PC Prowl - Computer Hardware & Gadgets

Western Digital My Book Essential | 750 GB External Hard Drive

Admin — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:18:44 +0000

External Hard drives come in as many varieties and flavors as MP3 players. And like just like the Apple’s iPod is the king of the MP3 market, Western Digital’s My Book series is on top of the external hard drive market.

What makes the 750GB My Book Essential stand out from other external hard drives are the number of features it offers and its ease of use. This puppy gives you plug and play capability, PC and Mac compatibility, excellent power efficiency, and an elegant, aesthetic look that will compliment any workspace.

And with 750GB of storage capacity, you’ve got enough room for over 200,000 photos, over up to 18,000 MP3’s, and as much as 300 hours of DVD quality video.

The Western Digital 750GB My Book Essential is suited for complete system backups, file transfers between computers, big or small, media sharing with friends and family, and added storage for your music, movies, and photos.

If you are looking for an external hard drive, and you need a good bit of storage space, you will not go wrong with a Western Digital My Book. You’ll have a hard time finding anything better for the price.

Find the Western Digital My Book Essential on Ebay

Western Digital My Book ..Essential Edition 320gb
US $31.50 (4 Bids)
Auction Ends: Saturday Jun-06-2009 0:32:20 PDT
Bid on this Item | Watch this Item

Western Digital My Book External Backup 2TB
US $224.99
Auction Ends: Saturday Jun-06-2009 0:56:15 PDT
Bid on this Item | Buy this Item | Watch this Item

More info

Viacom vs Youtube | Privacy Scare - All User Details to Be Handed Over

Admin — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:37:20 +0000

In a shocking turn in the gigantic court case between Google and Viacom, a judge has ordered that Google hand over records of every video watched on YouTube. The information to be handed over to Viacom includes user names and IP Addresses.

Viacom has ordered for the data to be handed over so they can prove that Copyrighted material is more popular than the user created video. They believe that Google is purposely leaving the Copyrighted content online as long as possible to attract users to the site.

This would invalidate, to an extent, their augment at they are protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as Google would receive financial benefit from having the copyrighted material on their site. If Viacom do prove that this Copyrighted material is more popular then Google could be forced to pay over more than the $1 billion in damages already requested.

But what does this mean to us?

Well Viacom will own information about every YouTube you’ve ever watched, quite rightly Google and privacy groups are in an uproar about this breach of privacy. Though the Judge pointed to Google that they themselves have said that IP addresses aren’t personally identifiable, what about the User Names? Most people don’t use their own name as a user name, but what of those who do? What protection is offered to them?

I think it will be interesting to see how Viacom react to the uproar that the internet is in at the moment about the breach of privacy, and I feel sorry for the people who have to look through the set of 4 tera-byte hard drives.

Ubuntu Is the Worst Game Ever?

Admin — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:32:52 +0000

Just browsing the internet today I found this ludicrous image on flickr of someone posting a review on the Ubuntu install disk, stating that it’s a game. You can read the review by clicking the image bellow.

Now, let’s list all the things that are wrong with this review. First of all he states that Ubuntu is a game, everyone who knows anything about computing knows that Linux is an operating system and not a game. Second he is shocked that it erases all of your data, Ubuntu can easily create new partitions so you can still duel boot into Windows or any other operating system for that matter. Ubuntu is able to run on a Mac contrary to what Ernesto stated. He seems to label Dell computers as the only type of Windows computers when there are just a few more brands of computers that sell their hardware with Windows installed. He also moaned about the layout of Ubuntu, yes it’s a different operating system so they aren’t going to conform to the same standards as Windows does just like Macs don’t look like Windows. Finally he moaned about the software availability on Ubuntu in terms of Notepad, Limewire and Internet Explorer, all of this software is in fact available on Ubuntu in open source form.

Obviously from the tone that he uses and looking at his other reviews on amazon he is obviously joking and for his sake I hope he was. It’s just that I don’t like seeing people scared away from a perfectly good open source operating system just for a joke.

PC Prowl Theme Release

Admin — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:32:33 +0000

As you may or may not know the theme on Pc Prowl is the Blue Block Theme from WpThemeDesigner.

After a couple of requests from both readers of the blog and readers of wpthemedesinger I have decided that I will release the theme for public enjoyment.

The main change to the theme is of course the width, but there are also some smaller changes that you may or may not notice such as:

the RSS Image
Comments Image
Comments Style
Spaces Between Paragraphs
Inclusion of Tags at Bottom of Posts
Next Page / Previous Page Size
& More

I would like to request that you leave a link to PC Prowl & WpThemeDesigner somewhere on your site as a recognition of our work, whether you leave it in the Footer or put it on your About page.

You can download the Theme here

SheHwa MagicScreen Filter | Stop Prying Eyes looking at your Monitor

Admin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:00:01 +0000

Today’s product is quite an interesting one, and one that caught my eye as soon as I saw it. If your spend a lot of your time on your notebook out of the office, you’ll know the annoyance of trying to possession yourself so other people cannot see your screen. Or the paranoia that everyone on the train can read that personal email you have received.

The SheHwa MagicScreen Filter is an interesting concept that is designed to combat this worry. You attach the filter via either double sided tape or hanging tape, which is apparently easy to remove and reattach. Once the filter is fitted you can see the screen clearly when looking at it directly but when viewed from an angle of 30 degrees or more the screen goes invisible. This is great for anyone who wants privacy from any screen in a public place, whether it be a notebook or mobile phone.

There are a few other features that make it quite an attractive product as well, for example because you cant see further than 30 degrees the light cannot shine on the screen from further than that angle as well. This almost eliminates screen glare meaning that you can sit in places where you wouldn’t other wise be able to sit. The hard coating on the filter also helps protect the screen from knocks and scratches that would otherwise be expensive to repair.

This is a great and inexpensive product that protects your screen from prying eyes, knocks and scratches and stops sun glare, with all that and with the price in mind the SheHwa MagicScreen is worth a try.

More Info on the SheHwa MagicScreen Filter

Find the SheHwa MagicScreen on Amazon

Do you care that FireFox calls home?

Admin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:29:54 +0000

Once a day, every day without your knowlege Fire Fox sends information about you via SSL back to the Mozzila servers even if you have disabled the automatic updates feature. Although I highly doubt Mozzila have any malisous intensions with this information, I think users should be told upfront that information is being sent home about them.

But what information is sent anyway?

Don’t worry none of the information they are sending is scary, yes you could be potentially be identified by your ip address but its nothing more to worry about than someone looking through a phone book and finding you phone number.

The information Firefox is sending home is:

IP address
What time you were using the product
What exact version number you were using
If you are using any of the plugins or addons sent in the disabled list
Total number of active users of their software

So should I care?

No not really, most of this information is already available to every website owner when you visit a website. I think the thing everyone is annoyed at is the fact that Mozzila never told us about it while installing the software. None of this information can really hurt you and its just so Mozzila can collect information about the number of users it has giving a better scope of its market share.

There are a lot more programs that are out there that send much more information about us back to home than Firefox ever will. Ffor example if you play online games you’ll be likey to have Punkbuster installed on your computer, which is an anticheat program, this sends back information about your system such as your hard drive serial number. Microsoft products phone home all the time and there is no way for us to know what it sends back, and it is unlikey that we ever will find out.

More Info

New Theme Ready for PC Prowl

Admin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:32:16 +0000

After a couple of weeks of on and off work I have finally got the new theme for PcProwl ready for public release. It is a modified version of wpthemedesigners theme Blue Block, the basic changes I have made is the width of the theme which was way to narrow for my liking and I have also changed the category links aswell as the origonal release didn’t have good support for children categories.

Its not just the theme that has changed, but you might have noticed our new logo, I really like it and think it combines the idea of Prowling the web for computer equipment very well.

In addition to the new looks of the site I am also going to be making a few more changes, the site is very review orientated I know some of you like that but an equal amount dont. So I have decided that I will start posting more news items and information that might be of interest to people to keep the site more fresh and interactive. On the note of being more interactive I am going to be installing some plug ins to reward you for commenting on the site as a lot of my readers are very quiet and I would like more people to be intereacting with the site.

Stay tuned and watch this space

PNY Verto Geforce 8500GT | 512MB Casual Gamers Graphics Card

Admin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:34:11 +0000

I’ve been known to focus on the high end hardware to much and haven’t really looked at the older hardware for those casual computer users and gamers who are working on a tight budget. That’s why were taking a look at a relatively old graphics card, the PNY Geforce 8500GT. Although only just over a year old the graphics card industry moves fast and you soon forget about those once high spec cards that become a bargain for the regular computer user or casual gamer.

As its DirectX 10 compatible, if your playing on Vista you’ll be able to utilize the graphics performance increase that vista provides. But even on xp you’ll notice a nice increase in performance if you’ve upgraded from older cards such as the Geforce 6600.

In terms of what games you’ll be able to play on this card, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. You’ll be able to play the popular Call of Duty 4 on Medium to High settings, and in the ultimate test of computing power Crysis you’ll be able to play on Low/Medium settings depending on your CPU.

The Geforce 8500GT is a great casual card, as it lets you play the latest gamest games, admittedly not at the best frames per second but on the other hand at its price it doesn’t break the bank.

Find the PNY Verto Geforce 8500GT on Ebay

New PNY VERTO NVIDIA GEFORCE 8500 GT 512MB PCI-E x16
US $0.99 (0 Bid)
Auction Ends: Saturday Jun-06-2009 20:00:00 PDT
Bid on this Item | Watch this Item

New PNY VERTO NVIDIA GEFORCE 8500 GT 512MB PCI-E x16
US $59.99
Auction Ends: Saturday Jun-06-2009 20:02:53 PDT
Bid on this Item | Buy this Item | Watch this Item

More info on the PNY Verto Geforce 8500GT Video Card

Razer Barracuda AC-1 | Gaming 7.1 Surround Sound Card

Admin — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:50:31 +0000

After the fiasco with the SoundBlaster drivers back in March I decided that I wouldn’t be reviewing any Creative products in a while, that’s why I’ve been staying clear of Sound Cards for a while to fight the temptation. But today I’m back looking at the Razer Barracuda AC-1.

This 7.1 surround sound card is very well optimized for gaming, and has the features to show for it, virtual surround sound and extended audio range to name a few.

The extendible audio range is a great feature that extends the range and which you can hear in a 3D environment, so if you’re in game you will be able to hear your enemy’s footsteps before he’ll hear yours. This as any gamer will know is a massive help in FPS games as you know where your enemies are.

The Virtual surround sound makes it sound like you have a set of surround sound speakers from just two, meaning you can wear your headset and talk to your team mates without compromising the quality of your sound and the ability to pin point the enemy.

Although Creative virtually own the entire soundcard market, if your looking for an alternative or just avoiding Creative then I think this is a great substitute and even offers some advantage to gamers in terms of some of the features it offers, and with the advantage of actually working with vista the Barracuda comes above a lot of the Creative products.

Edit: Thanks to those who pointed out that this isn’t infact a Graphics Card like the title suggested, I’ve fixed it but still feel really stupid

Find the Razer Barracuda AC-1 on Ebay

Razer Barracuda AC-1 7.1 Channel Audio - Used
US $13.25 (3 Bids)
Auction Ends: Sunday Jun-07-2009 18:49:16 PDT
Bid on this Item | Watch this Item

More info on the Razer Barracuda AC-1

Kingston DataTraveler | Robust and Reliable 8GB USB Flash Memory Drive

Admin — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:48:59 +0000

USB Flash drives are becoming so inexpensive that almost everyone has them, for transfering files between home and work or school and make transfering files between computers quick and easy.

One of the biggest draws to this drive, for me at least, is the retractable head meaning your not going to have to worry about loosing a cap or the port ever becoming dirty or damaged. USB drives are becoming ever more robust and this one is no different and can stand up to a lot of abuse which coupled with the fact it has a retractable head means your data is secure from knocks and bruses.

With USB drives becoming ever more wacky and trying to stand out, Kingston has left it plain and suprisingly stylish for its relaxed look, although slightly larger than it needed to be it’s a nice size and fits in your hand wonderfully.

Although I have heard a lot of compiants about the lack of lanyard or keychain there is a small bar allowing you to attack your own. Meaning you can decided if you want one or not, which I think is a nice design feature from Kingston.

Overall I think this is great drive for its price and its going to be hard to find a better value USB flash drive for the money, especially for the the 8GB model

Find the Kingston DataTraveler on Ebay

64GB KINGSTON DataTraveler® DT150 USB2.0 Drive Stick
US $50.00 (1 Bid)
Auction Ends: Saturday Jun-06-2009 1:13:31 PDT
Bid on this Item | Watch this Item

NEW Kingston DTI/1GB Data Traveler 1GB USB Flash Drive
US $5.23 (2 Bids)
Auction Ends: Saturday Jun-06-2009 8:26:16 PDT
Bid on this Item | Watch this Item