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www.connect.co.za
VOL02 ISSUE #02
Front Row Seats Be a tech-savvy football fan and enjoy the games from your lounge
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26
FEATURES 12
JUNE 2010
Your Personal Computer Showdown! The ins and outs of the Mac versus PC debate
20 External Hard Drive Advice Need to store data? How to buy the best
24 Fast as a Fox Find out all about Mozilla’s open source option
26 I’ve Got the Power Battery care and maintenance made simple
30 Hey Pal, Want Some Money? Online banking is only getting easier
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24
REGULARS 04 06 10 68 70 72
Editor’s Letter News Trouble-free Technobabble Tamsin the Tech Tannie Competition Disconnect
REVIEWS WS 36 42 43 44 48 51 52 57 60
Top 5 PCs Printers Keyboards Home Media Cameras Peripherals Software Books
GAMING NG 62
PUBLISHER Brett Haggard brett@connect.co.za EDITOR Tiana Cline tiana@connect.co.za CONTRIBUTING Johann Barnard EDITOR johann@connect.co.za
TECHNOLOGY Deon du Plessis EDITOR deon@connect.co.za JUNIOR WRITER Tamaryn Watkins tamaryn@connect.co.za CONTRIBUTORS Tamsin Mackay,Adam Oxford ART DIRECTION Infiltrate Media www.infiltratemedia.co.za
Reviews
SUBSCRIPTIONS subscriptions@connect.co.za ADVERTISING Dorothy Haggard dorothy@connect.co.za CONTACT Hypertext Media Communications (011) 023-8001 info@hypertext.co.za
Connect is a joint venture between Hypertext Media Communications and Incredible Connection
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Subscribe now and you could win a TomTom GO 750 GPS
4 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
t’s a very inspiring time to live in South Africa and breathe in the energy of excitement and community that comes along with the 2010 Soccer World Cup. From the global flags in public spaces like restaurants and supermarkets to the car mirrors adorned in our national colours, the build-up is getting bigger and bigger as we countdown to the football frenzy. Technologically, there is also a lot happening – the Gautrain and several undersea cables bringing with them the promise of better and faster Internet offerings. And then there are the state-of-the-art stadiums where people around the world will flock to in order to be a part of the action. Now you may not have tickets to every game… you may not even have a ticket to one match, but that does not mean you cannot be a spectacular spectator and watch the soccer in style. With the right screen and sound, you can experience the beautiful game in the comfort of your own home. (And if you are going to a match, be sure to update your GPS – TomTom has all the venues programmed in for the occasion.) In this issue of Connect, we help you kit out your living room so you can be the ultimate tech-savvy football fan. Of course you’re not going to be able to attend every game, but that doesn’t have to take away from the experience. Go to page 12 to figure out how using technology can bring all the action and drama straight into your lounge. How often have you been so busy that you’ve just forgotten to charge your cellphone battery? Or
you didn’t plug your iPod in and end up at the gym without your running music? What about forgetting to bring your charging cable to the office? It happens a lot – we’re more reliant on batteries then you would think which is why on page 26 Connect is looking at saving power. If you look after your batteries, then they will last longer. It’s that easy, and now you will know how to do it! Other interesting articles this issue include the hotly contested “Mac or PC?” debate. When you’re considering buying one, what is more suitable? From the price point to the ability to play video games, we cover it all on page 16. Other buying advice you might seek is on the external hard drive. Larger in capacity than a memory stick and perfect for storing media and doing back-ups, they are becoming a common peripheral in the daily tech user’s home. And as Deon, our reviews editor, will tell you – there is no such thing as too much storage! External hard drives are one piece of technology that is shrinking but growing in size. Do you need one? Read more on page 20 to find out. From reviews you can really use, to Tamsin the Tech Tannie answering all your IT dilemmas, the June issue of Connect is here, just in time for the soccer, and just in time to make your tech world that little bit easier. We hope you enjoy the issue and keep reading Connect – the only technology magazine that speaks your language. Tiana Cline EDITOR
news
Driving made easy with the new Nokia CK-200 car kit Nokia’s new CK-200 car kit is now available and its universally compatible with any make of Bluetooth enabled mobile phone. The CK-200 can be installed via direct input, ISO cable or external speaker and offers consumers an adjustable RGB display backlight colour with can be set to match the colour of the car in which it is mounted. A wireless remote, which allows consumers to take calls and keep their hands on the wheel, can be mounted either to the steering wheel, the dashboard or on the gear shift. “The Nokia CK-200 is easy to install and is designed to make communicating whilst driving easy,” says Stuart Bruce, Head of Global Sales, Nokia Car Business Area. The CK-200 retails for approximately R1,500 uninstalled and will be available at installers from June 2010.
Steam Client for Mac Arrives with Free Portal Game HP Celebrates its Spring Collection in the Sex and the City 2 Film HP is in collaboration with Warner Bros. Pictures to spotlight “tech couture” as well as to celebrate HP’s spring collection. By collaborating with this world-renowned series, Sex and the City, HP extends its relationship with and commitment to fashion trendsetters, inspiring people worldwide with its stylish computers. HP has been at the forefront of fusing fashion and technology since unveiling the HP Mini Vivienne Tam notebook on the catwalk of Tam’s 2008 fashion show at New York’s Fashion Week in Bryant Park. The introduction of the
6 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
world’s first “digital clutch” ignited global, fashion-forward efforts for HP, which led to this collaboration with “Sex and the City 2.” Look out for the film’s lead actress Sarah Jessica Parker, who will be showcased in the next global “PC is Personal Again” commercial from HP. The commercial features Parker as herself – a sophisticated, energetic woman who uses an HP computer to manage the multifarious roles she plays in life, from being a mother to a designer to a movie producer, with endless style.
Finally, Valve has Steam for Mac. Along with the 60-plus, Mac-compatible games available in the Steam library, users also get the opportunity to download Portal free. Steam is a popular online game service and Steam for Mac, like its PC offering, will allow instant access to new games and favourite releases to purchase, download, and play from any computer. From pre-release discounts to free-play weekends, Steam delivers what gamers value most. Multiplayer maven can join the Steam Community and find other gamers play
with and connect with groups of similar interests as well as host and join chats, matches, and tournaments. And instead of hunting for patches and downloading from unorganised websites, Steam offers automatic updates, which means that your games stay up-to-date by themselves. If you own a Mac and feel unloved by the gaming industry, this is for you. Steam brings PC’s biggest gaming platform to the Mac so you can now download games with ease and play against your PC friends in multiplayer games. Visit http://store.steampowered.com/ for more information.
Oh Appy Days!
Whether you’re looking for the latest scores and sports news, celebrity gossip, the latest share prices, time and expense tracking tools or weather updates, you’ll ďŹ nd a world of apps to let you carry your whole life with you virtually everywhere you go.
Do U speak BlackBerry?
www.blackberry.com/za/appworld Not all 3rd party applications make use of the “zero ratedâ€? BlackBerry APN for data connectivity. Some 3rd party applications (including some of which are available on BlackBerryÂŽ AppWorld™) might make use of the carrier’s WAP service which could be chargeable. Š2010 Research In Motion Limited. All rights reserved. BlackBerry ÂŽ, RIMÂŽ, Research In MotionÂŽ, SureTypeÂŽ, SurePress™ and related trademarks, names and logos are the property of Research In Motion Limited and are registered and/or used in the U.S. and countries around the world. E&OE.
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Now, ďŹ nd and download loads of FREE apps designed to work seamlessly with your BlackBerryÂŽ smartphone – all from one convenient place, the BlackBerryÂŽ App World™ storefront.
news
Sayy Cheese!
Our 5 Favourite Photo Imaging Apps for the iPhone 1. PHOTOSHOP.COM MOBILE Edit and share from anywhere with this really useful application. It’s free and easy to use – simply drag your finger to crop, adjust colour, apply effects and more. Try giving your picture an extra glow with Soft Focus or get artsy with Sketch. And in one touch? Apply effects like Warm Vintage and Vignette. 2. COLORSPLASH ColorSplash lets you quickly and easily give photos a dramatic look by converting them to black and white, while keeping your chosen details in color. This effect, known as a “cutout” or “selective colour”, draws the viewers’ attention to the colored areas. ColorSplash is both easy and fun to use. You simply use your finger as a brush to remove or bring back the original colour from regions of your image. Using a two finger pinching gesture you can quickly zoom in and out in order to work on fine details or larger areas. 3. HIPSTAMATIC Digital photography has never looked so analogue! The Hipstamatic for iPhone is an application that brings back the look, feel, unpredictable beauty, and fun of plastic toy cameras from the past. HipstaSwap your lens, flash, and film with the swipe of the finger. Each adds a unique touch to your HipstaPrint, so mix and match to find your favourite combination!
Calling all Fallout Fans! Bethesda Softworks, the creator of the epic role-playing series Fallout, have a muchanticipated title coming up: Fallout: New Vegas. And with every great game, is a once-off collector’s edition. If the last title is anything to go by (Fallout 3 sold 4.7 million copies in the first week) New Vegas has gotten a lot of people excited. Let’s take sneak peek at what to expect over and above the premium version of the game: “Lucky 7” poker chips. Each of the seven poker chips was designed to represent chips from the major casinos found on the New Vegas strip and throughout the Mojave Wasteland. A fully customised Fallout: New Vegas deck of cards. Each card in the pack has been uniquely illustrated to depict characters and factions found within the game. Use the cards to play poker, blackjack or Caravan, an original card game that was created by Obsidian especially for Fallout: New Vegas! A recreation of the game’s highly coveted “Lucky 38” platinum chip. A hardcover graphic novel “All Roads”, that tells the story of some of the characters and events that lead up to Fallout: New Vegas. “All Roads” was written by Chris Avellone, the game’s creative director, and created in conjunction with Dark Horse Comics. ‘The Making of Fallout: New Vegas’ DVD. This documentary DVD will contain exclusive video content, including interviews with the developers in which they take you from concept to creation and discuss topics such as story, setting, legacy of the Fallout franchise and more.
4. PANO Pano is all about taking beautiful, seamless, panoramic photos straight from your phone! The interface is simple – you can use up to 16 pictures to take a panoramic shot which is easy to do with a semi-transparent guide which helps you line up your shots perfectly. 5. DARKROOM Now you can be practical and take professional images at the same time. Darkroom is a great tool for anyone who wants to do precise image editing. Why limit your creativity to unnatural, computer-generated effects when you can fully control the look of pictures with comprehensive adjustments that let you change brightness and contrast, colour levels, hue, saturation, and more. Adjustments are applied in real time so you can see exactly how your pictures look as you modify them. Just like that.
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OFFICE 2010 DEBUTS As of June 15, 2010 Microsoft Office 2010 will be available for both corporate customers and consumers. The new version of Microsoft’s popular office suite includes a number of interface tweaks and adds new features that take advantage of advances in Microsoft’s collaboration platform, SharePoint. Microsoft is also launching a web-based version of Office called Office Web; it allows anyone with an Internet connection and a home computer to access and use Office applications. Mobile phones also get new versions of Office in June; phones running Windows Mobile 6.5 and later will have received theirs in early May while another version is planned for phones running Windows Phone 7, when it releases later this year.
techno jargon // BY DEON DU PLESSIS
Tech Jargon Some of this month’s reviews have words in them that may be construed as rather nerdy. Thus was born this month’s list of words to be de-jargonised. Enjoy!
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AUXILIARY INPUT: An auxiliary input is the connection between an external audio device and an amplifier. If, for example, you can connect an iPod up to a bedside alarm clock via a 3.5mm cable, that cable counts as the auxiliary input. SPEAKER DRIVER: A speaker driver is made up of an electronic device that converts electrical signal to sound waves; it typically forms part of a speaker system. Drivers are categorised by the frequency of the sound they can produce. Drivers that produce sound ranging from high to low frequencies are super tweeters, mid-range drivers, woofers, and subwoofers. NATIVE RESOLUTION: The native resolution of an LCD screen is the resolution at which the screen puts out the sharpest images. This only happens when the signal the LCD screen is receiving, matches the native resolution of the screen. LCD screens are made up of pixels; when the number of pixels on the screen is greater than that of the image being displayed, the image will need to be enlarged in order to fit the screen. The result is an image that looks distorted. GIGABIT ETHERNET: Whenever you see the word “Ethernet”, it is a reference to a wired network port on your computer. The term seen before “Ethernet” indicates the speed of that connection; in this case, “Gigabit” means that the connection transfers at a speed of 1000 megabits per second, or 100MB per second. This means you can copy 700MB of data, i.e. the entire contents of a CD in 7 seconds.
DYNAMIC DNS: ADSL modems are typically allocated an IP address that changes every 24 hours. If you want to connect to that modem, and the computers attached to them, you’ll need to use its IP address, or its name in order to have your request properly routed through to the correct computer. By subscribing to a Dynamic DNS service, whatever name you have allocated to your router or home PC will always be kept updated with the IP address of your computer, even when it changes. Check out www.dyndns.org for further information. .WAV: .WAV (pronounced “wave”) files are uncompressed audio files. It is a format invented by Microsoft and IBM, and because they are uncompressed, their file sizes are far larger than that of later audio formats like MP3, AAC and others. .MP3: The technical name for an MP3 file, which most people know as music files, is “Motion Picture Experts Group 1 Audio Layer 3”. It is a copyrighted audio codec that compresses audio files significantly by discarding parts of the file that are inaudible to the human ear, and records the remaining audio efficiently. AUDIO AND VIDEO STREAMING: When you listen to a music file from another computer on your network, that is referred to as streaming. YouTube is a video streaming site, as you are viewing a video hosted on YouTube’s servers, over the Internet and on your own computer. Any media file that is hosted on a computer not the one you are viewing it on, is said to be “streamed” over the network you’re using. BONJOUR TECHNOLOGY: Bonjour is a networking standard designed by Apple that allows for the automatic discovery of computers, devices and services on an IP (Internet Protocol) network. Its primary advantage is that it needs no configuration at all in order to work; it allows devices to be allocated IP addresses
without the need for a server, as well as name-to-IP translation without a server specifically set up to perform that function. WEP: As the name suggestes, the Wired Equivalent Privacy protocol was designed to offer wireless networks a level of privacy comparable to that of a wired network. It was replaced in 2003 after vulnerabilities were discovered in 2001 that allowed its security to be broken in minutes by freely-available software. WPA/WPA2: Wi-Fi Protected Access is a method of encrypting a wireless network password so that it cannot be easily hacked by a third party. WPA2 is the latest version of WPA; it introduces CCMP encryption, which is far more difficult to break. VIDEO RIPPING: When you use software to copy the video files off a DVD, this is the act of “ripping” the video to your hard drive. Often video converter software programs will also convert the ripped video into another format, usually one that takes up less space than the original video, but which retains the same overall quality. TOOL-LESS DESIGN: A tool-less computer case is one that needs no tools to take it apart and put it back together again. It’s a fantastic step forward in case design as it eliminates many fiddly steps involved in their assembly. P2P: P2P is a shortening of “Peer-to-Peer”, a method of storing and transferring data that is hosted on several computers rather than a central server or mainframe. If you download a file hosted on a P2P network, you are downloading from many individual computers, all of whom are hosting a portion of the file. P2P programs essentially create a network of interconnected computers; files can be searched for, and if found, downloaded from however many computers have a copy of the file.
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technology lifestyle // DEON DU PLESSIS
FRONT ROW
SEATS! BE ING A TECH -SAVV Y FOOTBALL FAN One way to enjoy all the thrills and spills of the 2010 Fifa World Cup is to buy tickets and watch the games live, in person, at the stadium. Another way is to enjoy them from the comfort of your home, using technology to bring all the action and drama straight into your living room. Here’s how we’re doing it.
12 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
W
hile there is no substitute for actually being there, the reality is that most South Africans will be watching the World Cup games from their homes. Depending on your outlook, that could be the best way to do it as there are no crowds, no overpriced snacks and drinks, and best of all no need to get out of a ridiculously busy parking lot afterwards. If you’re going to be home for the games, then you might as well watch in style.
BEFORE THE GAME? If you’re a soccer fan from way back, chances are you enjoy the sport in more ways than just by watching live and televised games. One of the best ways to do that, apart from playing the game yourself, is to play the many soccer games that are available on PS3, Xbox 360, PC and even Wii. THE BEST For obvious reasons, FIFA believes the best soccer experience on offer is the official “FIFA Soccer World Cup South Africa” game, available on all platforms, everywhere. FIFA Soccer World Cup South Africa Play as your national team from qualifying alll the way up to the World Cup Final, and use a wide range of celebrations to show off just how awesome it feels to score winning goals!! With improved, higher-definition graphics that accurately represent all players and stadiums along with amazingly realistic ball control, this is the biggest and best FIFA World Cup soccer game to date. THE REST Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 While it has no specific World Cup release, PES 2010 is still a great soccer game. Its presentation is different and the ball mechanics are its own, and its fans swear it kills FIFA’s gameplay. Make up your own mind with this PS3exclusive title. Ch Championship Manager 2010 t management is your forte, check If team ou Championship Manager. This venerable out se series has been going since your dad was a bo boy (well, not quite – ed), and it’s all about th the figures. Player stats count towards hhow good your team is, making training s sessions and careful planning paramount t success. to
WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 13
technology lifestyle What you will need:
FIND YOUR WAY
Anyone wanting to find out where to go, what to do, where to eat etc. during the World Cup is in luck – TomTom released a map update last year that includes directions to - and 3D representations of - all 10 World Cup stadiums. Owners of TomTom GPS devices are, therefore, well-catered for. Even better, if people from a selection of 10 countries - SA included - buy a TomTom GO550, GO750 or GO950 in the run-up to the world cup (April 15 to June 8) and their country wins, TomTom will give them their money back!
A REALLY BIG TV
Short of a 3D screen (because honestly, who can really afford one?), the best way to watch the game is on a large HDTV. Preferably one hooked up to an HD decoder so that the action comes to life in highresolution, 60 frames-per-second glory. These days, HDTV costs are falling faster than airline stock prices; you can buy a small 32” HDTV for less than R5000, and doubling that will net you a generous (and infinitely better to watch) 40” LCD-based HDTV with plenty of HDMI inputs for HD decoders, gaming consoles and computers. HD DECODER
MultiChoice’s HD PVR is currently the only way for South Africans to see High Definition broadcasts. MultiChoice will be airing every World Cup game in HD, so if you want to see the matches in the best possible visual quality, you’re going to need to pick one up. The cost of an HD PVR was approximately R3000 when we went to print.
subwoofer and massive speakers. The more the merrier, but even just two speakers and a good sub will deliver rich, roaring sounds; feel free to add more for surround sound if your amplifier supports it. A budget of just R7000 can hook you up with a decent set.
Get your gear on If you’re looking for official FIFA-endorsed items of clothing to show your support at the World Cup, log on to http://store-eu.fifa. com and browse through a wide range of World Cup Soccer wear. Start your online purchasing adventures with T-shirts for 12 Euros and browse your way through many other sportswear items from caps to pendants, hoodies, balls and more! Bring your e-wallet and shop to your heart’s content!
TRACKING FIXTURES AND TEAM STANDINGS
SUPPORTING
BAFANA You’re not a South African soccer supporter if you don’t own a vuvuzela or a Makarapa; to grab yourself these vital fan props, stop at your nearest traffic light and buy them off your friendly neighbourhood street vendor. Haggling is encouraged.
DSTV subscribers have access to SuperSport Active, a service that provides useful information like match fixtures, match times and team standings. By pressing OK on your decoder remote, navigating to Soccer and then selecting the information you’re interested in, you have access to the kind of info that will ensure you don’t miss a second of the action. A KILLER SOUND SYSTEM
So you’re not at the stadium; the next best way to simulate the deafening effect of sixty thousand fans all screaming at once is to get yourself a quality amplifier, a thumping
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mac vs pc // BY TAMARYN WATKINS
YOUR COMPUTER SHOWDOWN! The ins and outs of the Mac versus PC debate You’re shopping for a new computer, and you’re unexpectedly caught at a crossroad: “Should I buy a PC or a Mac?” If this is a question you’re faced with, we’ll help you answer it. We give you the facts, compare the advantages and disadvantages and take you one step closer to being ready to make that important purchase. 16 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
should be the overriding question: what do you intend to do with your new computer? WHAT KIND OF USER ARE YOU?
T
he Mac versus PC argument has drawn on for some time, without any real conclusion – they’re both computers, after all! Both Mac and Windows PCs have Intel processors, not to mention the fact that they’re both used primarily for e-mail, web browsing, word processing and photo editing. Stripped of all excess noise, the Mac versus Windows PC choice comes down to four main concerns that you would usually have when it comes to purchasing a new computer. You need to know about the price, the looks, the speed and the capability of the model. These factors hinge on other factors, of course, and influencing your decision
What do you get, right out the box? PC most Windows-based machines come with the standard operating system and the bare-boned essentials. Anything else you might require (like Microsoft Office or Photoshop, webcam software and other hardware peripherals like a webcam or networking card) will need to be a separate purchase. Mac comes complete with everything you’ll need. Built in 802.11n networking Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, webcam and a complete range of apps to cater
THE DEDICATED GAMER: Because there is a wider market for Windows-based games you’re guaranteed a greater variety of title selections when it comes to gaming. Recommendation: you’d probably prefer a Windows-based desktop or laptop. THE DIY USER: Because of the sheer volume of Windows-based PCs out there, there’s a wide demand for hardware and peripherals, and a wide demand means a better price tag. Recommendation: a Windows machine will suit you if you like swapping out hardware and modifying your computer. THE MEDIA-HOLIC: If the quest to create the perfect home entertainment centre is your life’s goal, then being able to hook up your television to your computer to create a media centre for games, music and movies and Internet TV will probably rock your boat. Recommendation: you’ll probably want something that comes with the full version of Windows 7. THE CORPORATE SUIT: If you’re thinking along purely business-related tasks, you’ll still be thinking PC. Although equivalent Mac software is available, most business software is written for Windows. Recommendation: a Windows-powered notebook. THE SNEAKER PATROL USER: These are the users that claim they need their personal computer to distinguish them from the corporate suits – they are the creative segment of the computing population. Recommendation: If your sole focus is creative productivity, you’ll be better suited to Mac, considered the hands-down winner when it comes to professional editing or graphic production software.
for your every need. iPhoto, iDVD, iMovie, iCal, Mail, iTunes, PhotoBooth, GarageBand and Google Earth come standard on a Mac. You will, however, also have to purchase additional advanced software like Photoshop and Microsoft Office for Mac. With the exception of certain games, most Windowsbased software programmes, such as Microsoft Office, are available for Mac OS X as well. Not to mention the fact that you can install a Windows operating system on a Mac along with PC applications, which means with Mac, you get the best of both worlds.
THE PC
PICKING LIST 1 STRENGTH IN NUMBERS: comes from the fact that there are more computers in this world running Windows, than any other operating system, this means more software is written for Windows so you will be able to find virtually any application you need. 2 CHOICE IS KING: as there are more hardware devices made for PCs than for Mac and this includes video cards, networking products, and other experience-enhancing peripherals. 3 IT’S EASIER TO TAILOR ONE TO YOUR NEEDS: because you might not need a built-in webcam or a DVD burner, you’re able to spend that money buying other extras that you do need, like more RAM or a better graphics card. Upgrading is simple, as is maintenance and troubleshooting. 4 ALL YOUR ENTERTAINMENT IN ONE PLACE: with Windows Media Center you get one place to enjoy your photos and music, watch and record live TV, and watch free Internet TV. 5 NETWORKING AND FILE SHARING IN LESS THAN THREE CLICKS: it’s a snap with other Windows 7 computers, and you can manage printers, file sharing and other devices from one central location.
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mac vs pc BUT WHAT CAN IT DO?
Now, more than ever, the internal workings of both Mac and Windows computers are remarkably similar. Both machines use Intel processors, although some PCs can be configured with AMD processors. Both manufacturers buy their memory, hard drives and graphics cards from the same small cache of suppliers. The underlying operating systems offer some variety, but in terms of functionality Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard feature surprisingly similar built-in multimedia, Internet and productivity applications.
DOES SECURITY COUNT? In terms of virus protection, it’s often said how Macs are impervious to bugs and other nasties. While not entirely accurate, they are impervious to PC viruses, which makes sense because a Mac isn’t a PC. Macs are not infallible, but are definitely more secure. However, with good virus protection and some commonsense browsing habits, there’s no reason your PC’s security should ever be compromised.
CAN I GET AN UPGRADE ON THAT?
5
MUST-HAVE
MAC
REASONS 1 PLUG AND PLAY, RIGHT
OUT THE BOX with loads of preloaded applications. 2 INSTANTLY CONNECTED: your Mac will have you covered from all angles and networking is instant and hassle-free. 3 SECURITY AND RELIABILITY YOU NEVER HAVE TO THINK ABOUT: automatic protection from PC viruses and the Mac OS X is based on the UNIX OS, which simply has no need to crash. 4 DIGITAL LIFESTYLE
PARTNER: iLife is a collection of software that is designed to enhance your digital life with everything from photo-editing, movie editing, to making your own music or designing websites. 5 NO TROUBLESHOOTING NECESSARY: All the tutorials you might want to brush up on to learn the best tips and tricks, can be found on the Apple website.
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IS THE PRICE RIGHT?
There’s a conception that PCs are cheaper than Macs. Yes, at price tag value they might be. But if you consider everything that comes with a Mac, and everything that doesn’t come with a PC, you start to see a different picture. When you add up all the things you’ll need to buy along with your PC, your credit card is less likely to take strain if you made that Mac purchase. That being said, if your needs are basic, and you don’t need all the bells and whistles of a Mac, there’s a Windows-based desktop or notebook out there that has your name on it. Just be wary of any deal that seems too cheap and remember that you always get what you pay for. DO LOOKS REALLY MATTER?
There’s no doubt that Macs are sleek, professionallooking machines. Matching peripherals lend Mac products a sense of unity and cohesion. They’re pleasing to the eye on the outside, as well as on the inside. The user interface on a Mac is slick and everything looks good. However, when it comes to choice, you’ve pretty much got three options in both the desktop and notebook category. For desktops, there’s the iMac, the Pro and the Mini. For notebooks there’s the MacBook, the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air. When it comes to Windows-based machines, the options are near endless. Different shapes, sizes, colours, designs and materials are combined to give an overwhelming selection of desktops, notebooks and netbooks. The options in terms of peripherals and additional hardware are rather extensive too. So if you’re all in favour of variety being the spice of life, you probably wont lean toward Mac machines.
When it comes to upgrading obsolete hardware, claims that it’s cheaper to upgrade a PC must be met with a reminder that Mac hardware is built with longevity in mind. Conversely, accessories and peripherals for the PC are plentiful and inexpensive because of the sheer number of manufacturers.
BUT CAN YOU USE IT? The most important feature of them all is, of course, user-friendliness, for the sole reason that the user is the most important aspect of the computer itself. Familiarity is generally all Microsoft Windows has going for it. Compatibility issues are no longer problematic, as Office documents and the like, open on both the Windows OS and the Mac OS X.
MAC ARGUMENT AGAINST USING WINDOWS “It’s a nightmare to use as it’s difficult to manage the taskbar in Windows, locating files can be a pain and juggling a number of tasks can be frustrating. Installing new software or hardware can be an exercise both in patience and futility.” THE REALITY – Microsoft has come a long way since XP and Windows 7 is a snap to use and comes with thousands of drivers to make just about any hardware work. A little bit of persistence, and you shouldn’t have too much hassle with new installations. WINDOWS ARGUMENT AGAINST USING MAC “There’s no Start button and no taskbar and we don’t know how to install hardware without the software.” THE REALITY – The Mac OS is simple, and the dashboard and dock bar make it easy to keep track of your tasks and toggle between them. There’s also the famed ‘plug-and-play’ capability that’s usually attributed to Mac. While mostly true, it must be remembered that not everything in life runs smoothly all of the time, and that there are help forums on the Apple website for a reason. Choosing a computer is a personal decision, and is ultimately down to you, so while we cant tell you which you should buy, you’ll now be able to make that informed decision, yourself.
buying advice //BY DEON DU PLESSIS
KEEP YOUR DATA
MOBILE W What is an external hard drive, why would you need one and which one w sshould you choose? Connect answers tthese questions and more in this m monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Buying Advice feature.
Seagate FreeAgent Go Pink
20 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
What makes a portable hard drive worth my money?
We’re fond of the following:
Verbatim 3.5” 1.5TB external drive
T
here is no such thing as too much storage. Whenever you get a new computer, or buy a new hard drive, chances are you think to yourself that you’ll never fill it. We’re prepared to bet that sentiment doesn’t last, and before long you’re contemplating yet another hard drive purchase. The answer, at least temporarily, is an external hard drive. Not only will you not be taking up yet more space inside your computer case, you’ll acquire portability to boot. The question, then, becomes “which drive to choose?”, which is where we come in. But first, the basics.
WHAT IS AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE?
An external hard drive is a means of storing data, without needing to install a storage device into your computer. Hard drives are primarily made up of round metal discs that store data by way of a
magnetic recording technique. The data they store is semi-permanent, as it will be there for years, but it will not last forever due to the degradation of the magnetic charge of the drive’s metal platters over time. By installing a hard drive in a plastic or metal casing called an “external drive cage” that connects the hard drive to an external port on a computer’s motherboard, manufacturers have created hard drives that can be carried around in your pocket. WHERE DO THEY PLUG IN?
• Build quality – whether the drive cage is sturdy and can take a few knocks without damaging the hard drive inside. Metal drive cages are best, followed closely by drives covered in rubbery material. • Lights – Indicators of drive activity and power. These are handy for seeing whether the drive is plugged in and powered, and whether it’s transferring data. Great for troubleshooting.
External hard drives most commonly make use of the standard USB interface, as most computers are equipped with these. USB ports are good for the average file transfer, as they typically transfer data at speeds of around 20MB per second, but for faster transfers upwards of 60MB per second, FireWire ports are recommended. FireWire is a connection standard developed by Apple and a handful of other companies; it boasts very quick transfer speeds which is great for large file transfers, but it’s not a common standard. Also, external hard drives that support it are more expensive than their USB-only counterparts. tha
WHICH IS BEST? W
It re really depends on how you plan on using the drive. For portability the there is no beating a 2.5” drive, but for more permanent storage and the increased capacities they support, 3.5” drives are a better choice. For example, if you move data between work and home a lot, or if yyou have multiple PCs at home and a slow wireless network, it’s better to have a compact 2.5” drive that you can use to transfer large bet am amounts of data between your computers. If, on the other hand, you just want to expand the storage cap capabilities of your work or home computer and you don’t need to physically move the drive much, a 3.5” drive is better. It can store phy Iomega more data than a 2.5” can, and the fact that it needs mains power Prestige 2.5” drive mo wo won’t be a downer.
• Power switch – Applicable to 3.5” drives only. Turning it off in times of inactivity saves power and reduces wear and tear on the drive, extending its lifespan. • 7200RPM drives – these spin faster, and therefore transfer data faster. 5400RPM drives are cheaper, but slower. • Cache – Make sure your drive has plenty of cache; 8MB and up is ideal. WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 21
buying advice //BY DEON DU PLESSIS
Wha at a re t h e typical us ses of external hard drives? Transporting data If you want to share your files with a friend who lives far away, or copy large files between two computers, or take your documents with you on an overseas trip, a portable drive is for you.
Iomega eGo Portable
HOW BIG ARE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES?
Iomega eGo Camo Ruggedised
There are two types – small, compact drives that don’t require external power, and large, bulky drives that require power from a wall socket. The reason for the differences is the smaller drives contain 2.5” laptop hard drives, which use far less power, and the larger drives are based on 3.5” desktop computer hard drives. WHAT CAPACITIES ARE AVAILABLE?
2.5” drives – You’ll find anything from 160GB to 500GB in the 2.5” range. The limited capacities are due to the physical dimensions of these drives, but on the bright side you’ll get true portability, and let’s be honest, 500GB is quite a lot of storage space. 3.5” drives – These drives come in capacities of anything from 160GB all the way up to 1.5Terabytes. If you want the most megabytes from a single drive, the best choice is definitely a 3.5-incher. Media type
Typical size
# of files a 1TB drive can store
Feature-length .Avi movie
700Mb
1428
Raw dvd movie data
4.8Gb
208
Hd movie file (.Mkv etc.)
8Gb
125
Music file (mp3
Aac etc.)
4Mb
Documents (.Docx
.Txt)
40Kb
22 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
Backups Backing up any modern PC is a data-intensive task, requiring scads of hard drive space. External drives are well-suited to storing backup data; with all that space at your disposal, you can set automatic backups through Windows to back up critical files to the drive at a time of your choosing.
Verbatim 2.5” 500GB executive
Network Attached Storage (NAS) Some routers allow you to connect USB drives directly to them, which can then be accessed over the home or work network. This is a great way to expand the amount of storage available to your family, or workers in an office environment.
Final words Get as much space as your budget will allow. If moving the drive is not a priority, forget about getting a sturdy casing, and rather go for space. One Terabyte, or one thousand Gigabytes, is a lot. Also, we highly recommend you take a look at what is available from your local retailer, note down the model names, and research each make and model extensively on the Internet to see what other users are saying about them before committing to a purchase.
1THREAD_2422_SAW
A great story is in the detail. Tell your story in spectacular resolution on the new Canon EOS 550D. 18 MP and full HD movie with manual control means that every element of your story, still or moving, is captured in stunning detail. With high ISO performance for low light conditions, 9 point auto focus system and 3.7 frames per second continuous shooting capability, the Canon EOS 550D lets you take stories your way. Follow the full story at canon.co.uk/takestories
take more than pictures. take stories.
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surfing the web //BY TIANA CLINE
FaFsotx as a
Some use Internet Explorer, others use Safari… but those who choose Firefox as their preferred web browser know a thing or two about exploring the Internet. Why choose Mozilla’s free option? Connect looks at Mozilla’s open source advantage.
T
here are lots of little details that make Firefox a great web browser. From the location bar that comes with an “auto complete function” that matches sites with your browsing history (as well as sites you’ve bookmarked and tagged in a drop down) to one-click bookmarking – one click on the star icon at the end of the location bar bookmarks a site. Two clicks and you can choose where to save it and whether to tag it. Organisation has never been easier! The more you use your tags and bookmark names in the location bar, the more the system will adapt to your preferences.
24 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
TIPS AND TRICKS
SPELLING BEE Did you know that Firefox has a built-in spell checker that lets you enter text directly into Web pages – like blog posts and Webbased e-mail – without worrying about typos and misspellings. If you work directly off the web, you’ll save yourself a step. SEE BETTER If you cannot handle tiny text on screen or want to see an image bigger, there is an easy way to zoom in and out of web pages. To zoom in, hold down CTRL (on PC) or CMD (on an Apple machine) and the plus key. To zoom out, do the same, but press the minus key. To get the screen back to normal, press zero.
SURF IN STYLE
Your iPhone goes in a funky case and your laptop has a customised skin, so why should your web browser be any different? When using Firefox, Personas are easy-to-install, easy-to-use themes that change the look of your Firefox web browser. There are thousands of Personas to choose from, with more added every day. All you need to do is to visit the Personas gallery and start looking for designs that fit your style. In less than 60 seconds, you can install a Persona. All you need to do is click the green download button and after the installation, you’ll be asked to quickly restart Firefox. Once Personas is installed, you’ll be able to choose and change your selected Persona any time simply by clicking on the little fox mask in the lower left corner of your browser window or by visiting the gallery and selecting a different design. TIP HOW TO UNDO A PERSONA DESIGN To undo the design you most recently selected, click on the little fox in the bottom left corner of your browser, click on “Recently Selected” and the design you were using before. If you prefer not to have a Persona design (i.e., grey chrome), click on the little fox and select “Default.” Similar to the iGoogle widgets, Firefox has optional add-ons. An add-on can be a new timesaving toolbar button, a shortcut to search, a themed look and many other mini-programs that promise to make browsing that much easier.
SHORTCUT SIMPLIFICATION It’s always good to know your way around a keyboard, and every program comes with handy go-to key combinations that simplify steps that would otherwise require you to go looking in the file menu. We recommend learning these super-quick Firefox combos: > Scroll down the page: Space bar > Scroll up the page: Shift + space bar > Move cursor to the location bar: CTRL or CMD + L > Move cursor to the search box: CTRL or CMD + K > Refresh the page: CTRL or CMD + R > Back: CTRL or CMD + ß > Forward: CTRL or CMD + à
SEARCH SMART Like many other web browsing offerings, Firefox has a built-in search bar. But did you know you can customise it with any search engine you want instead of opting for the Google standard? How do you do this? Click on the icon to the left of your search bar to see the menu of default options or go to “Manage Search Engines” to rearrange the list, add additional choices and assign keyboard shortcuts to your favourite search engines.
5 Firefox Features SUPER SPEED: Using far less of your computer’s memory, see web pages faster. SESSION RESTORE: Computer frozen and you don’t remember the address of the web page you visited? Go back to exactly where you left off. Just like that.
PERSONAS: Instantly change the appearance of your browser with loads of easy-to-install Firefox themes. ONE-CLICK BOOKMARKING: Search, bookmark and organise your best websites with ease and speed. ANTI-PHISHING & ANTIMALWARE: Experience the most advanced protection against online baddies.
WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 25
boosting your battery life //BY TAMARYN WATKINS
If you think about how much time you spend out of the home or office you really start to realise how important that cellphone or laptop battery is. With much of the technology weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve come to take for granted in our lives being batterypowered, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s essential to take into consideration proper battery care and maintenance, in order to ensure that your battery lasts for as long as possible.
Battery Care & Maintenance Made Simple
26 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
LAPTOP POWER Working outside the office is impossible without the use of a notebook or netbook. Most laptops today are equipped with Li-ion batteries, but older models may run off a NiMH or NiCd battery making it important for you to learn your model’s specifications so you can follow the correct usage practices. This is the only way you’ll be able to achieve maximum battery power. The manual that was included with your laptop should provide you with particular information on how to charge your battery for the first time. If it’s a NiMH or a NiCd battery, you’ll want to use this time to condition your battery properly to avoid the onset of the memory effect, which can deteriorate battery integrity and give you less performance time.
5
Quick power-saving tips 1 Turn off your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth if you’re not using it to
prevent the battery getting drained by the constant search for a connection. 1 Don’t play games, music or DVD movies as these multimedia activities rapidly diminish battery charge. 1 Disconnect all external device like card modems, FireWire, USB devices and optical drives if they’re not essential and use your touchpad instead of an external mouse. 1 Adjust your screen brightness and dim your display to save battery power. 1 Tweak your power options and choose a laptop power scheme that turns off the monitor and hard disk after five minutes of inactivity.
First-time charging: It’s vital that you charge the battery on your new laptop fully before you do anything with it. You may have to work through the battery’s cycle a few times before it starts to perform at its maximum potential, but this is easy to do and simply requires that you charge your battery fully and then let it discharge to about five percent before fully charging it again. High maintenance: There are a few things you can do to keep your laptop battery in tiptop shape. One of the most important things to remember is to never let your battery stay connected to a power source once it’s fully charged, as this leaves the battery in a constant state of charging which will gradually reduce its life cycle. Once the battery is charged, unplug your laptop’s AC adapter and only plug it in once you’re running low on power again. It’s also important not to expose the battery to heat or extreme cold, so this means that you shouldn’t leave your laptop in the car in summer, or forget it in the fridge, once you’ve made that midnight snack. Proper maintenance, together with some smart handling, should ensure that you wouldn’t have to leave your pool lounger to recharge your laptop battery in the office.
Types of batteries: Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries: newest est technology batteries that offer 10-20% better performance rformance than older batteries. While not susceptible ptible to the ‘memory effect’, they will benefifit from an initial conditioning. For the first three charge cycles, fully charge the battery overnight and allow it to fully discharge before recharging.
The Memory Effect Also known as the lazy battery syndrome. This is a phenomenon that causes certain rechargeable batteries to hold less charge. It usually occurs as a result of the battery being repeatedly recharged without it being fully discharged.
BATTERY SAVING MODES: which one should you use? Stand-by mode: Use this when you are away from the computer for a short time while working. Your monitor and hard disks will turn off, and all applications and open files will be stored in RAM so when you return your desktop will restore as you left it.
Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries: provide at least 30% more performance time than NiCd batteries and proper conditioning of a NiMH battery over it’s lifetime will greatly reduce the potential for ‘memory effect’. This can be done by ensuring the battery is fully discharged before recharging at least once in every 3-5 charge cycles. Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) batteries: the oldest technology still available and while they offer good performance, NiCd batteries are highly susceptible to the ‘memory effect.’
Hibernation mode: Use this when you are away from the computer for an extended time while working. Your computer will shut down to save power, but save everything first so when you restart, your desktop will be restored as you left it. WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 27
boosting your battery life
5
Quick power-saving tips 1 Switch off your phone when not in use. Give your phone
some downtime, and save your battery for when you really need it. 2 You can significantly improve battery life by altering the brightness of the backlight, turning down the volume on your ringtone or switching the vibrate notifications off. 3 Don’t do too many different things at once. Having numerous applications open and inactive can be draining on the battery, so close them when you’re done. Playing games, listening to music or web browsing also drain battery life considerably. 4 Switch off Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity when not being used, or at least change the settings so a connection requires a prompt from you so that your device isn’t constantly searching for a connection and thereby draining the battery. 5 Searching for signal can be a strain on yourr battery, battery so if you’re in a poor reception area, it’s better to switch off your phone completely.
CELLPHONE POWER It’s always an inconvenience when the battery on your mobile phone dies. Avoid being out of touch by ensuring you care for your cellphone’s battery correctly. First time charging: Generally the different battery types have their own requirements when being charged, but for that very first charge they should all be treated the same, as this is the most important charge in the lifetime of your mobile phone battery. With a brand new phone it’s tempting to give it a quick charge before playing for the first time, yet you should resist the urge. Your new phone should first be charged for about 12 hours to make sure the battery is at its peak. This may require you to ignore the fact that the screen may bring up the battery-full symbol after a few hours as most batteries charge to half-capacity in a matter of minutes, but then start to slow charge, and at around 90% full they switch to trickle-charging. For this reason you should actually charge your phone overnight. 28 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
High Maintenance: Once the initial charge is complete you should adopt the charging routine appropriate to your battery type to help make it last longer. NiCd batteries should be fully discharged every second charge cycle before being recharged, which involves letting the device shut itself down when the battery is empty. A NiMH battery can withstand a few top-up charges between full charges, so you should be able to fully discharge and recharge only once a week. LiIon batteries don’t need the full discharge at all and can easily run on regular top-up charges whenever low, although it’s recommended that you perform a from-empty charge once a month.
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• Built-in duplex print functionality, which allows you to halve your paper consumption. • Paper Saver mode, which allows you to copy multiple pages onto one sheet. • Eco Mode, which instantly reduces power consumption.
• 48-bit colour scanner, 1200 x 4800 dpi res; • Ethernet 10/100BaseTX (RJ-45), USB 2.0 Hi-Speed, USB passthrough via PictBridge, 802.11b/g/n Wireless;
online payments //BY JOHANN BARNARD
F Hey Pal, want some money? Secure online payment service PayPal is finally available in South Africa, opening up a world of new opportunities and features for even the most non websavvy users. Connect explores retail therapy in the 21st Century. 30 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
or too long South African Internet users have had to assume the role of the kid left to gaze longingly through the sweet shop’s window while more well-off schoolmates gorge themselves on exotic treats. One of the largest obstacles for these users has been the ability to safely and securely make online purchases. While numerous payment services are available in mature markets, South Africans have had to work through third or fourth-party providers – something like paying the street sweeper to approach the candy store owner’s son to buy the required goodies, with each one dipping into your bag of sweets to extract their cut. The announcement in March this year that First National Bank has partnered with PayPal is therefore like being given your dad’s credit card to buy whatever you desire in that candy store you craved for so long. Why choose PayPal? This US-based service has established itself as the pre-eminent online payment system accepted by the majority of online retailers, while also acting as a personal payment and funds transfer method. It’s popularity is based on the ability to make payments
without having to share your credit card details with any retailers you buy from. FNB account holders now have the added benefit of linking a qualifying savings, transmission or cheque account to their South African PayPal account. This removes the requirement for a credit card, while also allowing users to transfer receipts from the PayPal account into the linked FNB account.
Types of qualifying FNB accounts: Most FNB savings, cheque and transmission accounts can be used to link to your PayPal account to effect top-up or withdraw transactions. In order to use this facility you will have to enable Internet banking. Qualifying savings accounts include: Smart Account IslamicFinance Smart Account Mzansi Account
Gimme, gimme, gimme! There is virtually no limit to where you can use your PayPal account, with more than 153 million accounts worldwide in 190 markets. Most popular online retailers accept PayPal, while it’s also becoming common for accommodation establishments to accept payment in this manner, although of course it is the online shopping community that leads the way. It is safe to say that more South African businesses, service providers and online retailers will soon be adopting PayPal as a payment method. These are the pros and cons ... While it is extremely convenient to link any other bank’s credit card to your PayPal account, there are significant benefits to opening an FNB account – even if only for the privilege of gaining access to PayPal. Firstly, with an FNB-linked account, you can not only transfer funds into your PayPal account, but also withdraw from that account into your bank account … and then into your grubby little paws. With a non-FNB credit card-linked account, the funds remain in the PayPal account, although obviously that can be used to make purchases, but cannot be converted into cash.
As simple as 1, 2, 3 … Log on to www.paypal.com/za and click on the ‘Sign up’ button. You can then choose between a Personal, Premier or Business account with the first allowing you to shop online only, the second providing the ability to also sell goods/services online and the last obviously for business owners. You will then be asked to enter your personal details you want associated with your PayPal account. You can now link this account to a qualifying FNB account or even to a Visa, Mastercard or American Express card from any other bank, to enable the account. If you have an FNB account it’s as simple as entering the account details, transferring money to your PayPal account and you’re good to go. For security purposes, you will be asked to verify your
account and details by responding to an email from PayPal that confirms that you are who you said you are. If you don’t bank with FNB, but have have another bank’s credit card you can still sign up, using your credit card instead of a bank account from which to transfer funds. You’re presented with a number of hoops to jump through to complete this process, but none too onerous or difficult. Once you’ve entered your credit card details, you will then receive an email from PayPal with instructions to validate your credit card. This takes the form of a $1.95 charge on your card that is refunded once you’ve completed the verification process. This charge is made because PayPal inserts a 4-digit code into the item description on your credit card statement, which you need to complete the verification process.
No thanks, Pal PayPal is not not the theonly onlyway wayto tosafely safelymake makeonline onlinepayments, payments,with with PayPal Internetand andcellphone-based cellphone-basedsystems systemsavailable availabletoto a range of Internet consumers. The The following followingservices servicesare arewell wellworth worthchecking checkingout: out: consumers.
Pocit (www.pocit.co.za) Pocit is a South African-developed secure, cost-effective and easy-touse cellphone payments system that allows you to make and receive payments, knowing only the other party’s cellphone number. You can use your credit card, a bank account or Pocit Money to pay from. Pocit is bank- and cellphone network-independent. Wizzit (www.wizzit.co.za) W Wizzit is another South African W bbanking innovation that allows ppeople to make and receive payments uusing either a cellphone or Internetbased banking. This service is linked to the Bank of Athens in South Africa and also allows conventional transactional banking. M-Pesa This is a new cellphone-based money transfer service brought to South Africa by Vodacom and Nedbank. Transfers can be made between M-Pesa users, and does not require any bank accounts to be held held. MTN Banking MT M SSimilar Si m to M-Pesa in that it is a cellphonebbased service, in this case linked to SStandard Bank, that allows you to pay individuals or even your bills. The reach of the linked services you can pay is still a little limited though. MiMoney This is another South African cellphone-based service, and one that is also linked to a select number like, that ber of retailers and the like allows you to make purchases (such as airtime, from kalahari. net, etc), while also being able to send and receive money from MiMoney users.
WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 31
HEWLETT PACKARD WIRELESS WONDERS
HP is dedicated to creating the perfect home or office workspace, and wireless print technology is the ultimate step in creating a space that’s simple in design and highly convenient. It’s easy to turn any home or office into a comfortable, user-friendly space that’s free from cable clutter. Wireless printing means users don’t have to be chained to their desks anymore and that multiple users sharing a space can share a single print device, which makes a significant impact on budget. PULL THE PLUG: WI-FI PRINTING Simplify your workspace by purchasing a Wi-Fi enabled printer to work with your existing wireless network. The advantages of network printing include: • Mobility: users can print from anywhere in the office using a notebook computer. • Cable-free: No more cord clutter in the workspace. The length of printer cables no longer determines the placement of office equipment. When hooked up wirelessly, a printer can even be placed out of sight in a closet or back room. • Savings: Share a single printer with an entire office or home space. This means saving on hardware and energy costs, as having a printer for each PC works out to be extremely costly. • Speed and range: Wi-Fi printing is quick and has an extensive range of approximately 300 feet. WHAT DO I NEED FOR WIRELESS PRINTING? Each wireless print connection method requires there to be a pre-existing wireless network. A wireless network is made of the following: 1. Broadband Internet connection – which includes a cable or ADSL modem 2. Wireless router – which is a Wireless Access Point that allows communication between the computer, printer and Internet 3. Connection between computer and wireless router: either wireless or using an Ethernet cable. 4. Wi-Fi enabled printer: many HP printers feature built-in wireless capabilities.
GETTING STARTED: With HP wireless technology multi-function devices, it’s easy to set up your own wireless home or office printing networks. Here are three ways to get you started. 1. One-Touch Set Up: perfect for those with an integrated push-button and Wi-Fi Protected Setup router: Use your printer’s intelligent TouchSmart screen to access the Network setup menu to select the Push Button Setup method and then press the WPS (WiFi Protected Setup) button on the wireless router to complete the connection. Once the printer is connected to the wireless network, it’s time to install the software that’s included with the printer to allow the printer and PC to communicate wirelessly. 2. Network Connection Wizard: perfect for those without a push-button router: Access the Setup menu from the printer touchscreen, select Wireless Setup Wizard option and choose a network to join. Once the network is located, the network password will be needed. Once the printer is connected to the wireless network, the next step is to install the included software to allow the printer and PC to communicate. 3. Wired for wireless: Connect one printer via USB to a computer so it can be shared wirelessly with others: Insert the installation CD (included with the printer) and simply follow the on-screen directions. Remember that the USB cable should only be connected when the installation software requires it, and not before. Other computers on the network can then utilise this central print point.
HP WIRELESS INKJET WONDERS: HP OfficeJet Pro 8500: Inkjet printer, scanner, copier and fax This device is intended to meet the demands of a SME, as multiple users on a network can access and utilise the highperformance scanning, copying and faxing functionalities. It offers direct photo printing from memory cards and PictBridge cameras and has an additional USB port for any other device. With a 3.4” touch screen display; this device can be controlled while the user is out of reach of their computer. Tech Cheat Sheet: • 35ppm mono/34ppm colour prints • 3ppm fax • 48-bit colour scanner • monthly duty cycle: 15,000 pages
HP WIRELESS LASERJET WONDERS: HP LaserJet P1102W: laser printer (Wireless and USB Models available) This compact device brings the convenience of shared, wireless printing, with 802.11b/g wireless power. With print speeds of up to 8ppm, and consumables with a 1600 page lifespan, you’re bound to get high volume documentation from this device. It features only monochrome output, which is perfect for printing all the office paperwork, and can handle a variety of print media and papers. Tech Cheat Sheet: • 18ppm mono prints • 802.11b/g networking (optional) & 1 USB • Compatible with Mac & Windows • monthly duty cycle: 5,000 pages
PRODUCT REVIEWS // BY DEON DU PLESSIS
WELCOME WORLD
A
s this edition of Connect hits store shelves, the world will be visiting our shores to share in the amazing experience that is the 2010 FIFA World Cup extravaganza! To all our foreign friends: welcome to South Africa, we’re sure you’ll enjoy your stay. This month’s products were a pleasantly surprising bunch; one of the most pleasant surprises was Iomega’s iConnect, a very cool and very handy device that connects up to two USB printers or up to four USB hard drives to a wired or wireless network. It’s Iomega like you’ve never seen it before! I hope you enjoy this month’s products; catch you on the flipside, and GO BAFANA! 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.
34 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
REVIEWS 36 37 38 39 40 42 43 44 45 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 56 57 58 59 60
BOSE SoundDock II HP Pavilion DV6-2150ei Notebook Belkin N+ Wireless Modem Router Nero Multimedia Suite 10 Apple AirPort Express Packard Bell iXtreme I8231 Canon Selphy ES3 Wireless Photo Printer Flex Fl exib ible le UUSB SB KKey eybo boar ardd Logi Lo gite tech ch KK34 3400 Wi Wire rele less ss Key Keybo boar ardd Iomega Screenplay TV Link HD Director’s Edition Siemens Euroset 5020 Telephone Logitech S125i Portable iPod Speakers Cano Ca nonn Po Powe werS rSho hott SX SX21 2100 AAsus P5KPL AM SE Motherboard Cool CCo oler er M Mas aste terr R3 R310 10 EElilite te Cha Chass ssis is Acer 22” Notebook Upgrade Kit Iomega iConnect Wireless Data Statioon QuiickB kBookks SSiimple l St Startt Adobe PhotoShop Elements Interactive 3D K53 Learner’s License Software Books
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5
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SONY WEARABLE WALKMAN PLAYER
The new all-in-one Sony Wearable MP3 Player gives you music that you can wear and experience in total freedom.
PHILIPS DC570 DIGITAL PLAYER SPEAKER TOWER
The vertical design of this docking station is intended to take up as little space as possible, while still producing excellent sound output. Also features an FM tuner, alarm clock and a variety of inputs, including USB.
36 | CONNECT | JUNE 2009
BOSE SoundDock Series II NEED TO KNOW • Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch and any iPod featuring a click wheel. • Auxiliary input lets you play other sound devices • Comes with infrared remote control • Updated sleek design R3 999.95
THE Bose SoundDock Series II is the improved version of the original SoundDock, which supported only the iPod. There’s now support for a wide range of iPods as well as the iPhone, which is a welcome improvement. There have also been a number of other improvements, tweaks and additions. Let’s have a quick look at them now. This version of SoundDock is bigger and slightly more expensive than previous SoundDock models, but for all its size, it’s still pretty compact – measuring 17” across and 9”high. It has a hefty subwoofer at its heart and two Bose Twiddler transducers, (no, we’re not making this up – it’s an arrangement consisting of a high-frequency transducer and a midrange driver) all of which deliver the music quality that’s designed to please even the most finicky audiophile. The output that this device is capable of is rather startling, and although the bass is deep enough to rock your world, it won’t get you in trouble with the neighbours. In terms of looks, we still see much of the classic, sophisticated and understated minimalism we’ve come to expect from the SoundDock devices, except it’s been slightly softened and the edges and lines have been smoothed, to give a much sleeker profile. It has an unobtrusive footprint and will fit perfectly anywhere in your home. The SoundDock Series II digital music system is an Apple-certified product, which means that it is and compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and any iPod featuring a click wheel, including all nano, mini, photo, video and classic models. Usability is extended by the fact that there’s an auxiliary input that allows you to hook up to another sound system, like a CD player, a portable DVD player, an mp3 player or even your computer. There’s also the option to listen to music on headphones, which is handy for when your iPod’s battery has died and you want to listen to music without disturbing anyone around you. Functionally, Bose still seems to think that simplicity is more important than user- adjustability and control. None of the previous SoundDocks have other buttons, switches, dials, or options either on top or in front – they’re pretty much like blank slates, and have about the same level of functionality. So it’s no surprise that SoundDock Series II continues the same trend with regard to features and you can plug your iPod or iPhone into the dock and listen to music or podcasts, or audio books. Want to adjust treble or bass? You can’t. The only adjustments
you can make are volume and you can switch between songs or chapters in your audio book. So if the functionality of this device is so limited, why are we so keen to recommend it to you? Firstly, because of the sound quality. You don’t need to adjust the bass or the treble, and you don’t really even need to turn the volume down – all you’ll want to do is turn it louder. Secondly because it actually works with the iPhone, something that most docking stations designed for iPods actually fail to do. Also, if you’ve ever plugged an iPhone into a docking station, and listened to music and then suddenly heard a deafening buzz of interference that signals a text message attempting to coming through, you’ll be pleased to know that this device is intended to eliminate audio interference caused by wireless communications. This is something that’s called ‘GSM-shielding’, and it’s probably one of the smartest updates to this device. The SoundDock is also capable of charging your iPod or iPhone and playing music simultaneously. Talk about multi-tasking, right? The SoundDock also comes with an infrared remote and it allows you to access the menu of your iPod or iPhone and to control the volume. If you’ve misplaced your remote, like we tend so often to do, you’ll be pleased to know that there’s also some volume buttons on the unit itself. Unlike the previous version of the SoundDock, this one has no space for a battery pack and is intended to be powered solely by being plugged directly into a wall socket. This is not a problem, as this device is intended to be an all-in-one docking, listening and charging station for your iPod or iPhone – it’s not intended for portability or mobility. So if you’re looking for something that works well with your iPhone, then we assure you – look no further than the Bose SoundDock Series II. NOTEWORTHY SPECS • Proprietary Bose audio technology • Infrared remote control • Works with iPhone, iPod touch and any iPod featuring a click wheel. PROS
CONS
• Cuts out interference from wireless communication activity on the iPhone • Sound quality is impressive for such a compact device • Play and charge, simultaneously
• Can’t adjust bass or treble • No additional features like alarm clock or FM tuner
OVERALL RATING
TOP
PRODUCT REVIEWS
5
PERFECT COMPANIONS
HP Pavilion DV6-2150ei Entertainment Notebook NEED TO KNOW • The kind of notebook notebooks aspire to be • Based on Intel’s Core i5 mobile processor • Entertainment-centric hardware and features R15 999.95
WHEN you go notebook shopping, chances are good that what you’re looking for is available, but at a price that puts you off. Not so with HP’s new DV6 Entertainment Notebook – it’s got tons going for it, from speed to looks to excellent build quality, all for a price which - while not what anyone would call cheap - is still excellent for what you’re getting. This particular DV6 from HP is not aimed at the average buyer, however – this is firmly an entertainment notebook, which means more emphasis has been placed on the kind of components that will power a satisfying entertainment experience. This is actually a good thing, because what’s good for entertainment purposes is even better for business – power to keep your movies playing, your music transcoding and your games running translates into a responsive Windows environment and plenty of oomph to keep business-related activities humming along too. The DV6 has plenty of features expected of the average notebook; a fast Gigabit LAN port, wireless b/g/n networking support, a multimedia card reader, an integrated webcam and a writeable DVD drive are all here. Where the DV6 really sets itself apart is with its beautiful body, stunningly clear LED-backlit 15.6” screen and powerful-yet-affordable Intel Core i5 processor. Happily, as good as it looks, it performs even better. Knowing that many people connect their notebooks to HDTVs, HP has provided an HDMI output (no HDMI cable included, though) and a very useful remote control that will let you play, pause, skip to the next DVD chapter and more from the comfort of your couch. It’s a nice touch, and one welcome in these times of very chilly evening temperatures and the DVD marathons winter inspires. When not in use, the remote slides into a small slot in the DV6’s body so you won’t lose it easily. Graphics chipmaker nVidia powers the DV6’s visual experience with a 512MB GeForce card that is good enough for some light gaming. The only thing missing from this package to make it a real entertainment powerhouse is a Blu-ray drive. The screen definitely supports HD movies at 720p as its native resolution is 1366 x 768, so the drive’s absence is a bit of a head-scratcher. Still, as a DVD player and
home theatre PC stand-in, the DV6 is more than adequately outfitted for the job. Storage for any multimedia files you may have is taken care of by a generous 500GB hard drive, and the system has access to 4GB of memory. Lots of memory will allow Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit edition) to stretch its legs nicely, and deal smoothly with any app you care to throw at it - even photo editing. On the convenience and comfort side, the DV6 features a full keyboard – some people don’t like going without the ever-useful number pad, and they won’t have to with the DV6. Keys are also backlit making them easy to see in the dark for people that like to hunt and peck. The feedback of the keys is a good balance between the fullness of a desktop keyboard and the shallow presses of inferior laptop keyboards, so you will seldom miss a key. The touchpad is nice and responsive, and the surrounding plastic makes for a good wrist rest that doesn’t get too warm. HP’s DV6-2150ei is a wonderful notebook, with enough power to run movies, games and even get some work done. It’s not the cheapest, but its price does indicate the kind of versatility that will come in handy wherever you find yourself. NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • • • • • • •
Operating system: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) Processor: Intel Core i5 Processor i5-520M @ 2.4GHz Chipset: Intel HM55 Memory: 4 GB DDR3 (2 x 2048 MB) Storage: 500GB SATA Hard Disk Drive @ 7200rpm Optical drives: SATA LightScribe SuperMulti DVD±RW with Double Layer Support Display size: 39.6 cm (15.6”) Diagonal High-Definition LED HP BrightView Display Native resolution: 1366 x 768 Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce G 105M, up to 2287 MB total graphics memory with 512 MB dedicated DDR3 PROS
CONS
• Great for entertainment and work • Beautiful screen and overall look • The kind of responsiveness worth paying for
• No Blu-ray drive or full 1080p HD capabilities • Price may be too high for some
OVERALL RATING
Microsoft Comfort Optical Mouse 3000 Silver Touchpads are only really an option when you don’t have space for a mouse. Grab yourself this awesome Microsoft mouse for those times your desk is close at hand.
Targus CNXL1 17” Carry Bag This 17” bag has tons of room for your notebook and work material. Excellent craftsmanship and a durable design mean it’ll be doing your carrying for years to come.
World of Warcraft This undemanding yet beautiful online role-playing game will consume your life if you let it. It even plays smoothly on a notebook. Go on, you know you want to.
WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 37
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PRODUCT REVIEWS
PERFECT COMPANIONS
Belkin N+ Wireless Modem Router Belkin N+ Wireless USB Receiver To make the most of your N+ router, Belkin recommends you also purchase an N+ Wireless USB Receiver, as it should make your network go faster.
Uncapped Internet Every network needs uncapped Internet. Consider MWEB’s well-priced, decent-performing offering for only R349 for uncapped 384k Internet access (includes line rental).
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PRODUCTS
NETGEAR WIRED NETWORK SWITCH
If all you need is to create a small network that uses cables, then this basic wired switch is for you. It has eight 10/100 network ports, is neatly engineered and nicely priced (sub-R400).
38 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
NEED TO KNOW • Wireless router with included ADSL modem • For 802.11b/g/n wireless networking • Gigabit Ethernet ports for fast wired data transfers • Can use USB hard drives for shared network storage R2 499.95
BELKIN’S range of home or small office routers is good for the average user looking to connect to the Internet and distribute it to a number of computers on a small network. This is because they are feature-rich and very easy to set up. The N+ Wireless Modem Router - the unit we have on review this month - is a very competent home or office router that handles ADSL connectivity, has wireless networking capabilities and is also Gigabit Ethernet-capable. This means it transfers data extremely quickly to all computers connected to it by LAN cable, slower (yet still quick) to wireless clients, and can distribute an ADSL Internet connection to all connected computers. Standout features of this router are its ease of installation courtesy of a setup CD that does all the thinking for you, and the fact that you can connect a USB drive up to it thereby turning it into a network storage device. This means all computers connected to your network can “see” the USB drive and copy to and from it, and all that’s required is the quick installation of Belkin’s Storage Manager software from the setup CD. The CD also helps newcomers configure the security on their new wireless network – essential if you don’t want the neighbours piggy-backing on your Internet connection and using up all your gigs. It’s a very easy, automated process that explains every step in detail so even first-timers won’t be confused. It’s a very nice touch that we very much appreciated. If that’s all you need, the N+ router has got you covered. Quite literally, too – the range of the wireless signal is excellent since it’s based on the 802.11n wireless networking specification. If you want more, the beauty of this router is that there is more if you care to go digging – there are a number of advanced features that techies will love like Dynamic DNS support and the ability to set the router up as a wireless access point. To find something wrong with this particular router requires nitpicking – there is no way to wall-mount it (if that’s your thing) as there are no usable holes on its body for attaching it to the wall as there are with some other routers. As far as user-friendly devices go, the Belkin N+ Wireless Modem router is up there with the best of them. First-time users will have no problems
getting set up thanks to Belkin’s very easy approach to getting set up, and IT veterans will appreciate the breadth of extra features on offer. If you’re setting up or upgrading an existing home or office network, this router is an excellent choice as the heart and soul of said network. NOTEWORTHY SPECS • Bandwidth: 20 MHz & 20/40 MHz auto • Compliant Standard: IEEE 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n • Hardware Interface Type: Gigabit Ethernet (4xLAN, 1xWAN), USB A Female (Storage) • LEDs: Download speedometer, Security, Wireless, Wired, Storage, Router, Modem, Internet • Security: WEP (64-128bit), WPA-PSK (TKIP), WPA2-PSK (AES) with WPS Push Button • Link Rate: 300 Mbps (In 40Mhz Mode) • Maximum Users: 253 of which 16 wireless • Range: 365m PROS
CONS
• Setup is highly user-friendly • Wireless range and speed is very good • USB Storage accessible over the network is useful • Plenty of non-essential but useful features included
• No wall-mount options
OVERALL RATING
TOP
PRODUCT REVIEWS
5
Nero Multimedia Suite 10 NEED TO KNOW • Features three of Nero’s best-loved packages • Create, convert and backup various media • Extra functions like backups included • Suitable for users of all skill levels R1 299.95
NERO’S CD and DVD authoring software has been around for years; as the company has grown even more functionality has been built into its arsenal of software tools, resulting in several different product lines. Now, Nero is combining three of its most popular software packages into a single suite to offer consumers all manner of media management options, from converting to creating to burning. Nero Multimedia Suite 10 is this package and it’s stuffed with value regardless of whether you’re a casual user or a hardcore media buff. The star of the show is Nero’s Burning ROM 10. The software is primarily intended to burn data to CDs and DVDs; this functionality is easy to access, simple to understand and the menus necessary to get to the final “Burn”option are so intuitively laid out that you’d have to be a functional illiterate not to understand how to make use of it. Select from a CD or DVD project, choose the data you’d like to add, watch that you don’t overshoot the space allocation for your chosen format and hit burn, and that’s it. Nero Burning ROM also has a slew of audio editing and conversion tools, including the ability to record from record and tape players (cables not included) and enhance the resulting files so they sound far better. Converting between audio formats can also be done (.WAV to .MP3, for example), as can ripping audio from CDs for conversion to other formats, CD compilations can be created and burned, and more. The Nero Vision Xtra portion of the package is a combination of Nero’s Vision software and the media management program, Nero MediaHub. The latter can be used to manage your media from a single location, in a way similar to that of Windows Media Player. Nero Vision is a video authoring/editing/converting tool that can be used to create and edit your own videos and save them in a large variety of formats (including HD), rip video from unprotected DVDs, convert video to various formats and more. There really is a great deal on offer here, and media enthusiasts will find a lot to like and use. What we liked the most is the clever layout and general user-friendliness of all applications, with nice touches like tool tips that pop up to explain what each task does. This certainly comes across as a software package with competent core capabilities trying to reach out to the average user to make the overall usage experience just that much better. We are happy to say that Nero 10 succeeds in these efforts. The package also includes some extras that we didn’t expect to find, courtesy
of the last package to be added, Nero BackItUp – there is a backup utility, a “rescue”utility for recovering data off scratched CDs and an analysis tool that tells you what kind of disc media your optical drive can read and write to. This shows us just how hard Nero is trying to please, and is a nice touch. We weren’t too fond of how Nero appears to compartmentalise this package’s various functions. While it does ship with a “StartSmart”utility that asks you what you’d like to do and then launches the appropriate application, the fact remains that each task is performed by an individual application. Perhaps this is due to the fact that this is a package made up of three different programs; still, things feel very separate and the experience is a wee bit jarring. Despite this, the software really left a good impression on us, which is why we’re happy to recommend it. It’s useful, easy to use and has so many functions that chances are good few people will use them all. If it’s media management software you’re looking for, Nero Multimedia Suite 10 is a very good choice.
PERFECT COMPANIONS
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS • Windows XP SP3 (32-bit), Windows Vista SP1 (32 and 64-bit), Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate (32 and 64-bit) • 2 GHz AMD or Intel processor • 512 MB RAM (1 GB RAM for Windows Vista or Windows 7) • 3.7 GB hard drive space for a typical installation of all components (including templates, content and temporary disk space) • DirectX 9.0 compliant graphics card with 3D acceleration, 16-bit colour, and a minimum of 128 MB video memory is required (32-bit, true colour, 256 MB dedicated video RAM, and support for Shader Model 3.0 is recommended) • DVD disc drive for installation and playback • CD, DVD, or Blu-ray Disc recordable or rewritable drive for burning and video authoring • DirectX 9.0c revision 30 (August 2006) • Windows Media Player 9 • For some services an Internet connection is required. Internet connection charges are the user’s responsibility PROS
CONS
• Plenty of useful functionality • Ease of use thanks to a fantastic interface • Lots of small touches and extras show Nero cares
• Different functions are handled by individual programs • Some extras not all that useful or essential
OVERALL RATING
A big ol’ stack of blank media Verbatim makes some of the best-quality blank CDs and DVDs. With this product, you’re gonna need a lot of both.
Blu-ray drive Blu-ray ripping and authoring cannot be done without a drive to read the discs. They’re not cheap, but they are very cool.
WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 39
TOP
5
PRODUCT REVIEWS
RELATED
PRODUCTS
Apple AirPort Express Base Station NEED TO KNOW • Wi-Fi access point/wireless router • Windows and Mac compatible • Works as a USB printing server • Stream audio anywhere in your home/office R1 999.95 BELKIN N150 ENHANCED WIRELESS ROUTER MODEM
There is no convenience quite like that of the completely wireless home. With a range of 1000ft, even large properties will be covered.
HP OFFICEJET PRO 6500 WIRELES
If it’s time to ditch the USBonly printer and get something that will work with your AirPort Express, you’ll be very satisfied with this four-in-one device that can print, scan, fax and copy wirelessly.
40 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
THERE are wireless routers that look and act like wireless routers, and then there’s the Apple AirPort Express. It looks nothing like a wireless router, and you wouldn’t think it just by glancing at it, but it’s also a wireless print server and audio streaming device. Technically, the device is like everything else Apple makes – elegant, fuss-free and provides a simple clear-cut solution for your wireless networking needs. Now blazing with the power of 802.11n, the AirPort Express is powerful enough to run your home Wi-Fi network, yet compact enough to add it to your on-the-road artillery. AirTunes is a little something that takes all the music you have in your iTunes library (yes, it only works with iTunes) and transmits it to any stereo or speakers that are within range. To do this, all you need to do is plug in the AirPort Express into a plug socket near those speakers, and connect the two using an audio cable. Then, in iTunes, you select which speakers you want your music to play through. If you have more than one AirPort Express connected to speakers, you can play the same music on all the speakers, to really create a full-house all-encompassing music experience. Additionally, if you already have a wireless network in place, you can use the AirPort to add music to its repertoire. Using the AirPort Express for wireless printing is a bit like having a printer in every office, or room of your house. The device makes use of Bonjour technology (that’s compatible with both Mac and PC) to share a printer between multiple users in different locations on the network. If all you want to do is access your USB printer wirelessly, you don’t even need a broadband Internet connection. Just set up your AirPort Express for wireless printing and you’re hot to trot.
Connect your AirPort Express to your ADSL or cable modem and allow up to 10 users at a time to send e-mail, browse the web and download, all at the same time. Not only does the AirPort Express connect people to the Internet, it also connects those people to each other as well. This allows for sharing of photos, movies, and other files to happen wirelessly, and means you don’t have to worry about slow data transmissions. The device delivers data transfer speeds up to five times those of previousgeneration 802.11g wireless networks whilst simultaneously achieving up to twice the range. Support for both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless frequencies means that the possibility of interference from appliances and cordless phones that use the 2.4GHz frequency, is reduced. In terms of set up, you don’t need a networking certification to make the AirPort Express work – The Bonjour technology the AirPort Express uses allows other AirPort-enabled Mac computers to find each other without you having to move a muscle – they can detect each other, simply be being in range of the network. AirPort Utility (the software that comes with the AirPort Express) for Mac and Windows walks you through the process and helps you have everything up and running, within minutes. For the most basic setup, all you have to do is plug your AirPort Express into an electrical outlet and connect your ADSL or cable modem. Then open the AirPort Utility software and just follow the onscreen instructions. The AirPort Express takes security very seriously. It keeps intruders out of your network by making use of encryption technologies like WPA/WPA2 and 128-bit WEP. If you don’t know what that means – don’t stress, all you need to know is that you can use AirPort Utility to ensure that only people with the correct password can access your network. There’s also a built-in firewall that protects your network from all the baddies on the Internet and for computers with an ADSL modem, using an AirPort is actually safer than being directly connected to the modem. In summary, if you’re looking for a networking device that’s wireless, that’s compatible with both Mac and Windows and that can take care of Internet, printing, music and security – you won’t be disappointed with the Apple AirPort Express Base Station. NOTEWORTHY SPECS
• Wireless Protocols: Draft 802.11n, 802.11 a/b/g • Interfaces: 802.11n wireless, one 10/100 Ethernet port, one USB port for connecting a USB printer, 3.5mm audio minijack • Frequency bands: 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz • Supports up to 10 users PROS
CONS
• Compatible with both Windows and Mac and any other Wi-Fi enabled device • Reduces cable clutter in your home and office • Very secure and very easy to set up, access and use
• Any PC that you want to use with the Airport must be Wi-Fi enabled or have a networking card • Doesn’t work directly with the iBurst cable modem • Extending a non-AirPort wireless network can get a little tricky when using WEP.
OVERALL RATING
PRODUCT REVIEWS
RELATED
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Packard Bell iXtreme I8231 NEED TO KNOW SAMSUNG SYNCMASTER P2770H LCD SCREEN
While 23 inches of LCD screen looks good, it has nothing on 27. When it comes to screens, bigger is definitely better.
ATI RADEON HD5850
If you’re an ATI fan, this powerful graphics card will do your games even more justice than NVIDIA’s G320 will.
PERFECT COMPANIONS
Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000 This inexpensive yet highquality wireless keyboard and mouse set from Microsoft is the kind of excellence the iXtreme I8231 needs to round it off “just right”.
42 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
• Pre-packaged all-in-one brand-name home PC • Comes with a 23” LCD screen • Powered by Intel’s Core i5 processor R10 099.95
FROM attractive black stylings to powerful components to a generous monitor, the iXtreme I8231 is a personal computer package with a punch. Packard Bell has gone out of its way to put together a home PC worth owning here, and it really shows. Starting with the looks, the iXtreme I8231 has the kind of trimmings and details that you’d expect from a high-end, brand-name PC. It’s almost all black, and as much as could be made shiny, is shiny. The case which houses all the components stands out immediately with the bulk of the efforts to make everything shiny reflected here. In a further stylish touch, the front corner of the case curves to a pleasing angle, with USB ports and a card reader nestled neatly there. The keyboard and mouse are fairly unspectacular, so if you’re going for a completely powerhouse look you might want to consider replacing these at your earliest convenience. The reason for this is their look and feel – they both feel somewhat cheap, which is a departure from the appearance of aggressive excellence the rest of the computer exudes. They are both perfectly functional, however, so replacing them isn’t a “must-do”, but if you’d like to show the PC as a whole off it’s a good idea. Under the hood, the I8231 is powered by a fast Intel Core i5 processor that is clocked at 2.93GHz. This gives the PC a great deal of processing power, making it easily capable of intensive tasks like video ripping and encoding, audio conversions and also photo editing. The new architecture of these Core i5 processors also results in the CPU boosting its speed to accommodate larger workloads, with the net result being a PC that can handle multiple difficult tasks with ease. It’s strange, then, that the Core i5 is simultaneously a power-efficient processor – this is also due to the new architecture, which makes sure it does not consume unnecessary power when not in use. The rest of the specs are similarly as impressive – 4GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, these all come together to deliver a computing experience that is a true pleasure. No powerhouse computer would be complete without a respectable graphics solution, so the I8231 is outfitted with NVIDIA’s new G320 graphics card. It’s not the top of the line, but it’s more than capable of running the latest games smoothly.
The optical drive that ships with the system is a DVD rewriteable drive that hides innocuously behind an attractive polished black plastic panel on the chassis. It’s so well hidden that you won’t notice it’s there at all; press the Eject button and the tray pushes the panel down and slides out gracefully. The accompanying monitor is a gorgeous 23” LCD screen with DVI and VGA inputs. This is the cherry on top of a killer system, and delivers the kind of visuals that are a pleasure to sit in front of for hours on end. Its native resolution is 1920 x 1080, or 1080p, and games look simply stunning on it. Productivity tasks, like spreadsheets and documents, are a pleasure on this wide screen as they can be opened side by side for added convenience. Once you’ve worked this way, you won’t want to ever go back to a regular screen. There is a selection of software that comes with the system; a 60-day trial of Microsoft Office 2007 will sorely tempt you to buy the full version as it’s so useful, and Microsoft Works (full version) will help with basic productivity tasks. As a brand-name PC, this offering from Packard Bell has the looks to match the pedigree and great performance to boot. It’s a value-packed home PC that can also play games, and at the price, it’s definitely worth a second look. NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • • • • • • • •
Intel Core i5-750 processor @ 2.93GHz 4096MB RAM 1TB HDD Dual-layer DVDRW optical drive Integrated wireless LAN, 10/100 LAN and memory card reader 8 USB 2.0 ports nVidia G320 graphics with 1GB dedicated video RAM Viseo 230W 23” LCD Screen MS Works 9 MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
PROS
CONS
• Shiny looks are attractive • Plenty of power under the hood • Large widescreen LCD for great gaming
• Keyboard and mouse are a bit basic
OVERALL RATING
RELATED
Canon Selphy ES3 Wireless Photo Printer NEED TO KNOW • Portable photo printing companion • Multiple connectivity options • 1 GB built-in memory stores up to 999 photos • Edit photos without using a PC R1 199.95
HAVING a digital camera that you can take anywhere is great. Being able to take photos whenever and wherever you like, is convenient. The only inconvenient part is having to wait until you get home to edit and print your snaps. This inconvenience is a thing of the past, with the Canon Selphy ES3 you can edit and print your photos, wherever you like. Produce customised unique photo prints whenever the creativity bug strikes, with this simple, imaginative print device. Everything about this device speaks to the fact that it was designed with portability in mind, including the compact, curvaceous shape and carry handle that sits on top. Then there’s also the fact that you no longer need a PC to edit or print your photos – everything can be done directly on the printer. The Selphy ES3 is compatible with over 20 different kinds of memory cards and is PictBridge enabled – allowing you to upload snaps directly from your camera. There’s also Bluetooth, which allows you to print photos that you’ve taken on your mobile phone or stored on any other Bluetooth enabled device. The onboard 1GB of flash memory is a big bonus, it lets you do things like copy all your photos to the device and take it along with you, when you’re visiting friends, where you can show your photos and print them, on demand. The advantage here is that you don’t have to carry memory cards or your camera with you, and you don’t have to keep track of what photos are on which memory cards – all you need is your printer. The memory also stores copies of up to 99 of the most recent photos you’ve printed, if there’s enough memory available, so you can easily print additional copies without having to hunt for the original files. In terms of operating the print device, it couldn’t be easier, the front-panel controls and LCD-based menus are incredibly straightforward, selfexplanatory, and easy for anyone to learn and use. The Easy-Scroll Wheel and large, coloured buttons make it simple enough for anyone to use and with automatic image enhancement and red-eye correction, your portraits will be instantly improved, without you having to lift a finger. A high-resolution 3.5 inch LCD display allows you to preview images before printing, and quickly locate the print function that you need.
PRODUCTS PRODUCT If you’re in the mood to get creative, then you can use the provided colourful frames clip art, and special effects to enhance your photos, and even upload your own clip art from your computer. You can also select from a range of provided templates to create personalised calendars featuring your own images. Print quality is excellent and the only thing we noticed is that prints sometimes come out slightly darker than they’re shown on the LCD display. Quality prints are worth waiting for, and with the Selphy ES3, you’ll have to be patient as the print process is done in layers, and the page is ejected and pulled back for the next colour layer, three times before completion. When it comes to maintaining the device, it’s fairly simple to change the print cartridges and to load new paper – this shouldn’t present much of a challenge to anyone, even the most technologically backward person you might know. Unlike most printers, the Selphy ES3 combines its paper and ink (in this case a dye roll) into a single cartridge, which means that instead of having to load the dye roll and paper separately, it only requires a single step. This might seem like a small thing to be making such a big fuss about, but if you think about traveling with the printer, you’ll realise that you wont have to worry about multiple supplies. When it comes to portability and convenience in the field of digital photography, the Canon Selphy ES3 is fun, light-hearted and convenient. Best of all, it’s beyond simple to use – and this ease of use, along with great quality prints, is what earns the Canon Selphy ES3, the thumbs up from Connect.
HEWLETT PACKARD CP1215
A colour laser printer designed for either an individual workaholic, or a small business work group if print requirements involve a lot of text documents, with the occasional colour presentation thrown in.
NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • •
Mac and Windows compatible 300 x 300 fixed dpi print resolution Print speed of 55 seconds per photo Dye sublimination print technology
PROS
CONS
• Lots of fun printing options • Very easy to use and maintain • 1GB onboard storage comes in handy
• No battery pack available, needs to be plugged in at a wall socket • Could be a little bit faster with print output times • No regular paper available, only postcard photo paper
OVERALL RATING
SAMSUNG CLX-3175
This is a seriously compact solution for the serious home office. Featuring print, scan and copying capabilities, this printer enables you to complete your documentation tasks with minimal hassle.
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PRODUCT REVIEWS
RELATED
PRODUCTS
Flexible USB Keyboard NEED TO KNOW • Compact and portable rubber keyboard • Water-resistant soft keys • USB interface • Durable and long-lasting R149.95
MICROSOFT WIRELESS MOUSE 4000
Featuring Blue Track technology, with four-way scrolling and four customisable buttons and 10 months battery life, you’ll get a lot of use out of this convenient takeanywhere mouse.
MICROSOFT COMFORT CURVE KEYBOARD
This keyboard is designed for typing comfort. It’s ultra-thin and spill-resistant, making it a good desktop companion if you don’t like rubber.
44 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
HAVING a compact netbook or notebook that you can travel with is great because it’s light, portable and takes up less space in your luggage or backpack, but sometimes using the keyboard is painful and cramped. If you spend a lot of time on typing on these small devices, chances are you’ll get frustrated with the limitations of their standard keyboards. Excessive use of a keyboard that’s too small or has its keys tightly spaced is likely to lead to painful repetitive stress injuries. To solve this problem and to make your life more comfortable, you need an external keyboard. That’s all dandy, and you can use a regular USB keyboard, provided you don’t plan on stepping foot outside the office with it, because the minute you need to do that you’re likely to be bogged down with an awkwardly-shaped keyboard that wont fit neatly into your netbook or notebook carry case. In fact, a regular USB keyboard won’t fit neatly anywhere. That’s when you need to get yourself an entirely flexible and entirely convenient rubber keyboard – one that rolls up and packs away cleverly into its own container. If you’re not keen on the container, that’s not a problem either. Crumple up the keyboard, roll it up or even fold it in half and stash it in your backpack or in your luggage or handbag, and you’ll have the convenience of a full keyboard, wherever you need it. If you’re wondering why you would need a full keyboard – just think about how handy it is to have the numeric pad that sits on the right hand side and then think about how painful it is when it’s missing, as it is on most laptop computers. Think about your typing patterns, and how much easier it is to type
on a full keyboard, than it is to type on one that’s half the normal size. The Flexible USB Keyboard has soft keys, and while this might have a brief adjustment period, in the long term it’s probably better for your fingers and wrists to use something that has minimal impact and tactile feedback. The keys are water-resistant, so spilling a cup of coffee on your keyboard no longer means having to rush out and buy a replacement. It’s a simple matter of wiping it off, drying it and continuing with your work. Biscuit crumbs that get stuck under your keyboard and affect functionality are no longer a problem for you with this keyboard. The Flexible Keyboard is also USB-powered so you don’t have to worry about carrying batteries or keeping track of a tiny, easy-to-lose Bluetooth dongle. In fact, with this keyboard, you don’t have to worry about anything. No set up or installation required – all you need to do is plug it in, and you’re ready for comfortable, convenient hassle-free typing. NOTEWORTHY SPECS: • • • • •
For use with notebooks and desktop Full QWERTY keyboard, 85 keys Mac and Windows compatible Made from flexible rubber Folds easily
PROS
CONS
• Water resistant so you don’t have to worry about spillage • Easy to clean and keep hygienic • Compact and easy to take with you, anywhere
• No tactile feedback, so you wont hear ‘typing’ noises • Might take a bit of getting used to, before you’re efficient with it
OVERALL RATING
RELATED
PRODUCTS
MICROSOFT WIRELESS OPTICAL DESKTOP PRO This split-level keyboard affords the best ergonomics available, as well as completely wireless functionality and a wireless mouse.
Logitech K340 Wireless Compact Keyboard NEED TO KNOW • Full keyboard • 2xAA batteries last up to 3 years • Uses tiny Unified dongle R999.95
LOGITECH seems to bring out products more often than the weather centre gets its predictions wrong. To that end, we are reviewing the new wireless keyboard from our friends in Canada, called the K340. Probably because it’s the 340th keyboard the company has ever designed. Sardonic comments aside, this is actually a good thing. Being so familiar with keyboard design, and in touch with what customers want through all the feedback the previous 339 designs have no doubt garnered, Logitech has created a wireless keyboard that gets everything mostly right. Right enough that most buyers will be very happy with it, that is. This is the first standalone keyboard to make use of Logitech’s Unified technology; it comes with a miniscule USB receiver that clips into the underside of the keyboard, and this is a good thing as it’s so tiny there’s a good chance you’ll misplace it otherwise. If you’ve not been privy to the meaning of this “Unified” business, it’s Logitech’s new design approach whereby multiple peripherals can be connected to a PC via a single “Unified” USB dongle, saving you USB ports. The keyboard has no sharp edges whatsoever, and features a pleasantly rounded exterior that is comfortable to rest your palms on. It also has no legs, so it cannot be raised; flat keyboards are quite comfortable though, and it only takes a few days to grow accustomed to it. You might be surprised to find a full keyboard on such a small, lightweight frame, but all relevant keys are there, including a full number pad. The feel of each key press is excellent, feeling like a desktop keyboard with just the right amount of travel and a subtle clicking sound. Logitech boasts that this keyboard’s two AA batteries will last 3 years with everyday use because the K340 turns itself completely off after 10 minutes of no user activity. While this is impossible to test, it’s
still a feature worth mentioning as the fact that the K340 does not use rechargeable batteries may cause some concern. This way, such worries are eased, if not completely allayed. The K340 has a range of up to 10m; while many will purchase it just to be free of cable clutter on their desks, its range makes it a good choice as a home theatre PC keyboard. Using it frequently at this range will use more battery power, but the convenience it offers is worth the price of a few AAs. If you’d like to extend the range further, a USB extender cable is included in the package. Logitech’s K340 is a very compact little keyboard with great wireless range, keys that press really comfortably and a flat layout that promises to ease any wrist strain associated with long hours spent typing away. It has a full keypad despite being significantly smaller than most desktop keyboards; while some of the key positions take some getting used to, doing so will only take a few days. Overall it is a great wireless device, its range is respectable and its ergonomics and aesthetics will win over even the most sceptical techie.
WIRELESS NUMBER PAD N305 If your existing laptop keyboard is to your liking, but missing a keypad, consider this add-on keypad from Logitech.
PERFECT COMPANIONS
NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • •
Windows XP/Vista/7 USB Port Internet connection Arms, hands and fingers
PROS
CONS
• Complete keyboard, including keypad • Uses wireless technology, not • Bluetooth • USB receiver is tiny and supports multiple devices • Very comfortable to type on
• Some keys are in strange positions • Batteries are not rechargeable • Arrow keys not great for gaming • No legs to raise keyboard
OVERALL RATING
Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX With this excellent, highquality and track-anywhere mouse paired with the K340 keyboard you’ll only need one Logitech Unified USB dongle.
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®
Iomega – Beyond Storage Iomega has come a long way since its inception in the 1980s. While still maintaining its roots in the consumer storage and networking business, it has continued to refine its products and designs into the rock-solid, dependable solutions available on today’s store shelves.
What’s new
Iomega Products
Ideal for the office
Iomega specialises in both storage solutions and media playback devices that turn the idea of traditional media consumption on its head. No more are consumers bound to watching only what local broadcasters have to offer; they can playback whatever TV shows and movies they have legally downloaded on a range of Iomega devices. Iomega caters for those who want an all-in-one media playback solution as well as those who prefer the option of using existing portable storage in conjunction with a fully-featured yet storage-free media player. A further advantage of an Iomega media player is reduced clutter in the living room. Iomega devices are generally quite small, especially those that do not have any built-in storage. This makes for devices with pleasing aesthetics and a very small physical footprint, ideal for lounges that are a bit pressed for space. The devices all come with remote controls that add to their overall convenience. Iomega also caters to those who just want raw storage, and as much as is physically possible to own. It has brought out portable hard drives in both the notebook (2.5”) and desktop (3.5”) form factors; notebook drives are smaller, use less power and therefore do not need their own power cables, instead drawing power from the USB ports they connect to. Desktop hard drives are physically bigger, less portable and need to be powered from a wall socket. They make up for this by coming in sizes ranging from 500GB up to a whopping 2TB.
Offices are not left out in the cold, either. Iomega offers a range of network storage products that provide the users of a small to mediumsized office network with storage everyone can access, and which can be upgraded as needs expand. The StorCenter range has products that can accommodate up to 12 SATA hard drives at once, making it a solid consideration, even for medium-sized enterprises.
There are also some new Iomega products that show off the ‘out the box’ thinking of Iomega’s engineers. The iConnect, for example, is a wireless data station that essentially provides network access to USB devices like printers and USB hard drives.
Added value with every Iomega drive Ω Iomega Protection Suite software includes: • Trend MicroTM Internet Security (1 year free subscription), • Iomega QuikProtect, • EMC® Retrospect®, • and MozyHomeTM Online Backup service*
Ω 3 Year Warranty – with product registration
Global expertise Since its acquisition by EMC Networks in 2008, Iomega has renewed its focus on ease of use, stability and versatility, resulting in a line of products better than anything the company has offered before. For this reason Iomega is one of the most competitive companies in the consumer and small business storage world, and is also the reason it will likely remain so for years to come.
PRODUCT REVIEWS
Iomega Screenplay HD TV Link Director Edition RELATED
PRODUCTS
IOMEGA MINIMAX 500GB HARD DRIVE
This device is about more than just portable storage, it’s also about multi-tasking and and has three FireWire ports and a USB 2.0 three port integrated hub.
COOL-ER EBOOK READER
If you’re looking for an affordable alternative to the Kindle, then you might want to consider the Cool-er eBook Reader. Despite lacking a built-in wireless functionality and a hardware keyboard, it makes up for this deficit by featuring an SD card slot and PDF/MP3 support.
48 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
NEED TO KNOW • Portable Multimedia player / adapter • Stream digital content from any USB hard drive to your TV • Compatible with most popular audio, video, and image formats • Easy to set up and use TBC
WITH movies and television series being so readily available and accessible on the Internet these days, a lot of people hardly even watch regular broadcast TV. Instead of having to wait to watch your favourite series, week by week, the tendency is to try to download and watch the entire lot, all in one sitting. If you’re anything like us, you won’t be content with watching series or movies on your laptop or computer; you’ll want to watch it in high-definition – something that’s only really possible on a big screen television. So what do you do? Do you hook up your computer to your television? No, you get yourself an Iomega Screenplay HD TV Link. The ScreenPlay HD TV Link acts as a conduit between an external hard drive or storage device, and your television, allowing you to stream content from your storage device that’s viewable on your television. It’s based on the principle of plug-and-play and cuts out any need for specialist expertise or affinity with technology. It’s a small black device that hooks up to any open composite, component, or HDMI input on your TV. If you don’t have an HDMI cable handy, you can use the included composite or component breakout cables. Iomega also includes a SCART adapter for use overseas, along with the appropriate power adapters as well, making it perfect for taking your viewing addictions along with you, on your travels. We’re fans of the ScreenPlay HD TV Link, because it’s designed with plug-and-play usability in mind. It’s a simple matter of using one of the breakout cables to connect the device to your TV and switching to the appropriate input. ScreenPlayTV Link’s built-in interface allows change your resolution settings and audio options - if you’re connecting via component or HDMI, you’ll have the option to upscale all of your video content to 720p or 1080i, giving that high definition experience that everyone seems to crave these days.
The remote that comes with the TV Link controls every aspect of the device, it’s small but thick and the layout is pragmatic and user-friendly, although its responsiveness could be better. The TV Link supports almost any USB hard drive or flash drive you can throw at it, as long as that device has been formatted in either FAT32 or NTFS file systems. It also provides power for any drives you attach, eliminating the need for an additional power supply. Switching between USB sources is not a hassle and you don’t have to worry about ‘undocking’ processes – if you want to simply yank out a drive and swap it for another, you can. Although we do suggest that you stop any media that’s currently playing, before yanking out that plug. If convenience is a big factor in your life, then this is one of those devices that delivers nothing but. So much so that, like us, you’ll wonder how you lived life before buying that Iomega Screenplay HD TV Link. NOTEWORTHY SPECS • Memory file systems supported: NTFS, FAT 32 • Supported audio formats: MP3, WAV ,WMA, AC-3 , Ogg Vorbis, • Supported video formats: AVI,VOB, XviD, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 , DivX 4.0, DivX 5.0, DivX 3.11, .MKV • Connections: HDMI output, Composite video/audio output , • Component video output, USB
PROS
CONS
• Seriously small means seriously portable • Switching between USB sources doesn’t require timeconsuming undocking • Add an external HD or any other compatible USB source of any size
• Too many connections on the device causes cable clutter • FireWire or flash media readers are missing • Remote is not always responsive
OVERALL RATING
Siemens Euroset 5020 Display Telephone NEED TO KNOW • Quality telephone handset from Siemens • Does not require power to function • Soft touch buttons R449.95
BUYING a new telephone is almost as complex a task as buying a new cell phone. Fortunately, we’re here to tell you that Siemens, a company with deep ties into the world of telecommunications, produces excellent telephone handsets that are usable in both home and office environments. Take the Euroset 5020 Display Telephone, for instance. It’s clad in dark pleasingly fingerprint-proof plastic, it has keys that are soft to the touch and which are easily pressed, and it is compatible with PABX units as well as competent enough in its own right to hook up to a telephone line and just work. The good and the bad of this particular phone is that it has a lot of functions available (good), but few people will make use of them all (bad). This point is mitigated by the fact that the phone is at least very affordable, making it okay to just use it for calls and ignoring the rest. What we liked a lot about the 5020 is its instruction manual is actually quite clear, and does not come across as written by a Chinese person fresh out of Engrish school. Within only a few minutes of unpacking and setting the phone up (which was incredibly easy, we might add), we were able to set the time and create several speed-dial entries with no confusion or trialand-error whatsoever. These functions are likely to be the ones most-used by people that wisely decide to pick up this phone, despite the fact that the 5020 has several other useful features awaiting your perusal. The LCD display shows up to 20 characters at a time, and flashes handy info like the incoming caller’s number (if you’re subscribed to that service, of course) . It also displays the time (which was also very easy to set). The phone has a 50 call memory, allowing you to browse through a list of the last 50 calls that have come in, although it does not repeat numbers more than once, presumably to save memory. It can forward calls to other lines on your PABX system, and you can also set call forwarding up if you leave the office a lot and you need to be in touch.
RELATED
PRODUCTS All of this proved very easy to set up, courtesy of the very clear manual, so kudos to Siemens for being thoughtful. The quality of incoming calls is very clear on the 5020, and the volume is easily adjustable thanks to a clearly-labelled set of buttons which control the mute and volume up and down functions. The handset is of a high quality too, and it feels good in your hand as it is very pleasantly weighted. If you’re not a fan of handsets, you can always use the hands-free function; the ideal range is a bit low (50cm) but even at a few metres away, your voice will still be picked up clearly. It’s proven to be quite hard to find something bad about the 5020, and we have to conclude that what it really has is feature overkill if you’re just a regular phone user. If you’re not, and your phone lines are connected by a complex PABX system with advanced features, you’ll get more use out of it. Either way it’s still a good buy, and one we recommend you consider.
GIGASET AL140 WIRELESS TELEPHONES
If being tethered to a desk by a phone cord is not your idea of a good time, you might be better off with a set of high-quality wireless telephones like the Gigaset AL140 three-pack.
NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • • • • • •
33-key control panel 20-character LCD display screen Call forwarding Hands free calling 50 call log capacity Tone and pulse dialling Call duration display 10 Name Keys
PROS
CONS
• Good, solid design with office-friendly looks • Plenty of functions for home and office use • Manual makes setting the phone up a doddle
• Perhaps too many features for a plain old house phone • Ideal hands-free voice range is a bit low (50cm)
OVERALL RATING
SONY ERICSSON YARI With a Yari (or any other cellular telephone), you get to experience total wirelessness and portability, at the cost of a slightly elevated telephone bill. Beats being tethered to a desk...
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PRODUCT REVIEWS
PERFECT COMPANIONS
Apple iPod Nano 8GB 8GB is plenty of space for all your favourite music tracks. Pop this awesome gadget into your S125i speakers and pump up the volume!
Logitech S125i Portable Speaker/ iPod Dock NEED TO KNOW • Small iPod speaker/docking station • Produces bigger sound than the size would suggest • Charges your iPod/iPhone while docked R799.95
Apple iPhone 3GS The most advanced iPhone yet, the 3GS is everything the 3G was and more. More space, bigger camera, more cool! And it works with the S125i speakers. Win!
Apple iPod Classic 160GB The ultimate media playback device with 160GB of storage, Apple’s iPod is not called a Classic for nothing!
50 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
SOMETIMES the gadget you desire is not the biggest or best in its class; sometimes you want something small that just works when and how you want it to without flash or a high price tag. Logitech’s compact S125i portable speaker/iPod dock is exactly that – it’s a tiny set of portable iPod speakers that produces good enough sound for casual listening, while also offering portability and iPod/iPhone charging. It’s also quite basic – there is no built in AM/FM radio, so it’s designed purely for tunes played through your iPod or iPhone. There is a 3.5mm jack if you’d like to plug in any other audio source, but the S125i is specifically designed for Apple’s famous music player. The dock at the top of the device will interface directly with your iPod or iPhone, as long as it supports the Apple Universal Dock specification. Once docked, both iPods and iPhones play music flawlessly through the S125i. Don’t let the size fool you, this speaker puts out some very impressive sound despite its diminutive body, and it does not distort even at higher volumes. If you’re looking for some extra bass, it also has a convenient “Bass Boost” button on the front that puts a little more boom in your tunes. If you like to carry your music with you to parties or even to the garage while you work on the car, the S125i can also be powered by batteries. Logitech claims up to 10 hours of music playback off a single set of four AA batteries, but of course this varies depending on how loud you play your music when you’re on the go.
If we had to find something to complain about it would be the build quality of the unit. While it’s not about to fall apart on you, it does feel a little plastic-y, and the volume and power buttons feel as plastic as they are, too. Luckily, it’s not a premium-priced product so Logitech can get away with it. It’s a very simple little gadget, and a boon to anyone who wants to listen to their iPod or iPhone without earphones. It suits offices, bedrooms, garages, kitchens, even bathrooms, and will provide many hours of portable listening enjoyment with only four AA batteries in it. Going for it are the fact that it’s not very expensive, the sound is great and it supports both iPods and iPhones. If that is what you’re after and you’re not looking for a premium product, the S125i speakers may well be for you. NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • • •
Supports iPhone and all iPod models with dock connector Uses the Apple Universal Dock specification Supports other portable music players via 3.5 mm auxiliary input 4 AA batteries (not included) required for portable listening iPod/iPhone not included PROS
CONS
• Great sound from such a small device • Supports iPhones even though it claims not to • Battery-powered portability is useful
• Build quality could be better • Volume buttons feel a wee bit wobbly
OVERALL RATING
Canon PowerShot SX210 IS NEED TO KNOW • Pop-up built in flash • Full manual control over camera settings • Easy Mode for hassle-free shooting • 14.1 MP stills, 720p HD video R3 999.95
THIS is a go-anywhere, do-anything compact for serious enthusiasts. It also has a feature list that reads more like a wishlist and it’s ideal for shooting anything and everything in mind-blowing detail. Stunning stills are also complemented by high-quality 720p high-definition video that’s made possible by a huge 14x wide-angle zoom and stereo sound. Most compacts that offer video capture seem to do it as an afterthought – in other words, the video functionality and quality is appalling. Not so with the SX210 IS and it more than proves Canon’s marketing mantra of ‘movies in your pocket’ to be very fitting. This compact makes use of that legendary Canon technology in the form of an improved Dynamic mode, which complements image stabilisation technology so as to ensure that your high definition movies are shake-free. This comes into play when shooting movies at wide-angle settings and it reduces the camera shakes that usually occur when you are shooting while walking or on the move. Shooting your own movies is as easy as pressing the Movie button, and then aiming the camera where you need it to be. You don’t even have to get too close to the action, with a 14x optical zoom that allows you to record everything from mood-setting background shots, to perfect facial expressions. Another thing that home movie buffs will love is the fact that this compact has HDMI output, which allows you to hook up your camera to the TV and play back video and stills. When it comes to taking stills, you’ll love the 28mm wide-angle lens as it allows you to broaden your horizons and easily captures more scope and detail in every frame, giving your photography more flexibility. This comes in handy when you’re trying to fit everyone into that family portrait. Ensure portrait perfection by making use of evolved Face Detection Technology that works to keep every face in every photo looking amazing by finding and tracking the faces of moving subjects until you’re ready to shoot, and gives you perfect focus. Just in case this wasn’t enough you’ll also find that exposure, flash and white balance are automatically adjusted so that faces are captured with natural skin tones and your backgrounds are properly exposed. The SX210 IS offers creative full manual control over camera settings, allowing you to get more creative with your pictures - aperture, shutter
speed, ISO and focusing can all be controlled manually, enabling you to experiment with your photographic skills. Don’t panic about manual controls and complicated settings if you’re the kind of photographer who likes to concentrate only on the picture, without worrying about the settings. Easy Mode will be your new best friend. No matter how experienced a photographer you might be or how dedicated you might be to manually adjusting to get the perfect shot - with added scene modes for even more creative shooting, you might find that you’re inclined to stick to the presets, and forget entirely about fiddling with manual controls. Especially when you combine these amazing scene modes with Smart Auto mode that can detect what scenery you’re shooting, and choose between 22 different defined settings. What scene modes are we talking here? We selected a few from a long, long list and top of that list is Portrait mode, which delivers gorgeous portraits every time and Color Accent which allows you to highlight specific colours in a shot, and then we have the Fish-eye Effect, which uses barrel distortion to warp the image around the centre, giving a curvature effect to your photo so it looks a bit like you’re peeping through the keyhole of a door. We could continue to wax lyrical about this compact camera for a few more pages and could gush about everything it can do for you, but we’d rather recommend that you make the Canon PowerShot SX210 your next photographic purchase. That is, only if you’d like to experience dynamite in a compact package. Get ready to have your socks knocked off by this one!
RELATED
PRODUCTS
CANON POWERSHOT A490
Effortless shooting is a given with this compact’s smart auto feature that automatically recognises shooting conditions and applies optimum picture settings without you having to do a thing – up to 13 different shooting scenes.
NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • •
ISO range up to ISO 1600 Supports: SD/SDHC/SDXC/MMC/MMC plus/MMCplus HC 12 Shooting Modes plus 11 Special Scene Modes 3.0-inch wide PureColor System LCD
PROS
CONS
• Easy to use with simple controls and menu • Excellent low-light performance
• The flash is awkwardly placed, sometimes fingers get in the way of it popping up • No built-in memory, so you’ll have to buy a memory card • Sometimes casts a lens shadow
OVERALL RATING
SANDISK MICROSD 8GB MEMORY CARD
Slot directly into your camera’s adapter to give yourself plenty of space for all your photos and video clips. It’s easy to load and even easier to use, giving you a hassle-free storage solution.
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PRODUCT REVIEWS
PERFECT COMPANIONS
Asus P5KPL Motherboard NEED TO KNOW Cooler Master Elite 310 Case This well-priced case and its subtle, understated looks will go well in any office or home environment.
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor Pick your processor from a big range with the confidence that Intel will deliver the kind of performance you need.
2GB DDR2-800 Memory If you’re running Windows XP or even Windows 7, 2GB of system memory will be more than sufficient to power your PC.
52 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
• Inexpensive motherboard replacement • For Intel processors only • Supports DDR2 Memory R499.95
ON seeing this review you might be thinking “What the...?”, as Connect has tended to steer away from such technical items as motherboards. You’d be right, of course, but we figured it was about time we dug a little deeper into the inner workings of the average computer. We’re starting with something simple since the motherboard on review is a very basic one. Firstly, what is a motherboard? A good analogy is of a spinal cord that connects up all the important parts of a body with a network of nerves. That is what your motherboard does for your computer – it is the component that every other important component connects to. On it, you plug in your processor, memory, hard drives, DVD drives and power; it also provides the basis for future expansion by means of powerful graphics cards. So basically, it’s the foundation of your computer; if you’re a casual user, and you’re not into games or squeezing every drop of performance out of your PC, you can get away with spending a bit less on your motherboard. More expensive ‘boards come with all kinds of clever features to help your system go faster, but these are not all that useful to the casual user. That being said, this item from Asus is a great place to start for a first motherboard, or as a replacement for a work/office PC’s motherboard. It won’t take the newest Core i3/i5/i7 processors, but it will happily accept older, yet still value-packed processors like the Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad and Pentium D and Celeron range. It also uses DDR2 memory; this means a cheaper RAM purchase for you as DDR3 memory can be expensive, but it’s no major compromise and your computer won’t run poorly for it.Since it is a “value” motherboard, there are only two memory slots to save on costs; practically, this means an upper limit of only 4GB (2 x 2GB memory modules), but that’s more than enough for most people these days. Other areas where the “value” approach is evident is in the number of drives (hard drives, DVD or CDROMs) you can have – this motherboard can
support only four drives, two using newer SATA connectors, and two using the older IDE connector standard. It’s a fair amount for a basic work PC, but enthusiasts will feel a bit limited. Its onboard graphics chip means you won’t need a graphics card to output to a monitor. Limitations of onboard graphics technology mean you’ll operate Windows just fine, but games will be virtually unplayable. It’s a solid cost-saving move for both you and the manufacturer.Performing the actual replacement is where things get tricky, and is where we recommend you ask for help, pay someone else to do it, or do some online searching for video tips on how to go about it before trying.As far as being a clever purchase, this inexpensive motherboard is certainly that. Its sub-R500 price tag means it will get you up and running without frills, and this is a good thing for the kind of person the board is aimed at – the entry-level user. NOTEWORTHY SPECS • Processors supported: Intel Socket 775 Core 2 Quad/Core 2 Extreme/ Core 2 Duo/Pentium D/Pentium 4/Celeron E1000 Series and Celeron 400 Series • Chipset: Intel G31 /ICH7 • USB Ports: 8 – 4 at the back, 4 from mid-board connectors • Graphics: Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (Intel GMA 3100) • Memory Slots: 2 x DDR2-1066/800/667 (Max: 4GB) • Back Panel I/O Ports: 1 x VGA, PS/2 Keyboard & Mouse, LAN port, 4 x USB, 6 -Channel Audio
PROS
CONS
• Just enough features for what you need • Supports cheaper DDR2 memory • A great replacement board
• Only two memory module slots • Drive options are a bit limited • Graphics capabilities are basic
OVERALL RATING
PERFECT COMPANIONS
Cooler Master Elite R310 Case NEED TO KNOW • Replacement or upgrade computer case • Good looks, solid construction • No included power supply R519.95
THE need to replace your computer case when it breaks, or proves to be insufficient for your needs is something most home users will face at some point. What case to choose, and which brand name to trust is of paramount importance in making the choice that is right for you. We are quite happy to recommend this Cooler Master R310 case for the job. Cooler Master has an excellent reputation for aftermarket computer parts, thanks in large part to a solid commitment to quality engineering, of which the R310 case is a great example. As a replacement case for a defunct chassis, the R310 is a fine choice for many reasons. Starting with the basics, it looks really good. Its polished plastic exterior is pleasing to the eye, fingerprint-resistant and sturdy. These qualities are of particular importance to anyone who likes to move their computer case around to LAN parties, friends’ houses and the like, as well as for people who like to fiddle with their computer’s innards. The layout of the case’s inner workings is normal for a case of this size, with only the orientation of the hard drive bays differentiating it from other cases in this class. Hard drives are usually mounted with their connectors oriented towards the rear of the case; this can make it awkward to connect them up if a long graphics card and lots of cables are present. By orienting hard drives with their connectors facing the side of the case, this problem disappears, so top marks there. There is a potential issue if you’re using an unusually-sized CPU fan (also called a ‘heatsink’); due to the CPU socket’s proximity to the power supply, it might be difficult, if not impossible, to properly seat an unusually-large CPU fan. This is an extreme example, though, as most standard CPU fans should fit with no problems. Most motherboards give you the option to extend speaker, headphone
and USB port outputs to a ‘front panel’ on your case; the R310 has a basic front panel that can be used for this purpose, featuring audio out, microphone and a USB port. This is incredibly useful both at home and at LANs, as you won’t have to reach behind the case to plug in your peripherals. Its design isn’t tool-less, so you’ll still need a screwdriver to take it apart and install your components; if this poses a problem, consider enlisting the help of a professional to transfer your existing motherboard, hard drive(s), power supply and optical drive(s) across to the new case. For security-conscious people, the case has a security lock hole that can be secured with a padlock; this ensures nobody can open your case to steal your top-notch graphics card at a LAN when you head off to the shops for more Red Bull. In all, the Cooler Master R310 is a solid case that comes recommended. It’s affordable but not cheap, has all the features you’ll need, and is sturdy. If transferring the inner workings of your PC to a new case is a technically daunting task, perhaps considering enlisting the aid of a pro. NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • • •
Form Factor: Mid-tower ATX and mini-ATX Front Panel: Headphones, speakers, USB, FireWire (optional) Drive Bays: 6 x 3.5”, 4 x 5.25” Fans: 120mm pre-installed (back), 80mm side and front (optional) Weight: 6.9kg
PROS
CONS
• Sideways orientation of hard drive bays • Great value for the price • Sturdy, fingerprint-resistant build
• No included power supply • Large heatsinks might battle to fit • Design is not tool-less
OVERALL RATING
ASUS P5KPL AM SE Motherboard If your motherboard also needs replacing, Asus’ basic P5KPL AM-SE is a good place to start looking.
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 @ 2.8GHz This dual-core Intel processor is a great choice if you want power, but you don’t need a top-of-the-line CPU.
Retail 500W Boxed Power Supply This generic 500W power supply can provide up to 50 000 hours of operation at 25°C.
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PRODUCT REVIEWS
RELATED
PRODUCTS
LOGITECH WIRELESS DESKTOP MX3200
For superior stylings, consider this high-quality keyboard and mouse set from Logitech.
Acer 22” Notebook upgrade kit NEED TO KNOW • Turns your laptop into a desktop • With wireless USB dongle, keyboard, mouse • Includes 22” LCD Monitor R2 399.95
SAMSUNG SYNCMASTER P2770H
If 22” makes for a good upgrade, a 27” screen makes for a fantastic one! Never underestimate just how much a huge screen will enhance your computing experience.
PERFECT COMPANIONS
Acer Travelmate 5530G What’s an upgrade kit without a notebook? Just a keyboard, mouse and screen, that’s what! Acer’s Travelmate 5530G offers a great balance between features, performance and price.
54 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
THE most important thing to consider when buying a docking station speaker system for your iPod/iPhone is placement. Where are you going to put it and how much space does it take up? The awesome thing about the Philips DC570 is that it has a vertical design that’s intended to take up as little space as possible, while still producing excellent sound output. So if space is at a premium in your office or lounge, this is the perfect speaker system for you – it will occupy that corner space that all other docking stations seem to shun. No matter how cramped or cluttered your room is, you’ll still want to fill it with your favourite iPod tunes, and that’s exactly what this device does. It’s a 2.1 system with a built-in subwoofer, boasting 100W output power, which really puts the doof in your doof-doof music. There are four Digital Sound Control presets, namely rock, pop, jazz and classical, as well as Dynamic Bass Boost (on/off ) and your iPod’s EQ settings take preference, so there’s plenty of room to fiddle with sound levels. Dynamic Bass Boost maximises your audio experience by emphasising the bass notes throughout the entire range of volume settings, from low to high, at the touch of a button. This is a great thing because bottom-end bass frequencies are usually sacrificed when the volume is set at a low level. To counteract this, Dynamic Bass Boost can be switched on to boost bass levels, so you can enjoy consistent sound even when you turn down the volume. Arrived at work and realised that you’ve left your iPod at home? Not problems as you don’t even need an iPod to use this speaker system. It has a USB port from which you can play MP3 or WMA tracks by plugging a flash drive in; the DC570 then scans for supported playable files that are then played. One drawback here is that you lose the Digital Sound Control when playing songs off a USB device. There’s also a 3.5mm auxiliary input that allows you to plug just about any audio source into it, making this a flexible, variable audio solution for wherever you choose to use it. Use it to rock with your PlayStation, Xbox, notebook or television - it’s more useful than you can
imagine. Even more choice in music is given by a programmable FM tuner. Tune into your favourite radio stations and be entertained. Set the alarm clock if you’re using the DC570 at home, and wake up to your radio station or playlist of choice. If you’re using the DC570 to play music to put you to sleep, you wont be woken up at 2am by your playlist kicking into some loud AC/DC, as the device has a sleep timer function that you can set. Although the product specifications listed compatibility with a variety of iPods and made no mention of the iPhone, we had zero problems with docking our iPhone in this device. It did everything it was supposed to, including act as a charging dock. There’s also a variety of plastic inserts available, to ensure you get the right cradle for your iPod. The cherry on top of this package is the remote control that is used to manage both the DC570 and your iPod. So to sum up: if you’re looking for a speaker system for your iPod that has a small footprint and big sound, and a reasonable price tag, then you’ll definitely be pleased with the Philips DC570 Docking Entertainment System. NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • • • • •
Display Size: 22” Wide, 473x296 mm Resolution: 1680x1050 Contrast Ratio: 10 000:1 Brightness: 300 cd/m2 Response rate: 5ms Colours: 16.7M Loudspeakers: 2 x 1W
PROS
CONS
• Bigger screens are definitely better • Desktop-like keyboard and mouse experience • Very easy to set up
• USB-connected screens not as responsive as over DVI • Wireless keyboard and mouse quality very average
OVERALL RATING
Make it Great with Of他ce 2010.
Available mid-June
PRODUCT REVIEWS
PERFECT COMPANIONS
Iomega 1TB External USB Drive The best way to make full use of the iConnect is to attach a boatload of storage to it. This 1TB drive, also from Iomega, will definitely do the trick.
Iomega iConnect Wireless Data Station NEED TO KNOW • Connect printers and USB drives to your wireless network • Downloads P2P files without your PC • Allows Macs to back up files using Time Machine TBC
XBOX 360 Gaming Console You can stream media files from your iConnect/ Iomega 1TB directly to your XBOX 360; just be sure the files you stream are XBOX 360-compatible.
Apple iTunes Apple’s famous media management software can make good use of the iConnect’s media streaming capabilities. Download it directly from Apple’s website.
56 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
THE fact that Iomega was purchased by storage giant EMC Networks in 2008 is starting to show in Iomega’s new product line. This one, called the iConnect Wireless Data Station, is one of the first truly new products to come from Iomega in a long time, and it’s a far cry from just a boring storage device – it’s a wirelessly-accessible USB hub that lets you connect USB drives and printers to your existing wireless network. Its software is also looking better than ever, it’s as stable a device as we’ve ever reviewed from Iomega, and perhaps nicest of all – it’s actually quite useful. In the looks department, the iConnect is small, sleek and smooth. It’s made out of dark polished metal, it has a bright light on the front to indicate power, a network port and four USB ports. Setting it up is not the easiest process in the world, requiring some close examination of the manual and some trial and error experimentation, but once it’s connected to your network, you gain access to the intelligently laid-out menu system via a web interface that makes life a lot easier. You first need to hook it up to your network via an included cable, and once it has been allocated an address on the network, a web interface automatically opens that you can use to set up your wireless connection by selecting the network and entering the security key. Once you’ve done that, the device becomes really useful – you can keep it somewhere out of the way, and hook up whatever USB devices you might have (up to a limit of four) which immediately become accessible to all computers on your network. When you insert a USB drive, the iConnect works for a minute or so and then all connected computers automatically see it as a network drive (they all need the Iomega Storage Manager software installed, though). Even if they don’t have the software, the drive is accessible over the network anyway but accessing it requires technical knowledge – inexperienced users are better off using the software. Connecting a printer is slightly easier, as these can be added using Windows and searching for network printers once they are connected to the iConnect.
An unexpected, but very nice feature, is the iConnect’s ability to download Torrent files. All you have to do is open the Torrent file with the iConnect; the target file then gets downloaded directly by the iConnect and saved to any connected USB storage device. We tried this function with a few legitimate files (Linux distributions), and they worked flawlessly. The beauty is that you no longer need to have your PC on when downloading P2P files. The iConnect also has backup options for PC that can be set, as well as compatibility with Apple’s Time Machine backup system. It can also act as a media server for uPnP-compatible devices (Xbox 360, PS3), and iTunes. With all this very useful functionality and a very clean and stable interface, the iConnect is a compelling device that can meet several network-related needs. For anyone looking to add network storage or the ability for multiple users to connect to USB printers over a network, the iConnect is a great buy. NOTEWORTHY SPECS • • • • •
Network type: 10/100/1000 Mb/s Wireless: 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Ports: 4 Print Server: Up to 2 USB printers Media Server: Built-in UPnP/DLNA certified media server and iTunes server • Dimensions: 131x161x27 (mm) • Weight: 0.27kg
PROS
CONS
• Wired and wireless networking connectivity • Very clean and easy-to-use web interface • Widespread USB storage device support
• Setup can be a little complicated • Only four USB ports for storage or printers
OVERALL RATING
QuickBooks Simple Start NEED TO KNOW • Easy way to create business invoices, estimates and sales receipts • Organise your customer, vendor and sales information in one place • Automatically track tax-related income and expenses • No accounting knowledge necessary to operate R999.95
QUICKBOOKS Simple Start is accounting made easy and combines bookkeeping software with essential tools to manage your business. Designed for the first-time user, this takes the fuss out of doing your own bookkeeping. Proper accounting procedures and keeping track of everything that happens in your business is essential, especially when it comes time to file taxes. Make sure everything is properly organised in one place, reduce paperwork and keep it all simple.., with QuickBooks. The biggest advantage of the Simple Start application is, of course, being able to track all your financial information in one place – it’s easy to capture customer payments and bills from vendors and the fact that everything is organised in one place means you’ll be able to access all past payments and bills with just a few clicks, making it a snap to track income and expenses. Track the money coming into your business, and from whom it comes and keep tabs money going out, and where it goes. Simplify your invoicing process immensely by using the data you already have in QuickBooks (such as customer contact info or services) to create invoices by choosing from the provided templates or customising the layout yourself. Easily create new estimates by duplicating and revising existing ones. Once you’ve finished a job or completed a sale, click one simple button to turn your estimate into an invoice. You’ll be surprised at how easy billing becomes using this application. Use Simple Start to enhance your customer relations with no extra effort by keeping tabs on customer contact and transaction information, so you can follow up on overdue accounts and answer customer queries faster and have instant access to their contact information and a complete transaction history for your entire customer and vendor base. Simple Start also removes the need for a calculator or mental addition, and gives you totals for invoices and estimates without having to write any formulas or do any math. No more erasing and rewriting totals or double-checking that calculations correspond across all datasheets. Simple Start helps keep your transactions and records accurate by doing all the calculations for you, including sales tax, discounts, and markups. If you change a transaction, any figures linked to it update instantly.
You can also easily import data from Microsoft Excel, so if you were hesitant about switching to QuickBooks because you’d have to manually capture all your transactions, you’ll be pleased to know you can import your spreadsheets directly into Simple Start. Using Simple Start also means no more panicking and last-minute rushing when tax deadlines loom. By using Simple Start for your bookkeeping, and you’ll be tracking tax-related income and expenses automatically. So when crunch time comes, all you need do is use the Income Tax Summary report to get all of your tax information in one comprehensive report. The application also allows you to see the bigger picture, whenever you need to. It’s easy to know exactly where your business stands with essential reports that detail profits and losses, sales and expenses, created with one click, utilising transaction data previously captured. QuickBooks Simple Start takes being a simple application seriously. It’s focused on time-saving and user-friendliness, and minimises the administrative work for you. Type information about a customer, vendor, or product one time, and never be asked to type it again. Thereafter all you need do is enter the first few letters on any invoice, payment statement or other form and Simple Start fills the rest in automatically. It’s simple to set up and simple to use; this software makes us wish that all things in life were as easy as QuickBooks Simple Start.
RELATED
PRODUCTS
QUICKBOOKS PRO 2008
This UMD-free version of Sony’s portable features 16GB of memory to download and store games, videos, pictures and more.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: • • • •
Windows XP, Vista or 7 with 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 Processor 1 GB RAM, 1GB free HD space 4x speed CD-ROM drive All online features require Internet access and IE 6 or later.
PROS
CONS
• Simple to use, with excellent tutorial support • Handy to have everything ready for tax filing time • Auto-fill in any form saves lots of time
• Cannot export data, which is essential if you use a tax accountant • No third-party companion applications available • Compatible only with Internet Explorer browser
OVERALL RATING
MICROSOFT OFFICE SMALL BUSINESS 2007
This package includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook with Business Contact Manager, Publisher and is perfect for creating professional documents, spreadsheets, charts and presentations.
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PRODUCT REVIEWS
Adobe Photoshop Elements RELATED
PRODUCTS
HP PHOTOSMART A826
Having amazing photo-editing is pointless if you don’t have an amazing photo-printer. With print resolutions of 4800 x 1200dpi it’s easy to see that this device is all about quality.
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 8 FOR MAC
The same simplicity and sheer editing power of Photoshop Elements is also available for Mac. Makes the perfect companion for iPhoto, and together these two applications will do everything you need, and more.
58 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
NEED TO KNOW • Clutter-free, useful, scaled down version of Photoshop • Includes fully-featured photo editor and organiser • Easy to edit, create and share • Windows 7 compatible R1 299.95
THE main complaint people have about Adobe Photoshop is that it’s too complicated. It’s far too confusing and difficult to learn on your own. Adobe has realised this, and created Photoshop Elements – a program that takes only the essentials from Photoshop and presents them in a clean, easy-to-navigate format that makes it easy to edit your digital photographs and create vibrant albums. There are four main work areas in the Photoshop Elements application: a photo organiser, image editor, artwork designer and photo sharing. The four tools are perfectly embedded within each other and easily accessible via the menu on the top of the program’s sleek, elegant dark interface. You’ll find all the basic tools for cropping, clean up, red eye removal and a cloning tool. A QuickFix tool lets you go into basic edits like colour and lighting adjustments, and lets you fix these with just one click. What makes it easier to use these tools is the Preview window, which displays a before and after comparison of the image before the correction is even applied. If you feel unsure of what you’re doing there’s a Project Wizard to hold your hand, although the tools themselves are easy to figure out and use. You’ll probably also find the new Auto-Analyzer tool very handy, as it automatically analyses and tags media so you can quickly find your most interesting and highest quality content. This functionality is enriched by People Recognition technology that works to identify people in photos, becoming more intelligent over time, as it learns to associate names and faces. There are a few new features that Adobe has added to the bundle, one of them is called PhotoMerge and this uses an Exposure tool to allow you to combine two nearly identical photos, taken at different exposures, to achieve optimum exposure. Another new tool is Recompose, which allows you to recreate a photo selectively to fit into a specific size or orientation by picking which elements of a picture to toss out and which ones to keep. So for example, if you had a horizontal (landscape) photo of seven people, and you want to change
it to a vertical (portrait) orientation without distorting the people, you could select which of the seven and/or what portions of the background to discard, and which to retain and bring together into a recomposed photo. Another point of interest to explore is the Create tab. You will find all the creative templates and content you’ll need for making photo books, photo calendars, greeting cards, photo stamps, photo prints, photo collages, and slide shows. The Share tab has nifty new Flash templates for sharing photos and videos digitally. Your digital content can be shared effortlessly on popular social networking sites like YouTube and Facebook, or you can even send photos and videos via MMS using your compatible mobile phone. There’s also an option to organise all your edits and creations, using the Organizer tool. With a newly enabled fullscreen mode, you’ll find it much easier to quick-fix, tag and rate your pictures using the handy pop-out panel. The Organizer, in conjunction with Auto Analyzer makes it so much easier to store, archive and organise your albums and photos. Photoshop Elements won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re looking for creative photo-editing software that’s more capable than Microsoft Office Picture Manager or iPhoto, but that’s not as complicated as Photoshop itself, then you’re almost guaranteed to be well-chuffed with this purchase. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: • • • •
Windows XP, Vista or 7 with a 1.6GHz or faster processor 1 GB RAM and 2GB of available HD space Colour monitor with 1024x576 resolution at 961dpi 1024x576 monitor resolution at 96dpi or less
PROS
CONS
• Easy to use, powerful photo-editing application Perfect for both the beginner and those slightly more experienced Auto Analyzer is very useful in arranging your work based on quality
• Artwork utilities can be a bit confusing at times Few major changes from previous version Some tutorials require paid Plus membership
OVERALL RATING
RELATED
PRODUCTS
Maxibrain K53 Learner’s and Driver’s license software NEED TO KNOW • The K53 learner’s license manual in software form • Interactive lessons on all aspects of driving in SA • Cars and motorbikes covered R159.95
THE book needed to learn everything necessary to pass your learner’s license has been converted into an interactive software package by a local software developer, Maxibrain CC. It’s a somewhat clumsy conversion, but it’s at least functional and manages to convey the information learner drivers of both cars and motorbikes need to pass their learner’s license test. The installation is easy enough, but it does require sending an SMS to Edutain in order to obtain a code that allows the installation to proceed. Once installed, you’re greeted with a rather unattractive splash screen that shows a Start button which, when pressed, launches the program proper. You’re then taken to the program’s second welcome screen, which has an Irish-accented animated car talk you through the basics of the program. You can enter your name here, and after being prompted to choose a password or create a new user, you gain access to a screen that lists all the pages you visited recently. After selecting Home on this page, you finally arrive at a menu that lists all the modules the software has to offer. It is here that the program becomes interesting, as this is where you can choose what you’d like to start learning about. Options include car basics, driving in South Africa and all the road signs and markings you’ll need to know in order to pass your learner’s license exam. Finally, some meat. Each module is full of information that you can either read yourself or have an automatic text-to-speech synthesiser read out to you. The synthesised speech is pretty good, and the information on offer is excellent and 100% relevant to learning more about driving in SA. It’s impossible to list all the topics covered as we would soon run out of space; surprising inclusions include advice on how to treat road accident scenes, how to fill out an accident report form if you’re involved, and even a section on the theory behind why road rules are even necessary. The rest of the modules cover everything from pre-trip inspections to road signs to how to handle traffic circles, and the information is comprehensive and relevant.
PROFESSOR TEACHES WINDOWS 7
Once you’ve gone through enough modules and you’re keen to see how you might fare on the actual exam, the software offers a self-test module which fires questions at you that you’re likely to encounter in the real thing. There is a 30 minute time limit and your scores are recorded for future reference. While the information is extensive and very useful, the presentation leaves a lot to be desired. The prominent use of an Exit button on every page and no obvious Back button led to quite a few clicks that resulted in being booted back to the desktop. The design of many pages is very busy, and some pictures and seem like they were just plonked down with no attention paid to the overall look of the page. On the plus side, the many animations the software makes use of aren’t terrible. If you’re looking for an alternative to the K53 book, this software has all the info necessary to help student drivers pass their learner’s exam. It is very visual, and may engage book-averse students better than its printed counterpart; just don’t expect too much polish. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS • • • • • • •
Microsoft Windows 7/Vista/XP Pentium 4 rated at 1.6GHz or higher 1GB hard drive space CD or DVD-ROM drive 1280 x 768 resolution or higher Sound card advised but not necessary DirectX 9.0 or later
PROS
CONS
• All information is useful and relevant • Visual design is more engaging than a book • The self-test feature gives students an indication of their readiness
• The presentation is pretty awful in places • SMS activation is an annoyance • More expensive than a book
OVERALL RATING
This educational software package includes interactive tutorials that mimic the real Windows 7 environment, and is easily able to transfer all the skills necessary to mastering its use.
URBAN QUEST
Cool learning games set in an urban environment help learners solve problems and have fun at the same time.
EUROTALK ZULU
Brush up your Zulu skills or learn some new ones with this easy-to-use language training software.
WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 59
book reviews
PCS FOR DUMMIES (11TH EDITION)
NEED TO KNOW By Dan Gookin • 408 pages
WHILE today’s children have never known a life without computers and for them PC use is second nature, there are still many adults for whom these desk-mounted boxes are nothing short of daunting and intimidating beasts – and this is the book for them. Experienced author Dan Gookin – who has been writing Dummies books since the early 90s – starts off by introducing the simplest of computer concepts before guiding readers through everything from an introduction to using Windows and the basics of file operation to more advanced topics such as networking, PC power management, and even computer security. Along the way, readers are given a brief introduction to Internet connectivity and web/e-mail use as well as being shown all they’ll need to know about burning CDs and DVDs. Among its many topics, PCs for Dummies also offers a brief introduction to digital photography – an important aspect of PC use today. The chapter covers everything from copying files from a digital camera and scanning in your
WINDOWS 7 FOR DUMMIES
NEED TO KNOW own images to describing different image formats, also offering a primer on editing images. The book even shows how to use a PC as a media centre on which you can watch TV and connect to a home entertainment system. All in all, Gookin has put together another easy-to-read yet richly-packed title, and this book is a great accompaniment for anyone starting out with PCs.
MACBOOK FOR DUMMIES
NEED TO KNOW By Mark Chambers • 408 pages
IF you’ve purchased or are deciding between a MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro, then this latest Mac book (see what we did there?) for 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 in question, and 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 Mac OS X’s previous incarnations. Chambers also does a great job of explaining iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD with close on 20 pages dedicated to each of those 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 60 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
your MacBook for multiuser functionality, troubleshooting and more are covered in the later chapters. In the whole, this is a very satisfying and rewarding book and is well worth a look for any new or prospective Mac owners.
• By Andy Rathbone • 432 Pages
WINDOWS 7 has been out for almost a year now, and if you’ve been hesitant to take the plunge, Andy Rathbone’s entertainingly-written book will help you overcome your jitters and encourage you to jump into the world of Windows 7 with both feet. It’s not really aimed at experienced Windows users, though – the book spends a great deal of time getting readers up to speed on general Windows concepts and features. If you’ve ever run a copy of Windows before, you won’t learn much new here, but people new to the operating system will gain a great deal of insight. Rathbone’s writing is concise, informative and oftentimes amusing. The book is a good reference for people getting to know Microsoft’s latest operating system, it’s friendly enough that reading is easy, and when the author gets technical (and he does), he warns readers beforehand.
IPODS AND IT ITUNES FOR DUMMIES (3RD EDITION)
NEED TO KNOW • By Tony Bove & Cheryl Rhodes • 408 Pages
WHEN you first get your hands on an iPod, all is good as it’s an intuitive little gadget to use. Until you get to iTunes, that is; that piece of software has had many veteran nerds scratching their heads in confusion as to what it expects of them, when all they want is to move songs between it and the iPod. Enter iPods and iTunes for Dummies. Authors Tony Bove and Cheryl Rhodes take readers through everything they need to know to set up their iPods, install and configure iTunes, and how to manage their music collections according to iTunes’ needs and desires. They do so in a friendly way that is easy to understand and relate to, and as with all Dummies books, a great sense of humour. Both Windows and Mac users are covered in the book. Simple diagrams and pointers abound, and even the most confused iPod owner will be enlightened and ready to rock with this guide firmly in hand.
game reviews //BY TIANA CLINE
SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2 R599.95 Mario is more than a video game protagonist; he is a worldwide phenomenon and a household name that goes back to 1981. 200 games later, the Italian plumber only went to space three years ago in a very successful game called Super Mario Galaxy. Exclusively on the Nintendo Wii platform, the gameplay saw Mario hopping around galaxy-styled levels filled with planets and worlds. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (SMG2) is a sequel to the first and promises exciting gravity effects as well as all-new power ups. (Note – this game is not for those who suffer from motion sickness!) The story begins with Mario receiving an invitation from Princess Peach to the Star Festival. Of course, this is no ordinary day in the Mushroom Kingdom. When Mario arrives at the castle, he is just in time to see that Bowser has taken the star power, grown to an extraordinary size and is now going to capture Princess Peach. Once again, Mario is going to be the hero, and he dashes into space to rescue the princess. Overall, SMG2 is a platformer set in a crazy space environment. As Mario, you’ll jump in-between 3D planets, collecting Star Bits and completing topsy-turvy levels. Different to the original game, Mario will now be able to ride his faithful dinosaur friend Yoshi, using his tongue to swing across gaps, as well as eat fruits that give him various powers, such as speed boosts, the ability to inflate like a balloon, or the power to reveal secret paths. If you played the first game, a lot of the gameplay mechanics will be familiar such as blue Pull Star sections where everything happens in 2D and power-ups like Spring Mushrooms. Because interplanetary navigation is new, Launch and Sling Stars have been added to the gameplay – these both make travelling around the universe a bit easier! For fans of multiplayer gaming, a second player can jump in and control an orange Luma to assist Mario. As well as collecting Star Bits for the player, the orange Luma can attack enemies and collect items such as coins and bubbles, holding on to them until Mario needs them. The main layout of the game is a little different and looks a lot more like Super Mario Bros. 3 and the NEW Super Mario Bros. for the Wii. The main hub is shaped like Mario’s head and called Starship Mario – this place can be accessed at any point and it gets bigger when new abilities are unlocked. (Like all Mario games, completing levels unlocks new stages, but certain areas cannot be accessed until the player has collected a certain number of Power Stars.) A nice feature in SMG2 is the Cosmic Guide - for those struggling with more difficult sections of the game, this feature that lets the computer play through a section of a level… but be warned! If you use this, you’ll only receive a Bronze Star and will have to complete the level again to earn a full Power Star. If you own a Wii, it’s worth getting one of the SMG titles because it has everything that makes classic Mario games fun. From its pick-up-and-play ability, the retro familiarity to the little puzzles which continue to up the difficulty the more you progress, SMG2 is exactly the opposite of the other plot-driven, guns-and-blood games out there - it’s the magic of Mario!
62 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
NEED TO KNOW • Collect stars as you travel across different galaxies • Ride Yoshi • New power-ups • Grab Comet Metals to unlock harder levels and more challenges
>>CONSIDER THIS<< NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII This is the classic Mario platform game on Wii! For the first time, you can experience an action-packed Mario platformer with simultaneous multiplayer fun. Up to four players can join in the fun at the same time in this stylish 2D adventure. Playas Mario, Luigi or either one of the Toads… or you could also play solo and perfect your performance!
© 2010 Lago S.r.l. Published by Lago S.r.l. Black Bean is a trademark of Lago S.r.l. All rights reserved. Developed by Gusto Games Limited. Gusto and the Gusto logo are trademarks of Gusto Games Limited. Certain content licensed from National Geographic. All rights reserved. “Nat Geo Quiz!”, the words “Nat Geo”, “National Geographic” and the Yellow Border Design are trademarks of National Geographic. Used with Permission. Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies and are used under license from Microsoft. “2”, “PlayStation”, “PS3” are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “ ” is a trademark of the same company. Trademarks are property of their respective owners. Wii is a trademark of Nintendo WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 63
game reviews
LIPS: I LOVE THE 80s
MODNATION RACERS
NEED TO KNOW
NEED TO KNOW
• • • •
• • • •
THE decade known as the 80s had a lot of memorable moments – Madonna was a fashionable influence on young women, break dancing was big and nearly everyone owned a Cabbage Patch doll. Two decades later iconic songs like Kim Carnes’ Bette Davis Eyes, Video Killed The Radio Star by the Buggles, and the feel-good classic Walking On Sunshine from Katrina & The Waves really what make the 80s what it was. If you’re already humming the tunes, then you’re going to love Lips: I Love The 80s. It’s follow-up to last year’s exclusive sing-along game for the Microsoft next-gen console that brings you all the best classics from that time period. The gameplay is nothing new – you pick a song and sing it, either going solo in the career mode or belting out tunes in front of your friends. The multiplayer mode can get quite competitive, and you’ll want to be as pitch perfect as possible to come out tops. The selection of songs is really fantastic, so be sure to put on some neon legwarmers, pull on some tight jeans, crimp your hair, and get ready to sing like you’re back in the era that style forgot, but that music loves!. R599.95
>>CONSIDER THIS<< SingStar Queen Don’t have an Xbox 360? Step into the sequined jumpsuit of Freddie Mercury and sing over 25 of the British rockers’ greatest hits, such as Bohemian Rhapsody, Don’t Stop Me Now and Who Wants To Live Forever in this PS3 karaoke extravaganza.
64 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
>>GET THIS<< Lips: Party Classics If you want even more songs to sing, this Lips collection include classics like I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor, Wannabe by Spice Girls and Y.M.C.A. by Village People – you know you want it!
A customised karting experience Easy-to-use creation tools Play through the story or just race Share user-generated content with the PlayStation Network
IF you loved the fast fun and cute look of Mario Kart racing and wish it was on a next-gen platform, then your prayers have been answered. Sony’s ModNation Racers is just that and more – it’s a modern re-imagination of classic kart racing with a cool customisation angle. Not only is the game pick-up-andplay, there are plenty of modes to choose from and you can also just about alter every detail from the characters to the cars, and even the tracks. The game’s easy creation tools – Track Studio, Character Studio and Kart Studio – means you can either invest minimal time and enjoy basic creating, or stay >>CONSIDER THIS<<
Retro karaoke 40 memorable songs from the 80s Exclusive to Xbox 360 Supports microphones from Rock Band and Guitar Hero
a little longer to make sure every lake, mountain, sharp turn and power-up is placed perfectly. Share what you’ve made online to keep the game world fresh, get new tracks, modify what you’ve found… and race – it’s really that easy, even on the PSP! In true Sony-style, the feel of the game is quirky (think LittleBigPlanet combined with urban vinyl art) so it will definitely appeal to players of all ages. In ModNation, racing and creating is only the beginning. Winning is great, but the race to the end is filled with combatlike racing strategies and an array of dramatic weapons if you choose. ModNation Racers is far more than a driving game, it’s a polished and fun experience with what seems like endless customization options – you truly have to play it to believe it. R699.95
Blur This wheel-to-wheel experience delivers a new style of racing for all gamers – drivers careen through real-world track locations packed with fast curves, sneaky alternate routes and hair-raising jumps in over 60 licensed cars as they collect intense power-ups, including the ability to blast other cars out of the way.
LEGO HARRY POTTER: YEARS 1-4
NEED TO KNOW • Play through the first four books • Adventure, puzzles and potions • Over 140 playable characters THIS may not be the first video game based on J.K. Rowling’s series of books, but it does give gamers a chance to experience the magic and adventure of Hogwarts in a uniquely LEGO way. For those who’ve never played one of Traveller Tale’s top-notch LEGO games, LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 is only the beginning. Like the other big LEGO titles, HP: Years 1-4 is filled with hysterical cut scenes. The gameplay is a good combination of puzzle solving and exploration with a bit of battle thrown in. Covering the first four books and recreating the story with plastic precision, this is quite a big game. Expect to see familiar scenes from Philosopher’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire. Besides the three main characters, Harry, Hermione and Ron, there are over 100 playable characters in the game like Draco Malfoy, Albus Dumbledore and Sirius Black and some have different abilities, based on the skills of their book counterparts. No matter who you pick, you’ll have the opportunity to attend lessons, cast spells, mix potions, fly on broomsticks and complete tasks to earn house points. Throughout the game, you will also get to explore iconic settings from the wizarding world including Hogwarts castle, Diagon Alley, the Forbidden Forest and the village of Hogsmeade. R599.95
>>CONSIDER THIS<< Toy Story 3: The Video Game Following the story of the third film, Buzz, Woody and all their toy friends are all pondering their uncertain fate as Andy prepares to go to college. We love the Toy Box mode – a virtual case of toys with an openworld sandbox-style of play.
The all new SBK®X, the most realistic high octane motorbike simulator, has been redefined with every feature of the game dramatically improved from the previous years. Most realistic 3D environments, new classes (Superstock™1000 and World Supersport), complete track overhaul, refined gameplay structure, new game modes. The game has been redesigned to be as close to reality as a picture could be. Offering the ultimate adrenaline rush motorsport experience!!!
game reviews
NEED TO KNOW • An intense psychological thriller • Use light as a combat element • A realistic and interactive environment
If the name of this game sounds somewhat recognisable, its because it’s been five years since the developers announced Alan Wake. Remedy, the people behind the Max Payne series, have put together a spooky, engrossing and must-play game (with a Twin Peaks and X-Files feel) for all thriller fans. Alan Wake tells the story of Wake, a best-selling suspense author suffering from writer’s block who escapes to a small town only to experience the mysterious disappearance of his fiancée. Set in the deceptively idyllic town of Bright Falls, the game immediately immerses you in an intense, engaging and mission-based game. As Alan Wake, you’re on a post-coma mission to stop the novel you wrote
because it seems to be coming to life! The moment you step out the door, your life is in danger – the creatures of the night, the ones you created are now real. Backed by a cinematic soundtrack, Alan Wake’s world is a nightmarish one where fantasy and reality collide. Armed with a flashlight or firearm, this game will both scare and impress, as you take back the night, explore the forest and unravel the exciting plot. Expect innovative combat, a deep plot and narrator who is just as scared as you are. Well worth the (frightening) wait. R699.95
OUT >>NOW<<
ALAN WAKE
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories For the Wii and PSP, this is the first Silent Hill game re-imagined. The story is about a man looking for his missing daughter. His quest takes him to the creepy streets of Silent Hill where evil creatures hide in the shadows…
TIGER is back in the game! In Electronic Art’s popular golf video game, you can now lead your team to victory in the Ryder Cup Challenge set on the gorgeous Celtic Manor Resort in Wales. The Ryder Cup mode is for the whole family – choose from the U.S. or European squad and participate in the various competition formats – foursomes where players hit alternate shots, fourballs and singles, which traditionally bring the biennial event to a close with players going head to head. On the Nintendo Wii, you’ll be able to play like a pro using fully enhanced swing mechanics. The “Advanced Plus” option tracks the swing rotation and plane while “Tour Pro” provides a new level of authenticity on the course. Another new feature in Tiger 11 is True View, an all-new first-person camera. Now, gamers-come-golfers have complete freedom of movement over the club while looking down at the ball, both before and during a swing. If you need a break from the challenges of hitting fairways and greens, jump into a fun round of mini golf, choose to play 9 or 18 holes on one of four original courses with up to four players simultaneously, or go online with your friends to experience the fun of competitive golf. Grab your (virtual) set of clubs, its time to tee off with Tiger 11!. R599.95
TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 11
NEED TO KNOW • Take the Ryder Cup Challenge • Use True View and play from a first person perspective • Online gameplay • Mini-golf
>>GET THIS<< International Cricket 2010 Step up to the crease and enjoy a range of innovations including ‘Action Cam’, the new camera that takes players right onto the pitch, and ‘Power Stick’ that gives 360° degree batting control. This is the most authentic interactive cricket experience ever.
66 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
Our way of protecting the environment
Bring in any old technology and we will either re-furbish and donate it to those in need or we will ensure that the items are disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner with Enviro Connection and Desco. Enjoy discounts off your purchase of a new printer cartridge or toner when you bring in your empty ones. (Terms & conditions apply)
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30
tech tannie
Crushing the spirit of misbehaving technology like
Godzilla after chocolate, Tech Tannie is here to help...
Issue of the month: Q:
I have the Vista operating system and have .gif files I need to check out. When I click on them nothing works (in other words they don’t move at all). Obviously I don’t have the right medium with which to view them. Please can you tell me what program I can download in order to see GIF files working. Languishing Lynette, via e-mail
A:
If you have questions, gripes or just seek some solace, e-mail Tamsin, our friendly tech tannie at techtannie@connect.co.za 68 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
Well, Lynette, this is a good one. For reasons unknown to the rest of us mere mortals, Microsoft decided to not offer support for .gif files in Windows Vista, which is why you’re having a bit of a problem. You don’t say whether or not you have Office 2007 installed on your machine but, if you do, then all you have to do is right-click on the image you want to open, scroll down to Open With and select Microsoft Picture Manager. This mild and faintly infuriating programme offers you basic photo editing skills as well as allowing you to open up all sorts of image file extensions. If you don’t have this, never fear, for there is a free and, if I may say so, rather fabulous program you can download called Picasa. It’s one of the Google range that offers you pretty good photo editing features as well as the ability to start your own online photo album. To get your own version just go to http://picasa. google.com/ and click on the Download Picasa 3.6 button and it will merrily arrive on your machine. The site also has plenty of Help and How To guides to take you through all the different features and show you how to use the program. It really is very easy to use and very intuitive so you shouldn’t have any problems. You should also be able to now open your images simply by double-clicking on them. Good luck and let me know if you have any problems. You should also consider upgrading to Windows 7 – it’s a lot better than Vista and isn’t half as memory hungry.
Q:
My hard drive storage capacity is now 149GB, but when I bought the PC it was 160GB. I’ve formatted several times and installed different operating systems. I’d like to know what the cause might be... Stressed Eugene in Polokwane.
Q:
When I go onto YouTube and try to view a small movie, it starts then stops and carries on like this for the whole movie. However, if I last the whole way through and replay it, it then it goes through one time without splutters. What do I need to download to see a movie without jerks? Movie Misery Michelle
A:
Sadly this is not your fault; this is one of the wonders of bandwidth and interweb capabilities in sunny Souf Efrica. The jerky stuttering is just your computer waiting for the download to catch up. The reason you get it running like a dream the second time around is because all the movie data has already been downloaded and cached and there is nothing to wait for. The
A:
only suggestion I have is for you to pause it when you first start out and wait a few minutes for the bar to show that it has fully downloaded, and to then play the movie for stutter-free fun. The bar I am referring to is the pale red line that runs ahead of the dark red “play” line at the bottom of the image screen. If that is stuck, then so is your movie. When that reaches the end it is ready to watch.
Ah, Stressed Eugene, you have passed some of your stress onto me. The reason for this is that you don’t give me much to go on here – like what operating system you’re using, whether you’ve partitioned your disk to run multiple operating systems, and, last but not least, whether or not your PC came with the operating system pre-installed. I am going to assume that the capacity you had originally was with your OS installed, and that over the past few months (Years? Decades?) you’ve been quietly adding stuff to your machine. The fact that you’ve formatted and reinstalled doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve deleted the problem child; in fact it’s highly likely that the files will remain there forever. The other thing you don’t mention is whether you’re quoting the 160GB from the box it came in or from the capacity on the PC. Either way, though, the 160GB is a lie. The actual size always varies and the partitions take up the space. And this space is packed full of juicy system data and you aren’t going to get that back. My hard drive, for example, says it’s 160GB, but on my computer it says it’s 147.2GB – see? It’s not because the drive is faulty or the machine is set on destroying your life, it’s just the way they work and you have to remember that your system data does need somewhere to go. So either buy a bigger hard drive or just let it go. Or change to an OS that demands less space. WWW.CONNECT.CO.ZA | 69
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e It’ll be a whil ad before the iP s to officially get , but South Africa for we’re ready tablets now
J
ust a month after Apple’s iPad hit the shelves in the US, the fruity giant has as announced that more than a million of its latest handheld held devices have already been sold. Think about that for a moment. A million iPads in a month. At that rate, te, within the next three weeks there’ll be more iPad owners than there ere are people in Botswana. By the end of winter, they’ll be able to out-vote ut-vote Joburg. And not a sensible haircut among them. th The astonishing thing about the iPad is that it doesn’t actually do anything new. We’ve had Tablet PCs from Dell, HP, ASUS and Toshiba in the past, and Archos was selling Internet slates three years ago that arguably outclass the similarly sized iPad. They didn’t catch on. So why has the world suddenly gone iMad? Here’s the obligatory appreciation of Apple’s exceptional ability to design and market gadgets in a way no-one else can, which all columnists writing about the company are forced to write or else they find a thick framed pair of glasses nailed menacingly to their front doors at night. Apple can design and market gadgets in a way no-one else can: the original iPod was, in many ways, inferior to other MP3 players of the time, but it was the one that looked the best and had the brand cache to woo the masses. That’s not to say that Apple doesn’t sometimes produce something that really is better than its rivals by any measure – the current aluminium unibody MacBooks, for example, or the iPhone are products worthy of Apple’s reputation. I still find new things about iPhone to be impressed with, and believe it may actually be the best gadget ever made. Or a close second to the vacuum cleaner, anyway. But the iPad, to me, is neither of these things. I wanted to like it,
but it doesn’t have the love-at-first-byte look of the iPhone, and for all the slickness of the interface, there are some obvious things missing that would just frustrate me over time. No multitasking is the big one - I want to be able to pause a game, check my mail, and come back to it without quitting and losing my progress. A computer that doesn’t let me do that is silly. Ditto editing photos and simultaneously browsing the photo library. lib Then there’s the problem that it doesn’t support Flash - I don’t mind not being able to watch videos, it’s the fact it breaks some of my favourite websites that annoys me. However, there is one thing the iPad does that other tablets don’t, yet. Anyone who’s ever tried to use a touchscreen in Windows - even the supposedly multi-touch ready Windows 7 - will know what a depressing experience it is. On-screen buttons are slow to react, and unless you’re a trained marksman with needle point fingertips the best you can hope for when aiming to grab hold of, for example, a window border is to be hideously inaccurate. Most of the time you might as well be using a different PC. Why haven’t touchscreen tablets taken off yet? It’s because using a touch screen with the Windows desktop slows you down, rather than speeds you up. The iPad – along with the likes of Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s Ereader and every single Android phone ever made – are showing that there are alternative interfaces that do work, and the tablet concept is no bad thing. But I wasn’t one of the first million iPad owners, and I won’t be in the second or third million either. Because while it piques my interest, I’m going to wait for the launch of the HP Slate, the ASUS Eee Tablet or the fantastically named JooJoo to see if they can finally make the touchscreen tablet I’ve been waiting for.
Copyright © 2010 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Symantec, the Symantec Logo, Norton and Norton 360 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affi liates in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and Internet
disconnect //BY ADAM OXFORD
72 | CONNECT | JUNE 2010
C
Copyright © 2010 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Symantec, the Symantec Logo, Norton and Norton 360 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affi liates in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and Internet Explorer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. | *Based on Symantec internal data comparing features of competitors all in one security solutions.
NERESW ION V
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