07 VOL 15
THE REGION’S FAVOURITE PC & CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY GUIDE An ITP Technology Publication JULY 2010
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JULY 2010
ULTIMATE HOME ENTERTAINMENT 3D TV: WILL IT LIVE UP TO THE HYPE GROUP TEST: GTX 470 GRAPHICS CARDS
Get entertained with our home entertainment guide REVIEWS:
CRAZY GAMING Sonic and Segaa All-Stars reviewedd
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV LG Haier R450 Nero Multimedia Suite 10 Sky Expeditor EXP and more tested... DHS15 • SR15 • LE12 • JD2 • KD1.5 • QR15 • LL7,000
600MB OF FREE SOFTWARE WARE WAR RE
Packed with games, productivity apps, utilities ies and much, much more... Licensed by Dubai Media City
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CONTENTS 1
THE REGION’S FAVOURITE PC & CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY GUIDE An ITP Technology Publication JULY 2010
www.itp.net
JULY 2010
CONTENTS
ULTIMATE HOME ENTERTAINMENT 3D TV: WILL IT LIVE UP TO THE HYPE GROUP TEST: GTX 470 GRAPHICS CARDS
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST
Get entertained with our home entertainment guide REVIEWS:
CRAZY GAMING GAMING G Sonic and Segaa All-Stars reviewedd
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV LG Haier R450 Nero Multimedia Suite 10 Sky Expeditor EXP and more tested... DHS15 • SR15 • LE12 • JD2 • KD1.5 • QR15 • LL7,000
600MB OF FREE SOFTWARE WAR WA AR RE E
Packed with games, productivity apps, utilities and much, much more... Licensed by Dubai Media City
14
10 COMMENT
HOME ENTERTAINMENT
10 COMMENT The Middle East goes purple. Yahoo! have been painting the cities of Dubai and Amman purple – the search company’s official colour. It’s now official that the search portal has offices in these cities.
14 ENTERTAINED 14 HOME ENTERTAINMENT Follow our guide to help you put together your home entertainment system’s audio and video setup in perfect sync. WINDOWS lists a few things that you should consider when setting up your system.
18 3D TV HYPE? 18 WILL 3D TV BE A SUCCESS 3D TV has burst onto the scene in 2010, but is it really the next big thing when it comes to home entertainment? WINDOWS takes a closer look at 3D TV and explains how it works, who’s making it, the health risks associated with it and whether or not it’s worth buying it now.
24 GROUP TEST
18
24
3D TV HYPE?
FERMI GPU GROUP TEST
24 FERMI GPUS nVidia’s GTX 400 series – also known as Fermi – has finally hit the market and in this grouptest we put four of these mid-range GTX 470 cards to the test. If you’re keen on buying then this is the grouptest for you…
WIN FANTASTIC TECH PRIZES
60
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2 CONTENTS 6 6 7
NEWS
31
BLACKBERRY, NOKIA TOP SMARTPHONE BRANDS GOOGLE TO OFFER ENCRYPTED SEARCH
37 HOT KIT REVIEWS 31 32 33 34 35
CANON EOS-1D MARK IV LG HAIER R450 NERO MULTIMEDIA SUITE 10 SKY EXPEDITOR EXP ZOTAC GEFORCE GTX 480
41 BUYER'S GUIDE THE BIGGEST TECH REFERENCE GUIDE 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51
COMPONENTS DESKTOPS DIGITAL IMAGING HANDHELDS MONITORS NOTEBOOKS PERIPHERALS PRINTERS SOFTWARE STORAGE
52 GAME ON 52 54
GAME ON NEWS SEGA SONIC ALL STARS
60 REGULARS 60 62 64
COMPETITIONS CD CONTENTS LOGGING OFF
32
33 66 34
Windows®. Life without Walls™. Acer recommends Windows 7.
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Life in 3D When you crave more excitement, more realism and more suspense from your digital entertainment, there’s only one way to experience the world: in 3D. Get ready to dive into the Acer Aspire 5738D the world’s first notebook with 3D technology and applications built in.
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Windows® 7 Home Premium allows you to manage and share information easier, enjoying your photos, music, videos, games and DVDs. Available at all leading retailers in UAE or at acer.ae Acer and the Acer logo are registered trademarks of Acer Incorporated. Copyright 2010 Acer. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows and the Windows logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks, registered trademarks and/or service marks, indicated or otherwise, are the properties of their respective owners. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. Specifications subject to change without notice. Pictures are intended simply to illustrate the product.
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4 REGULARS
Editor’s letter An ITP Technology Publication
LOGGING ON Visit WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST online and read this content and much more at www.itp.net
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
NO MORE PAY TV Whilst writing about 3D TV and home entertainment systems for this month's issue of WINDOWS, I thought it was quite a coincidence that Google came out with a surprise announcement of its TV service. Now, I'm not saying you should get rid of your pay TV subscription just yet, but, if there's anything to go by according to Google's current dominance of our web landscape, then you might want to read this carefully. Google TV is a platform that will run on numerous devices such as TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes. It's based on Android, but runs Google's Chrome browser as well as a full version of Flash Player 10.1. Therefore, Google TV devices can browse to just about any site on the web that has video. Google TV devices will also have remotes with some form of QWERTY keyboard, and you'll be able to use Android phones as remotes as well. Using an Android phone opens up some extremely intriguing possibilities, like searching for content using Google Voice Search and navigating by gesture, but it's not clear how deep the integration between Android on Google TV and Android on phones will be at launch. Furthermore, the platform will have some interesting partners as well. Sony is planning to build BRAVIA Internet TVs and Blu-ray players that run the platform. Logitech is building a Google TV "companion box" that can control your entire A/V rack using Harmony technology. You should also be able to use the Android phone or an iPhone as the remote, and Intel's making the Atom CE4100 chip that's used in all these devices. These are just some of the partners involved from the outset, with more certainly to come on board in the future. And in terms of when it will be available? Well, according to many of the platform's partners, we can expect to see it launch later this year. Google TV devices will seemingly be arriving this year, as Sony says it'll have Internet TVs and Blu-ray players in the fall. For many around the world, this could mean the end of 'surfing' channels on decoders and switching to the web. Already, this is what a lot of us do, but the form factors of notebooks and PCs has rather limited the ability for many of us to watch TV on the web. One concern that I have with this though is that it will not be ideal for the Middle East region, owing to our poor and expensive bandwidth. The rate of adoption here for the Google TV platform will most probably be lacking quite significantly as compared to elsewhere globally. But it is a fantastic initiative, and we'll certainly be keen to see how it pans out. If you want to read more about current day home entertainment tech, then turn to the 3D TV and Ultimate Home Entertainment features in this month's magazine.
Registered at Dubai Media City PO Box 500024, Dubai, UAE Tel: 0097 1 (0)4 210 8000 Fax: 0097 1 (0)4 210 8080 Web: www.itp.com Offices in Dubai & London ITP Technology Publishing CEO Walid Akawi Managing Director Karam Awad General Manager Peter Conmy Publisher Natasha Pendleton EDITORIAL Group Editor Mark Sutton Tel: +971 4 210 8225 e-mail: mark.sutton@itp.com Deputy Editor Gareth van Zyl Tel: +971 4 210 8682 e-mail: gareth.vanzyl@itp.com Senior Technical Editor Jason Saundalkar Tel: +971 4 210 8635 e-mail: jason.saundalkar@itp.com ADVERTISING Group Advertising Manager Brett Pearson Tel: +971 4 2108345 e-mail: rami.akawi@itp.com Advertising Executive Rami Akawi Tel: +971 4 210 8158 e-mail: brett.pearson@itp.com STUDIO Senior Designer Michel Al Asmar PHOTOGRAPHY Director of Photography Sevag Davidian Chief Photographer Khatuna Khutsishvili Senior Photographers Efraim Evidor, Thanos Lazopoulos, G-nie Arambulo Staff Photographers Jovana Obradovic, Isidora Bojovic, Rajesh Raghav, Ruel Pableo, Lyubov Galushko, George Dipin PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION Group Production Manager Kyle Smith Deputy Production Manager Ali Fahmi Production Co-ordinator Basel Al Kassem Managing Picture Editor Patrick Littlejohn Image Retoucher Emmalyan Robles Distribution Manager Karima Ashwell Distribution Executive Nada Al Alami CIRCULATION Head of Circulation & Database Gaurav Gulati MARKETING Event Manager Preeta Panicker ITP DIGITAL Assitant Editor Vineetha Menon Tel: +971 4 210 8579 e-mail: vineetha.menon@itp.com Group Sales Manager ITP Digital Business Websites, Ahmad Bashour Tel: +971 4 210 8549 e-mail: ahmad.bashour@itp.com Senior Sales Manager, ITP.net, Nathalie Akl Tel: +971 4 210 8520 e-mail: nathalie.akl@itp.com Internet Development Manager Mohammed Affan Content Manager Asad Azizi Web Advertising Manager Meghna Jalnawalla Creative Director Craig Willers ITP GROUP Chairman Andrew Neil Managing Director Robert Serafin Finance Director Toby Jay Spencer-Davies Board of Directors K M Jamieson, Mike Bayman, Walid Akawi, Neil Davies, Rob Corder, Mary Serafin Circulation Customer Service Tel: +971 4 286 8559 Printed by Emirates Printing Press L.L.C.Dubai. Controlled Distribution by Blue Truck Subscribe online at www.itp.com/subscriptions Certain images in this issue are available for purchase. Please contact itp images@itp.com for further details www.itpimages.com The publishers regret that they cannot accept liability for error or omissions contained in this publication, however caused. The opinions and views contained in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. Readers are advised to seek specialist advice before acting on information contained in this publication which is provided for general use and may not be appropriate for the reader's particular circumstances. The ownership of trademarks is acknowledged. No part of this publication or any part of the contents thereof may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without the permission of the publishers in writing. An exemption is hereby granted for extracts used for the purpose of fair review.
Gareth van Zyl gareth.vanzyl@itp.com Published by and Š 2010 ITP Technology Publishing, a division of the ITP Publishing Group Ltd. Registered in the B.V.I. under Company Number 1402846.
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6 NEWS
NEWS
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
RIM'S BLACKBERRY AND NOKIA ARE TOP SMARTPHONE BRANDS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA REGIONS Nokia, BlackBerry and HTC are the leading smartphone brands in the Middle East and Africa based on analysis of 2010 first quarter sales by research house Gartner. Studies done by the firm see a 26% growth in smartphone sales in MEA in the first quarter of the year compared to 2009 figures. Nokia represents 87.6% of the MEA smartphone market share, while Research in Motion (RIM) comes in second with a 4.3% share. Apple's popular iPhone in comparison only has a 2.6% market share after HTC (2.8%). Combining both smartphones and traditional handset sales, the iPhone was ranked 7th worldwide with a 112.2% increase, representing Apple's strongest quarter yet. "The second quarter of 2010 will be a very important one for Apple. We expect that Apple will present its new iPhone in June during its Worldwide Developer Conference, which will be the first to feature the latest release of the iPhone OS that includes welcome improvements for developers and users, such as multitasking," said Carolina Milanesi, Research Vice President at Gartner. Still, it isn't expected to catch up to Nokia's lead anytime soon. Nokia's mobile phone sales to end users reached 110.1 million units worldwide according to Gartner, which is close to research findings by IDC. Google's Android platform is also making its presence felt - Android devices surpassed iPhone sales for the first time in the United States. Regionally, Nokia could face a tougher time from the likes of Apple and Google Android-device manufacturers. "Nokia will remain the undisputed leader in the region, they have such a strong brand value in emerging as well as mature markets. However, they will be challenged by the growth of RIM, Apple and Android-devices that will continue their rapid growth in this region," Zimmermann told itp.net. "With the growing interest in smartphones and also other form factors such as Internet tablets and e-readers, Nokia will have to make sure that their service strategy continues to build out, such as Nokia Comes with Music that is now available in many Middle Eastern countries and Ovi Maps," Zimmermann added.
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NEWS 7
WESTERN DIGITAL EXPANDS 2.5-INCH SERIAL ATA LINEUP Western Digital has expanded its 2.5-inch Serial ATA hard drive line with the launch of its WD AV-25 drives. The drives are designed primarily for audio video (AV), digital video recorders (DVR) and surveillance applications. The storage titan says these new drives are geared for reliability, with a quoted mean time between failure (MTBF) of 1 million hours. The AV-25 drives are also designed to run cool - despite extended use - and with minimal noise levels. “Customers that market audio and video recording applications, such as DVRs, media centers and mainstream surveillance systems, often require 24x7 operation from hard drives,” said Saif Khwaja, Sales Director for Western Digital, Middle East, Africa & South Asia. “WD AV-25 hard drives are designed to withstand these demanding environments and offer consumers a small form factor solution that consumes less power, generates less heat, and operates quietly and, most importantly, reliably.” The WD AV-25 hard drive is offered in capacities of 160GB, 250GB, 320GB and 500GB and is covered by a three year limited warranty. Of the capacities offered drives with 160GB, 250GB and 320GB are already available in the local market. Western Digital expects the 500GB variant to become available in the coming weeks.
GOOGLE TO OFFER ENCRYPTED SEARCH SOON Following the backlash Google faced for stealing data from open WiFi networks ‘mistakenly' , the search giant now says the incident highlighted just how easily accessible non-password protected networks are and revealed that it will be serving up an encrypted version of Google Search soon. "Earlier this year, we encrypted Gmail for all our users, and next week we will start offering an encrypted version of Google Search," revealed Alan Eustace, Senior VP, Engineering & Research in a company blog post dated May 14th. Google began using encryption as a default for Gmail users only in 2010, while Yahoo! and Hotmail don't offer that same level of security and privacy as yet. Users can check if pages are encrypted by looking to see whether the URL begins with ‘https', rather than just ‘http', with browsers showing a lock icon when the connection is secure. In the same blog post, Eustace explains the WiFi incident in detail, which started when the Data Protection Authority in Hamburg, Germany asked to audit the WiFi data that Google Street View cars collected for use in location-based products like Google Maps for mobile. The request saw Google going over all the data collected and realised they were "mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks" but adds that the data was never used in any Google products. According to Eustace, Google is reaching out to regulators in the countries were data was stolen about how to dispose of it. Presently only data collected in Ireland has been deleted upon request by the Irish Data Protection Authority in the presence of an independent third party.
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
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8 NEWS
NEW VERSACE LUXURY TOUCHSCREEN SMARTPHONE COSTS $6811 Iconic fashion label Versace has launched its first luxury touchscreen smartphone range - Versace Unique. The full-featured Versace Unique multimedia phones will be available early next month through exclusive watch and fine jewellery networks and Versace flagship boutiques worldwide. Prices for the Unique range from 5,500 to 6,900 (approximately AED 25,000 to AED 32,000) depending on the materials used but bespoke models can also be ordered to suit individual tastes. The phone is crafted from the finest materials and handassembled in France. Unique's back is wrapped in handcrafted leather and embossed with the Medusa head, while the scratchresistant sapphire crystal screen is the largest single piece of this material ever produced for consumers. Versace Unique was made in collaboration the creator of tailormade handsets ModeLabs Group, along with LG Electronics. The luxury 3G phone comes with a media player, a 5-megapixel flash camera and Dolby Mobile surround sound technology. "We are excited about Versace Unique. Our team has worked well with our partners at Modelabs to manufacture a very innovative product which perfectly blends luxury materials, craftsmanship and the advanced technologies of LG. As we move forward in the development of our business, we are particularly happy to be able to strengthen the offer of luxury accessories that complement our core fashion products in line with Versace`s DNA," said Gian Giacomo Ferraris, CEO of Versace Group.
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
TWITTER IPHONE APP COULD IRK DEVELOPERS Micro-blogging site Twitter has released the official Twitter application for Apple iPhones that can be downloaded for free from iTunes. Experts however warn that the move risks alienating third-party developers. According to Principal Analyst Eden Zoller from research firm Ovum, Twitter is walking a fine line at the moment. "...Twitter needs to be very careful not to alienate the developer community as they drive innovation for the service and also traffic. It should be remembered that applications account for 75% of all tweets," said Zoller. "Developers do not want to go to the trouble and cost of building an app if Twitter itself is going to make a big play for same area. This is exactly what Twitter appears to be doing with its in-house applications for smartphones, and the Tweetie application it acquired in April stands out as a case in point." Biz Stone, Co-Founder of Twitter, says the decision to release their own application for the iPhone was based on demand.
"Comprehensive analysis of the Twitter user experience in the iTunes App Store showed very plainly that people were looking for an app from Twitter-we didn't have one so they generally got confused and gave up. Obviously, we saw room for improvement," Stone wrote in a company blog post. Last month Twitter announced there were 100,000 applications for the site - twice the number available just five months earlier in December 2009. One of the key differences that sets Twitter's own app apart from other existing third-party offerings is the fact that signing up to a Twitter account isn't required. Unregistered users can still browse trends, read Top Tweets, find popular users, and check out public tweets geographically. The app can work on the Apple's new iPad tablet device but is optimised for the iPhone and iPod Touch. An iPad-focused version of the app is expected to be released later.
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NEWS 9
PAKISTAN BLOCKS FACEBOOK WEBSITE OVER PROPHET DRAWING CAMPAIGN Pakistan has blocked access to Facebook because of a religiously-fuelled campaign on the social networking site called ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day'. A Facebook user recently set up the page inviting people to send in a ‘creative and funny depiction of Mohammed' today (May 20), with the intention of supporting freedom of speech and to protest threats made by an Islamic group against the creators of South Park for depicting the Prophet Mohammad in a bear suit during an episode earlier this year. Hundreds of Facebook users have called for the social-networking site to pull down the page. Other users have created their own pages in protest with one page, ‘AGAINST "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!', already having the support of more than 92,000 people. Facebook sent a statement to the media saying that they are investigating the matter and that they would consider restricting access to the controversial content in specific countries. "While the content does not violate our terms, we do understand it may not be legal in some countries," the company said in a statement. "In cases like this, the approach is sometimes to restrict certain content from being shown in specific countries." The page is presently not accessible in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Pakistan, a predominantly Muslim nation, has decided to block the website entirely ‘till further orders' following a decision by the Lahore High Court. It's believed that YouTube has now also been blocked in the country because of un-Islamic content. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has set up a toll free number and dedicated email address for citizens to report any other websites and URLs where ‘such objectionable material is placed'.
Hewlett-Packard has launched a new device in the United Arab Emirates that is both a laptop and a tablet PC. The 12.1" HP TouchSmart tm2 Notebook PC, which costs AED 4,499 at most leading electronics retail stores in the country, has an aluminum chassis that can be twisted from a notebook into slate. The device comes with a capacitive touch display that supports a range of multi-touch features such as zooming in or out, rotate, scroll, as well as moving an object with pinch and drag movements using fingertips. Additionally, the HP TouchSmart software makes use of touch-enabled apps for games, music, film, videos, photos and even the social media platform Twitter. A digital pen that accompanies the slate acts similarly to how a pen would work on paper, and can be used to make handwritten notes, draw and even annotate documents. The HP TouchSmart tm2 Notebook PC is said to have a battery life of eight hours, powered by the Intel Core 2 Duo processor and operating Windows 7 Home edition. The company says the device is designed to give customers the flexibility to adapt with how they access and interact with content.
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
HP NOTEBOOK MACHINE DOUBLES AS TABLET PC
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10 COMMENT
VIEWS THE MIDDLE EAST GOES PURPLE
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
Yahoo! have been painting the cities of Dubai and Amman purple – the search company’s official colour. It’s now official that the search portal has offices in these cities. The selection of the two locations couldn’t be more apt, as both are generally regarded as being the most dynamic and forward thinking when it comes to the internet environment in this region. Dubai, for instance, has established an Internet City zone, whilst Jordan has gained a reputation for having an active online media scene, with Queen Rania, for example, having a strong presence on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. If you ever have the chance then of walking into the Yahoo! Middle East offices, you’ll be able to play table tennis, foosball, Wii and have access to a café with TV and a satellite connection. (The company still maintains that startup-like environment.) But this is Yahoo! after all – an organisation that went into freefall after it decided not to make a deal with Microsoft, and which has shrunk in terms of relevance in the internet space. The Middle East might be a shining light for the company, but it is a shining light in its gloomy environment, where Facebook, Twitter and especially Google have taken centre stage. Yahoo! have tried to respond by recently branding itself as an individualised search portal, focusing on Yahoo! for ‘You’. In fact, last year they went on a massive advertising campaign by concentrating their efforts on creating a unique brand identity in this very competitive market. They spent millions of advertising dollars in markets such as India, with splash advertising pages on the front of top newspapers and magazines.
They’ve also been buying up other companies. There’s rumours abound at the moment that Yahoo! has been in talks with FourSquare, the poplular location-based app service. And in the Middle East, in particular, Yahoo! have a vested interest in Maktoob, one of the region’s most visited and interactive portals. It’s quite clear that Yahoo! has a very different strategy to that of Google. Whereas Google drives innovation from within itself, Yahoo! has rebranded itself and looks to acquire innovation outside
of itself. The latter is a far more passive approach in my opinion. Nevertheless, I’m glad that Yahoo! has made its present felt in the region with their new offices. When players that have been in the tech industry for years start bringing their expertise to this region, that can only be a good thing and might help ignite the startup industry here. The Middle East might also just be the springboard to help Yahoo! become resurgent again.
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COMMENT 11
VIEWS SOUR GRAPES OVER APPLE SALES Apple reseller iStyle's plea for Middle East customers to be patient and wait for the official launch of the iPad in the region looks to me like an act of desperation than a well-meant request on its part. iStyle belongs to the same group as ABM, Apple's exclusive partner for the Middle East, so until the iPad officially arrives in the Middle East you aren't going to see it in its stores. I'm sure iStyle bosses must be tearing their hair out as they watch other retailers in the market cashing in on the biggest hit of the year while they're forced to sit tight until they can formally take stock of the product. The simple fact of the matter is that Middle East customers want access to the device as quickly as any other part of the world. iStyle's apparent frustration at not being able to exploit that demand - while other retailers find ways of importing the product from alternative sources - just makes them look like the boy found crying in the corner because his lunch has been stolen by the bigger kids. As one UAE retailer said this week: "Everyone is more or less selling the iPad after importing through their own channel. Sales have been quite strong here." iStyle's response to seeing customers snap up iPads from other retailers has been to warn them that it will not provide any support or technical assistance they may require. According to a statement issued by the company last week, it is unable to service any iPads sold to consumers on the grey market. I have an issue with that reference to the ‘grey market' though, and it's this: For a grey market to even prevail suggests the existence of a legitimate channel in the first place. But that is not the case with iStyle as its stands right
now because it is not even selling the iPad yet! To compound matters further, the retailer can't even tell customers the date of the official launch. iStyle might feel aggrieved at not having the iPad on its shelves, but you have to question whether making ultimatums to customers is really a sensible way to go about things. If it wants to pick fights with anyone then surely it should be Apple. After all, Apple controls who the product is supplied to globally, so if goods are coming into the region when they shouldn't be then something needs tightening up elsewhere. Such shenanigans don't surprise me though. I've always found the Apple channel to be an odd one to understand here, what with the eclectic mix of independent retailers and those that share common ownership with ABM. At the same time, it's been interesting to observe that while other mainstream IT vendors have embraced the growth of the regional IT market by abandoning the single distributor model in recent years, Apple has always kept faith in the same structure. Just to digress for a second, I approached ABM, as Apple's representative in the region, to try and get some details about its channel strategy and market development plans towards the end of last year. After a couple of months of going backwards and forwards I was bizarrely informed by its PR agency that if an interview was to take place then management wouldn't be able to talk about anything Apple-related. Isn't that like getting five minutes with Bernie Ecclestone and being told you can't speak about Formula One? Returning to the topic in hand, the current iStyle-iPad debacle undoubtedly illustrates the way in which market
dynamics in the Middle East continue to be shaped by product flow. It also raises questions over retailer policies on warranty and support, which remain important factors in fostering customer loyalty. iStyle, for instance, currently claims that it will only be able to assist customers with iPads purchased through its own stores, once they are available of course. If the customer doesn't have a warranty that is valid in this region I can understand that stance, but does that mean it is prepared to turn away customers that have purchased an iPad elsewhere and simply approach it for advice or non-technical guidance? It seems we are unlikely to find out the answer to that anytime soon. In the meantime, customers must decide whether it is worth relinquishing iStyle's after-sales care (which they may or may not need) for the sake of getting their hands on a device without delay.
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
Andrew Seymour says iStyle’s plea for customers to hold off iPad purchases sounds a tiny bit desperate
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12 COMMENT
VIEWS CUSTOMER IS KING
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
“Jumbo is all set to play its part in banishing the image that customer service in the region is lacking”. Gareth van Zyl says this is a particular line that struck him in a press release he read recently about Jumbo opening a new 70,000 square foot facility in Dubai.
I attended the opening event of this facility to see if it’s all that Jumbo says it is, as I myself have run into problems when it comes to customer service in the electronics retail market in this country. Let me relay a problem that I’ve experienced. I bought a touch phone last year from retailer X. I was happy with my purchase, until, a few months later, my touch screen ceased working. I had the receipt for this device and went to retailer X to return the product. The phone was under warranty, but, to my surprise, retailer X told me that the phone’s screen is not under warranty – something which I had not been informed about upon purchasing the phone. It’s ridiculous that a retailer would make sure that what is in essence an essential part of the phone would not be placed under warranty. After all, what is a touch phone without the screen. The screen is basically the fundamental component, and with it out of order, one actually just doesn’t have a functioning phone at all. I was unhappy, to say the least. But I’ve commented on service delivery in this region before when I recently wrote a piece in which I gave my take on Etisalat finally jumping on board the Twitter band-wagon. I reasoned that it’s a fluid expat population that doesn’t motivate organisations out here to focus that much on service delivery. After all, if, as an expat, you’re only
here for a few months or a few years, that’s nowhere near the kind of time you’d have to spend out here to build up some sort of brand loyalty. Also, even if you do kick up a fuss about a problem with a product that you’ve bought, there’s the risk that the manager with whom you brought up the problem might not be around for the long term and therefore doesn’t really care about your complaint. Trying to deliver good customer service in this rather interesting environment then, is, to say the very least, a challenge. So, enter the stage Jumbo Electronics here in the UAE and their new service centre, which they say is the biggest in the UAE, and possibly even the Middle East and Africa. That’s great, but there is one problem. The facility is out in the middle of what is basically nowhere. It’s hard to find and there’s question marks over the amount of footfall it will have. It’s a good facility but, to avoid the pun of calling it a white elephant, I really hope it doesn’t turn into that. Customer service has generally got a bad wrap here. The reasons are
This writer’s experienced service problems when his touch phone stopped working
understandable, but with these retailers growing like they are in the United Arab Emirates and beyond, it’s surely a case of maintaining certain service levels to retain business. Business has been good to electronic retailers here; so let’s hope electronic retailers will start being good towards their customers.
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These speed settings are not guaranteed by GIGABYTE. The specifications and pictures are subject to change without notice. All trademarks and logos are the properties of their respective holders. Any overclocking is at user’s risk, GIGABYTE Technology shall not be responsible for any damage or instability to your processor, motherboard, or any other components.
iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc.
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WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
14 FEATURE
Home entertainment
tainment system’s audio and video setup in Follow our guide to help you put together your home enter ld consider when setting up your system. perfect sync. WINDOWS lists a few things that you shou
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Home entertainment
FEATURE 15
GENERAL ISSUES TO CONSIDER: A starting point concerns the components that you already have. Having just the basics goes a long way in terms of setting up your system especially if you’re on a budget. So take stock of what you have in terms of your existing video and audio setup, as you might never have to replace any of your existing components. It’s also important to take into consideration the size of your shelf and the room where you’re going to place your system. Spatial constraints will be a factor, especially if you’re going for a big system. Most people will usually go for what is a mid-range setup. That is, this is a system that usually consists of basic units, such as the receiver unit (which can double as a DVD player).
SOUND
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
When setting up your surround sound system be sure that the receiver has enough inputs and outputs to accommodate the future growth of your setup. Of course, what is an entertainment system without surround sound – knowing your Dolby Digital 5.1 from your 7.1 will help you setup your speakers correctly. Basically, 5.1 systems use five speakers and a subwoofer whereas 7.1 rigs use seven speakers and a subwoofer. Bear in mind that setting up your surround sound is critical, especially in terms of where you put your satellite speakers. You need to be sure to position them correctly and take into consideration the way the sound bounces off the walls in your room. Human hearing generally is at best at about mid-range level. It’s a good idea then to bear this in mind when setting up your speakers. Many home entertainment systems today come with a sub-woofer that is necessary to achieve that ‘booming’ theatre-like sound. If you’re willing to fork out more with regard to your speakers and subwoofer, you’ll also end up with a better sound system. You might find at one point that you want to tweak your subwoofer levels. If you find that your subwoofer’s bass is too boomy, you can often easily fix this by actually just lowering the volume level. Bigger speakers can also produce more bass on their own and so they sound best with the sub’s crossover knob set at or near the bottom of its range. When your setup becomes entangled in wires you can easily mix up where your wires go. So, it’s important that when you’re running through the setup of your speakers that you double-check that the test tones are coming out of the right speakers. There are numerous DVDs that you can purchase that can help you with this exact aim. Getting yourself a sound-level meter will really help the situation as well as you can ensure good sound matching and calibration. Getting speaker stands or brackets will help in terms of where you place your speakers, as you won’t need to put them on bookshelves etc. Strangely, a thick rug or curtains can ‘soak up’ sound if your sound system has sound that is too harsh. Using high-end speaker cables will also help improve the quality of your speakers’ sound. With many speaker systems, you’ll have the ability to add a separate power unit so as to boost the sound. You’ll just need to figure out where you can hook up the amplifier in order to get things done. Finally, also be sure that you go for a matched package of brands, especially when it comes to your speakers.
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16 FEATURE
Home entertainment
VIDEO When it comes to your video setup, you'll typically need to choose between a flat screen TV or projector type setup. Also, with regard to projectors take into consideration that bulbs often have a limited lifespan. There are a number of different cables and connectors in the world of TVs. Whereas Component cable is only a video cable for HD content, newer HDMI cables support audio and Full HD video transfers via one cable. Bear in mind that when you’re using an HD TV, plasma or LCD you shouldn’t run your screen at full brightness as you can end up shortening its lifespan.
WIRED OR WIRELESS Wires, especially around a home entertainment system, can get quite messy. You might then want to consider going for a cable management system or a wireless setup. There’s the obvious convenience with wireless setups as there just aren’t any cables. But there are a number of disadvantages as well, especially when it, for instance, comes to sound quality. With a wired setup, your home theatre will have much better sound quality. When it comes to wireless setups there are many devices that you can use to get your wireless setup going, especially with regard to TV players.
COMPATIBILITY Whilst you’ll most probably buy a TV or HiFi system once every five years or so, that then also means that you need to consider that technology and standards will change over time. 3D might become a more pervasive setup in the future. So it might be time to check out our 3D feature (page 18).
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
MEDIA CENTER These days there’s a variety of options you have when it comes to how you view video on your system, whether it be Blu-ray players or, as some people have released, 3D Blu-ray players in recent months. Consumers also have a lot of choice when it comes to media centres that are available in the market. Bear in mind that if you have a media centre, you’ll also need to have a High Definition (HD) television.
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18 FEATURE
3D TV
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
3D TV WILL IT LIVE UP TO THE HYPE ? 3D TV has burst onto the scene in 2010, but is it really the next big thing when it comes to home entertainment? WINDOWS takes a closer look at 3D TV and explains how it works, who’s making it, the health risks associated with it and whether or not it’s worth buying it now.
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FEATURE 19
TRICK OF THE MIND Walk into a consumer electronics store today and you’ll be bombarded by people advertising 3D TV. The concept itself, though, is nothing new; so why is it suddenly becoming widely spoken about and how does it work exactly? There are many out there who believe that 3D is the next step in the evolution of television from that of HD TV and before that colour TV. But what are we actually dealing with here when we talk about 3D TV? The team at Panasonic put it succinctly when they explain the basic principles of 3D images as follows on the next page:
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
3D TV
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20 FEATURE
3D TV
VISUAL DISPARITY CREATES A 3-DIMENSIONAL EFFECT When people look at something, they receive slightly different images from their left and right eyes and the difference between the two images is called "disparity." When the images are formed into a single image by the brain, this disparity causes the appearance of spatial depth and solidity. The basic principle of 3D images derives from purposely creating this visual disparity. Even though the image is projected onto a flat screen, the viewer's brain interprets the visual disparity information as portraying depth and solid-appearing objects.
TWO IMAGES ACQUIRED WHEN SHOOTING -- LEFT EYE/ RIGHT EYE To artificially produce this visual disparity, separate images must be recorded for viewing with the left and right eye. When it comes to 3D movies, a special camera is used on 3D movie sets to do this. The camera has two lenses and is designed to capture both the left- and right-eye images simultaneously.
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
3D QUALITY LEFT/RIGHT IMAGE REPRODUCTION The key to achieving 3D image quality lies in the method for sending the special 3D left- and right-eye images to the eyes of the viewer. A variety of methods have been examined through trial and error. These include the primitive method of watching the images through glasses that are fitted with red and blue color filters, glasses with polaroid filters or LCD shutters, and a method in which a color filter is fitted to the screen itself and the viewers watch naturally -- without wearing any special glasses. The criterion for determining the best method is the ability to faithfully reproduce the information contained in the original images.
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3D TV
FEATURE 21
3D: THE RISKS Recently, Samsung Australia released a document outlining some of the risks associated with watching 3D TV. At first glance, the document outlines how 3D television has effects that are not very much different, for instance, to the risks associated with gaming. In a document outlined “Photosensitive Seizure Warnings and other Health Risks”, there are a number of risks that are mentioned in what appears to be a bid from Samsung to prevent itself from running into legal issues. Some of the risks outlined in the document, include the following: • Some viewers may experience an epileptic seizure or stroke when exposed to certain flashing images or lights contained in certain television pictures or video games. If you or any of your family has a history of epilepsy or stroke, please consult with a medical specialist before using the 3D function. • If you experience any of the following symptoms, immediately stop watching 3D pictures and consult a medical specialist: (1) altered vision; (2) lightheadedness; (3) dizziness; (4) involuntary movements such as eye or muscle twitching; (5) confusion; (6) nausea; (7) loss of awareness; (8) convulsions; (9) cramps; and/or (10) disorientation. Parents should monitor and ask their children about the above symptoms as children and teenagers may be more likely to experience these symptoms than adults. • Viewing in 3D mode may also cause motion sickness, perceptual after effects, disorientation, eye strain, and decreased postural stability. It is recommended that users take frequent breaks to lessen the likelihood of these effects. If you have any of the above symptoms, immediately discontinue use of this device and do not resume until the symptoms have subsided. • We do not recommend watching 3D content if you are in bad physical condition, need sleep or have been drinking alcohol. • Watching TV while sitting too close to the screen for an extended period of time may damage your eyesight. The ideal viewing distance should be at least three times the height of the TV screen. It is recommended that the viewer's eyes are level with the screen. • Watching TV while wearing 3D Active Glasses for an extended period of time may cause headaches or fatigue. If you experience a headache, fatigue or dizziness, stop watching TV and rest. • Do not use the 3D Active Glasses for any purpose other than viewing 3D television. Wearing the 3D Active Glasses for any other purpose (as general spectacles, sunglasses, protective goggles, etc.) may physically harm you or weaken your eyesight. • Viewing in 3D mode may cause disorientation for some viewers. DO NOT place your television near open stairwells, cables, balconies or other objects that may cause you to injure yourself. Image: Audience at the SONY 3D launch.jpg
TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY Of course, there’s numerous retailers out there who are now selling 3D TVs, and the likes of Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, LG and more have all jumped on the 3D bandwagon. But despite it being available, there are still lots of questions around it. There’s concerns such as will there eventually be enough content, is it too expensive and . We explore some of those issues.
FOR One of the arguments for buying a 3D TV, is that it is, strangely, most probably the best 2D TV you can buy.
There’s limited content available and whilst the likes of Samsung are capable of offering features that convert 2D into 3D, there are question marks over the picture quality of these images. It might also be some time before 3D really takes off, and, conversely, the content might take some time as well to hit the shelves. Other disadvantages include the health risks mentioned above, and then there's the fact that many will actually find this kind of medium uncomfortable as well. It’s also very expensive still: The minimum price you can expect to pay for a 3D TV in this current market is around US $2700. Finally, those glasses - even geeks will find them un-cool.
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
AGAINST
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22 GROUPTEST
GTX 470 graphics cards
FAST AND THE FERMI
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
nVidia’s GTX 400 series – also known as Fermi – has finally hit the market and in this grouptest we put four of these mid-range GTX 470 cards to the test. If you’re keen on buying then this is the groutpest for you…
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GROUPTEST 23
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
GTX 470 graphics cards
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24 GROUPTEST
GTX 470 graphics cards
ASUS ENGTX470/2DI/1280MD5
Overclocked and ready to run
PRICE $377 CONTACT +9714 299 3873 WEB www.asus.com
PRICE $379 WEB www.galaxytech.com
✪✪✪✪✪
✪✪✪✪✪
sus is a high-end component company so when we found its oddly named ENGTX470/2DI/1280MD5 graphics card has an end user price of just US $377 we were shocked. At this price it is $197 less expensive than Gigabyte’s GTX 470 and $93 cheaper than Zotac’s GTX 470. The ENGTX470 - like all the other cards here features nVidia’s ‘Fermi’ GeForce GTX 470 GPU and in this iteration, Asus follows nVidia’s reference design to the letter. The GPU and CUDA cores run at 607MHz and 1215MHz while the 1280MB of GDDR3 RAM runs at a clock frequency of 3348MHz. The GTX 470 packs DirectX 11 support and shares a number of features with its bigger brother, the GTX 480 (find out about the GTX 480 on page 35). The Asus ships with a few
A
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
GALAXY GEFORCE GTX 470 GC
Champions the value cause
utilities and demo software but like the other cards here it lacks games out of the box. Unfortunate. Running our benchmarks on the ENGTX470 we couldn’t help but be impressed. In our new Heaven v2.0 DirectX 11 benchmark the Asus managed a framerate of 47.1fps at 1680 x 1050 pixels, just 0.2fps slower than the $93 more expensive Zotac GTX 470 card. Its results at 1920 x 1200 pixels also tied the Gigabyte and Zotac cards. The only card noticeably faster than Asus’ GTX 470 (and all the other cards here) is Galaxy’s pre-overclocked GeForce GTX 470 GC. PERFORMANCE ✪✪✪✪✪ FEATURES ✪✪✪✪✪ VALUE FOR MONEY ✪✪✪✪✪ VERDICT With an attractive end user price and competitive benchmark numbers Asus’ GTX 470 is a fantastic value-buy.
alaxy says its GeForce GTX 470 GC is the ‘world’s first non reference design GTX 470’. While it’s impossible to verify this we can certainly say it’s the first custom GTX 470 we've received. As soon as we got the card out of its packaging the difference between Galaxy’s card and the others here could be seen. The GTX 470 GC is equipped with a customised cooling solution complete with a hinged cooling fan. The hinge is a useful addition that makes it possible to clean the fan without any difficulty. The implementation works well and we hope that more companies offer this. The enhanced cooler is put to good use, Galaxy ships this card factoryoverclocked. Its GTX 470 GPU runs at a frequency of 625MHz (607MHz is the nVidia reference standard) while its CUDA cores tick
G
along at 1250MHz (1215MHz is the reference speed). On the memory front Galaxy sticks with nVidia’s reference specifications, so its 1280MB of GDDR5 screams along at 3348MHz. Put to the test the Galaxy’s higher than standard GPU clock made its mark. In the Heaven v2.0 benchmark the card produced results of 70.2fps, 49.9fps and 43.4fps at 1024 x 768, 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200 pixels; these are the highest framerates in this grouptest. Running our other benchmarks the GTX 470 GC trounced the other cards here in those tests as well. Very impressive. PERFORMANCE ✪✪✪✪✪ FEATURES ✪✪✪✪✪ VALUE FOR MONEY ✪✪✪✪✪ VERDICT The GTX 470 GC is a unique graphics card that packs superlative performance under its hood. It’s simply the fastest GTX 470 we’ve tested.
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GTX 470 graphics cards
GIGABYTE GV-N470D5-13I-B
ZOTAC GEFORCE GTX 470
Priced out of reach
Is the force strong with this one?
PRICE $574 CONTACT +9714 886 3330 WEB www.giga-byte.com
PRICE $470 CONTACT +9714 886 3330 WEB www.zotac.com
✪✪✪✪✪
G
✪✪✪✪✪
this roundup. The card’s H.A.W.X and World in Conflict scores kept pace better with the other cards here but considering the Gigabyte’s high price, this is a disappointing performance. During our tests the Gigabyte’s reference cooler, like the Asus and Zotac cards, also went to what seemed like full speed, which made the card very noisy despite being within a closed chassis. The GPU’s peak temperature at this point was a scalding 89-degrees Celsius. If you’re planning on buying a GTX 470 graphics card then it’s worth checking to make sure your chassis has adequate air circulation. PERFORMANCE ✪✪✪✪✪ FEATURES ✪✪✪✪✪ VALUE FOR MONEY ✪✪✪✪✪ VERDICT While the Gigabyte GTX 470 returns reasonable performance figures it’s simply too expensive to recommend in this crowd.
etailing for US $470 Zotac's GeForce GTX 470 is a pricey proposition but not as expensive as Gigabyte’s GV-N470D5-13I-B (left). The lack of the ‘AMP! Edition’ text signifies that this particular Zotac graphics card is a standard card (like two of the other cards here), rather than one that is factory overclocked. If you’re a fan of Zotac’s AMP! Edition cards however don’t fret, the company will likely have these pre-overclocked monsters available in the coming weeks. Our particular test sample, being a standard clocked card, runs its GPU and 1280MB of GDDR5 memory at 607MHz and 3348MHz respectively. Like the other cards in this grouptest this graphics card needs a 550-watt power supply to function. If you’re planning to add another GTX 470 to your system so you can take advantage of
R
nVidia’s SLI multi-GPU technology, you’ll need at least an 800-watts power supply to maintain stability. Putting the Zotac through its paces it returned competitive figures that kept pace with all the cards here, with the exception of the pre-overclocked Galaxy GeForce GTX 470 GC. One trump card the Zotac holds over its competitors is that it is covered by a fiveyear warranty, meaning you’re covered even after this card is well past its useful performance life. Considering the GPU regularly hits temperatures of 90-degrees Celsius we think a long warranty period adds considerable value. PERFORMANCE ✪✪✪✪✪ FEATURES ✪✪✪✪✪ VALUE FOR MONEY ✪✪✪✪✪ VERDICT Though the Zotac is somewhat pricey, it's a competitive performer that really scores points because of its five-year warranty.
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JJULY 2010
igabyte’s GV-N470D513I-B has the undesirable distinction of being the most expensive graphics card in this grouptest. Can its performance and features make it a worthwhile buy? Unfortunately the quick answer is no. In terms of features the Gigabyte ships with a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable and two free graphics applications. While the former is useful if you want to connect your rig to a HD or Full HD display the applications provide entertainment for about 10 minutes. Other than these two inclusions the Gigabyte is a bone stock offering. In our Heaven v2.0 benchmark the GV-N470D513I-B produced figures of 68.8fps, 46.8fps and 39.8fps at 1024 x 768 pixels, 1680 x 1050 pixels and 1920 x 1200 pixels. The 1024 x 768 and 1680 x 1050 pixel figures are the lowest we recorded in
GROUPTEST 25
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26 GROUPTEST
GTX 470 graphics cards
GEFORCE GTX 470 CARDS ASUS
GALAXY
GIGABYTE
ZOTAC
ENGTX470/2DI/1280MD5
GeForce GTX 470 GC
GV-N470D5-13I-B
GeForce GTX 470
$377
MANUFACTURER Product
$379
$574
$470
Telephone
+9714 299 3873
N/A
+9714 886 3330
+9714 886 3330
Web
www.asus.com
www.galaxytech.com
www.giga-byte.com
www.zotac.com
Price
MAIN SPECS
GPU
nVidia GTX 470
nVidia GTX 470
nVidia GTX 470
nVidia GTX 470
Memory
1280MB GDDR5
1280MB GDDR5
1280MB GDDR5
1280MB GDDR5
Codename
Fermi
Fermi
Fermi
Fermi
Fabrication process
40nm
40nm
40nm
40nm
SLI
SLI
SLI
SLI
Multi-GPU compatible Cooling system
Standard dual slot cooler
Custom dual slot cooler
Standard dual slot cooler
Standard dual slot cooler
Interface
PCI-E
PCI-E
PCI-E
PCI-E
Warranty
Three-year
Two-year
Three-year
Five-year
607MHz
625MHz
607MHz
607MHz
Memory
3348MHz
3348MHz
3348MHz
3348MHz
CUDA cores
1215MHz
1250MHz
1215MHz
1215MHz
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
x2
x2
x2
x2
FREQUENCIES
GPU
PORTS
D-Sub DVI HDMI
x1 (mini-HDMI)
x1 (mini-HDMI)
x1 (mini-HDMI)
x1 (mini-HDMI)
Component
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Other
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X 1024 x 768 pixels
148fps
149fps
144fps
143fps
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X 1680 x 1050 pixels
95fps
97fps
96fps
94fps
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X 1920 x 1200 pixels
81fps
81fps
81fps
81fps
World in Conflict 1024 x 768 pixels
80fps
81fps
79fps
80fps
World in Conflict 1680 x 1050 pixels
66fps
71fps
66fps
66fps
World in Conflict 1920 x 1200 pixels
58fps
60fps
57fps
58fps
Heaven v2.0 1024 x 768 pixels
69.1fps
70.2fps
68.8fps
68.9fps
Heaven v2.0 1680 x 1050 pixels
47.1fps
49.9fps
46.8fps
47.3fps
Heaven v2.0 1920 x 1200 pixels
39.8fps
43.4fps
39.8fps
39.8fps
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MAIN SPECS
SCORES Performance
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Features
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Value
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Overall
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GTX 470 graphics cards
GROUPTEST 27
EDITOR'S CHOICE GALAXY GEFORCE
ASUS
GTX 470 GC
ENGTX470/2DI/1280MD5.
n some instances picking a product that’s worthy of our highly coveted Best Performance award can be quite difficult purely because of the number of factors we have to consider. With this grouptest of ‘Fermi’ GTX 470 cards however this wasn’t the case, Galaxy’s awesome GeForce GTX 470 GC simply wowed us on every front. Galaxy says its GTX 470 GC is the world’s first nonreference design GTX 470 and indeed the card stands out in this crowd because it
eciding on a Best Value winner involved looking at each graphics card in terms of how much performance they delivered for the price. We also considered extras where possible and at the end of it all, the obvious winner here proved to be Asus’ confusingly named ENGTX470/2DI/1280MD5. This graphics card produced scores that tied with or traded blows with the other reference-design cards from Gigabyte and
D
Zotac. However, whereas the latter two manufacturers sell their GTX 470 cards for an expensive US $574 and $470 respectively, the Asus costs just $377. The ENGTX470 then is the least expensive GTX 470 card in this grouptest. Beyond its very attractive price tag and competitive performance the Asus also scored points with us thanks to its warranty period. With three-years on offer, you can rest assured your purchase will be covered even when it has been replaced by a newer, faster GPU.
HOW WE TESTED To test the cards in this grouptest we installed each, in turn, in our testbed which comprised an Intel Core i7 940 CPU running at 2.93GHz, a Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P motherboard, 6Gbytes of Kingston HyperX DDR3 memory, a 300GB Western Digital VelociRaptor hard drive, a Gigabyte DVD-RW drive and a Thermaltake Toughpower 1500watt PSU. We also used Microsoft's Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit with the latest nVidia drivers on the software side. On the benchmark front we used three different DirectX benchmarks: Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X (DX10), World in Conflict (DX10) and Heaven v2.0 (DX11). With H.A.W.X we made sure to run the tests with all the in-game details set to the highest setting and with World in Conflict we simply tested using the built-in ‘Very High’ setting. Moving over to our new Heaven v2.0 benchmark we ran it using the DX11 API setting, high shaders, normal tessellation and 4x anisotropy. With all the benchmarks higher framerates are better and positively influenced a card's performance score.
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
I
isn't a reference design graphics card. And because it is factory overclocked the Galaxy produced the best scores in all of our benchmarks, making it the undisputed performance champ here. The best part is despite running overclocked and considering how hot Fermi cards run, we were very impressed with Galaxy’s custom cooler. The card was inaudible throughout testing and thanks to some innovative work with the cooling fan, you’ll be able to clean it easily as well.
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Reviews
HOT KIT 29
31 PRODUCT OF THE MONTH
Awarded to outstanding Awarded to the most products that have excelled in outstanding product we've both value and performance. encountered during the month.
CONTENTS 31
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
32
LG HAIER R450
33
Nero Multimedia Suite 10
34
Sky Expeditor EXP
35
Zotac GeForce GTX 480
36
Asus ENGT240 / DeviceLock v6.4.1
37
Kingmax DDR3 / MS Sidewinder X4
39
Toshiba Store.E Art / WD VelociRaptor
34
37 WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
Reviews
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30 HOT KIT
Reviews
HOTKIT
WINLABS
TESTING EX PLAINED when dealing with old and new game titles. As all three tests involve playable games, they are real world tests rather than synthetic and thus provide an accurate view of a graphics card’s performance. Each graphics card is tested at three different test resolutions; 1024 x 768 pixels, 1600 x 1200 pixels and, finally, 1920 x 1200 pixels. All of the games are run on the maximum settings with the exception of full screen anti aliasing, which we leave at 4x setting. Then, depending on the price and positioning of the graphics card, performance scores are awarded based on how well, or not, it has performed at a specific resolution. For example, low end or entry level graphics cards are graded mostly on their performance at 1024 x 768 pixels whereas expensive, ultra-high-end cards are graded based on their performance across all three resolutions.
HARD DISK TESTING
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
WINDOWS MID MIDDLE EAST is the definitive for PC and consumer electronics Buyers’ Guide fo products in the region. We strenuously test products in our dedicated Dubai WinLab in order to highlight the very best models for our readers. Here we explain just how we test new kit in order orde or derr to ooffer ffer ff er ttruly ru authoritative and objective recommendations, helping us keep WINDOWS recommendatio most relevant technology magazine. the region’s mos
CPU TESTING
GRAPHIC CARD TESTING
Testing processors is a time consuming process because there are a number of different tests that we employ. Depending on the CPU that has to be tested, we construct a testbed using a compatible motherboard. However, the 2Gbytes of OCZ memory, Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GTX graphics card, Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1Tbyte hard drive and optical drive remain as standard components. All benchmarks are run at 1024 x 768 pixels and we employ the following benchmark tests; Cinebench 9.5, PCMark 2005 CPU and memory tests, 3DMark 2003 and 2005 CPU tests and POV-Ray to test raw processing performance. To test multimedia performance, we run a Lame 3.97 WAV to MP3 encode test, a TMPGENC video encode, MPEG to DivX conversion test in addition to running F.E.A.R and World in Conflict. With the exception of POV-Ray and all the encode tests, higher numbers mean a faster processor and thus a higher performance score.
Our graphics card testbed comprises an Intel Core 2 Q6700 quad-core processor that runs at 3GHz, an Asus Maximum Extreme motherboard, 2Gbytes of Corsair DDR2 RAM, Western Digital’s 300Gbyte Raptor X SATA drive, a Serial ATA optical drive and a 750-watt PC Power and Cooling power supply. All of these components are housed in Thermaltake’s Armour+ chassis and we use Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system. To test a graphics card, we hook it up to this machine and this is then connected to our Viewsonic VX2835wm 28-inch LCD screen. The screen offers a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, which means it allows us to test graphics cards at all the major resolutions. To test graphics cards, we use three specific benchmarks; F.E.A.R, Company of Heroes and World in Conflict. The first benchmark uses older DirectX 9 rendering technology whilst the latter two game titles use DirectX 10. This enables us to gauge a graphics card’s performance
To test hard drives, we use our graphics card testbed. The drive in question is hooked up to the motherboard’s Serial ATA II controller (or USB or Firewire port if it’s an external hard drive) and tested using a combination of real world and synthetic benchmark tests. For internal hard drives, we rely on a copy test to ascertain real world performance. The test folder is stored on a SSD drive, ensuring that this drive won’t bottleneck the drive being tested and, to gauge write performance, we time how long it takes for the 4Gbyte folder to be transferred from the SSD drive to the test drive. To test read performance, we do the opposite and time how long it takes for the test drive to transfer the data to the SSD drive. Lower times in both cases equate to better performance. Next we call into action HD Tach3, a synthetic benchmark. This tests a drive in terms of its access time, average read and write performance, burst speed and CPU utilisation. In terms of access time and CPU usage, lower numbers are better. With external drives we use the same real world read/write test methodology but instead of using a 4Gbyte folder only, we also test the drive with a single 238Mbyte test file. Again, lower times give a drive higher performance scores.
OTHER PRODUCTS Products such as MP3 players, PMPs, mobile phone etc are tested for a period of one or two weeks. During this time we use the products as someone who purchased it would and this helps us gauge performance, features and value for money. In most cases the brunt of the testing is subjective and the testing always focuses on real world usefulness.
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HOT KIT 31
CANON EOS-1D MARK IV
An evolutionary step to still image perfection PRICE $5831 CONTACT +9714 391 5050 WEB www.canon-me.com
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anon introduced the world to its EOS-1D line back in September 2001 and now, with the launch of the EOS-1D Mark IV, the line gets its fifth member. Being a professional SLR this camera is priced at a staggering US $5831. Photographers that worked with the older EOS-1D Mark III aren’t in for a shock in terms of design and handling because the Mark IV is nearly a carbon copy; the body is built from magnesium alloy and is carefully sealed to protect from environmental damage. Thankfully, weight hasn’t increased at all so, as before, the Mark IV with its battery weighs in at 1.4kg. The camera is very easy to get comfortable with and is fully customisable, so you can set it up to your preferred style of shooting. One area Canon focused on with the Mark IV is with its AF (Auto Focus) system. This isn’t a surprise considering the main fault with the Mark III is AF related. With the Mark IV Canon introduces a completely new AF system though the company hasn’t made any changes to the layout pattern of the camera’s 45 AF points. Of those points 39 are setup to be cross-type points that are sensitive to both the horizontal and
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vertical axis. (The Mark III only featured 19 cross-type points.) In terms of photo quality the Mark IV is spectacular. The photos we captured over our two week test period were absolutely brilliant; we observed fantastic colour and an incredible amount of detail whether we shot in JPEG format or RAW. This Canon’s a fast worker too, we were able to take advantage of its capabilities and shoot 121 JPEG shots in quick succession before the camera needed to empty its buffer. If you prefer shooting in RAW the Mark IV is equally impressive, here it grabbed 28 shots before needing to clear its buffer and write to our CF card. The Mark IV blows its predecessor out of the water when it comes to ISO performance. Whereas the Mark III struggled to maintain detail and quality at an ISO setting of 6400, the Mark IV returned professionally-useable photographs at the very high setting of 25,600. Beyond this we noticed quality degradation, with the top most settings being completely useless. Beyond grabbing still images the Mark IV can capture movies. Unfortunately the shooting experience here lags behind what the camera delivers when shooting
in still image mode. The first problem we have is that the body while great for grabbing still images through its viewfinder, is clumsy and awkward to work with when shooting movies. This is a bit of a shame because it actually sports some powerful features. The second issue is that these features, while great, feel a little too tacked on, rather than integrated. Still, if you can work around these hurdles the EOS-1D Mark IV captures excellent video footage at Full HD resolution.
PERFORMANCE FEATURES VALUE FOR MONEY
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SPECIFICATIONS 16.1-megapixels, Dual DIGIC IV image processors, 45-point auto focus system, 39-cross type point for F2.8 lenses or faster, 10fps continuous shooting performance, movie mode (1920 x 1080 pixels at 30, 25 or 24fps), 3-inch TFT LCD screen, 62 custom functions, live view mode, 1.4kg (with battery), one-year warranty. PROS Fantastic photographs regardless of outside conditions, quick 10fps shoot performance, ergonomic champ, stereo microphone input, great video quality. CONS Movie mode could be better integrated, serious battery drain when using live view or shooting video. VERDICT There’s nothing that holds a candle to the Mark IV's still image captures. Its superbly detailed, high resolution images will blow you away.
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
FULL FRAME PROFESSIONAL SLR
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BUDGET NOTEBOOK
32 HOT KIT
LG HAIER R450 Built for budget users
PRICE $680 CONTACT +9714 881 2191 WEB www.lge.com
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etailing for US $680 LG’s interestingly-named Haier R450 is designed for budget buyers in need of a portable notebook. Being a budget machine the R450 doesn’t boast particularly attractive looks though its matte black finish and piano black-lid may appeal to some. Studying the LG further you’ll find only two shortcut buttons; to disable or enable the LG’s WiFi and trackpad. The LG offers two USB ports and an e-SATA port along its right border but LG hasn’t labeled these on the top surface around the keyboard, so you’ll have to fish around or look at the ports directly to figure out which port is which. In terms of components the Haier R450 packs an Intel T4400 2.2GHz dualcore CPU and this relies on a SiS 672 chipset. The chipset packs integrated graphics in the form of SiS’ own Mirage 3 and it has 256MB of memory. There’s also 2GB of RAM fitted as standard. These core components fit the machine’s budget positioning. Running our PCMark Vantage benchmark on the R450, it returned scores of 2115, 607, 1401, 920, 2929, 2886, 2082 and 2573 in the PCMark, Memories, TV & Movies, Gaming,
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WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
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Music, Communication, Productivity and Hard Drive test suites. While these are fairly basic figures compared to some of the notebooks we’ve tested recently, the LG undercuts all those machines in terms of cost by huge margins. In real world use the LG is a perfectly usable everyday notebook. While it isn’t the quickest off the mark around its Windows Vista Home Basic operating system, it isn’t sluggish or off-putting. You can have multiple web browser windows open, work on your e-mails and documents and even edit photographs without the machine slowing to a crawl. The LG’s 15.4” LCD runs at a native resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels and while this means the screen is able to display 720p content without downscaling, the machine struggled to play any HD content smoothly. This is a bit of a shame considering HD content is all the rage these days. Games too are out of the question on this machine solely because the SiS Mirage 3 is a basic GPU. Both Street Fighter IV and World in Conflict refused to run, making the R450 an application and multimedia exclusive machine. Still, given the budget price tag this isn't a shock.
The notebook’s battery gave the machine two hours and 49 minutes of life and while this isn’t massively impressive, it is quite reasonable. The notebook packs a 160GB hard drive and a dual-layer DVD writer, so storage wise the LG isn’t a letdown. Despite its budget positioning there are also a number of useful extras such as 802.11N WiFi and a webcam for video conferring. The notebook also packs a memory card reader, so you won't need to invest in a standalone one.
PERFORMANCE FEATURES VALUE FOR MONEY
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SPECIFICATIONS 2.2GHz Intel Pentium T4400 dual-core CPU, SiS 672 chipset, 2GB DDR2 RAM, SiS Mirage 3 graphics, 160GB hard drive, DVD writer drive, Realtek HD audio, 802.11N WiFi controller, Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 (32-bit), two USB ports, one eSATA port, one-year warranty. PROS Aggressively priced notebook, good extras considering the price, decent for everyday applications and multimedia needs. CONS Struggles to run HD content, won’t bowl you over with its looks. VERDICT Given its price point the R450 is excellent value-for-money considering you get a very useable everyday notebook that leaves slightly cheaper netbooks in the dust.
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HOT KIT 33
NERO MULTIMEDIA SUITE 10 Fully-loaded
PRICE $95 CONTACT +9716 556 0933 WEB www.nero.com
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nitially Nero Burning ROM only offered optical disc authoring capabilities but over the years the application has evolved into a fully-fledged authoring suite. Version 6 was the first time Nero Burning ROM was offered as part of a larger suite and now with version 10, the suite has gained an even greater breath of capabilities. One new addition to the already very capable authoring suite is the ‘MediaHub’. This particular application is designed to help you organise your media, modify photographs and includes a dedicated media player and slideshow creation utility. Comparing MediaHub to the rest of the suite the application’s slick interface immediately jumps at you; it holds a definite edge over most of the suites’ other utilities with the exception of the ‘Only BackItUp and Burn’. Broad file format support is one of MediaHub’s greatest assets. The application is compatible with codecs such as MP4, HD WMV, MKV, FLV in addition to more common formats such as JPEG, MPEG, MP3, Audio CD as well as various others. The photo editor is a useful tool as well and while it’s no replacement for a
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fully-fledged photo editing application like Adobe’s Photoshop - it offers most of the commonly used photo editing tools. You can for instance add a few special effects, tweak colours and brightness and even correct minor flaws on photos. The disc authoring application – Nero Burning ROM – has also received upgrades; perhaps the most useful is its disc spanning ability for data discs. This very useful feature allows you to split data across multiple optical discs and the best part is that you can mix media; if you wanted to you could start with a Blu-ray disc, use a DVD for the second disc and then use a CD for the third. Burning ROM even burns a small application to the last disc so you can recombine and recover the data on another machine that doesn’t have the suite installed. Brilliant. Nero Vision 10 has also received a fair few useful upgrades. The biggest in our book is the inclusion of support for nVidia’s CUDA hardware AVC/.264 acceleration. So should your machine have a CUDA compatible GPU you can enjoy smooth video playback even if your machine lacks a fast processor. You can also now work on Blu-ray content
without spending extra cash on a separate Blu-ray update. One major issue with Nero Multimedia Suite 10 is that it, on occasion, brought our machine to its knees. We tested the suite on a PC equipped with a 2.66GHz dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2GB of memory and a 7200rpm hard drive and every so often the machine would become totally unresponsive for a few seconds. Needless to say this is quite annoying.
PERFORMANCE FEATURES VALUE FOR MONEY
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REQUIREMENTS 2GHz AMD or Intel processor, 512MB RAM (1GB for Windows Vista/7), 5GB hard disk space, DirectX 9 compatible graphics card with 3D acceleration and 128MB of memory, DVD drive for installation, CD/ DVD/Blu-ray recorder, Windows Media Player 9, Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, Microsoft Windows XP SP3/ Windows Vista SP1/Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate. PROS Loads of useable features, slick interface, MediaHub content organiser offers loads of convenience. CONS Strong appetite for memory and disk space. VERDICT Multimedia Suite 10 is a comprehensive authoring package that will let you do everything you want. At $95 it is also very reasonably priced.
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
BURNING SOFTWARE SUITE
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HIGH-END GAMING PC
34 HOT KIT
SKY EXPEDITOR EXP – X980/6/80SSD/1TB/ 480X2/RV2 This rig packs explosive gaming performance PRICE $4688 CONTACT +9714 266 3774 WEB www.skyelectronics.com
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ky Electronics’ eXPeditor gaming machines have always impressed the WinLabs teams and the company’s latest monster doesn’t do anything to break this trend. This PC’s component list is a potent cocktail of high-end components but before you get to them, you’re tipped off about the PC’s potential thanks to the black Silverstone Raven 02 chassis. While the Raven 02 doesn’t have the outright shock value of Thermaltake’s Level 10 enclosure used by YoYotech MK3’s gaming PC (reviewed last month), the Raven 02 is a smart and fairly imposing chassis in its own right. Booting the machine takes 49 seconds and even before we ran our benchmarks the eXPeditor felt very fast; installations were dealt with quickly, while performing searches and heavy multi-tasking didn’t stress the machine at all. Running the 64-bit version of our PCMark Vantage benchmark suite the eXPeditor produces scores of 18,439, 10,606, 6529, 17,792, 18,313, 12,000, 20,697 and 25,372 in the PCMark, Memories, TV & Movies, Gaming, Music, Communications, Productivity and HDD test suites. These are very impressive figures. That said the YoYotech managed slightly higher figures
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WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
Reviews
thanks to its overclocked 4.2GHz Core i7 processor and RAID 0 SSD array. The Sky's fantastic app figures are courtesy of Intel’s 980X six core 3.33GHz Extreme Edition processor, an Asus Rampage III Extreme motherboard and 6GB of Corsair DDR3 memory. The machine’s storage systems are equally impressive, the PC’s boot drive is none other than Intel’s super-quick X25-M SSD and it is backed up by two of Western Digital’s 1TB Caviar Black drives. Given that the Rampage III motherboard supports RAID, you can opt to run these drives together in a RAID 0 (for performance) or RAID 1 (redundancy) configuration. The PC also packs a Bluray writer so you can backup data to 25GB or 50GB Blu-ray discs. Moving on to our gaming benchmarks the eXPeditor massacred the YoYotech rig. Running our Heaven 2.0 benchmark at 1920 x 1200 pixels in DirectX 11 mode with the high shader setting, extreme tessellation, 4x anisotropy and 4x full screen anti-aliasing, the machine returned a butter-smooth 56.4fps. Turning to our Tom Clancy H.A.W.X and World in Conflict tests at 1920 x 1200 pixels with all the visual goodies turned on, the machine produced figures of 142fps
and 100fps. These are fantastic figures that leave the YoYotech’s scores of 55fps and 74fps in the dust. The eXPeditor’s amazing graphics performance comes from two of nVidia GeForce GTX 480 GPUs running in SLI mode. Considering the PC's superlative performance at 1920 x 1200 pixels, it's safe to say you can even run games at 2560 x 1600 pixels without worry. The only thing missing from this rig is a fully-fledged soundcard like Creative’s SoundBlaster X-Fi.
PERFORMANCE FEATURES VALUE FOR MONEY
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SPECIFICATIONS 3.33GHz Intel Core i7 980X Extreme CPU, Asus Rampage III Extreme, 6GB Corsair 1333MHz RAM, two nVidia GeForce GTX 480 GPUs with 1.5GB of memory running in SLI, 80GB Intel X25-M SSD, two 1TB Western Digital 7200rpm hard drives, 8x LG Serial ATA Blu-ray writer, Logitech Cordless Desktop EX100, Silverstone Raven 02 Gaming chassis, Silverstone 1500watts Strider power supply, Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. PROS Killer performance, will excel with multi-threaded software, Blu-ray burner, quiet, well-built, priced fairly. CONS Lacks a dedicated soundcard. VERDICT Considering its awesome performance and great build quality, the eXPeditor is very fairly priced; it is over US $3000 cheaper than YoYotech’s MK3 rig.
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HOT KIT 35
ZOTAC GEFORCE GTX 480 Was the wait worth it? PRICE $654 CONTACT +9714 886 3300 WEB www.zotac.com
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he GTX 400 series - codenamed ‘Fermi’/GF100 - has been a bit of a problem child for nVidia. Low yield problems at TSMC, the chip foundry that both AMD and nVidia use, forced nVidia to delay the launch of its GPUs by six months. nVidia launched the GTX 470 and 480 simultaneously with the latter targeting the high-end market. Our Zotac test sample is a standard card that follows nVidia’s reference specifications to the letter; its GPU runs at a frequency of 700MHz whereas the 1536MB of GDDR5 memory runs at 3696MHz. In comparison the GTX 470 GPU and its 1280MB of GDDR5 memory run at frequencies of 607MHz and 3348MHz. Another difference between the two GPUs is that the GTX 480 packs 480 stream processors to the 448 on the GTX 470. DirectX 11 and nVidia’s SLI multi-GPU technology are supported by both GPUs. The GeForce GTX 480 competes with ATI’s Radeon HD 5870, which was launched about six months ago whereas the less expensive GTX 470 is designed to compete with the Radeon HD 5850. Putting the GTX 480 through our benchmarks the card performed well.
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Staring with our DirectX 10 tests first, the card managed figures of 167fps, 119fps and 100fps in Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X at 1024 x 768, 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200 pixels. In World in Conflict the card scored numbers of 79fps, 76fps and 69fps and moving on to our DirectX 11 Heaven v2.0 benchmark, we observed scores of 87.5fps, 58.9fps and 50.0fps respectively. Comparing these figures to XFX’s Radeon HD 5870 graphics card, the Zotac GTX 480 is faster across the board. In Heaven v2.0 for example the XFX managed numbers of 53.1fps, 38.5fps and 34.6fps. The GTX 480 then is a much faster graphics card and while this certainly means that the GeForce GTX 480 is the fastest single GPU on the market today, its win would have been far more pronounced had it been launched alongside the Radeon HD 5870 six months ago. One major issue we have with the GTX 480 is that it is a power hog and consequently runs very hot under load. After our test rig booted into Windows we noted an idle temperature of 53-degrees Celsius and after running our first benchmark test, the temperature spiked to a colossal 91-degrees. That said stability was never compromised
and nVidia claims its cards can run at these temperatures for extended periods of time. The only issue is that those running overclocked rigs might have problems considering the GPU sits in relatively close proximity to the Northbridge and CPU. As we said before the GTX 480 is quite a power hog. nVidia recommends a 600-watt power supply and we concur. If you’re running an overclocked PC or one that has a lot of hard drives, you’d be wise to opt for 700-watts.
PERFORMANCE FEATURES VALUE FOR MONEY
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SPECIFICATIONS nVidia GeForce GTX 480 GPU running at 700MHz, 1536MB of GDDR5 memory running at 3696MHz, 384-bit memory interface, dual slot heatpipe cooler, 480 stream processors, 1401MHz CUDA clock, DirectX 11 and OpenGL 3.2 compatible, two DVI ports, one mini-HDMI port, 3-way nVidia SLI multi-GPU support, 2560 x 1600 pixels maximum resolution, five-year warranty. PROS The fastest single GPU on the market today, fiveyear warranty. CONS Power requirements, runs very hot, expensive. VERDICT Although late to the graphics party nVidia’s GeForce GTX 480 makes up for lost time by kicking out impressive performance figures. There’s no faster single GPU available today.
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
HIGH-END PCI-E GRAPHICS CARD
Reviews
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ENTRY-LEVEL PCI-E GRAPHICS CARD
36 HOT KIT
ASUS
ENGT240/DI/1GD5/ WW
Is this a worthwhile budget buy? PRICE $130 CONTACT +9714 299 3873 WEB www.asus.com
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DATA SECURITY SOFTWARE
PERFORMANCE FEATURES VALUE FOR MONEY
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
Reviews
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SPECIFICATIONS nVidia GeForce GT 240 GPU running at 550MHz, 1GB of GDDR5 memory running at
DEVICELOCK
v6.4.1
Keep data from getting into the wrong hands PRICE $42 CONTACT +9714 391 1300 WEB www.devicelock.com
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PERFORMANCE FEATURES VALUE FOR MONEY
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SPECIFICATIONS Access control, tamper protection, Active Directory integration, content-aware rules,
sus’ ENGT240/ DI/1GD5/WW is the second GT240 we’re received for review. Like its less expensive GT220 counterpart the GT240 GPU packs DirectX 10.1 support and a VP4 video decode engine. Looking over the Asus' specifications, it is similar to Galaxy's GeForce GT 240 (reviewed in February) because it also features GDDR5 RAM. (GT240 cards can also be fitted with GDDR3 memory.) Being a stock card the ENGT240 packs the same specifications as Galaxy’s GT240, its GPU core runs at 550MHz and its GDDR5 memory runs at 3400MHz. One difference between the two cards is that Asus has fitted its card with 1GB of memory, double the amount
the Galaxy has. The extra memory suggested the Asus should be the faster of the two cards but in testing this just wasn’t the case. Starting with Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X the Asus managed figures of 42fps and 27fps at 1024 x 768 pixels and 1680 x 1050 pixels, these figures are identical to the numbers the Galaxy produced. Moving on to World in Conflict we noticed more of the same, the Galaxy GT 240 scored 37fps and 24fps and the Asus, once again, produced exactly the same numbers. This is somewhat disappointing but we reckon the issue lies with the GPU itself; it simply doesn’t have the horsepower to take advantage of the extra memory Asus has fitted.
3400MHz, PCI Express 2.0 interface, 128-bit memory interface, D-sub/DVI/HDMI output ports, HDCP support, three-year warranty.
VERDICT A disappointment because although it features extra memory, it isn't really used by the GT240 GPU.
ata theft is a huge problem for offices. With unprotected PCs it’s very easy for staff or even an outsider to walk away with critical data. If you want to prevent this from happening, DeviceLock is just the app for you. DeviceLock is an endpoint data leak prevention (DLP) solution that allows network administrators to lockout USB/Firewire devices, WiFi adapters, optical drives and much more. This will prevent data theft since there’s no medium to actually get the data off the network or PC. Retailing for US $42 for a single license DeviceLock is quite fairly priced given its features. The software is easy-to-install but in terms of usability, the application
could use some polish. The software’s ‘Management Console’ is neatly laid out but quite text heavy, so getting used to it could take some time. Once you become accustomed however you’ll find the software is packed with useful features that’ll make it nearly impossible for anyone to steal critical data. The software even packs anti-keylogger technology so it can detect and block keyloggers from capturing keyboard strokes. This is very important given that passwords can be stolen in this way. DeviceLock also boasts full Microsoft Active Directory integration so deploying and managing it across a network is a very simple, straightforward process.
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USB white list, media white list, temp white list, auditing, shadowing, mobile device data leakage prevention, search-server.
VERDICT With its great features and reasonable price DeviceLock is worth having if you’re worried about data theft.
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KINGMAX
Hercules Series DDR3 2200 memory
Does this kit have herculean abilities? PRICE $218 CONTACT +9714 886 3300 WEB www.kingmax.com
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GAMING KEYBOARD
PERFORMANCE FEATURES VALUE FOR MONEY
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SPECIFICATIONS DDR3 memory, 240-pin memory module, 4GB total capacity, 2200MHz operating frequency,
MICROSOFT
Sidewinder X4
Can this sidekick take you through thick and thin? PRICE $60 CONTACT +9714 391 7000 WEB www.microsoft.com
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PERFORMANCE FEATURES VALUE FOR MONEY
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SPECIFICATIONS USB keyboard, advanced anti-ghosting capabilities, mode switching (two game
ingmax manufactures a wide range of products such as flash drives, RAM, card readers and even mobile phone batteries. Most know the Taiwanese firm for its memory and the Hercules Series represents the company’s top-of-the-line overclocking modules. The Hercules Series DDR3 2200 memory kit is a dual-channel offering that is designed to work with Intel P55 motherboards. The kit is specified to run at 2200MHz whilst maintaining a CAS latency of 10. We fitted the modules to our Gigabyte P55A-UD7 motherboard and made a beeline for the BIOS. The kit features just one Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P) and enabling this set the BIOS up to run the modules at
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CAS latency 10, Intel P55 chipset compatible, TinyBGA memory chips, integrated heatspreader, lifetime warranty.
icrosoft released the Sidewinder X6 keyboard last year and this year the software giant has followed up with the less expensive Sidewinder X4. Selling for US $60 the X4 is $20 cheaper than the X6. The biggest feature on the X4 is its anti-ghosting capabilities, with Microsoft claiming the keyboard can register 26 keys simultaneously. Testing this we found the keyboard registered 14 keys simultaneously and while this doesn’t match Microsoft’s claims, its performance here isn’t too much of a worry given you only have 10 fingers to work with anyway. The only time where this keyboard is likely to bog down is if you have a friend
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modes), programmable macro keys, in-game macro record button, automatic macro repetition, blacklit keys, three-year warranty.
HOT KIT 37 2208MHz at 1.65volts. The machine booted without any trouble and to test for long term stability, we ran several benchmarks in continuous loops for a day. We’re happy to report that the machine was still running the benchmark loops when we came back a day later. Not satisfied with the memory’s already impressive performance we decided to try and overlock the Hercules Series sticks further. Unfortunately here the modules let us down slightly. We pushed the memory voltage to 1.75volts but despite this we were unable to squeeze much more out of the modules. We were only able to go from the default X.M.P speed of 2208MHz to 2248MHz, a fairly minor overclock. VERDICT A fairly priced kit that runs at 2200MHz out of the box. It's just a shame you can't get much more from it.
playing with/against you on the same keyboard. The X4 also features programmable macro keys and an in-game macro record button. These are easy to setup and can give you a significant advantage depending on the game your playing. The Sidewinder is also built like a bank vault and just feels solid through and through. As a result we’re sure this keyboard will be able to take quite a beating before it throws in the towel. The keyboard isn’t without flaws however. Though its keys are backlit there are only a few preset brightness settings and the media keys can, annoyingly, only bring up Windows Media Player if there isn’t any other media player running at the time. VERDICT While the X4 isn’t as feature rich as the X6, its anti-ghosting gives it an edge that make it a worthy gaming buy.
WINDOWS MIDDL MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
DDR2 MEMORY KIT
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TOSHIBA
STOR.E ART, 2.5”
Storage with flair
PRICE $100 CONTACT179+4 0804768 WEB www.toshiba-gulf.com
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INTERNAL SERIAL ATA HARD DRIVE
PERFORMANCE FEATURES VALUE FOR MONEY
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SPECIFICATIONS External hard drive, USB2.0 host interface, 500GB storage capacity, NTI BackupNow EZ
WD VelociRaptor
WD6000HLHX The VelociRaptor grows fiercer PRICE $329 CONTACT179+4 18 2343 WEB www.wdc.com
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PERFORMANCE FEATURES VALUE FOR MONEY
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SPECIFICATIONS Internal hard drive, Serial ATA G 6b/sec host interface, 060GB storage capacity (450GB
oshiba’s STOR.E ART, 2.5” creates an impression right from the get go because of its unique looks. Apart from its attractive body there are plenty of extras; the drive ships with NTI’s BackupNow EZ software, Password Protection and a trial version of McAfee’s Internet Security 2009. BackupNow is a comprehensive solution that can be used by beginners and experts while the Password Protection software allows you to quickly protect your data from prying eyes. The trial version of McAfee’s Internet Security is also a good bonus for dial-up Internet users without a security suite. Our test sample packs 500GB of storage capacity
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software, Password Protection, McAfee Internet Security 2009(trail), 155g, two-year warranty.
ur WD6000HLHX drive is the latest update and brings the maximum capacity up to 600GB. (Its predecessor topped out at 300GB.) Retailing for US $329 or $0.55 per gigabyte the VelociRaptor is an expensive buy. WD’s own 7200rpm 1TB Black Edition drive retails for just $0.16 per gigabyte. If you want the new VelociRaptor and can’t afford the 600GB variant’s sticker price however, you can opt for the less expensive 450GB, which retails for $299 or $0.66 per gigabyte. That said the 600GB drive gives you more value-for-money. As before the VelociRaptor uses a 10,000rpm spindle motor and to ensure smooth data flow, it is equipped with
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also available), 10,000rpm spindle speed, 23MB of onboard cache memory, 48 g9, fiveyear warranty.
HOT KIT 39 and uses the USB2.0 interface. In terms of performance the STOR.E ART proved slightly slower than Toshiba’s own SecuRed 200GB drive (reviewed in our March issue). Whereas the Red required two minutes and 37 seconds (from PC to drive) and three minutes and 19 seconds (from drive to PC) to complete our 4.2GB transfer the ART required two minutes and 43 seconds and three minutes and 22 seconds. Considering we found the Red’s transfer performance quite basic the ART is even more of a performance slouch. Performance aside the ART offers exceptional valuefor-money considering the included software and US $0.2 cost per gigabyte. VERDICT While performance isn’t its forte, the ART looks great and ships with software that adds real value.
32MB of buffer memory. This drive also uses the new 6Gb/sec Serial ATA interface though this is largely overkill in a single drive scenario. If you intend to run a RAID array however this will reduce bottlenecks. Our 600GB VelociRaptor managed an average read speed of 136.2MB/sec in our HDTach 3 benchmark. The 300GB VelociRaptor managed a speed of 110MB/ sec by comparison. The drive also managed a random access speed of 7.0ms, 0.1ms quicker than its counterpart. Comparing the drive to entry-level SSDs, it is almost as quick as these drives though the SSDs feel more responsive because of their much lower random access performance. VERDICT A potent performer that gives entry-level SSDs a run for their money. There’s no faster SATA spindle-drive.
WINDOWS MIDDL MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
USB2.0 EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE
Reviews
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BUYERS GUIDE 41
BUYERSGUIDE HOW TO USE THE GUIDE The Buyers’ Guide is a fully comprehensive guide to the best products that WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST has reviewed, and is intended to act as an effective resource for buyers of such products in the Middle East market. The Buyer's Guide is updated with new products each month, and out of date products removed.
Each of our ten product categories contains ten recommended product buys. For each product we’ve included vendor (or local distributor) contact details, our Windows Middle East overall rating, our verdict on the product and details of which issue we reviewed it in (alternatively you can find all our product reviews - in full - on www.itp.net). Each of the products shown scored either 4/5 or 5/5 in its respective review, so instead of listing products in score order we have arranaged these by price, with the most expensive at the top of the page. This makes it quick and easy for you to find the product you can best afford. We also offer advice on how to go about buying products within each particular product category. This gives you, the reader, the ability to make a better-informed judgment about what kit is suitable for your needs.
RATINGS EXPLAINED
Awarded to products that offer you the most bang for your buck.
Awarded to products that offer impressive amounts of power and speed.
PRODUCT OF THE MONTH
Awarded to products that offer impressive amounts of power and speed.
COMPONENTS DESKTOPS DIGITAL IMAGING HANDHELDS MONITORS NOTEBOOKS PERIPHERALS PRINTERS SOFTWARE STORAGE
AWARDS are basically presented to products for their outstanding performance and value. A Performance or Value winner must have received five stars in that particular category. An Editor’s Choice award goes to outstanding products that have excelled in both value and performance.
FEATURES: What value-add features are included? Do they benefit the user? Are they innovative? PERFORMANCE: Does the product perform well? Is it quick? EASE OF USE: How user-friendly is the interface? Does it require expertise? VALUE FOR MONEY: Does the price represent a fair return on performance? DESIGN: Is the product well designed? Are buttons easy-to-access? Are ports and connections well-placed?
EXCELLENT VERY GOOD GOOD AVERAGE POOR
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
Awarded to outstanding products that have excelled in both value and performance.
42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51
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42 BUYERS GUIDE Components RATING WEB REVIEWED
RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++ www.kingston.com June 2010
+++++ +9714 886 3300 www.giga-byte.com April 2009
RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++
RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++
+9714 369 2666 www.intel.com May 2010
+9714 397 8035 www.xfxforce.com November 2009
Kingston HyperX LoVo KHX1866C9D3LK2 Dual-channel DDR3 memory kit
$200
Kingston’s fantastic LoVo HyperX memory kit offers tremendous performance at an unbelievably low operating voltage.
Gigabyte EX58-Extreme High-end LGA1366 motherboard
$512
If you’ve got a Core i7 processor and want the best performance or you intend on overclocking, this motherboard offers all you’ll ever need.
Intel Core i7 980X LGA1366 six-core processor
$999
This super-chip features six 3.33GHz processing cores and a ton of cache memory. There’s simply no better choice for multi-threaded software.
XFX Radeon HD 5870 Ready to dance with DirectX 11
$470
The XFX Radeon HD 5870 offers excellent gaming performance, brilliant multi-screen technology and is ready for next generation DirectX titles.
GIGABYTE GV-R577D5-1GD-B PCI-E Graphics Card If you want to run the latest and greatest games in full splendor and you’re on a budget, then this is the card for you. At 1920 x 1200 the card returned framerates of 41fps, 31fps and 53fps in our Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X, World in Conflict and Company of Heroes tests.
CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+9714 886 3330 www.giga-byte.com January 2010
$235 Desktops
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
1) Before you buy a motherboard you should first decide on what processor you’re going with. AMD and Intel use entirely different CPU socket types and within each company’s processor ranks, there are different sockets for different chips. If you want a ‘Bloomfield’ Core i7 975 Extreme Edition processor, you’ll need a motherboard with a LGA 1366 CPU socket. On the other hand if you want a ‘Lynnfield’ Core i7 processor, you’ll need a LGA 1156 board. On the flip side, with AMD, you’ll need a Socket AM3 motherboard if you’re going to buy a Phenom II processor. 2) Depending on what you expect your machine to do, you should consider a motherboard’s chipset and its accompanying features carefully. If you want to play games at very high resolutions consider a board that packs multi-GPU technology. This will allow you to run two or more GPUs in parallel for better gaming performance. On the other hand if you’re interested in building a high-end machine on a budget, consider an overclocking friendly motherboard that will let you squeeze the most out of your processor, memory and other components.
ING Y BU IPSNTS T PONE COM
www.itp.net/reviews
BUYERS GUIDE 43 Desktops YOYOTECH FI7EPOWER MK3 High-end gaming PC
$8,175
Yoyotech’s PC has oddles of character and packs some serious performance under its distinctive hood. The only real issue is its price tag.
BenQ nScreen i91 All-in-one PC
$517
RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++
$1,200
RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++
While the nScreen i91 isn’t able to seamlessly playback Full HD content it is ideal for browsing the web, dealing with e-mails and working on office applications.
International Computer Company ZAI Mid-range gaming PC An attractive machine that can tackle apps and games with ease thanks to a balanced set of internal components.
Sky Electronics Expeditor Sub-$1200 gaming PC
RATING +++++ CONTACT +9714 800 344357 WEB www.yoyotech.co.uk REVIEWED June 2010
$1,125
If you’re looking for a rig on a budget and want to run applications and games, the eXPeditor will give you the best bang for your bucks.
+9714 299 1000 www.benq.com November 2009
+9662 664 446 www.zai.com.sa June 2009
RATING +++++ CONTACT +9714 351 7666 WEB www.skyelectronics.com REVIEWED June 2009
ZOTAC MAG HD-ND01 I0N NETTOP The MAG (short for ‘Mini All-In-One-Giant’) is a complete package that offers attractive pricing, a sleek frame and full HD video playback. This mini-PC is incredibly compact and with a black and silver finish, it is quite a looker. You can bolt it to the back of your PC’s LCD or even a Plasma or LCD TV.
CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+9714 266 3774 www.zotac.com January 2010
$299
2) If content creation is your concern, make sure you buy a desktop machine with a triple- or quad-core processor. Most content creation software is heavily multi-threaded so they can take advantage of multiple processing cores and return better performance. At the same time make sure you have ample memory as content creation work is generally quite memory intensive. Aim for at least 4GB of memory if you’re working with images and page layouts and over 6GB if video editing and effects make up the brunt of your work.
G N I Y BU IPSS T OP KT DES
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
1) Buying a desktop PC off the shelf can be tricky. To get the most bangs for your buck you’ll have to pick a machine that satisfies all of your requirements. If you want to play games at a high resolution, with all the details turned on and with a smooth framerate look closely at the machine’s processor and graphics card; if money is no object opt for a high-end rig that packs a top-end CPU and GPU. On the other hand if you’re on a constrained budget consider buying a machine that has a mid-range CPU but a high-end GPU.
www.itp.net/reviews
44 BUYERS GUIDE Digital imaging RATING +++++ CONTACT +9714 391 8400 WEB www.sony-mea.com REVIEWED January 2010
Sony Bravia VPL-VW85 Full HD projector
RATING +++++ CONTACT +9714 391 5050 WEB www.canon-me.com REVIEWED June 2010
Canon Legria HFM306 Full HD camcorder
RATING +++++ CONTACT +9714 364 8600 WEB www.samsungmea.com REVIEWED November 2009
Samsung ST550 12.2-megapixel digital camera
RATING +++++ CONTACT +9714 391 5050 WEB www.canon-me.com REVIEWED February 2009
Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR camera
$7,357
While the Sony isn’t exactly cheap at US $7,357 it actually offers a cost-effective solution if you’re looking for a way to go Full HD with a massive screen size.
$817
The Legria HFM306 offers high quality capture performance and ease-of-use. The only thing it lacks is a long life battery.
$354
The ST550 is an easy-to-use touchscreen digital camera that offers highly-detailed and colour accurate photographs. It also makes it very easy to take self portrait shots.
$3,133
An aggressively priced full-frame SLR camera that excels at producing high resolution images with little or no visible noise.
OPTOMA ES526 Multimedia Projector The ES526 doesn’t put a foot wrong as far as its projection performance and value are concerned. The projector offers a ‘Bright mode’, which boosts brightness noticeably, whilst the lamp will last for 3000 hours. We were also impressed by the sharpness and crispness of fonts projected through this device.
CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+4419 236 91800 www.optoma.com January 2009
$531
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
1) There are thousands of digital cameras on the market and each of these models belongs to either the point-and-shoot or SLR camera categories. If you’re just getting started with photography you’re better off trying a standard point-and -shoot model first. However, if you’re a confident photographer and want full control over the images you take, a SLR camera is the way to go. 2) Going the SLR route the first thing you should do is invest in a high quality lens and a high capacity memory card. SLRs can be purchased with a standard kit lens or as ‘body only’ where the former is a little more expensive as you get a starter lens to begin with. While this lens will take basic photos, you’ll want higher quality ‘glass’ for the best image results. 3) Consider buying a tripod for your camera. These relatively inexpensive accessories help you stabilise your camera and are particularly useful for taking photos of distant subjects. The lesser the camera moves the better the photographs.
G N I Y BU IPS T ITAL DIG GING IMA
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BUYERS GUIDE 45 Handhelds BlackBerry Curve 8900 Business smartphone
$512
RATING +++++ WEB www.blackberry.com REVIEWED October 2009
$700
RATING +++++ WEB www.garminasus.com REVIEWED June 2010
$653
RATING WEB REVIEWED
The Curve 8900 offers excellent features in a package that’s aggressively priced and intuitive to work with.
Garmin-Asus Nuvifone M10 Touchscreen smartphone The Nuvifone M10 boasts sharp, if unoriginal looks and some very useful GPS features. Great for on the go users.
LG KM900 Arena Touchscreen smartphone While the KM900 Arena offers solid features and a great looking interface, its touchscreen hinders overall usability.
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Touchscreen smartphone
$816
+++++ http://ae.lge.com October 2009
RATING +++++ WEB www.sonyericsson.com REVIEWED June 2010
If you’re looking for an alternative to the typical Apple iPhone or RIM BlackBerry device, this phone’s features and interface make it worthy of consideration.
LG CHOCOLATE BL40 Smartphone Distinctive looks, great features and intuitive usability are the BL40s strong points. The phone sports a minimalistic design, so the front only shows a speaker, a camera, the 4-inch LCD and LG’s logo. It also features a standard 3.5mm audio jack so you can use most headphones without worry.
CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+9714 800 54 http://ae.lge.com January 2010
$735
2) Pay attention to the size, resolution and colour capabilities of your handheld’s screen. If you’re buying a handheld with the intention of watching videos, make sure the LCD’s colour palette supports up to 16million colours as these give the best playback quality. Lower end LCDs are limited to colour palettes of only 64,000 colours and thus don’t produce the best video or photo outputs. In terms of screen size, just pick one that you’re happy with and in terms of resolution, opt for a screen that offers no less than 320 x 240 pixels. 3) Today’s mobile phones, PDAs and Smartphones allow you to install additional software that you can download off the Internet. To store all this extra data however your handheld will need to have storage. Most handhelds offer between 64MB and 1GB as standard but, if you want more to store additional software or even music or photos, check if the handheld has a memory card expansion slot.
G N I Y BU IPSDS T EL DH HAN
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
1) Like fully-fledged notebooks, handheld devices fall into one of a number of different product categories; you can get standard mobile phones or data centric devices such as PDAs and Smartphones. If you’re after a device solely to make phone calls and perform text messaging, a standard mobile will do. These sometimes offer extras such as digital camera and MP3 functionality.
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46 BUYERS GUIDE
RATING +++++ CONTACT +9714 362 7500 WEB www.samsung.com/ae REVIEWED June 2009 RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++ +9714 335 3666 www.phillips.com December 2009
RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++
RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++
+9714 881 2191 www.lge.com September 2009
+9714 299 1000 www.benq.ae September 2009
Samsung Series 6 UN40B6000 40-inch LED LCD
TBC
Although the initial outlay is high, this Series 6 model will ultimately prove less expensive in the long term due to its lower power consumption. It also packs killer visual punch.
Philips Cinema 21:9 56-inch LCD TV
$5,449
Although 21:9 content isn’t widely available as yet, the Philips is still worth having because of its impressive video-scaling.
LG Flatron W2261V 22-inch wide-screen LCD
$217
The Flatron W2261V offers killer visuals, an elegant and attractive design and won’t necessarily break the bank. A great buy.
BENQ E2200HD 22-inch wide-screen LCD
$195
BenQ’S E2200HD has aged very gracefully and is now an even better value buy than when it was originally launched.
LG M2294A 22” Flat-screen wonder LG’s latest 22-inch screen is flexible in every sense of the word as it can function as a TV screen or as a computer monitor. It offers great visuals on the whole and, as we’ve come to expect from LG, looks the part too. The included remote will also make sure you never have to get off the couch again.
CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+9714 881 2191 www.lge.com August 2009
$326
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
1) There are two types of HD display types on the market; HD and Full HD. If a screen is marked as ‘HD Ready’, it will support the 720p and 1080i HD resolutions. A Full HD screen however supports both 720p and 1080p. HD screens are generally cheaper than Full HD screens but, if you’re after the best possible quality, opt for a Full HD screen as 1080p content is far superior to 720p and 1080i content. 2) Keep an eye out for a screen’s response time. Response time is measured in milliseconds (ms) and in this case, lower numbers are better. Screens with response times under 5ms are less likely to blur when displaying quick moving content. Slow screens will show tearing or picture breakup and any screen with a response time above 8ms should be avoided. 3) The most popular display technologies for wide-screen HD TVs today are Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and Plasma. Of the two technology types, Plasma screens still offer slightly better colour richness and deeper, more accurate looking black colours, are less susceptible to motion blur and are cheaper when compared to an identically-sized LCD model. LCD-based TVs on the other hand don’t suffer from screen burn-in, are less power hungry, lighter and feature more compact cabinet designs.
G N I Y BU IPSRS T O IT MON
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BUYERS GUIDE 47 Notebooks HP HDX18 X18-1070EE Blu-ray desktop replacement
TBC
A heavy-duty desktop replacement that does most things right. A high-end GPU plus a better trackpad would make it perfect.
FTS M2010 Netbook
$408
A handsome netbook that boasts quick performance and lengthy battery life. The M2010 is competitively priced too.
Dell Adamo Ultra-portable notebook
$2,043
The Adamo is a classy ultra-portable that’s great to travel with. It’s also reasonably swift when dealing with everyday applications and is covered by a strong warranty package.
Toshiba Qosmio X300-130 High-end desktop replacement
$2,178
If you’ve got the cash, this desktop replacement monster can tackle applications and games without breaking a sweat.
RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++ +9714 391 6000 www.hp.com/me November 2009
RATING +++++ CONTACT +9714 501 5716 WEB http://ts.fujitsu.com/ REVIEWED November 2009 RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++ +9714 391 1860 www.dell.com November 2009
RATING +++++ CONTACT +9714 351 3771 WEB www.toshiba-gulf.com REVIEWED May 2009
APPLE MACBOOK PRO Desktop replacement notebook The MacBook Pro boasts a large 17-inch LED backlit LCD and despite its large, desktop replacement dimensions, it weighs less than 3kg. The LCD is a stunner when it comes to visual quality; videos look superb and photos are vivid and look very accurate when compared to the original subject.
CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
TBA www.apple.com May 2009
$3351
1) There are a number of different laptop types available; desktop replacement, portable, ultra-portable, tablet PCs and netbooks. So, depending on your needs, you should pick an appropriate laptop. • Desktop replacements are exactly what their name implies; they are designed to act as a fully-fledged replacement for a desktop computer. As a result they focus more on providing high performance rather than portability, which generally makes these laptops the heaviest type (2.5kg and heavier). They are also the worst in terms of battery life, as a result of their high performance components. These laptops can be configured however with components and features that other notebooks just wouldn’t be able to accommodate such (as 17-inch wide-screen displays). • Portable laptops are designed to balance performance and portability. These laptops generally sit in a weight class between 1.9kg and 2.4kg, which makes them lighter than their desktop replacement counterparts. Along with this, these notebooks also offer greater battery life. • Ultra-portable notebooks are, as you can imagine, designed for portability exclusively. This laptop type generally offers the longest amount of battery life though they are normally equipped with entry- or mid-level components, particularly in terms of the processor, graphics processor and hard disk. These notebooks generally weigh under 1.8kg with the lightest models weighing as little as 1kg. S • Tablet PCs are similar to ultra-portables except for one difference; these laptops offer a OOK B E touch-sensitive screen. This screen can normally swivel and sit flush against the laptop’s NOT body so the user can write (using a stylus) as if the PC were a notebook. • Netbooks are the newest member of the portable PC market. They are designed for budget mobile computing. The focus of these devices is primarily light application use such as word processing and web browsing. Size and weight wise, they mirror ultra-portables. 2) Once you’ve decided on which type of laptop you want, consider its specifications. Make sure it has at least 1GB of RAM but, if it offers any flavor of Windows Vista as standard, rd, opt for 2GB at the very least. You should also ask if the laptop offers a CD or DVD writer as this will enable you to share data.
WINDOWS NDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
G N I Y BU IPS T
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48 BUYERS GUIDE Peripherals RATING WEB REVIEWED
Wii +++++ Nintendo Gaming console www.wii.com April 2007
RATING +++++ CONTACT +9714 883 6244 WEB www.microautomation.ae REVIEWED December 2008
$559
This console transforms gaming from being a geek's pastime into a fun engaging activity for all the family. Ingenious.
Powermatic PE4G-25 Power protection strip The PE4G-25 offers a cost-effective way to protect your electricial hardware from all types of electricial damage.
RATING WEB REVIEWED
+++++
RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++ Belkin Washable Mouse
www.apple.com February 2010
+9714 391 7000 www.belkin.com March 2009
$23
Apple iPod Touch 64GB Media player
$477
An improvement over its predecessor but while it’s great to use every day, it isn’t quite perfect just yet.
$32
Waterproof mouse Belkin’s Washable Mouse works as claimed, so you needn’t ever worry about buying a new mouse when the next liquid-disaster strikes.
SANDISK SANSA FUZE 2GB Slick and efficient It’s sleek design and surface means it is one of the best looking players out there that works like a dream. Better still, it can be expanded into a player with a formidable storage space with the purchase of a microSD card.
CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
1) Two of the most important peripherals you can buy for your desktop PC - or even your laptop - are the keyboard and mouse. It’s these two devices that you rely on to physically interact with your PC, sometimes for very long periods at a stretch. It’s wise then to invest in quality devices that sport ergonomic designs so you can work without aches and pains. If you’re a hardcore gamer and want every possible advantage consider looking for devices that are designed specifically for gaming. These peripherals will likely offer a number of extra buttons, enhanced responsiveness and more.
+9714 217 0741 www.sandisk.com October 2008
$125
G N I Y BU IPSALS T R IPHE R E P
2) If you want an immersive experience when you’re gaming, watching movies or even listening to music, a fully-fledged surround sound system is a must have. A 5.1 system that’s compatible with the Dolby Digital and/or DTS audio standards is a great starting point that provides six different audio channels (five for the speakers and one for the subwoofer). Depending on the size of the room you should pick a system with an appropriate amount of power, so you don’t have e to crank the volume up to maximum. Even high quality sound systems will suffer from reduced quality when running at their top volume setting.
www.itp.net/reviews
BUYERS GUIDE 49 Printers Brother HL-3070CW LED-Colour printer
$360
Lively performance, compact dimensions and flexible connectivity make the HL-3070CW a worthwhile buy.
Lexmark x544dn Multi-function printer
$773
When you take into account the X544dn’s many features and super quick printing, it is seriously good value.
OKI B430dn Monochrome laser printer
$323
The B430dn is a reasonably priced printer that packs tremendous performance and functionality into a compact package.
Xerox Phaser 6280N Colour laser printer
$495
A well-priced workgroup colour laser printer that offers high print speeds, top-notch quality and features that adapt to your demands.
RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++
RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++
+9714 883 5878 www.brother.ae May 2010
+9714 427 6302 www.lexmark.com April 2009
RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++
RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++
+9714 204 5810 www.oki.com June 2009
+9714 883 8838 www.xerox.com September 2009
XEROX PHASER 6130N Ready to serve
1) When you’re in the market for a printing device and performance is a concern, don’t base your decision solely on manufacturer quoted ‘ppm’ (pages per minute) figures. Each manufacturer uses a different testing methodology to produce their ppm figures so you can’t compare one brand’s figures to another. 2) If you want to save paper without hurting productivity consider a printing device with a built-in automatic duplexer. A duplexer is able to automatically flip pages, so you can take advantage of double-sided printing without any manual labour. 3) Printing devices can have a number of different connectivity options such as USB, parallel, Ethernet or even WiFi. If the printer is only going to be used by a single machine, opt for a printer that features USB connectivity. If however you want to share the printer amongst multiple users, consider going the WiFi or standard Ethernet route.
CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+9714 883 8838 www.xerox.com March 2008
$424
G N I Y BU IPSS T ER T PRIN
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
Xerox says its Phaser 6130N is an ideal solution for workgroups of up to seven people that deal with small but frequent print jobs - and it’s right; the printer offers snappy performance. We also found text to be sharp and free of any anomalies. Overall, a well priced colour laser that performs well and also packs in solid features.
www.itp.net/reviews
50 BUYERS GUIDE Software RATING WEB REVIEWED
+++++
RATING WEB REVIEWED
+++++
www.abbyy.com
August 2009
www.adaox.com March 2010
Abbyy PDF Transformer 3.0 PDF conversion software
$96
A feature-packed PDF tool that does it all with minimal fuss. It’ll run well on low end machines as well.
ESET Smart Security Security suite
$69
While Smart Security lacks a very strong antispyware component it is very easy-to-use, packs a decent scan engine and a tough firewall.
RATING +++++ WEB www.symantec.com REVIEWED March 2010
Norton Internet Security 2010 Security suite
RATING +++++ WEB www.kaspersky.com REVIEWED March 2010
Kaspersky Internet Security Security suite
$77
A fast, slick and good-looking internet security platform that does a good job of protecting your PC with its wide-variety of features.
$60
With its vast number of features, brilliant performance and US $60 price tag, Kaspersky Internet Security is excellent value-for-money.
APPLE ILIFE 09 Apple’s iLife suite is a multimedia package that is designed to help you organise and manipulate content such as photos, movies, music, DVD and web-based content. A new feature is one known as ‘Faces’ and is part of the iPhoto 09 application. This is essentially designed to help you organise photos without burdening you with sifting through hundreds of pictures.
$106 WEB REVIEWED
www.apple.com April 2009
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
1) If your PC is connected to the Internet, is part of a network or you connect flash drives that have been attached to other machines, it’s worth investing in a fully-fledged security suite. Most security suites offer anti-virus, anti-spam and firewall protection, so they can keep your machine and its data free from harm. Avoid standalone anti-virus products unless you’re prepared to manually ensure your machine is safe from hackers, spam etc. 2) If you’re keen on upgrading to a newer operating system (OS) and your PC has 4GB of system memory (or more), make sure you buy a 64-bit OS rather than a 32-bit variant. A 64-bit OS can address much more memory than a 32-bit OS (32bit operating systems are limited to around 3GB), so your OS and software can actually take full advantage of all your memory. Running a 32-bit OS with 4GB of memory, the OS and all your software would only be able to use 3.5GB.
G N I Y BU IPSRE T A TW SOF
www.itp.net/reviews
BUYERS GUIDE 51 Storage Kingston DataTraveler HyperX USB memory stick
$104
A massive USB stick that offers slick performance and good value-for-money.
Western Digital Scorpio Blue 750GB Notebook SATA hard disk
$149
Western Digital’s Scorpio Blue is a quick performer that’s free from noise and vibrations. It also boasts a very attractive price tag.
Intel 160GB X25-M SSD Internal SSD drive
$440
Although performance hasn’t sky-rocketed compared to its predecessor, the second generation Intel X25-M SSD offers better value and reliability.
Western Digital AV-GP WD20EVDS Internal SATA hard disk
$260
A great drive for audio video use thanks to its balanced performance, low noise and miniscule appetite for power.
+++++
RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+4401 932 738888 www.kingston.com July 2009
RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++
RATING WEB REVIEWED
+++++
RATING CONTACT WEB REVIEWED
+++++
+9714 881 3234 www.wdc.com June 2010
www.intel.com October 2009
+9714 881 3234 www.wdc.com September 2009
HP SIM PE LSAV E SD320A Portable USB Hard Drive
1) There are many different types of storage devices but the most common is the internal hard drive. There are a wide variety of drives available; some target performance seekers, some are designed for low noise and lower power and some aim to offer a mix of performance and price. Thus you should buy a drive that fits your specific needs; if you’re after top performance, opt for a drive that features a spindle speed of 7200rpm or even 10,000rpm.
+9714 391 6000 www.hp.com/me January 2010
G N I Y BU IPS T GE RA STO
2) If you’re after super-quick read and write performance and money is no object consider buying a solid state drive (SSD). These drives use high speed memory to store data – rather than rotating storage platters - and because there are no moving parts they are extremely quick and, should prove more reliable as well. The only downside with these drives, apart from their high cost, is that they are only available in limited capacities. 512GB B is the largest SSD available on the market today. 3) When buying a flash drive look beyond just how much capacity the drive offers. Today it’s possible to buy flash drives that feature password protection, hidden secure partitions and much more. You can also buy flash drives that are designed for rugged use, are water proof and even dust proof.
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The sd320a is a no-brainer for novice users interested in data backups. The SimpleSave CONTACT software is aptly named because it makes data backups supremely simple. The software WEB is also able to perform incremental backups, so you don’t need to worry about selecting REVIEWED new files after the first backup process completes.
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52 GAME ON
News
GAME ON NEWS SANDISK SHIPS LICENSED XBOX 360 USB FLASH DRIVE SanDisk Corporation recently announced that it is shipping the 'Xbox 360 USB Flash Drive by SanDisk' for the Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming and entertainment console. The new drive aims to make it easier for gamers to take their gamertags, saved game progress, map packs, Arcade game downloads and bonus content with them for fast and convenient access on another Xbox 360 console. Pre-configured for seamless plug and play action, the drive eliminates the need to format storage or download an initial software update for an Xbox 360 console. The Xbox 360 USB Flash Drive by SanDisk is available now on SanDisk.com and at major retailers. The drive is available in 8GB and 16GB capacities, carrying suggested retail prices of $35 and $70 respectively. “Xbox LIVE contains a world of content for gamers to explore and download, including full-length games, movies and music,” said Shuki Nir, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Retail, SanDisk. “The Xbox 360 USB Flash Drive by SanDisk is specifically engineered to deliver a great user experience and maximum compatibility with the console, offering gamers greater freedom and flexibility in how they store, manage and enjoy their favorite files.” “SanDisk has a proven track record of creating high-quality storage solutions,” said Ilan Spillinger, Vice President, Xbox Hardware and Technology, Microsoft. “The Xbox 360 USB Flash Drive by SanDisk provides a great solution for gamers who need portable storage for their Xbox 360 content. It’s plug and play simple.”
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SONYPLAYSTATION SONY PLAYSTATION PREMIUM SERVICE PREMIUMSERVICE EXPECTED TO BE EXPECTEDTOBE LAUNCHED SOON LAUNCHEDSOON According to popular website Engadget. com, it appears as if Sony will be announcing a Sony Playstation Premium service at this year's E3. The premium Playstation Network service, which was mentioned by Sony’s Kaz Hirai himself, and which has been rumoured to be released for some time now, seems like it will become a reality at E3 next week. It seems like its set to be announced on June 15 2010, and it will cost around US $70 a year. One of the incentives to signing up to this premium service would be that you can get a free Sony PSN game of your choice of two to four with each month of your subscription. It’s rumoured that it might include a music streaming service that will be similar to Netflix.
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News
GAME ON 53
KILLZONE 3 DETAILS EMERGE New details about Killzone 3 have apparently been revealed in the latest issue of GamePro magazine. According to the magazine, it looks as though developer Guerrilla Games is looking to take the Killzone franchise to a whole new level. The most notable change to the gameplay for Killzone 3 is the inclusion of jetpacks. This then seems to act as a form of double-jump for crossing terrain more quickly and easily. The developer says the jetpacks resemble "something you do in platformers such as Super Mario Bros. or Uncharted." Furthermore, shooting an enemy wearing a jetpack makes them explode "like roman candles." Another addition is the option to play the game entirely in 3D, which requires 3D-enabled glasses and a compatible television to work. The 3D effect is said to be particularly noticeable with the arctic snow level Frozen Shores that has been shown in the demo. The snowflakes become more noticeable, and enemy bullets pop out as they fly past your head. The gun combat remains relatively unchanged from the previous game. A new weapon was detailed - the Wasp - which discharges rockets that look like a swarm of robotic insects. The levels are also said to be much larger in scale compared to its popular predecessor.
Google recently caused quite a stir when users noticed its landing page featured a miniature Pacman game. The javascript applet was placed on the front page owing to Google celebrating Pacman's 30th anniversary. On a Google Forum, the following was mentioned: “If you've visited our homepage today, there's no doubt that you noticed our Pac Man doodle honoring the game's 30th anniversary. If you insert the virtual coin, you can begin playing this legendary game or you can wait 10 seconds and it will automatically start. If you're not a Pac Man fan or want to skip the music and lights, just enter you search query as usual and you'll be directed to our normal search results page. Other options include: 1. Closing your browser 2. Turning the volume down or off on your computer 3. Playing Pac Man all day long (or at least until you beat your co-workers) Happy Friday! ~Rubie Update: As some of you may have noticed, we've added a mute option to our Pac-Man doodle. Now you can play all day long while listening to country music (if you're into that). :)�
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GOOGLE CELEBRATES PACMAN'S 30TH ANNIVERSARY
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54 GAME ON
Sega Sonic All Stars
XBOX
✪✪✪✪✪
Price: $68 Contact: +9714 299 7980 Controller: Xbox 360 controller Web: http://www.sega.com/sonicracing/ Best Bit: Racing with the legendary Sonic and blasting away at fellow competitors Verdict: Like Mario-kart, only better onic brings up really great memories for this reviewer. Punching away at a SEGA Mega Drive and Game Gear as a kid, the colour, action, and sheer joy that Sonic brought ensured that this reviewer had a very happy childhood. It’s with great joy then that Sonic All Stars Racing brings up equally good memories for this reviewer. What makes this Sonic game a real hit is its flexibility when it comes to game play. You don’t just race in this game to get past the finish line first, you fight your way through as well. By collecting special items on the track, you get yourself into a position whereby you can fire away different kinds of salvos at various players, thus disrupting their racing progress. And then there’s the fact that the courses are, quite literally, an explosion of colour and action. There is one tricky course that turns upside down after somebody fires a particular weapon at you thus changing the racing landscape completely. Some might look at this game and say that it resembles Mario Kart too much. In fact, it seems as if the games' designers have copied just about every fundamental characteristic of Mario Kart. Like Mario Kart this game also draws characters from all walks of the gaming
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S
universe, such as Sonic, Banjo and Kazooie and characters from the likes of Virtua Fighter. There’s numerous gameplay options too that vary from championship mode through to single player. Like the numerous gameplay options, the cars also differ widely as you can choose amongst cars, bikes and hovercrafts. Choosing the right car can affect the way you compete in the game, as selecting the cars means you’re less likely to being bullied on the track whilst the weight can bear you down and affect your maneuverability. Bikes, on the other hand, can get you out of corners quickly, but they can be easily bullied into corners. Hovercrafts have poor handling and lower acceleration and therefore take a while before they take off. On the topic of maneuverability, a key aspect to this game involves drifting as the more and better you drift, the more points you earn and progress further in the game.
In terms of graphics, this game is actually very impressive. It looks slick and is vivid - a visual a delight to play. When it comes to the different playing modes, there’s the single mode, which lets you run through various courses and unlock new courses. Whilst you can unlock courses, you can also unlock all sorts of new characters as well by earning what is called Sega Miles, which can unlock various cars and characters. Overall, whilst this game is basically a Mario Kart clone, it's a sure winner.
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56 EXPERT SPEAK
STATE OF AFFAIRS MSI's Regional VP, Alan Chu, discusses the Middle East's demand for notebooks, 3D tech, gaming laptop trends and MSI's foray into tablets and Android phones.
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WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF YOUR VISIT TO THE MIDDLE EAST, AND, IN PARTICULAR, TO DUBAI? I'm on this trip because we are looking to setup a sales and marketing office in Dubai. We're hoping to setup in the Airport free zone, just like some of our competitors. We already have offices in Saudi Arabia and Cairo and now we want to enhance and expand our business in this region. We've already developed relationships with companies such as Plugins, Sharaf DG, Dubai Duty Free. It's a good start but we want to continue to expand here. One thing we want to do is to offer the market interesting products such as tablet netbooks and laptops with 3D capabilities.
FROM MSI'S PERSPECTIVE, CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE DEMAND OF NETBOOK OR NOTEBOOK PC'S VERSUS DESKTOP PCS IN THIS REGION?
Each country has different demands in this region. For example in Saudi Arabia or the UAE the demand for netbook PCs is more than 15 percent already. However, if you look at countries outside of the GCC, the demand of desktops could be up to 80 percent for Egypt or even more.
TAKING THIS DEMAND INTO CONSIDERATION, THERE HAS BEEN NEWS LATELY THAT THE DEMAND FOR NETBOOKS HAS BEEN DECREASING SLIGHTLY. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS? I have two points to talk about here. One is a vendor’s estimation, for example, Intel. On a global scale Intel had more than 20 percent demand for netbooks last year but this year they're only estimating about 15 percent. But then for this particular region, I think demand was a little over 30 percent for last year and then this year it should be below 20 percent. So yes
demand has decreased slightly after the initial surge.
IN TERMS OF 3D TECHNOLOGY, WHAT IS MSI'S ADOPTION OF 3D TECH, AND THE KIND OF PRODUCTS YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO BE BRINGING OUT, ESPECIALLY TO THIS PARTICULAR REGION? At CEBIT this year we demonstrated two brand new products. One is our 3D all-in-one PC; it's a panel PC which can be mounted on a wall. The other product is a 3D notebook with a 15.6-inch LCD display. Most of the 3D products we are seeing in the market today are currently introduced by Samsung and LG. I think many of their products are available in Carrefour. Theirs is a different type of 3D technology, it's like 3D technology built inside the TV itself. It doesn't give you that 100 percent true 3D quality because, nowadays only the 3D glasses can give you the 100 percent
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EXPERT SPEAK 57
WHAT HAS BEEN THE RESPONSE TO YOUR 3D PRODUCTS? We've had a very good response so far. Yes, since Hanover earlier in the year we have actually attracted a very good audience for our products. Also, 10 days ago in GITEX Riyadh, where we demonstrated our 3D tech, we attracted a lot of the general public and even the officials with these products.
WHAT KIND OF 3D PRODUCTS ARE YOU PLANNING ON RELEASING DOWN THE LINE? Our 3D notebook machine will be ready shortly after COMPUTEX Taipei this year.
CAN YOU TELL ME A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT THE GAMING LAPTOP TREND AND THE DEMAND FOR IT IN
THIS REGION? Interestingly 5-10 percent of our notebook PCs that we sell in this region are gaming series. Recently we have really improved the design of our gaming notebooks, the way it works, the functionality and even the features on offer. Besides the GT660 notebook, we have our 16-inch gaming laptops and 17-inch models as well. These notebooks are powered by Intel's quad-core processors and are already on sale in stores such as Plugins. There's definitely demand for gaming laptops in this region.
THERE'S BEEN RUMOURS THAT MSI IS GOING TO BE RELEASING A TABLET IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS? IS THERE ANY TRUTH TO THAT? At Hanover CEBIT a few weeks ago we had demonstrated a three-sided LCD panel notebook but that machine was just a concept. What we'll actually be mass producing would be the single-sided tablet netbook. This machine will essentially be a very powerful iPad. Our tablet will have a built-in SD memory card reader and internally it will have a 2.5-inch hard-drive that offers up to 100GB of storage capacity.
THERE'S BEEN RUMOURS THAT YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO DEVELOP AN ANDROID BASED PHONE? I think if we launch something like that, it'll be at COMPUTEX.
IN TERMS OF THE MIDDLE EAST MARKET IN GENERAL, HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO YOUR COMPANY? I think in the past few years we have focused on North America, Europe and China. Now though things have started to change, that's why we established a sales office in Saudi and Egypt and now we want to expand our investment in Dubai.
HOW IS THE FUTURE PANNING OUT FOR MSI IN YOUR OPINION? The future for us is looking bright because we have the right products for a number of different markets. It's not just netbooks, we also have components including computer mainboards, graphics cards as well as servers, thin clients and robots. Our robots are more for consumer use, we plan to introduce one of our robots models at COMPUTEX this year.
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true 3D images and filter out the harmful rays. You need to wear glasses which will give you 100% true 3D quality and at the same time will filter out the harmful rays. If you want true 100 percent gaming quality, or, hi-tech 3D graphics, then you need to use the glasses, that nVidia has introduced.
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58 EXPERT SPEAK
TOUCH TALK Fujitsu Technology Solutions’ product manager Chandan Mehta talk about tablets and touch technology. Being mobile is one thing but being able to operate a notebook while actually on the move is another. The new touch technology in tablets comes to the rescue here but there still seems to be ambiguity surrounding its use and benefits. Lets clear that up right now…
WHAT IS A TABLET?
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
A tablet PC refers to a laptop or slate-shaped mobile computer or pen computing device, equipped with a touch-screen to operate the computer with a stylus or a digital pen. These machines can also be operated via fingertip.
WHAT’S THE MAIN AIM OF A TABLET DEVICE? The primary purpose of a tablet is to have a device that offers you the possibility of paperless work to optimise your working processes.
WHAT ARE THE FACTORS I NEED TO LOOK OUT FOR?
The tablet you pick would need to be as powerful as a notebook, easy to use like a conventional notepad and ready for operation indoor and outdoor. Also, you want an opportunity to benefit from the increased range of use that a tablet PC offers over a laptop. So look out for additional features such as modularity, which can allow you to switch between a DVD player, an extra hard disk or additional battery all from the same tablet.
WHAT IS A DUAL DIGITISER? A dual digitiser combines all the capabilities of our patented multifunctional pen and all advantages of touch. It therefore allows an ultimate computing experience as it enables the use of the most cognitive tools of expression: pen and finger-tips!
WHY IS THE PEN STILL THAT IMPORTANT? A patented, multifunctional pen gives users the capability of precise
handwriting on the display. Further to this the integrated palm-rejection mechanism makes sure that users can conveniently put their palm on the display – just as when writing on a piece of paper - while the cursor always accurately stays at the tip of the pen. The pen is pressure sensitive, thus the more pressure one applies on the pen, the thicker the line becomes – just as with a real pen. The dualdigitiser distinguishes 256 pressure levels! The pen can be used to write, draw, annotate several kinds of files (doc, xls, ppt, pdf,) or it can be used just as a mouse. Last but not least an electronic eraser on the top of the pen (you just need to turn your pen upside down like a pencil) and two freeprogrammable buttons (predefined for right-/left mouse buttons) make every day working easy, fast, efficient and ergonomic – and reduces cost!
WHICH OPERATING SYSTEMS SUPPORT TOUCH? Windows XP Tablet Edition, Windows
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EXPERT SPEAK 59
HOW DOES TOUCH TECHNOLOGY WORK? The dual digitiser along with the touchscreen enables touch operation and finger interaction. Only a very little finger pressure is required to recognize the input with a finger, unlike the traditional resistive passive digitisers! For more details, please refer to: http:// www.wacomcomponents.com/english/ technology/touch.html
IS THERE NO INTERFERENCE BETWEEN PEN AND TOUCH? No, absolutely not. The dual-digitiser automatically recognizes if the pen is within its detection-range, thus allowing the user to seamlessly switch between the pen or fingertouch without any interference. It's completely seamless to the user.
WHAT TOUCH CAPABILITIES ARE AVAILABLE? In total three different touch operations are supported: simple (single) fingertouch, finger-gesture-touch and more recently multiple-touch.
WHAT IS FINGER-GESTURE TOUCH? Finger-gesture-touch means a smooth finger-movement in a specific, predefined direction along the capacitive touch-screen which initialises a specific (re)action of the computer (such as copy something, paste, delete, print a document, set-up a connection, start an application, execute a function, etc). These finger-gestures and the actions behind are freely configurable within the “Pen&Touch” settings in the control-panel of Windows. Simple finger-gestures such as flicks are already supported in Vista, more sophisticated finger-gestures such as zoom-in/zoom-out and rotate, require two fingers.
FOR WHICH OPERATING SYSTEMS DO WE SUPPORT THE TOUCH AND FINGER-
GESTURE-TOUCH TABLET FUNCTIONS? For Windows XP Tablet Edition: simple (single) touch. For Windows Vista (Home-Premium, Business, Ultimate): simple touch and one-finger-gesture touch. For Windows 7 (HomePremium, Professional, Ultimate): simple, one-finger-gesture touch and two-finger-gesture touch (multiple touch).
WHAT IS MULTIPLE TOUCH? Multiple touch refers to a recently introduced hardware and software based technology, which enables the user to use more than one finger - even two finger gestures are supported. Gestures are e.g. tap, double-tap, drag, scroll, zoom, rotate, flick, press-and-hold. When working with the pen, you can also define line thickness with the pressure of the pen – light pressure means thin line, high pressure means a thick line.
IS MULTIPLE TOUCH SOMETHING NEW? No, as such the multiple touch capability of hardware was already available since a year but it always had to be supported with limitations by additional drivers and software of third party suppliers. The extraordinary thing now is that the multiple touch capability of our dual digitiser is natively supported in Windows 7 and therefore enables an outstanding experience while being a very reliable touch implementation.
WHICH OPERATING SYSTEMS SUPPORT THE MULTIPLE TOUCH? Multiple-Touch is supported with Windows 7 Home-Premium, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate edition.
WHAT ABOUT RECOGNITION OF HANDWRITTEN TEXT IN WINDOWS 7? Microsoft has extended the number of supported languages to 26. In Windows 7 Microsoft added another 14 languages. Further to this, the “Math Input Panel”, a tool which
recognises handwritten mathematical formulas will also be added to Windows 7. For more details, please refer to: http://windows.microsoft.com/ en-us/windows7/products/features/ tablet-pc
IN WHICH TOOLS CAN I TRY THE NATIVE HANDWRITING RECOGNITION OF MICROSOFT'S WINDOWS? You can try it in the Windows-Journal or in OneNotes or one can purchase it separately. Further to this, there is the integrated handwriting recognition-tool of Windows with any office application (Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, Internet Explorer)
IS THE NATIVE HANDWRITING RECOGNITION OF WINDOWS 7 VERY POWERFUL? To check this, the best thing to do is to try it first hand. Microsoft has significantly improved the recognition algorithms in Windows 7 and the recognition works pretty well because of this upgrade. Of course there are also dedicated, professional handwriting recognition applications in the market as well and may be more powerful for specific purposes; a recommendation just in case you need it, try out “MyScriptStylus” of Vision Objects.
HOW CAN I PUT MY OWN NOTES, MARKINGS ETC. IN DOCUMENTS? This is already included as a part of Microsoft's Office 2007 applications. You just need to enable the Pen in each document you want to work with (i.e. in the English versions of Word, Excel, etc: click on Register “Review” and then the button “Start Inking” and then you can immediately start writing text or annotating your personal notes in these documents and store/forward them like this). For PDF documents however you need additional software which is called “PDF Annotator”. This software can be purchased from a number of different suppliers or even downloaded as test- or freewareversion in Internet.
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
Vista Home-Premium, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows 7 Home-Premium, Windows 7 professional, Windows 7 Ultimate.
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Competitions
COMPETITIONS… As always the Windows team has worked to ensure you have the chance to win some killer, high-tech kit. For your chance to win, just follow the instructions below...
SPEED DEMON KINGSTON SSDNOW V SERIES 64GB NOTEBOOK UPGRADE KIT
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
If you work on a notebook for hours on end and you’ve realised you’re growing old waiting for its hard drive to meet your requests, this competition is for you. This month Windows Middle SPEEDY East and Kingston Technology U P GRADE have joined forces to bring you one heck of a competition; we’ve got two of Kingston’s fabulous SSDNow V Series notebook upgrade kits up for grabs. So, if you want to give your notebook’s performance a massive performance boost, read on… The SSDNow V series notebook upgrade kit is a comprehensive upgrade for your notebook because unlike other SSD upgrade kits, everything you need is included within the box. You get the SSD drive with 64GB of storage capacity, drive cloning software and a handy 2.5inch USB enclosure that you can connect your old hard drive to, so you can clone your data without any hassles. Kingston’s SSDNow V Series also offers tremendous read and write performance, so you can expect faster boot and shutdown times in addition to far more lively overall performance. You can also continue to use your notebook when the going gets bumpy because unlike regular hard drives - which can crash when sudden movements are made - SSDs are free from moving parts and so cannot experience data destroying head crashes. SSDs also consume less power than a standard hard drive, so you should also see an improvement in your notebook’s battery life. All-in-all the SSDNow V Series notebook upgrade kit is a cracking prize for any notebook owner. For a chance to bag this fantastic competition prize visit our website at www.itp.net/competition and answer this simple question: What does Kingston’s SSD notebook upgrade kit ship with?
a)Just the SSD drive b)SSD drive, drive cloning software and a 2.5-inch USB enclosure c)Cloning software
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BIG STICK TWINMOS MOBILE DISK G4 8GB Universal Serial Bus (USB) memory sticks are compact and convenient when it comes to sharing data between machines. A number of memory manufacturers produce these handy storage devices and this month we’ve partnered with the guys from Twinmos. As a result we have one of their awesome G4 Mobile Disk memory sticks for giveaway and it packs 8GB of storage capacity. Twinmos manufactures a wide variety of products but it is most famous for its line of memory products. The G4 in particular is one of the firm’s latest offerings and packs features such as write protection, password protection software and can be partitioned as well. The G4 is also bootable so you can use it to create a bootable flash drive rather than struggling with CDs or arcane disks.
FAST FLASH
Visit us at www.itp.net/competitions for a chance to win this prize. All you need to do is answer this simple question: What does the acronym ‘USB’ SB’
stand for? a)Universal Serial Bus b)Unique Serial Bus c)United Static Bus
SECURITY SOFTWARE ESET SMART SECURITY 4
To win a copy of this fantastic security suite visit us at www.itp. net/competitions and answer this simple poser: What are four of the protective features of ESET’s Smart Security 4?
a)Armed escort, bullet proof armour, radar jamming, body double e b)Antivirus, Antispyware, Firewall, Antispam c)Secure partition, data encryption, fingerprint scanner, parity
SECUR E SOFTW ARE
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
ESET Smart Security is a tightly integrated security solution, built on the ESET NOD32 Antivirus and its powerful ThreatSense engine. It provides antivirus, antispyware, antispam and customised firewall features. ESET’s solutions are also ideal for the small-to-medium size business environment. By incorporating ESET’s Remote Administrator, both ESET Smart Security can also be deployed and managed remotely from a central location. ESET's detection and diagnostic features safeguard users from deceptive forms of malware by digging deeper into the operating system, files and encrypted browser traffic to identify and eliminate hidden malware threats. The latest version includes advanced selfdefense technology that protects against malware designed to disable antivirus or anti-malware solutions, leaving the user completely unprotected. Together, these new features enable consumers and businesses to proactively block most new malware attacks before they can compromise systems to damage or steal data.
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CD Contents
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
OUR PICK OF WINDOWS CD
FILEZILLA
FREEMIND
GTD FREE
PHPMYADMIN
The FileZilla Client and FileZilla Server software help you to transfer files across the Internet using File Transfer Protocol. The client is a free, open source FTP client that supports FTP, SFTP, and FTPS (FTP over SSL/TLS). It is available under many platforms, and binaries for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X are provided. FileZilla Server is an FTP server supported by the same project. It supports FTP and FTP over SSL/TLS.
FreeMind is a free mindmapping software written in Java. Some of the uses include keeping track of projects by creating subtasks, and creating a project workplace. Other aspects that it assists with includes helping one with essay writing and brainstorming. It further sports features such as “smart drag ‘n Drop” and “smart copying and pasting into”.
GTD-Free is personal TODO/ action manager inspired by the GTD (Getting Things Done) organisational method created by David Allen. GTDFree tries to be a simple and easy to use management tool, and it is free opensource software. GTD-Free aims to guide users to manage very efficient GTD workflow even if they are not familiar with GTD or if they need any sort of guidance to follow it.
phpMyAdmin is a software tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the World Wide Web. phpMyAdmin supports a wide range of operations with MySQL. The most frequently used operations are supported by the user interface (managing databases, tables, fields, relations, indexes, users, permissions, etc), while you still have the ability to directly execute any SQL statement.
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CD Contents
P TOCK PI
HOW TO USE CD BROWSER Place your CD in your PC’s CD-ROM drive. If you have disabled autoplay, double-click ‘CDBrowser’ on the CD instead. When CD Browser starts, six buttons will appear listing software categories. Click a category and the software titles will appear in the left window. Simply choose which title you wish to view and click its name. Program details will appear along with three buttons: Install runs the installation program, Website takes you to the vendor’s site, and Screen displays a larger image of the software in action. In the middle of the window is also an option to change the CD browser’s skin.
CD 159: SUPERB SOFTWARE UTILITIES
GAMES
FILEZILLA CYGWIN CRIMSON EDITOR FREEMIND MAPPING TOOL 7ZIP
KRYSTAL DROP JQUIZSHOW
MULTIMEDIA
PENCIL Pencil is animation and drawing software for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. It lets you create traditional handdrawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vector graphics. Pencil is free and open source. Pencil is not intended to mimic web-oriented vector-based animation software such as Flash as its main purpose is to make traditional animation. Neither does it try to rival commercial software targeting the professional animation sector. Pencil is intended to be a simple program enabling anyone to make 2D animation.
ESSENTIAL FILES DIRECTX 9C DOT NET FRAMEWORK 3.0 JAVA RUNTIME
JUICE STATIONRIPPER VIRTUALDUB FLASKMPEG PENCIL
INTERNET PIGGYDB MAC’S CMS PHPMYADMIN PDFDOWNLOAD
PRODUCTIVITY PIDGIN GTD-FREE POST IT DIGITAL NOTES MOBILEDIT
UTILITIES FileZilla, Cygwin Crimson Editor FreeMind Mapping Tool 7ZIP MULTIMEDIA Juice, StationRipper VirtualDub, FlaskMPEG Pencil INTERNET Piggydb ,Mac’s CMS phpMyAdmin pdfdownload PRODUCTIVITY Pidgin ,GTD-Free Post It Digital Notes MOBILedit GAMES Krystal Drop jQuizShow ESSENTIAL FILES Direct x 9c Dot Net Framework 3.0 Java Runtime
IL Windows, and PEisNC software for Mac OS X, animation and drawing (cartoon)
Pencil animation traditional hand-drawn . Linux. It lets you create is free and open source vector graphics. Pencil based animation using both bitmap and mimic web-oriented vector- traditional Pencil is not intended to to make as its main purpose is Flash the as ng such targeti re softwa software it try to rival commercial m animation. Neither does d to be a simple progra sector. Pencil is intende professional animation 2D animation. enabling anyone to make www.itp.net
JQUIZSHOW The jQuizShow is based on the popular "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" TV game show. It forms the framework around which a group can play their own Millionaire-like quiz show game, with one person acting as the host, one person in the "hot seat," and with the remaining people forming the audience. Three helplines (50/50, ask a friend, and poll the audience) are available to the player.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Windows Middle East free CD, which contains programs and applications, is provided as a free service to readers of Windows Middle East magazine for personal use. You may not rent, lease, assign, re-sell or otherwise transfer the rights to anyone for any product contained on this CD. The contents of the CD-ROM are provided as is, and although every effort has been taken to ensure the disk and contents are virus and defect free, Windows Middle East, nor The Information & Technology Publishing Co. Ltd., accept liability for any loss or damage resulting from the use of this CD-ROM or the programs on it. We recommend that you make a back-up of all your data before installing any of the software on this CD. Windows Magazine does not provide technical support for this CD-ROM or the programs on it. If your CD-ROM is physically defective, please return it to Reader Services, P.O. Box. 500024, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, so we may issue a replacement.
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tion | July 2010 An ITP Technology Publica
159
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Logging off
LOGGINGOFF JAPAN TO LAUNCH SPACE YACHT Japan has launched a "space yacht" propelled by solar particles that bounce off its kite-shaped sails, the country's space agency has said. A rocket carrying the Ikaros – which stands for Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun - has blasted off from the Tanegashima space centre in southern Japan on May 18. "Ikaros is a 'space yacht' that gets propulsion from the pressure of sunlight particles bouncing off its sail," Yuichi Tsuda, space systems expert at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), told journalists. The flexible sails, which are thinner than a human hair, are also equipped with thinfilm solar cells to generate electricity to create "a hybrid technology of electricity and pressure," Tsuda said. "Solar sails are the technology that realise space travel without fuel as long as we have sunlight. The availability of electricity would enable us to navigate farther and more effectively in the solar system." Ikaros, which has cost 1.5 billion yen (16 million dollars) to develop, will be the first use of the technology in deep space, as past experiments have been limited to unfolding its sails in orbits around the Earth, said Tsuda.
STEVE JOBS HITS BACK AT BLOGGER Gawker writer Ryan Tate recently got irritated by an Apple ad describing the iPad as “a revolution”. So, he decided to send Steve Jobs an email and three hours later, at nearly 1AM, Jobs replied: Jobs: You are so misinformed. No one kicked in any doors. You’re believing a lot of erroneous blogger reports. Microsoft had (has) every right to enforce whatever rules for their platform they want. If people don’t like it, they can write for another platform, which some did. Or they can buy another platform, which some did. As for us, we’re just doing what we can to try and make (and preserve) the user experience we envision. You can disagree with us, but our motives are pure. By the way, what have you done that’s so great? Do you create anything, or just criticize others work and belittle their motivations?
WINDOWS MIDDLE EAST JULY 2010
GOOGLE ACCIDENTLY COLLECTS PERSONAL DATA WITH STREET CARS Google has admitted in an official blog post that its Street View cars have been “mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-passwordprotected) WiFi networks” since 2006. In other words, as these cars have been driving around, they’ve been collecting unencrypted user data in addition to the SSID and MAC addresses they were supposed to be tracking. Google’s Senior VP for Engineering and Research, Alan Eustace, had the following to say: “So how did this happen? Quite simply, it was a mistake. In 2006 an engineer working on an experimental WiFi project wrote a piece of code that sampled all categories of publicly broadcast WiFi data. A year later, when our mobile team started a project to collect basic WiFi network data like SSID information and MAC addresses using Google’s Street View cars, they included that code in their software—although the project leaders did not want, and had no intention of using, payload data.“
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