when you hit F1.

This is both a good and a bad thing; at first, the volume of content is a little overwhelming as the navigation is not very user-friendly. Instead, you’re presented with a text-heavy view of all the links to the information you’re after, which takes a bit of getting used to.

Once you’ve selected your subject and its sub-category, text appears that outlines what the section aims to accomplish, and from there it’s up to you to read the remainder of the section and engage in whatever exercises it lays out for you. These require a pen and paper rather than being digitally interactive, though.

Where this presentation falls down somewhat is in its simplicity.

While the package may contain everything necessary to understand 64 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

the various Grade 12 subjects, it lacks the element of fun that helps motivate students to work harder, thus becoming “just another book”.

If your student is already disinterested in learning, this package will do little to motivate them.

For those who are interested, the programme contains guidelines on how to approach school projects, involving everything from the planning phase all the way to writing the bibliography at the end.

There‘s also a periodic table and a scientific calculator to help you out.

With so much content and so many past exam papers to go through, My Digital School: Grade 12 is an invaluable revision tool for pupils, post high-school students who want to touch up their understanding of the syllabus, and even teachers looking to set lesson plans.

RELATED

PRODUCTS

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS • • • • •

500MHz Pentium III Processor 256MB RAM CDROM Drive Windows 2000/XP/Vista 800MB hard disk space

MY DIGITAL SCHOOL: GRADE 12 VOLUME 2

PROS

CONS

• Grade 12 subjects covered in detail • Past exam papers complete with solutions • Covers the SA syllabus

• Very simple presentation • More a digital textbook than an interactive learning programme

OVERALL RATING

In the second Grade 12 package, My Digital School covers Physical Science, Life Science, Afrikaans and Accounting in the same exhaustive detail.

If you’re iinterested inn receiving lifetime updates lif to the software, consider registering it online and paying an extra fee (around R300) to qualify. If you’d like to try before you buy, check out the demo on the FL Studio website, located at Flstudio.image-line.com.

RELATED

PRODUCTS

FL Studio 8: Fruity Edition NEED TO KNOW • Make music on your PC • Sequence audio samples • Professional quality audio tools R849.95

PEOPLE with some musical experience and talent looking to make their own music tracks should take heed of FL Studio 8: Fruity Edition (FE), a comprehensive and professional “sequencing and mixing” software package that helps people create music on their computers. Music experience, while not a necessity, is highly recommended before you pick up a copy, however.

Comprehensive and professional means it’s not for those who are easily intimidated. Using the programme’s complex interface effectively will take some effort from you, as this is not a simple, easy-to-grasp software package that you can pick up and be using to make professional-sounding tracks half an hour later.

While FL Studio 8: FE has a whole lot going for it in terms of the music creation tools it offers, it will require some dedicated exploration of the manual and scouring of the Internet for tutorial videos before beginners can get truly comfortable with the package.

Luckily, the company behind the software knows this, and has a vast, in-depth library of online tutorials, as well as a 30-minute tutorial video included with the product that will start you down the path of creativity.

There is also a large number of third-party tutorial videos to be found online, posted by users of the product; the point here is that all the information necessary to make effective use of FL Studio 8: Fruity Loops edition is available should you go looking for it.

CREATIVE LABS SOUNDBLASTER AUDIGY SOUND CARD

At its heart, FE is a sample sequencer. This means sound clips are used in sequence to create music, limited only by the number of samples you have and your own innate musical abilities.

Once you have grasped the basics, which may take some time due to the programme’s complexity and initially intimidating interface, FE opens a world of creative possibilities thanks to its professional audio toolset.

The Audigy is one of Creative Labs’ more advanced consumer sound cards; it’s more powerful than most, if not all, integrated sound cards.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS • • • • •

2gHz AMD or Intel Pentium 3 compatible CPU with full SSE1 support Windows XP & Vista (32 & 64 bit) 512MB RAM 130MB free hard disk space Windows-compatible soundcard with DirectSound drivers

PROS • Create deeply complex music • Massive array of audio tools • Plenty of online tutorials OVERALL RATING

CONS

WII MUSIC

• Complex interface • Requires hard work to understand • Not for the easily-intimidated

If you’re more interested in some very light-hearted music creation that doesn’t require any musical talent whatsoever, Wii Music may be the game for you.

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PRODUCT REVIEWS RELATED

PRODUCTS

TARGUS ATMOSPHERE

Targus has a welldeserved reputation for quality computer baggage that isn’t bank-breaking. The Targus Atmosphere range offers a lot of storage space for a very reasonable price.

Porta Cases NEED TO KNOW • Affordable range of gadget bags • Same functionality as other brands • Lifetime warranty Price Range: R199 to R599

PORTA Case is Incredible Connection’s exclusive carry bag brand, offering an inexpensive alternative to the more costly cases sold by other vendors. These rugged bags can hold just about any kind of gadget, and offer superb protection for your most sensitive equipment, at a fraction of the cost.

The South African buying public is renowned for its sense of what constitutes a bargain, and if sales figures are anything to go by, it would seem not many believe that the “big name” brands qualify. Sure, they’re made from stylish, high-quality material and have more pockets than a snooker table, but they’re also not cheap. Picking up a small bag for something like a GPS unit, for instance, can add quite a bit to your gadget’s purchase price.

Which is the need that the Porta Cases fills. Name the gadget, and Porta Case has the answer: there are tiny bags for cell phones, slightly bigger ones for GPSs, camera bags for anything from compacts to DSLRs and their accessories, individual laptop bags with various designs and pocket configurations, and even backpacks and shoulder-slung satchels that can carry a bit of everything.

While certainly very well priced, functionality has not been overlooked.

Porta Case bags have as many pockets and small compartments for carrying the assorted accessories that inevitably accompany your gadgets as competing products do, so rest assured there is a place for all those little extras.

Aestheically, the bags are brightly coloured and constructed from lightweight but durable polyurethane. These may not be ideal for a business person conscious of his image, as they aren’t the target market, but for anyone simply looking for a bag to safely carry stuff around, Porta Cases are perfect.

66 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

They are also covered by a lifetime warranty, which means if anything goes wrong with the bag you can return it for an immediate swap-out.

Not bad for a bargain bag, really.

The only real downside is that the bags don’t have a very nice feel to them. The materials they are constructed of feel as cheap as the price indicates they are, but on the other hand you’re not going to be paying for calf leather cured by a virgin on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius during a thunderstorm, so it’s a win overall.

But a bargain bag it is, which is reflected somewhat in the overall ‘feel’ compared to the more expensive brands made from higherquality finishes.

If this is something about which you’re not too fussy, but you’re looking for a lightweight, durable alternative to more expensive brands, there is most certainly a Porta Case for you.

TARGUS TBC002EU NOTEBOOK BAG

Targus is where you start your search if you’re after a high quality notebook bag made from first-rate materials with all the pockets and padding your mobile business-focused heart could ever want.

NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • • •

Notebooks ranging from 13” up to 20” Camera bags – compact and DSLR with lenses Cell phone carry cases GPS carry cases Messenger bags/Backpacks PROS

CONS

• Affordable alternative • A bag to suit all needs • Lifetime warranty

• Cheap feel

OVERALL RATING

TUCANO WORK OUT RANGE

Tucano’s Work Out range (see review) is for Macbook owners looking for some colour in their notebook accessories.

Tucano bags are strong, durable and designed for Macbooks of all sizes.

book reviews

OFFICE 2007 FOR DUMMIES

NEED TO KNOW • By Wallace Wang • 432 pages

WINDOWS VISTA STEP BY STEP

NEED TO KNOW • By Joan Preppernau and Joyce Cox • 464 pages

A new Operating System can be a daunting, even for long-time computer users, and the shift from Windows Me or XP to Vista especially so. With this book you’ll learn how to make full use of Vista’s media playing and cataloging functionality, how to install programmes and add or remove hardware. You’ll even get into more advanced topics such as fine-tuning performance and optimising your hardware for your Vista setup. It doesn’t deal with the most technical ins and outs of the operating system, but as a basic primer you can’t go wrong.

While other books may have long, dense chapters through which one has to wade just to glean small and useful bits of information, this book is simple to follow and simply tells you what you need to know. It’s also well designed, with a lot of useful box-outs full of useful and relevant tips, as well as check lists to guide you through what you need to learn and ensure you’ve taken away what the authors intended.

This is a great book for learning the ins and outs of the latest offering from Microsoft, and we give it two thumbs up.

R329.958

SIMILAR to the jump from XP to Vista, Microsoft’s changes between Office 2007 and its previous versions can be incredibly confusing and frustrating, even to experienced users of the office suite. Now, with Office 2007 for Dummies, everything is easily spelled out and clearly explained – from the most basic orientation around the new interface through to an in-depth look at each application. Author Wallace Wang has written more than 50 instructional computer books in a career that dates back to the mid 80’s and knows exactly how to present new ideas and in-depth topics to his readers.

Office 2007 for Dummies is written clearly, gets to

the heart of each topic and flows from the most basic pointers into complex techniques so smoothly you may not even notice you’re now dealing with advanced functions of each application. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Access are all demystified and thoroughly explained, and we at Connect go as far as to say that this may well be the only book you’ll ever need to read to become an Office 2007 expert. R329.85

MACBOOK FOR DUMMIES

NEED TO KNOW • By Mark Chambers • 408 pages

IF you’ve bought or are deciding between a MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro, then this latest Mac book from Dummies is a great starting point. Author Mark Chambers has done an excellent and thorough job of explaining the differences between and the benefits of each machine. He also offers a great look how to get the most out of each system.

After an introductory overview of the MacBook family, MacBook for Dummies offers an in-depth look at Mac OS X Leopard and highlights some of its advantages over previous releases. Chambers also does a great job of explaining iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD, with close on 20 pages dedicated to each of these applications – meaning you’re getting a basic overview as well as

enough direction to allow you to take them further, if you wish.

Advanced topics such as wired and wireless networking, upgrading, setting up your MacBook for multiuser functionality, troubleshooting, and more are covered in the later chapters. On the whole, this is a very satisfying and rewarding book and is well worth a look for any new or prospective Mac owners. R374.95

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game reviews //BY TIANA ALSWANG AND PETER DAWOUD

Archery

Basketball

Canoeing

Table Tennis

GO TO

WUHU

ISLAND! 68 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

WII SPORTS RESORT

>>CONSIDER THIS<<

A TROPICAL DESTINATION FOR FANTASTIC FUN SPORTS ISLAND 2

R699.95

NEED TO KNOW • Take your Mii to an island paradise • Bundled with the Wii MotionPlus accessory for better accuracy • 12 new minigames to play, such as golf and swordplay • Each minigame consists of various challenges

WELCOME to Wuhu Island. You’ll be spending a lot of time here. In the mood for skydiving? How about swordfighting or wakeboarding? Perhaps you just want to relax and throw a Frisbee for a dog to catch.

Get ready for Wii Sports Resorts, the sequel to the much-loved Wii Sports. The original game recently became the best-selling videogame of all time, with sales of more than 50 million units. Granted, it came bundled with the Wii console, but there’s no denying that Wii Sports was the first title casual gamers really got a chance to experience. The sequel comes bundled with Nintendo’s new MotionPlus accessory, a small attachment that greatly enhances the accuracy of the Wii. Although playing tennis on the original game was a lot of fun, there wasn’t much more to it than swinging the Wii-controller like a racket. The MotionPlus makes the Wii much more sensitive to your movements. Tennis players, for instance, can add top spin or accurately place a ball in the corner.

The MotionPlus makes the Wii simulate real life – not vaguely, like in original Wii Sports, but with wonderful

precision. To show off this technology, Nintendo created Wii Sports Resort, a sequel that improves on the original in almost every way. Instead of a dry list of mini-games, players now inhabit a lush tropical island and meander through the landscape picking activities to play. As in the original, gamers can play solo, team up or compete with friends. There’s a dozen minigames in all. Among them canoeing, swordplay, archery, table tennis and basketball. Playing a round of golf immediately makes the power of the MotionPlus accessory clear. Although casual players can have loads of fun hitting the ball onto the green, more serious players can experiment with their grip and swing to get a perfect hole-in-one. Every movement of the Wii controller is accurately picked up by the console. To give the game more longevity, each activity has a number of different challenges.

The Frisbee game, for instance, offers two modes – accurately throwing the Frisbee at a target, or indulging in a game of Frisbee Golf. Sports Resort isn’t just another taste of the game Wii owners love, it’s an entirely new and much improved version to enjoy all over again.

Much like Wii Sports, Sports Island 2 offers ten minigames to spend time with, including ice hockey, tennis, speed skating and synchronised swimming. If Wii Sports wasn’t enough for you, and Wii Sports Resort is sold out, then this is your game.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Wii MotionPlus accessory, which is included with Wii Sports Resort, plugs into the base of the Wii Remote controller to improve the accuracy with which the Wii “reads” your movements.

Every gesture, no matter how small, is picked up by the console for a much more immersive experience.

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gaming reviews CONSIDER >>THIS<<

CALL OF JUAREZ: BOUND IN BLOOD

NEED TO KNOW • Players can choose to embody either Ray or Thomas, each with a distinctive gameplay style • A visceral shooting experience, relying on gun skills and upgradeable guns.

• Explore the Wild West before it was tamed with iconic settings full of outlaws • Innovative western-themed multiplayer – gunslingers, bandits and marshalls struggle online for the bounty

IT’S amazing how times have changed. Back in the day a spaghetti western was considered the pinnacle of Hollywood entertainment, yet, many years later, the games industry has shied away from the subject of western-based games. The original Call of Juarez was an interesting game: It offered players a unique experience, which although flawed, was well worth the price of admission. A few years later, its sequel,

Bound in Blood, has strolled into town. The question now is: is Bound in Blood a smart talker or a sharp shooter? This time round, players have the option of playing as either of two brothers, Ray or Thomas. The gameplay style of each differs greatly, resulting in an interesting game dynamic as the game progresses.

That said, it is rather disappointing that although both brothers are together for the whole game, there is no co-op, which the experience is really screaming for.

The lack of co-op is more than made up for with an interesting and fun multiplayer, but it still is a glaring omission. Bound in Blood is a well-polished experience from start to finish, although the time spent between those two points is rather short lived. The multiplayer adds some rather long legs to this title and most gamers should enjoy the change of scenery from the grit and grim of modern shooters. R699.95

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor An expansion for the muchloved Company of Heroes RTS, Tales of Valor continues the good fight offering a new multiplayer experience to veterans of previous games in the series, as well as a single player experience to flex your mental power.

COMING >>SOON<<

Wolfenstein The grandfather of shooters is back, and this time, it’s packing a punch.

Developed exclusively by iD software, this FPS phenomenon promises to blow everyone away...

UFC 2009 UNDISPUTED

NEED TO KNOW • Customise your fighter’s physical appearance • Take down opponents with a variety of mixed martial arts disciplines including Judo, Muay Thai, Wrestling, Kickboxing, Boxing and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu • More than 80 top names in UFC competition across five weight classes • A new fighting game engine designed for next- generation systems • Manage the training process such as strength and heart health

70 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

CONSIDER >>THIS<<

COMING >>SOON<<

2K Sports celebrate the 10-year anniversary of their famed basketball sim with their biggest and best game yet.

Wipeout Pulse Wipeout Pulse brings the fast and furious action of the wipeout franchise to the PSP with a deep and rewarding career mode that pushes the PSP to new limits.

• The voices and in-game likenesses of Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson • An original story by the writers of the original films • Experience unique ghost hunting, wrangling and trapping with upgradeable weapons in destructible environments

IT has been said there are two types of people in the world: those who love the first Ghostbusters movie and those who still haven’t watched it. It therefore comes as little surprise that many people have taken the news of a Ghostbusters game with a pinch of salt; after all, games based on movie franchises are far from the best in the industry. Luckily, the developers have taken great care with this beloved franchise and produced a funny, witty and entertaining experience that – although it has some issues – fans and newcomers to the franchise would appreciate. You play as a newbie to the Ghostbusters team, silently working in the background as the team investigates a string of paranormal activities throughout New York City. Obviously Ghostbusters wouldn’t be Ghostbusters without witty and clever dialogue between the team, and a lot of the original charm shines through although some voice acting that sounds a bit phoned in. That said, the return of the cast, including Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray, adds an unmistakable Ghostbusters vibe to the whole experience. If you are a fan of the ‘busters, this is a mustbuy game for you. On the other hand, newcomers to the ghost busting trade will notice the minor issues, but will surely fall in love with this charming game. R699.95

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen The Transformers are back and this time they are looking for revenge. This fun game is slow to start, but once it gets going, it makes it fun to be a Transformer!

Batman: Arkham Asylum Take on the Joker and other super villains as the caped crusader in Eidos’ new action adventure title.

COMING >>SOON<<

NBA 2K10

adding depth to the experience. Add an intuitive control scheme with plenty of depth for veteran MMA fans and yet is simple enough for newcomers to the sport, and we have a clear knock-out in all departments. Although UFC 2009 suffers from a clunky career mode and odd presentation issues, its performance in the ring, where it really matters, cannot be faulted. From the second you enter the octagon to the moment you become champion, UFC 2009 is pound for pound the funniest fighter you could ever play. R699.95

NEED TO KNOW

CONSIDER >>THIS<<

IT’S very hard to imagine a sport more taxing on the body then Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). The pounding that the bodies of these fighters take is sometimes beyond belief as they literally put everything on the line for glory. UFC 2009 Undisputed is the first time this raw power and passion is captured so well in the digital form.

UFC 2009 includes a health roster of current UFC fighters, including Frank Mir and Anderson Silva. The attention to detail in the octagon is truly amazing. The fighters’ reaction to every blow and the force of every impact is mind blowing. The intense action in the ring is very well complemented by the terrific voice-over in the commentary,

GHOSTBUSTERS

MYSIMS RACING

NEED TO KNOW • Face a variety of MySim opponents or take on your friends • Compete with rival racers in one-on-one duels • Get ahead with cool power-ups • Improve power, acceleration and handling by mixing and matching engines, suspension and tires • Customise your car by swapping bodies, painting and adding accessories

NEED TO KNOW • Shake the Wii Remote to pull off stylish moves • Play as Peach and Bowser, both with their own sets of skills • Run through vibrant 2-D worlds, stomping on enemies and breaking blocks • Flip into 3-D mode and find hidden paths, battle foes and uncover secret areas

COMING >>SOON<<

IT’S not quite a platformer, or a role-playing game, or an adventure, but Super Paper Mario for the Wii is a load of fun. Princess Peach has been kidnapped. Again. And Mario has to traverse various worlds to get her back. But this is no ordinary Mario game.

Our Italian plumber now has the power to shift his two-dimensional world into three-dimensions, opening up secrets and new areas. And it’s not the platforming action game we’ve gotten used to. Mario levels up, goes on side quests, buys items at shops and calls in the help of friends during fights. Sort of like a role-playing game. But he also finds items, solves puzzles and has conversations

Lego Battles DS Offering a portable real-time strategy game, Lego Battles offers DS players a build-and-battle experience unique to the LEGO and DS worlds alike. Get ready to wreck some blocks!

with the people he comes across. Sort of like an adventure game. It’s strange, but hugely entertaining. The dialogue is arguably the best part of Super Paper Mario. The game contains hours of hilarious dialogue, which is some of the best written in recent memory.

It’s a Mario game in which the story actually matters. If you’re after more Mario, but prefer your games to be more substantial, Super Paper Mario is a must-buy. Its inventive, brain-teasing, dimension-flipping puzzles and entertaining story will keep you hooked for ages. R499.95

Super Mario Galaxy 2 Mario is returning for another topsy-turvy platforming space adventure.

Order of War Ever wonder what would happen if a Total War game was set in World War 2? The promise of massive skirmishes, detailed strategies and the roar of tanks? Order of War is pure bliss.

MARIO Kart has been the Don of carting gaming for well over 15 years now and after Mario Kart for the Wii was released last year, many thought it was the best we could ever hope for. It therefore comes as a surprise to find MySims Racing planted at the start line, revving its tiny engine. At this point, EA’s MySims has left its simulation roots well and truly in the past as it now takes its adorable square people and puts them into… well… adorable square-ish karts.

The game is split into three main sections; the story mode, quick play and multiplayer.

Quick play is exactly that. It allows you to play any race mode on any track and is fun for those casual races against the computer.

CONSIDER COMING >>THIS<< >>SOON<<

SUPER PAPER MARIO

Multiplayer is rather disappointing since only local split screen racing is available on the Wii version, which doesn’t support online play. Luckily the real enjoyment of this title can be found in the Story mode that offers the player an open world to select the order of events and keeps thing interesting. Unfortunately, MySims Racing doesn’t bring much new to the table, but it does keep things fresh with its bright colours and cute Sims. If you don’t plan on playing online, MySims is just as good as Mario Kart; otherwise Mario Kart is for you.

R499.95

MySims Agents Match wits with a mysterious thief as you search for clues and solve puzzles in the next anticipated game in the MySims franchise.

Big Family Games This game promises loads of fun for everyone in the family – play 24 unique twists on classic neighbourhood games, including football, golf, tennis and horseshoes.

Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes Based on the Clone Wars TV animation series, Republic Heroes allows gamers to fight as a Jedi Knight or a clone trooper in more than 30 unique missions. May the force be with us.

The King of Fighters XII This will be the first King of Fighters for more than a decade and it’s been hiding in the shadows for some time. It promises a breathtaking experience with stunning visuals and the trusted KOF depth.

WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 71

tech tannie

Computer confusion, super safe surfing and dustfree IT If you have questions, gripes or just seek some solace, e-mail Tamsin, our friendly tech tannie at techtannie@ connect.co.za Information like Achar – hot, spicy and moerse painful on the way out.

issue of the month: Q:

I use an Acer TravelMate 6291 notebook it uses Vista Business and I use it mainly to administrate my business, which is fairly small but it takes close to 5 minutes to log on every time I switch it on. Also, I can’t say I’m happy with the amount of time it takes me to access the Internet. I still use the old red 3G brick, which I blame for consuming so much of my time. I need to know whether this is normal with this type of machine, because I’ve been tempted to get a new computer as I only bought this computer over a year ago.

Morose Morebodi, Heidelberg

A:

There is nothing quite as kak as a slow notebook or PC. Especially when it takes so long you can make coffee, take out the trash, clean the carpets and call Great Aunt Mabel while you wait.

There are a couple of things you can try right now to ease off the horror.

First off, head on over to www. windowsdefender.com and download this nifty (free!) programme. Your problem may have a lot to do with spyware and unwanted background processes that you have no idea are there and Windows Defender is a good place to start clearing those up.

This software will protect your notebook against pop-ups, slow performance and also most known security threats, so it’s a 72 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

lekker all-rounder. At almost 5MB it will take you a little time to download, but that wait is probably going to substantially reduce all your other waiting, so it’s worth it.

The other option is to stick your notebook on Hibernate or Sleep rather than shutting down completely. These two modes are excellent for speedy start-ups and they don’t murder the environment or land you with a moerse electricity bill.

Use Hibernate if you want to keep your PC and applications running the way you left them – Vista will shut down your PC, but save the state of your desktop so you can resume work immediately when you press the power button.

In Sleep mode, your PC is put into a lower power consuming state as Vista turns off your hard drive, monitor, graphics card, sound card (and so on) while keeping your memory and keyboard at full power.

To set these up go to Start and then on the right hand side of the start menu, where you normally click to Shut Down, the Hibernate and Sleep options sit beneath the Shut Down and Restart ones.

So, depending on whether you chose Sleep or Hibernate, your notebook should boot up nice and quickly.

Hopefully these little quick fixes will make your computing life a little more bearable. I wouldn’t invest in an entirely new notebook just yet – let’s see if we can get your oke to behave himself first..

Q:

My kids are always surfing the ‘Net and I’m getting more and more worried about them finding dodgy sites and getting caught up in all sorts. Is there anything I can do?

Overly Anxious Annie, Sandown

A:

You know, doll, this is a very, very clever question. There is groot kak on the Internet and it is so easy to get caught. Why just the other day I was looking for information on melons…

But I digress. So one of the first things I recommend is to download Windows Live Family Safety (http://download.live. com/familysafety). You’ll need a Windows Live ID to get started; if you don’t already have one the site will walk you through the registration process.

It’s easy, but blurry long and irritating.

In spite of that, you now actually have an excellent tool for controlling your kid’s access to the Internet.

Using the various settings you can allow or block specific websites, choose who your kids can talk to on Windows Live Messenger, limit their searches and monitor their web visits with Activity Reports.

To start with, sit down with your children

Q:

I live in a very dusty area, so my house is constantly full of dust and the other day my PC started making some very odd noises. I vacuum in my office every few days and dust the top of my PC, but I think some has gone inside.

What do I do? Dusty Brian, Durbs

A:

Dust bunnies. Vicious creatures that look really sweet until you get close and they leave you a sneezing, filthy wreck.

Well, perhaps not you, but definitely your PC. These chaps are squatting on your motherboard, hogging your fan and generally heating up your PC, which is not what you want. It’s expensive and will result in eventual PC death.

Time to leap into action and fix the problem. Ok, first off you need to back up your data (juuuust in case, although I’m sure you’re a good little boy and do that anyway…) and detach all the cables and things from your computer and take the computer case outside.

Follow your manufacturer’s instructions to open the case – some use clips, others use

and watch how they interact with the web, and set up the Activity Reports so you can monitor their actions at your leisure.

I sat down with my child and watched how she interacted with the web. This, plus the detailed Activity Reports, made it easier for me to see where she could potentially find unsuitable sites and what kind of sites she liked to visit.

Of course, you don’t have to do it this way; you can just dive in and create their Content Filters immediately.

The bonus is that you can devise one filter set per child and you can change them whenever you want. They are as malleable as the children for which they were created.

There are plenty of websites that offer

your kids what they need for homework and research and fun while also being child friendly and safe.

Check out sites like Ask Kids (www.askkids. com), where the engine itself filters results so they are safe; or Child Friendly Websites (www.childfriendlywebsites.com) that lists hundreds of sites rated by other parents.

In short, you can exercise as much or as little control over your kids’ online activities as you want because there are tons of well-designed products out there for you to use.

There, now you have everything you need to keep your kids safe from the dangers lurking on the Internet. Pity you can’t install electric firewalls eh?

screws – and put any small bits and pieces into a sandwich bag. One vital thingamajig, always goes missing, so try and avoid the frustration.

Get yourself a can of compressed air and either attach a straw to the end to focus the flow or use the slender nozzle (some brands do include them). Then, by holding the can upright as much as possible to avoid dripping, spray the dust off all of the components.

Do not use it on the fan and do not do this near kids or pets. Also try not to stick the nozzle on top of any delicate components either – a little tenderness goes a long way.

Once you’ve murdered the dust on all the rest of your PC you can now tackle the fans.

Gently dismount your fans, then carefully wipe the blades and the casing with a damp (not dripping wet) cloth to remove the dust. You can add a drop of oil to the axle of your fan if you want to, but ask your local Incredible Connection advisor to give you the right oil – anything that contains a solvent will kill your PC more effectively than Mugabe did Zimbabwe.

Then go over your PCs innards to make

sure all the connections are in place, check your wires and tighten any screws before you close everything up.

Reconnect everything, boot up and you should hear a happy hum of approval.

WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 73

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disconnect //BY ADAM OXFORD

The trials

of talking

T

here’s a term that’s been popular within the IT industry for many years. It’s a neat little catchphrase that captures the aspiration of the whole Internet in two simple words.

The term is ‘unified communications’. The definition is... well, as a senior Microsoft employee told me recently: ‘ask 100 experts to describe it and you’ll get 100 different answers’.

Someone must have an idea, though: the overall market value in ‘UC’ as it’s affectionately known to friends is coming up to the $50bn mark.

The simple definition, though, is that UC is Skype. It includes any tool that combines instant messaging with email and voice calls over the Internet, which can also be publishing information about our current status.

This is incredibly important for industry on the local and global scale, and if the term hasn’t crossed over to mainstream, the technology certainly has.

It’s a godsend for families and friends who can stay better connected in these days of intercontinental travel and expatriotism than they could living just a few kilometres away in years gone by. Or that’s the theory. The one thing Internet communications isn’t, is ‘unified’.

It’s frustratingly far from it. Skype won’t talk to Windows Live Messenger, which ignores Google Chat, which in turn gives the cold shoulder to Apple’s MobileMe. It’s like the day after an 18-yearold girl’s birthday party at which she walked in on her boyfriend snogging a best friend, who in turn discovered he has a cold sore.

Everyone is full of huff y indignation and won’t acknowledge the others’ existence.

This causes problems. My parents don’t get to see their grandchild very often. They live a long way away, and travel costs are rising every day. Who cares? We have webcams and the Internet, we can commit first steps, potty training and all the other shared moments of joy to video chat, can’t we?

76 | CONNECT | AUGUST 2009

No: like a lot of people, my parent’s introduction to Internet messaging was through Windows Live Messenger (WLM), and they’ve stuck with it because it seems to work.

I don’t use a Windows PC, though. I use a Mac or an Ubuntubased machine. As the name suggests, Windows Live Messenger isn’t designed for other operating systems, and thus we arrive at our impasse.

There’s an easy way around this: Skype is a cross-platform technology, and there are clients that work on Mac, Linux and Microsoft machines. My parents, however, won’t install it. Like many people of their generation they hold the entirely reasonable opinion that they already have one IM application, and don’t want to learn another one.

Besides, no-one wants two applications running in the background and if you have to start one to take a call, that sort of defeats the point.

So video calls have to be pre-arranged for a time when we all have access to WLM, and setting them up takes time. I have to transfer a webcam to the only Windows machine in the house (under the TV, since you ask) and rearrange the network, usually to find out that my parents have wandered off or are having problems getting their camera working.

There could be ways around it: IM clients like Adium and Pidgin connect to multiple networks simultaneously, putting AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo, Google Talk and MSN contacts and chat windows into the same interface. Some iPhone applications, like Fring and Beejive, go one step further and add Skype into the mix as well.

These third-party apps aren’t quite the nirvana they seem, though, since they tend only to support the text features of each client. You can’t use Pidgin to place a video call over Windows Live, so I still need to fire up that other machine to talk to Mum and Dad. The Internet should be immediate, there’s nothing ‘instant’ about having to fire up an IM client on another computer. No one IM is ever going to ‘win’ and become the one everyone uses to the exclusion of all others. That’d be like saying one day everyone will own the same brand of phone.

In the big money world of UC we’d all be better off if the powers-that-be spent a bit more time on the ‘unified’ part of the term rather than just the latter bit. After all, it’s not exactly ‘comunications’ if we can’t talk to each other, is it?

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