Tips for EveryOne

PC TV Programs – Watch TV Programs on PC

2011-08-13T02:49:00.000-07:00

This article describes the possibilities of PC TV, which simply means to watch tv on the pc using PC TV programs. Have you encountered a situation like the following before? Great the next match of my favorite sports team will not be shown on free tv. Actually it will not be shown at all in my country, except for satellite of course. If you encounter situations like this one and always thought there would be no other solution than to watch boring live tickers on internet sites, then you have come to the right place that brings you the solution called PC TV.

I will describe three freeware programs that let you connect to channels that stream tv and especially live sports events. This includes all major european football (soccer) leagues, champions league, uefa cup, espn, wrestling, national team matches, boxing matches aso.

You also find regular tv stations like mtv and custom stations like gamers tv there. On with the PC TV programs.

PC TV

All you need to watch pc tv is a computer with the latest windows media player and / or real player. A broadband connection is desired for best results. All three PC TV programs to watch TV on the PC have been produced in Asia making it hard to read the websites. Those websites offer tv program lists among other information.

First, let us take a look at some options in media player and real player:

Start the media player, make sure you use the latest version. Right-Click and select Options from the menu. Click on Performance and Change the Buffer Size of Content to 30 seconds.

In real player you select Tools -> Preferences and click on the General -> Playback Settings. The setting Buffer up to 30 seconds is at the bottom of this window.

Stream formats:

mms:// and .asx open with windows media player
rtsp:// and .rm / .ram open with real player

Starting Streams manually:

Sometimes you need to start streams manually. Use the stream formats information to figure out the program to use.
On windows media player choose File -> Open Url or the shortcut ctrl + u
On real player choose File -> Open

PC TV Programs

This is a list of free PC TV programs that can be used to view TV on PC.

Sopcast

Download from the above link, unzip, start. A channel list will be displayed. Double-click a channel and windows media player should start and begin buffering and displaying.

Pplive

Just download and run the installation script on pplive. Its all in English, no need to worry. You need the pplive channel list for it, it does not come with a loaded list.

Ppstream

Download from the above location. This one has an installation script that is unfortunately producing lots of gibberish. The buttons are designed like in every other windows installation script. (left button, choose a directory, 3x middle button). The Channel list is on the left, you see the channel name, the quality of the stream in Kb per second and the users connected to the channel.

If I had to choose one of them I?d defiantly choose ppStream which has the best interface and good user rates and a nice overall stream quality.

Popular PC TV Channels:

channel	content	language
CCTV5	european soccer, other sport events.	Asian ?
ESPN	All major us leagues, european soccer + more	English
Games Tv (ppstream)	professional game play, tournaments, mags	Asian ?
Soccer Demo	soccer	Asian ?
Sport Italia	Italian Sports Channel	Italians

Additional Information:

Live Football Streams Schedule

More P2P TV Tools:
Coolstreaming
QLive
TvAnts

Using PC TV programs on your computer has never been easier than in today’s Internet. Users can pick a wide variety of applications that bring

Google+ Games [Game Saturday]

2011-08-13T02:43:00.000-07:00

Google enabled Games on my Google+ account while I was sleeping and I thought it would be a nice idea to review what Google+ Games has to offer on Game Saturday. Let me give you a short Google+ introduction before I take a closer look at the games on offer.

Google+ is Google’s attempt to enter the social networking space. It is an invite only system at the moment that concentrates on communication and interaction with other members. Probably the most talked about feature of Google+ is circles, which can be used to group users. This improves the filtering options on Google+ significantly. You can send messages to a specific circle for instance, or look at the news stream of a circle.

Games in Google+ has been announced on Friday. It is Google’s next step to compete with Facebook. Games on the social networking site on the other hand means that it will be more “like” Facebook as well.

There are fundamental differences on the other hand that deserve to be mentioned. Game notifications and invites are for instance only displayed on the games page (in the games stream) and not on the main stream page. This removes the gaming noise from the main news streams.

Google+ Games features 16 different games at this time, of which at least one is a beta game. Games include Angry Birds, City of Wonder or Bejeweled Blitz, which are all available on Facebook as well. Only one game (Flood It) of the 16 available games is not available on Facebook as well.

A click on a game opens an intermediary page that explains that games in Google+ are social, which basically means that contacts may see gaming notifications.

Games launch in a new window and display their privacy policy before they can be played. Google+ users need to accept the privacy policy.

Some games, like Bejeweled Blitz, demand access to your email address, while all that I checked demand access to an ordered list of people from a user’s circles (which interestingly enough is not available to the account owner, the sorted part I mean).

The games do not run in a popup but on the Google+ page directly.

Some games, like Angry Birds, display game scores of your contacts in the game interface (next to beat) which can be both a rewarding but also humiliating experience.

There does not seem to be an option right now to revoke the game permissions again, nor an option to remove high score and other personal information. I would have expected the information to be listed under Profile and privacy, but there is no games (or apps) listing there currently.

Games as of now offer a limited experience, especially since the vast majority of them are also playable on Facebook. The lack of privacy and permission controls on the other hand is serious and needs to be addressed by Google as soon as possible.

I have also received reports that some users have problems playing games at all, for instance when using Chrome Dev versions (game loading freezes).

The inclusion of games moves Google+ from a conversational platform to a more general platform. This could alienate part of the professional tech orientated user base, even though it is easy enough to ignore the games button at the top.

Have you tried Google+ games yet? What is your impression so far?

Update: Google+ users can revoke game permissions on the Authorized Access to your Google Account page.

A click on Revoke Access next to a game listed there revokes all permissions that you have given the game during setup.

BitDefender Top 100 Removal Tool

2011-08-05T03:08:00.000-07:00

It’s convenient if you know which malware has made its way on your computer, not so much if you do not know the name or characteristics. The BitDefender Removal Tool has been designed for exactly that reason. It basically combines the top 100 removal tools in one interface. It is by no means an alternative for regular antivirus protection, but a good option if you know that your computer is infected and that your default antivirus solution cannot disinfect the computer.

The Removal Tool is a portable security program for the Windows operating system that has been streamlined for ease of use. There is only one option available in the interface, and that is to start a system scan.

BitDefender’s Removal Tool will start to scan the system for traces of the top 100 viruses, worms, trojans and other malicious software. The scan itself takes some time and it is usually a good option to start it at a time where the PC is idle otherwise.

Malware that is found by the scan is displayed in the interface. BitDefender announced plans to update the Removal Tool monthly to take into account new malware that has made it into the top 100 list of malware of the previous month. For now, only June’s version of the Removal Tool is available. It remains to be seen if the July version will be released anytime soon.

BitDefender’s Removal Tool is available for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. Both versions are portable and can be executed directly from any location.

If there is something to criticize it is the slow scanning speed of the system and the missing update option to update the program locally when a new version is pushed out by BitDefender.

How to Connect Google Calendar to Your Cell Phone

2011-08-03T03:02:00.000-07:00

Since you're not always sitting in front of a computer, being able to access your calendar only when you're at a computer isn't all that useful. Imagine that you parked your car in the morning, but you have to move it by 5 p.m. to make way for street cleaning or you'll get a ticket. It's easy to forget to add an item like "Move my car by 5pm" to your calendar if you have to wait until you get to a computer to add it. The solution to this problem: Hook your phone into your calendar.

There are a couple of ways to add Google Calendar to your cell phone, whether you own a cutting-edge smartphone or a bare-bones "dumb" phone.
Sync With Smartphones. If you use an Android phone, this is a no-brainer. Android works seamlessly with GCal; you merely log in to your Google account on your Android device, and it will automatically set up your phone's calendar to sync with GCal. Any events you add from your phone will automatically sync with Google Calendar wirelessly.

If you have an iPhone, BlackBerry, Nokia S60, or Windows Mobile phone, syncing your phone's calendar with GCal is similarly easy when you use the free Google Mobile Sync tool for your particular phone. Head over to the Google Sync page and follow the setup instructions for your device.

Check Your Calendar and Add Events Via SMS.
Don't have a fancy smartphone? No problem. You can still receive event notifications, check your calendar, and even add events to your calendar from any phone that supports SMS messages.

First, head into your GCal settings and associate your cellphone with GCal.

Select Settings, Calendar Settings, Mobile Setup, and follow Google's instructions for validating your phone. Once you validate your phone number, GCal can send you event notifications via e-mail or SMS.

You can even add an SMS reminder as one of your default notification methods, in which case you'll always receive notifications for upcoming events, regardless of where you are, as long as you have your phone on hand.

After you've associated your cell phone's number with your Google Calendar account, you can check your itinerary and create new events by sending text messages to Google Calendar's GVENT (48368) number. Want today's schedule? Just text "day" to GVENT.

Even better: You can create new events by texting GVENT, and it supports the same plain-language input that GCal's Quick Add button does. So if you text GVENT "Move my car at 4:30pm," GCal will translate that into a new event on your calendar. For complete details on GVENT commands, check out this Google Calendar help page.

G+ app for Android driven Mobile Phones

2011-08-01T05:11:00.000-07:00

Pros
Free. Clean and smart design. Easy to navigate. Easy to learn. Automatically includes a separate app for Huddle (group chat).

Cons No administrative controls in Huddle. Not all thumbnail images resize and display properly.

Bottom Line
Social networks need mobile apps to thrive, and Google+'s is a fine start, tapping into conventions established by other online social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, while finding some of its own strengths at the same time.

Do Google services work best when used on Google platforms? I was curious if that would be the case when I installed the a Google+ Mobile app (free) on an Android-based phone (Android being Google's mobile operating system). In fairness, Google's new social network, Google+, runs just as well on Android as it does as an iPhone app (free, 3.5 stars). It doesn't get special treatment on Android, except that when you download and install the app, you actually get two: the primary Google+ app and a separate app for Huddle, or group chat. The only other difference is that the interface on Android deviates slightly from what's in the iPhone app; the way the apps work is largely the same, however.

Mobile apps are essential to the whole social networking experience. Think about Facebook and Twitter. Mobile apps are the most convenient way to check in on what's happening, and just as quickly get back to life in real time. As a social network, Google+ has made itself is much more usable with the addition of the mobile apps.

Part of this success comes from the design. Less screen space (compared with a full computer monitor, where other Google properties are often deployed) means every inch of it has to be use effectively. If you've ever felt that Google was too sparse with its designs on the Web, you might see Google+ as a revelation in Google UI. The app is clean and easy to navigate without too many menus and unnecessary words cluttering the screen.

How to Get Google+ Mobile App
Start by locating the Google+ Mobile app in the Android Marketplace, and dropping it onto your mobile device. Alternatively, you can try getting it through a QR code provided by Google.

Once you find and install the free app, just sign in using your Google account, if it's not already synced to the phone. If it is synced, you can select it from a list after firing up the app. Note that you must already have Google+ access in order to use the app, so if you haven't received an invitation yet, hang tight until you do.

Design
Like Facebook's mobile app, the mobile version of Google+ orients you with a landing screen that shows the main components in a grid, their icons and single-word descriptors helping you choose how you'll use the app. Google+'s icons are not yet as well known as Facebook's, so the names printed below them help a great deal: Stream, Huddle, Photos, Profile, and Circles. If you didn't guess what you can do by the name of the tool, at least you'll be mildly intrigued to dive in and find out.

Features
Any social networking user will be familiar with words like "stream" (updates from your contacts), "profile" (information about you) and "photos." And if you've used the Google+ site, you've likely already established Circles, or subsets of your connections, grouped by whatever classification you want to create, such as close friends, co-workers, extended family, and so forth.

Notably missing in the mobile app is the Hangout feature, or video group chat, which is Web-only. Replacing it is Huddle, a group instant messaging tool. To use Google+'s Huddle, select Huddle and click the speech bubble icon at the top right to start a new chat. Alternatively in Android, you can go directly to the Huddle app that automatically installs when you first downloaded the Google+ mobile app. In Huddle, you can invite individuals to group chat with you or an entire Circle. As people are invited, their profile pictures appear in a strip at the top, giving you the ability to quickly see who's there. Six images fit easily in that banner at the top, and when more people are invited, the strip become scrollable. This visual presentation of who has been invited to a Huddle is excellent.

Apple, Android Battling for Smartphone Leadership in Mobile OS Race

2011-07-31T05:47:00.000-07:00

The mobile phone market is changing. Depending on how you slice that market, the biggest winner in the last year was either Apple or Google. Apple is the largest maker of smartphone handsets, but Google’s Android smartphone OS is the top seller while Apple’s iOS is No. 2.
But for the top handset market share, it’s still Nokia, due mostly to its vast number of non-smartphone sales. However, Nokia’s smartphone sales are off while the company sells units with its aged Symbian operating system and waits for Microsoft Phone 7 equipped devices to appear in large numbers.
Apple enjoyed explosive growth in smartphone sales over last year, with an increase of 141.8 percent, according to an IDC report. Nokia, while still tops in overall phone market share suffered a drop in sales of more than 20 percent.
But there’s more to the smartphone market than who makes the handset. According to a Nielsen survey, Android-based phones now own 39 percent of the U.S. market compared to Apple’s 28 percent. The reason for the difference, of course, is there are multiple handset makers supporting the Android OS, while there’s only one Apple–supporting iOS.
Meanwhile, there are any number of rumors that could change the dynamic significantly, depending on what turns out to be true. For example, there’s a rumor that Apple could offer the iPhone to all U.S. carriers instead of just AT&T and Verizon Wireless. If that were to happen, perhaps there’s a chance that Apple could surge ahead of the Android devices by opening up availability. There’s certainly demand–one source at T-Mobile told me that there are about a million iPhone users on T-Mobile now–enough that T-Mobile stores are selling some iPhone accessories.
The level of hype surrounding the iPhone, especially the long anticipated iPhone 5 will also help build market share for both the device and for iOS. According to a PriceGrabber survey, 35 percent of consumers say they will buy an iPhone 5 when it comes out. If these numbers pan out (and that’s not a sure thing) then that could bump the iPhone into top place in the United States and perhaps globally in the smartphone market.

Windows Phone “Mango” – Released to Manufacturing

2011-07-26T05:25:00.000-07:00

by Terry Myerson

I wanted to drop into the Windows Phone Blog briefly to update you on an important milestone. Earlier this morning, the Windows Phone development team officially signed off on the release to manufacturing (RTM) build of “Mango” – the latest version of the Windows Phone operating system. This marks the point in the development process where we hand code to our handset and mobile operator partners to optimize Mango for their specific phone and network configurations. Here on the Windows Phone team, we now turn to preparing for the update process. The Mango update for current Windows Phone handsets will be ready this fall, and of course will come pre-installed on new Windows Phones.
In May, we officially took the wraps off of Mango, a release including hundreds of new features that create a smarter and easier approach to communications and apps, while delivering the best web experience. My favorites?
· Our unique new email Conversation View which helps me to efficiently participate in long email discussions with my friends and co-workers.
· Threads that bring together my text, IM, and Facebook chat all into one conversation.
· App Multitasking, enabling me to efficiently work on my email, listen to music, and then pop in and out of Words By Post games when it is my turn. Mango also connects apps to search results and deepens integration within the Hubs like Music and Video and Pictures.
· Internet Explorer 9 for fast web browsing and support for new HTML 5 web sites.
We can’t wait to get Mango in your hands so you can experience all the new features for yourself and give us feedback on where to go next. As we reach additional milestones we will be back to share more but until then, thank you for your support of Windows Phone.
[source: WindowsPhone Blog ]

Android is the top Mobile OS

2011-07-22T05:12:00.000-07:00

Google's Android mobile operating system was the most popular choice among smartphone buyers in June, but Apple's iOS helped Cupertino become the top smartphone manufacturer in the U.S. last month, according to Thursday data from Nielsen.

Android now has the largest share of the U.S. smartphone market with 39 percent, followed by Apple and iOS with 28 percent. Research in Motion's BlackBerry, meanwhile, is down to 20 percent.
"Because Apple is the only company manufacturing smartphones with the iOS operating system, it is clearly the top smartphone manufacturer in the United States," Nielsen wrote in a blog post.

HTC, Motorola, and Samsung also had a pretty successful month. HTC's Android phones represented 14 percent of the smartphone market, while its Windows Mobile/Phone 7 devices nabbed 6 percent. Android-based Motorola smartphones, meanwhile, made up 11 percent of U.S. smartphones last month, while 8 percent of smartphone owners had a Samsung Android device. Samsung also sold about 2 percent of Windows Mobile and Windows Phone devices.

Earlier this month, comScore said that Samsung was the top U.S. handset manufacturer between March and May with 24.8 percent of the market, while Android nabbed 38.1 percent of smartphone OS market share.

Controversial June numbers from IDC, meanwhile, said that Android and Windows Phone would be the top two mobile operating systems by 2015. That might not be too far-fetched for Android at this point, but Windows Phone has thus far had a slow start. That could change, however, when Nokia starts releasing Windows Phone-based devices later this year.

Nokia 6303i

2011-07-08T05:16:00.000-07:00

In a word or two

The Nokia 6303i Classic is a compact mobile phone with an even more compact price.

The Design

The Nokia 6303i Classic is a tweaked version of the popular Nokia 6303 Classic. The phone has some internal upgrades and comes in two extra case colours – white on silver and khaki on gold – but the “i” version is the same size and weight (a mere 96g) as the original. This means the 6303i is pocket-friendly, with a traditional Nokia look.

Candybar in shape, the Nokia 6303i Classic has is an attractive layout which appeals to both the eye and the fingers thanks to the spacing of each key. The 2.2 inch screen displays a good resolution and supports 16 million colours – which is particularly good given the greater social networking integration of this Nokia.

Nokia 6303i Classic Specifications

Communication is straightforward on the Nokia 6303i Classic. The phone packs a number of options into its slim case including Bluetooth and Ovi Services. You can download applications onto your phone via the Ovi Store as well as quickly share your snaps using the Ovi Share function. And with a 3.2-megapixel camera onboard, you will probably want to share your images with friends. The camera has autofocus, 4x digital zoom and a dual LED flash. With a video option, you can happily capture still and live footage on your travels, and although the quality is not the finest it is sufficient to certainly enjoy this feature.

Another good tweak of the Nokia 6303i Classic is its ability to support instant messaging. As well as chatting via social networking sites, you can engage in real-time conversations online – and there are the usual communication options on top like email, and text and multimedia messages.

The battery life has also been enhanced compared to the original 6303. The Nokia 6303i Classic has an incredible 515 hours standby time, which makes a refreshing change to the likes of the iPhone and Google Nexus One smartphones which seem to devour batteries in a matter of hours. With the Nokia 6303i Classic, you can go away for the weekend and not panic if you forget your phone charger. This battery is also great when it comes to enjoying your music as it supports up to 30 hours of music playback from a single charge. You can choose to listen to your own playlists or tune into your preferred FM radio station, and listen via the 3.5mm audio connector or through the phone’s internal speakers.

Considerations

The Nokia 6303i Classic is a 2G mobile with no support for 3G or Wi-Fi.

Nokia 5220

2011-07-01T05:14:00.000-07:00

Introduction
The relatively new Nokia 5220 is one of the Xpress Music phones from Nokia which offers a good set of features including a very good music player and a 3.5mm head phone jack. The phone has a great look to it as well and is very easy to use. It’s essentially a cheap phone which offers a good set of features and the added bonus of being a dedicated music phone. There is a dedicated audio chip inside the phone which helps music quality through headphones. So far, we’ve not seen much wrong with this phone at all and would highly recommend it to personal users who enjoy music.

Specifications
The Nokia 5220 is a music phone so as you’ve probably guessed it is equipped with a great media player so you can listen to music whenever you feel like it. The phone has about 30 MB of internal memory which isn’t very much for music (about 5 songs) but it can be expanded up to 2GB which is enough for about 500 songs so it’s definitely worth getting a memory card for this phone. The phone also has a 3.5 mm headphone jack which is very helpful because it means you can plug in your own headset and listen to music whenever you please.

The Nokia 5220 also has a 2 mega pixel camera which comes in handy for snapping a few shots here and there. The camera has a 4 x digital zoom and is relatively good considering the price range this phone is in. The camera can also record video clips which is handy although the quality isn’t excellent so if you need something better than average you should look elsewhere. The phone has a lot of features for a device in this price range and is also equipped with FM radio with RDS which means you can tune into your favorite radio station when you’re out and about.

The phone also has a good organizer with a calendar and memos. You can also use the voice memo and built in hands free as and when you need it. There is also a good battery on board this phone which lasts up to 24 hours for music playback. The phone’s standby time and talk time is 406 hours and 5 hours respectively which is pretty good for a phone of this style. All in all, the features of this phone are good and we’d definitely recommend it to basic personal users who enjoy music features.

Looks
The Nokia 5220 has a rather funky design on the exterior which is asymmetrically designed to make it easy and comfortable to hold. However, it is a bit odd so it might not be everyone’s cup of tea so beware of this. However, practically it is a very good handset and appears to have a good range of usability. The handset itself is available in three colours; blue, red and green and we always like a handset that is available in more than one colour because it gives users a chance to be unique. The phone measures in at about 108mm by 43.5mm by 10.5mm so isn’t huge by any means and is actually quite slim line in design.

The phone weighs about 78 grams which is very light for a music phone and we think this is great because it’s lightweight, slim line and stylish. In our opinion, the phone has a nice and stylish design to it and is probably going to be very popular with personal users because it’s funky and stylish and is definitely a personal phone in terms of its design, look and feel. However, it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea because it is an odd shape – some people will find it to be cool, others will find it to be odd.

Design
In terms of design, the Nokia 5220 has good software and the user interface and operating system appear to run smoothly together. There have been some comments about the phone randomly switching itself off during calls but this doesn’t appear to be a widespread problem. Overall, the design of the software is good and seems to match the internal applications and features well. It appears to be easy to use and most of the applications run quickly and you should be able to use this phone easily and perform tasks quickly and with little or no trouble at all.

Overall
All in all, the Nokia 5220 is a good looking phone and although it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea it’ll probably be very popular because it’s different. The features inside the phone are very good and the design of the exterior is also good in terms of usability. The phone’s camera and video recording facilities may not be the best but they offer an easy and fast way to snap a few shots and are both perfect for basic personal users. We’d definitely recommend this phone to personal users who enjoy music features because the phone has a dedicated set of features just for enjoyment of music.

Also, the Nokia 5220 has a nice look to it and is very stylish inside and out and as it is only £130 on PAYG and free on contract you can probably get a pretty good deal on this phone which will make it all the more popular. For a mid range phone it certainly has a good amount of features which will make personal users very excited and we think it’s a great phone that is definitely worth the purchase. It has all you could need as well as being in a stylish handset which is different and unique.

Overall, the Nokia 5220 is definitely a phone we’d recommend to personal users and it seems to have a nice set of high quality features which make it a very popular handset to own. The only downside is the problem with the phone shutting off randomly but as this doesn’t appear to be a widespread problem we think it’s safe to say that it’s a good phone with good features and will probably make a lot of people very happy to own. All in all, the Nokia 5220 is yet another good phone from Nokia.

F-Secure Anti-Theft For Mobile

2011-06-23T03:05:00.000-07:00

A lost or stolen cell phone can be devastating, considering that the phone may contain private data and information that may even be used for identity theft or other criminal activities.

F-Secure Anti-Theft For Mobile is a free security software for cell phones running Symbian OS, Windows Mobile or Android. It offers several options to take control of the situation.

The key features of Anti-Theft for Mobile are the ability to remotely lock the cell phone, locate it and to wipe its data in case it looks like the phone is lost forever.

The software reacts on remote commands send via SMS to the phone. Here are the available commands and their action:

Send #lock#YourCode to the stolen or lost phone. Will lock the phone, only option to unlock it is to enter the correct password.
Send #locate#YourCode to the phone. Locates the phone and displays a link to Google Maps that can be used to find out where the phone is located.
Send #wipe#YourCode to the phone to delete all confidential data on the phone.

F-Secure Anti-Theft For Mobile will immediately lock the phone if the SIM card is changed in the phone. The new cell phone number is automatically send to the owner of the phone.

F-Secure Anti-Theft For Mobile is available for free at the F-Secure website. A more advanced version is available for upgrade adding additional security features like a firewall or virus protection.

Windows 8: Microsoft's Radical Move

2011-06-15T05:28:00.000-07:00

Microsoft decided to whip back the curtain on Windows 8, with demonstrations at the 2011 Computex conference in Taiwan and D:All Things Digital Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.

If things stay on course through the final release, Microsoft's next-generation operating system will represent something of a sea change from previous versions of Windows. At least in the tablet version demonstrated at both conferences, Windows 8's user interface relies on large, colorful tiles that display active information and open applications at a finger-touch. ("Windows 8," by the way, is apparently Microsoft's internal codename for the OS, and not necessarily the moniker for the final version.)

Windows 8 features multitasking, including the ability to display two apps side-by-side on the screen. Users can "snap" applications to one side of the screen, a feature heavily reminiscent of the "Aero Snap" present in Windows Vista and Windows 7. A swipe of the finger will cycle through apps. There's a virtual keyboard, adjustable Interface aside, Windows 8 will apparently support the full version of legacy applications such as Office.

"This represents a fundamental shift in Windows design that we haven't attempted since the days of Windows 95, presenting huge opportunities for our hardware partners to innovate with new PC designs," Mike Angiulo, corporate vice president of Windows Planning, Hardware and PC Ecosystem, reportedly told the audience at the Computex conference.

Windows 8 on a tablet certainly looks pretty. The question is whether that streamlined, sleek interface can support the heavy-duty needs of hardcore PC users, who are used to the old Windows interface that allows for multiple open windows and documents and applications. Microsoft has shown how Windows 8 can play, particularly on a tablet; the question now is how Windows 8 can improve people's daily workflow--not to mention, how seamlessly it can reconcile this new interface and apps with the legacy baggage that so many users and developers bring to the proverbial table.
[source: Microsoft Watch ]

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Review

2011-05-07T22:47:00.000-07:00

The good: Most cost-efficient chip on the market; low power consumption makes it cooler, quieter, and easy to use in smaller PC designs.

The bad: Chipset politics between Intel and graphics card vendors hurt gamers, who now have to pick an Intel board for ATI's CrossFire or an Nvidia board for SLI cards.

The bottom line: Intel's Core 2 Duo E6700 offers the best price-to-performance ratio we've seen in a desktop chip. For half the cost of AMD's top-of-the-line chip, you get identical if not superior performance and better power efficiency. AMD surprised us last year with its completely dominant dual-core chips, but Intel regains the crown with Core 2 Duo.
Review: AMD, you've had a good run.

Intel announced its line of Core 2 Duo desktop CPUs today. If you're buying a new computer or building one of your own, you would be wise to see that it has one of Intel's new dual-core chips in it. The Core 2 Duo chips are not only the fastest desktop chips on the market, but also the most cost effective and among the most power efficient. About the only people these new chips aren't good for are the folks at AMD, who can claim the desktop CPU crown no
... Expand full review
AMD, you've had a good run.

Intel announced its line of Core 2 Duo desktop CPUs today. If you're buying a new computer or building one of your own, you would be wise to see that it has one of Intel's new dual-core chips in it. The Core 2 Duo chips are not only the fastest desktop chips on the market, but also the most cost effective and among the most power efficient. About the only people these new chips aren't good for are the folks at AMD, who can claim the desktop CPU crown no longer.

We've given the full review treatment to two of the five Core 2 Duo chips. You can read about the flagship $999 Core 2 Extreme X6800 here and the entire Core 2 Duo series here. In this review, we examine the next chip down, the $530 2.67GHz Core 2 Duo E6700. While the Extreme X6800 chip might be the fastest in the new lineup, we find the E6700 the most compelling for its price-performance ratio. For just about half the cost of AMD's flagship, the $1,031 Athlon 64 FX-62, the Core 2 Duo E6700 gives you nearly identical, if not faster performance, depending on the application.

As we outlined in a blog post a month ago, the Core 2 Duo represents a new era for Intel. It's the first desktop chip family that doesn't use the NetBurst architecture, which has been the template for every design since the Pentium 4. Instead, the Core 2 Duo uses what's called the Core architecture (not to be confused with Intel's Core Duo and Core Solo laptop chips, released this past January). The advances in the Core architecture explain why even though the Core 2 Duo chips have lower clock speeds, they're faster than the older dual-core Pentium D 900 series chips. The Core 2 Extreme X6800 chip, the Core 2 Duo E6700, and the $316 Core 2 E6600 represent the top tier of Intel's new line, and in addition to the broader Core architecture similarities, they all have 4MB of unified L2 cache. The lower end of the Core 2 Duo line, composed of the $224 E6400 and the $183 E6300, have a 2MB unified L2 cache.

We won't belabor each point here, since the blog post already spells them out, but the key is that it's not simply one feature that gives the Core 2 Duo chips their strength, but rather it's a host of design improvements across the chip and the way it transports data that improves performance. And out test results bear this out.

On our gaming, Microsoft Office, and Adobe Photoshop tests, the E6700 was second only to the Extreme X6800 chip. Compared to the 2.6GHz Athlon 64 FX-62, the E6700 was a full 60 frames per second faster on Half-Life 2, it finished our Microsoft Office test 20 seconds ahead, and it won on the Photoshop test by 39 seconds. On our iTunes and multitasking tests, the E6700 trailed the FX-62 by only 2 and 3 seconds, respectively. In other words, with the Core 2 Duo E6700 in your system, you'll play games more smoothly, get work done faster, and in general enjoy a better computing experience than with the best from AMD--and for less dough.

MWC 2011: LG overview

2011-05-07T22:41:00.000-07:00

Press conference

The LG press conference at the start of MWC 2011 saw the official announcement of the Optimus 3D and Optimus Black smartphones and the 8.9" tablet Optimus Tab.

The Optimus 3D and Tab are both boasting dual-core CPUs (though different in nature), while the Optimus Black introduced the new LG NOVA display, which should offer unmatched brightness and energy efficiency.

MWC booth

Of course we also stopped by the LG booth at the MWC itself, where we could spend some more quality time with the new devices.

The LG booth at MWC 2011
As you can see from the photos the new announcements generated quite a lot of interest. Still we managed to fight our way through the crowd and got our geeky hands on all of them.
Understandably, we started with the Optimus 3D. Join us after the break for a load of live images, a hands-on video and a real 3D video captured with its cameras. Plus we've got its impressive Quadrant benchmark performance.

Samsung Galaxy S II vs LG Optimus 2X

2011-05-07T22:39:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Ah, the power of dual-core processors – it lets you do cool stuff like buttery-smooth multitasking, exciting 3D portable gaming or Full HD videos. The latest Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II packs the new Exynos chipset, which pairs a couple of Cortex-A9 cores with a Mali-400MP GPU. Sounds like a potent mix – at least on paper, so we’re eager to pit it against one of the first phones to offer Nvidia’s Tegra 2 platform - the LG Optimus 2X.

Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II official photos
What we have in our hands is a pre-release test unit of the Galaxy S II, successor to one of the best selling Android phones. Ours runs its two CPU cores at 1GHz but Samsung announced that the speed will be bumped up to 1.2GHz.
Once that’s done, the I9100 Galaxy S II would be the most powerful droid – until the competition catches up, which won’t take long judging by our rumor mill. Anyway, we’re going to use the chance to put Samsung’s Exynos chipset head to head with NVIDIA’s Tegra 2. We’ll be using the LG Optimus 2X for the benchmarks, which runs at the same clock speed as our Galaxy S II – 1GHz.
We’re already working on our Galaxy S II preview but until that’s done, we just couldn’t resist testing some of the most interesting new features of Samsung’s latest flagship. Here’s what this comparison will be about.
First off, this is our first encounter with the Super AMOLED Plus technology, which improves on an already excellent screen. We’ll run the new display through several tests to determine how it stacks up against the old one and other leading displays on the market.
Next, we’ll get to the camera department – the Galaxy S II comes with an 8MP still shooter that can capture 1080p FullHD videos. That’s our second encounter with such a beast and we’ll be pitting it against the LG Optimus 2X camera, that’s for sure. A surprising guest star in the camera test is the Sony Ericsson Arc, which we recently reviewed as well.
After that comes the test of what makes the Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II tick – the new dual-core Exynos chipset. Just keep in mind the Galaxy S II retail version will have 20% more clock speed for each of the two CPU cores.
Finally, we’ll wrap things up with a real-life performance test – how does the Galaxy S II stack up in real world tasks (we’ll be testing the user interface, web browser and games) against a phone with a Tegra 2 chipset (which is quite popular among new smartphones and even tablets).

Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II in our office
Ready? Then let’s jump to the next page – but be warned, you are in for some serious display envy.

Motorola Atrix 4G review: Enter the Atrix

2011-05-07T22:35:00.000-07:00

Introduction

It was the alliance with Android that put Motorola out of the woods. Like every partnership, it’s been a series of peaks and dips but every now and then the relationship between Motorola and Android goes beyond a mere marriage of convenience and well into a simmering love affair.
They did it with the MILESTONEs and the DROID X, the BACKFLIP and the DEFY. With the ATRIX 4G, Moto says it has no plans to live in the shadows of other big makers.

Motorola ATRIX 4G official photos
The Motorola ATRIX 4G is the first dual-core smartphone in the Motorola line-up. It’s also the first to flaunt a qHD touchscreen. That’s as solid as credentials get. Add the fact it’s the first handset for Motorola to support the fast HSDPA+ network (hence the 4G moniker) and you’ve got yourself a Droid that’s not afraid of what comes next.
Dual core is certainly the next big thing in mobile phones and the Motorola ATRIX deserves credit for being among the first – our bad really, this review isn’t exactly on time.
But there are other bold decisions that Motorola had to make. The HD and laptop docks for one – though the concept is not exactly original, Motorola is trying to make it mainstream. The added fingerprint scanner is not new either but well forgotten old does just as well. Plus, it will satisfy the privacy freak in all of us.
Anyway, the standard package is what we’re interested in and this is what our review will focus on. The optional extras can wait. The ATRIX is more important to us a phone (a dual-core smartphone, to be precise) than a wannabe laptop or a potential entertainment dock. Let’s waste no more time and take a glimpse of the ATRIX 4G’s key features.

Key features

Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G with HSDPA and HSUPA
4" 16M-color capacitive touchscreen of qHD (960 x 540 pixels) resolution, scratch-resistant Gorilla glass
Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 proccessor, ULP GeForce GPU, Tegra 2 chipset; 1GB of RAM
Android OS v2.2; MOTOBLUR UI (update to Gingerbread planned)
Web browser with Adobe Flash 10.1 support
5 MP autofocus camera with dual-LED flash; face detection, geotagging
720p video recording @ 30fps (to be upgraded to 1080p Full-HD )
Wi-Fi ab/g/n; Wi-Fi hotspot functionality; DLNA
GPS with A-GPS; Digital compass
Fingerprint scanner that doubles as a power key
16GB storage; expandable via a microSD slot
Accelerometer and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP
standard microHDMI port
Smart and voice dialing
Office document editor
Active noise cancellation with a dedicated secondary mic
DivX/XviD video support
Lapdock and HD Dock versatility
Web browser with Adobe Flash 10.2 support

Main disadvantages

Not the latest Android version
No FM radio
Screen image is pixelated upon closer inspection
Questionable placement of the Power/Lock button
Poor pinch zoom implementation in the gallery
No dedicated shutter key
Doesn’t operate without a SIM card inside

The ATRIX 4G is certainly the most powerful phone Motorola has made so far. With a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB worth of RAM and the ultra low power GeForce GPU under its hood, the ATRIX 4G is set to win the hearts and minds of power users.

Motorola ATRIX 4G live photos
Garnish all this premium hardware with a 5MP camera with dual LED flash and a 4-inch capacitive touchscreen of qHD resolution of 540x960 pixels, and the ATRIX 4G is more than ready to play with the other dual-core kids.
As for us, we are about to take a closer look at the design and build of the phone and find out if it matches the premium hardware that resides within.

HTC Desire S review: Droid cravings

2011-05-07T22:33:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Powerful hardware, large high-res screen and the latest Android version in a single piece of solid metal – the recipe did wonders for the original Desire so no wonder HTC are in no mood to experiment with the sequel. Take the best and make it better pretty much sums up the game plan. Oh well, we’ll take quietly brilliant even if emphasis is sometimes on quiet. In other words, the Desire S is a phone we’re ready to like. But make no mistake – it’s not meant to be the flagship its predecessor was.

HTC Desire S official photos
HTC has the Sensation to send against the heavyweight competition. The new Desire is given a different, though no less important role. Ideally, it should be the smartphone that has broader appeal, the one to offer as reward to loyal upgraders. The phone to give you – wait for it – more bang for your buck than we’ve come expect from HTC.
Here’s what it puts on the table summarized.

Key features

Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
3.7" 16M-color capacitive LCD touchscreen of WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels)
Uses the best screen from HTC so far (along with the Incredible S)
Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread with HTC Sense
1 GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset
768 MB RAM and 1.1 GB ROM
5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and geotagging
720p video recording @ 30fps
Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
GPS with A-GPS
microSD slot up to 32GB (8GB card included)
Accelerometer and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Stereo FM radio with RDS
microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
Smart dialing, voice dialing
Front facing camera, video calls
DivX/XviD video support
Compact aluminum unibody
Gorilla glass display
HTC Locations app
HTCSense.com integration
HTC Portable Hotspot
Ultra-fast boot times (if you don’t remove battery)

Main disadvantages

No dedicated camera key and no lens cover
Poor camcorder performance, jerky 720p videos
Below-par sunlight legibility
Wi-Fi signal degrades when you cover the top part of the back panel
microSD is below the battery cover

Those coming from the original Desire will certainly notice the absence of the optical trackpad and that now capacitive keys replace the hardware buttons. It’s a different way of interacting with the phone but by no means less comfortable. Other than that, the new smartphone certainly does well to upgrade the original. You get more RAM, a slightly more compact and lighter body, which is still solid enough thanks to all the metal, along with the latest Android and a more powerful GPU.
Video-chat enthusiasts will cheer the front-facing camera, while those who want lots of apps installed on their smartphones will appreciate the extended built-in memory.

The HTC Desire S at ours
The bad news is the Desire S is – in more than one way – running against the clock. A year is a really long time in cell phone terms and there’s no guarantee the updates are enough to make it competitive in a market that’s embracing dual-core and pushing beyond the 1GHz mark.
The easiest way to dispel the doubts would be to sail smooth through this review. So why wait – unboxing coming up right after the break.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 580

2011-05-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

In early 2010 Nvidia released their GTX 400 series of graphics cards for the hardcore gamers out there. However, just six months later they released the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580, the first model in the 500 series and the new flagship graphics card for this outstanding company. Much like the 480, this model uses DirectX 11 and has a single GPU. Most of the primary features that affect the 3D rendering and speed were updated to meet today's standards and the reality is that the GTX 580 is one of the fastest and best-performing graphics cards on the market. Because of this it received our TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award for overall power and performance.

GPU/Interface:

Nvidia chose to stay with the single GPU for the GTX 580, which is by no means a bad choice; they have been making this type of video card for years and know exactly what they are doing. This is by far the most powerful single-GPU card on the market when it comes to overall power output and benchmark tests. If you compare this card to that of the older 480 model you will notice that the specs are slightly higher across the board and that the power needed to run the card is slightly less than most of the competition. The transistor count was upped ever so slightly from their previous model and still outnumbers that of any card on the market.

Video Memory:

When it comes to finding a graphics card that will be able to play any game at top performance it's important to look at the clocked memory and overall memory. The Nvidia GTX 580 has the highest clocked memory speed we've seen – 2004 MHz – which even outperforms any dual-GPU cards on the market today. You are going to love the 1.5GB of memory because this will ease the amount of RAM needed to render the intense graphics of games like "COD: Black Ops" and other graphics-intensive games.

The memory in this graphics card is GDDR5, which is the new standard for any card that wants to compete with other high-end gaming hardware. The memory bus width did not change from the 480 model and stayed at 384-bits, which should still do just fine compared to most graphics cards on the market today. An amazing 192.4 bandwidth was added which comes very close to dual-GPU cards.

Display Interface:

The Nvidia GTX 580 is like most other graphics cards from Nvidia and simply offers the connections that are most common. In this case they offer dual-channel DVI, Mini-HDMI 1.3 and also support VGA. Dual-channel DVI is by far the most common connection type and pretty much makes up for the omission of an HDMI connection. This card has the type of connections that are in demand and not a lot of extra ones which can be nice if you don’t know a lot about graphics cards and want to install your own.

Supported API:

With the release of Windows 7 also came the very important DirectX 11 update to graphics cards. Nvidia's first card to offer this DX 11 was the 480, so it was no surprise to see their replacement model with the same technology. The reality is that both of these cards use Fermi architecture based on CUDA and also use DirectX 11 for superior tessellation, which has always been one of Nvidia's strongest areas and will most likely stay that way.

Rendering Technologies:

The Nvidia GTX 580 graphics card is the second series of models to use what Nvidia likes to call Fermi; this is basically what CUDA was but with greater potential. CUDA allowed for higher performance, a wider array of applications to run at once, full-spectrum computing and just about anything else in terms of computing power. Now take that and add in the capability to work with everything DirectX demands and you have the new and improved Fermi. This technology is designed to aid developers, allowing them to create even better games for all of us to enjoy.

One of the main areas that Nvidia focuses on with their graphics cards is tessellation. This technology basically allows complex, intricate images such as clothing, water and fire to render faster. Things that have a lot of moving parts such as hair or grass are much harder to render because there are thousands or even millions of objects that have to move according the wind or the movement of an object. Tessellation makes it possible for each blade of grass or flame in a fire to act like it would if you were to see it in real life. This technology is always improving and will always be a huge since games will continue to become more lifelike and even more detailed.
The ability to run multiple screens at the same time is another thing that most gamers and game developers need. This graphics card only allows for three displays which is enough for most gamers out there but will fall short for those developing the games of the future.

Additional Features:

All Nvidia cards can support up to 3 GPUs at the same time and for the most part this is about all you would ever need for any system. The graphics card itself is cooled by a fan and is also cooled by the fans or liquid cooling system installed into your machine; the combination should have no problem keeping this card at a reasonable temperature. The card is quite thick at 4.4 inches high which will take up 2 slots of most mother boards; keep this in mind if you are planning on adding two cards to your system.

Summary:

When push comes to shove, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 is going to beat out just about every other graphics card. In terms of tessellation, there is no graphics card on the market that can outdo the GTX 580. We would love to see Nvidia add a dual-GPU card to their lineup, but we're more than confident that this card will impress any gamer out there. Now if you want to really destroy the competition you can link two 580s together with Nvidia's own SLI multi-GPU solution; that would outperform anything on the market without even breaking a cyber-sweat.

Pros: The updated memory clock speed and use of Fermi technology make this card exceptional.

Cons: It only has a single GPU.

The Verdict: The fastest single GPU on the market hands down.

Screenshots:

ATI Radeon HD 5970 Review

2011-05-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

The flagship of the ATI Radeon 5000 series is the ATI Radeon HD 5970. This card is quite the performance beast. Many have benchmarked this card alongside other top performers and it reigns supreme. We rated this card higher than the others because of its overall superiority. Even with the recent release of Nvidia’s 500 series card, it has stood its ground. Nvidia may have another 500 series graphics card up their sleeve to challenge the 5970, but for now Radeon product has no equal which is why it recieved our TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award.

GPU/Interface:

The Radeon HD 5970 is a dual core graphics card like Nvidia’s GTX 295. It’s a fairly new idea, but seems to be well received, and may even be the future for all graphics cards. You could out perform this card with a pair of 5870s or GTX 480s, but the cost is prohibitive.

Having a dual core graphics card essentially means that you have a CrossfireX (dual card) system, but in this case, like the GTX 295, it’s all in one card. With this one card, almost every attribute is doubled. A good example of this is the core clock speed, which is 725 x 2MHz, theoretically giving you 1450MHz. For this reason the 5970 has quite an impressive set of GPU and memory specs.
There are a total of 3200 stream processors in this card, which gives it an acceleration edge over the competition. With a setup like this, you have fill rates of 46.4GPs (gigapixels) and 116GTs (gigatexels or texture pixels) to help get your FPS (frames per second) up, giving you a smooth gaming and video rendering experience.

Video Memory:

The 5970 has the latest in video memory, GDDR5. In the stock configuration, they run at an impressive frequency of 1.0GHz x 4, however, they are rated for 1.25GHz operation, which gives you room to overclock. The reason it is underclocked is because it is pushing the PCIe 300 watt limit already, sitting maxed at 294 watts.

There is a 2GB capacity on this card, which should ease your RAM usage and provide some extra speed. More and more, less RAM is necessary on the motherboard if you have a good graphics card. If that's the case, then it'll probably be more than gamers and video rendering employees who get the nice graphics cards like the Radeon HD 5970.

Supported API:

Among The Radeon HD 5000 series graphics cards' best features is the presence of DirectX 11 support. With the release of Windows 7 came DirectX 11, and AMD jumped on board quickly. Until the recent release of the GTX 400 series, Nvidia didn't have anything to rival these cards. It's true that there isn't much in the way of content for DX 11 yet, but that still put the 5000 series ahead of the game and ready to move forward. Although the current Nvidia flagship, the GTX 480, doesn't have the power of the Radeon HD 5970, it still put them back in contention with the rest of the ATI graphics cards.

Rendering Technologies:

The ATI Radeon HD 5970 can support a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1600 on not one, but rather, three monitors. This ability is due to AMD's Eyefinity technology. Although the other 5000 series cards have the same technology available, the 5970 has real potential in this area. In fact, to really test the capacity of the 5970, it has been suggested that you'd have to run it on three 2560 x 1600 resolution monitors. That's some serious power. There are even some dual 5970 CrossFireX systems that can do far greater resolutions across 6 monitors. That's probably overkill for the average consumer, but it's fun knowing that you have that ability.

Additional Features:

This graphics card is really quite large, even when compared to other dual GPU cards. It is over 12 inches long, nearly 4 inches wide and about an inch and a half tall. The size obviously suggests some weight, and sitting at around 3.5 pounds, it's one of the heaviest graphics cards on the market.

Sitting on the GPUs is a large aluminum heat sink made up of 36 fins. It is roughly half the size of the card. The heat sink helps cool not only the GPUs but also the built-in memory. It's designed this way for efficiency, especially with the help of the highly heat-conductive copper plate on the bottom.
The 75x20mm fan draws the heat off the heat sink and pushes it out through the back of the card. The fan operates relatively quietly with a low 42 watt idle consumption rate. While gaming, the fan will pick up the pace and can use up to 294 watts, but even at full rotation, it doesn't put out any kind of intolerable jet-engine sounds. Some other cards have had issues with load noise while under a load, but that shouldn't be a big deal with the 5970.
Concealing the heat sink, fan and the rest of the graphics card is the recognizable Radeon HD 5870 design. AMD probably went with this setup because it helps protect the card very well. It is fairly similar to the housing that Nvidia has been using for a while now.
The 5970 is a beefy graphics card and requires a fair amount of energy. To power it, AMD added a 6-pin and 8-pin pair of PCI Express power connectors. Previous dual-GPU graphics cards have used the same setup. Dual 6-pin connectors have been the most common standard for single GPUs, but it seems the additional GPU requires a little more. It's important to know this so you make sure to get a compatible power supply.

Summary:

Plain and simply the ATI Radeon HD 5970 is a monster in the world of graphics cards. Even paired against Nvidia's GTX 480 it still has a commanding performance edge. The competition between these two parties has a history. They are continuously fighting for that top spot even though it is mostly a niche product that only enthusiasts go after. The battle between these two manufacturers is ongoing but it seems that the tides have turned in favor of AMD for the time being.
Screenshots:

Graphics Cards: What to Look For

2011-05-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

There is a lot to graphics cards, but we've managed to break them down and define the key aspects so you can find the one that works for you. They broke down into the following categories.

GPU/Interface
The graphics processing unit (GPU) is basically a second CPU but is designed to offload all the graphics rendering from the CPU and process it on the graphics card. Obviously, these are made to handle intense graphical workloads, which frees up your CPU to run all the other aspects of applications. What does that mean for you? Faster processing! The fastest processor on the market would bog down and overheat if it tried to process graphics in addition to everything else. The main thing you're looking for on the GPU is the clock speeds.

Video Memory
This criteria goes hand in hand with the GPU; you also want a fast clock speed. The amount of memory is also crucial because it is the GPU’s own RAM. Like your CPU needs RAM, the GPU needs its own video memory to reach higher speeds. Also, the larger the bus width and bandwidth, the more information can be processed simultaneously.

Display Interface
These are the connections that the graphics card uses to connect to a monitor. DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort all support the higher resolutions, with dual channel DVI as the most common. It is important to match up these connections with the ones your monitor has. If your monitor doesn’t have the same connections then you have to get a converter cable which may result in lower resolutions.

Supported API
Application Programming Interface (API) is the interface that enables interaction with software. Software that wants to use the GPU has to be compatible with the API of the card. For example, if your card only supports DirectX 9 and you buy a game or application that requires DirectX 11, you will have to upgrade your card in order to run it.

Rendering Technologies
This criterion refers to the various technologies that are integrated in to the graphics cards. It’s hard to say which ones are better than others, because opinion-based prejudice runs rampant when it comes to graphics cards and which is the best. Truth be told, they’re all very similar and do basically the same things. Also, unless a game or application is built specifically with some of the technologies, they often don’t make a great deal of difference. Others do make a difference, however. Nvidia is known for their CUDA technology and it has been a thorn in the side of ATI for a while now. On the other end, ATI’s new Eyefinity technology looks pretty impressive when you stretch your desktop across 6 screens and maintain HD quality.

Additional Features
These are just a few extra goodies that aren’t extremely important and actually vary depending on the board manufacturer (ASUS, EVGA, Sapphire, etc). The information on our site is from the base models of each manufacturer. Typically, board manufacturers will have additional versions with multiple fans, liquid cooling and other variations.

If you put all of these things together, you get phenomenal graphics cards such as the ATI Radeon 5970, GeForce GTX 580 and GeForce GTX 480. Unfortunately most cards excel in one or two areas and fall short in another so there isn’t really a perfect one. We'll help you find the one that meets your expectations and fits in your budget. The better the card, the more it’ll cost, but the results can be well worth it.

Nokia E6 hands-on: First look

2011-05-05T22:36:00.000-07:00

Introduction

The E6 is Nokia’s latest business offer and it has just landed in our office. It’s the company’s first smartphone running the new Symbian Anna OS out of the box. The E6 is a touch phone with a QWERTY keyboard and it even has a higher pixel density than the iPhone’s Retina display.
It was a while since we’ve seen a high-end Nokia messenger. We are not trying to dismiss the previous E-series achievements, they’ve just became too conventional. Lucky for us the E6 brings a few interesting innovations to freshen up the lineup. It was about time!

Nokia E6 official photos
The E6 is Nokia’s first handset with VGA resolution and also Nokia’s first QWERTY bar with a touchscreen. Its pixel density is even higher than the Apple’s Retina display. The E6 doesn’t stop here though – it packs the same camera module as most of its Symabian^3 siblings – an 8 megapixel fixed-focus sensor capable of HD video recording. Add the new Symbian^3 update – Anna – and we might have a potent business or messaging phone if not else.

Nokia E6 at a glance:

General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA 2 Mbps
Form factor: Touchscreen bar
Dimensions: 115.5 x 59 x 10.5 mm, 87 cc; 133 g
Display: 2.46-inch 16M-color VGA TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen
Memory: 8GB storage memory, 1GB ROM, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 32GB)
OS: Symbian Anna OS
CPU: ARM 1176 680 MHz processor, Broadcom BCM2727 GPU; 256 MB RAM
Camera: 8 megapixel fixed-focus camera with dual-LED flash, geo-tagging; 720p video recording@25fps
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP, microUSB port with USB on-the-go, 3.5mm audio jack, GPS receiver with A-GPS, HDMI port
Misc: Accelerometer, Stereo FM radio with RDS, Flash support in the web browser, proximity sensor, Battery: 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery

As you can see the E6’s hardware is not top of the line, but we can assure you it’s perfectly fine for what it’s meant – replacing the Nokia E71 and E72 business messengers. The new Symbian Anna has lots of optimizations and seems to work seamless inside the E6. Surely, the E6 won’t attract everyone, but it has enough features to prove worthy.

Nokia E6 at ours
Nokia also put some work on the design and the E6 turned out to be quite a looker manufactured with premium materials. Jump on the next page to explore more about that.

HTML special character reference

2011-04-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

You may not be able to enter certain symbols or characters into your web page using a single key or character. The following HTML 4 character reference table can be used to enter such special characters using the associated "numeric character reference" code or the "character entity reference" code. Note that not all characters are supported by every browser. Some browsers may support the numeric reference without supporting the character entity reference.

Numeric character reference ("ID" column in the table) is the numeric representation of a given character. To use the numeric character reference in your HTML code, use the following format:

&#Numeric character reference;

Character entity reference ("Code" column in the table) is the standard name of a given character. To use the character entity reference in your HTML code, use the following format instead:

&Character entity reference;

©

-	ID	Code	-	Description
Á	193	Aacute	1	latin capital letter A with acute
á	225	aacute	1	latin small letter a with acute
â	226	acirc	1	latin small letter a with circumflex
Â	194	Acirc	1	latin capital letter A with circumflex
´	180	acute	1	acute accent
æ	230	aelig	1	latin small letter ae
Æ	198	AElig	1	latin capital letter AE
À	192	Agrave	1	latin capital letter A with grave
à	224	agrave	1	latin small letter a with grave
ℵ	8501	alefsym	L	alef symbol
Α	913	Alpha	G	greek capital letter alpha
α	945	alpha	G	greek small letter alpha
&	38	amp	C	ampersand
∧	8743	and	M	logical and
∠	8736	ang	M	angle
å	229	aring	1	latin small letter a with ring above
Å	197	Aring	1	latin capital letter A with ring above
≈	8776	asymp	M	almost equal to
Ã	195	Atilde	1	latin capital letter A with tilde
ã	227	atilde	1	latin small letter a with tilde
Ä	196	Auml	1	latin capital letter A with diaeresis
ä	228	auml	1	latin small letter a with diaeresis
„	8222	bdquo	U	double low-9 quotation mark
Β	914	Beta	G	greek capital letter beta
β	946	beta	G	greek small letter beta
¦	166	brvbar	1	broken bar
•	8226	bull	P	bullet
∩	8745	cap	M	intersection
Ç	199	Ccedil	1	latin capital letter C with cedilla
ç	231	ccedil	1	latin small letter c with cedilla
¸	184	cedil	1	cedilla
¢	162	cent	1	cent sign
χ	967	chi	G	greek small letter chi
Χ	935	Chi	G	greek capital letter chi
ˆ	710	circ	D	modifier letter circumflex accent
♣	9827	clubs	S	black club suit
≅	8773	cong	M	approximately equal to
©	169	copy	1	copyright sign
↵	8629	crarr	A	downwards arrow with corner leftwards
∪	8746	cup	M	union
¤	164	curren	1	currency sign
†	8224	dagger	U	dagger
‡	8225	Dagger	U	double dagger
⇓	8659	dArr	A	downwards double arrow
↓	8595	darr	A	downwards arrow
°	176	deg	1	degree sign
Δ	916	Delta	G	greek capital letter delta
δ	948	delta	G	greek small letter delta
♦	9830	diams	S	black diamond suit
÷	247	divide	1	division sign
é	233	eacute	1	latin small letter e with acute
É	201	Eacute	1	latin capital letter E with acute
Ê	202	Ecirc	1	latin capital letter E with circumflex
ê	234	ecirc	1	latin small letter e with circumflex
è	232	egrave	1	latin small letter e with grave
È	200	Egrave	1	latin capital letter E with grave
∅	8709	empty	M	empty set
	8195	emsp	U	em space
	8194	ensp	U	en space
ε	949	epsilon	G	greek small letter epsilon
Ε	917	Epsilon	G	greek capital letter epsilon
≡	8801	equiv	M	identical to
Η	919	Eta	G	greek capital letter eta
η	951	eta	G	greek small letter eta
ð	240	eth	1	latin small letter eth
Ð	208	ETH	1	latin capital letter ETH
ë	235	euml	1	latin small letter e with diaeresis
Ë	203	Euml	1	latin capital letter E with diaeresis
€	8364	euro	U	euro sign
∃	8707	exist	M	there exists
ƒ	402	fnof	I	latin small f with hook
∀	8704	forall	M	for all
½	189	frac12	1	vulgar fraction one half
¼	188	frac14	1	vulgar fraction one quarter
¾	190	frac34	1	vulgar fraction three quarters
⁄	8260	frasl	P	fraction slash
Γ	915	Gamma	G	greek capital letter gamma
γ	947	gamma	G	greek small letter gamma
≥	8805	ge	M	greater-than or equal to
>	62	gt	C	greater-than sign
⇔	8660	hArr	A	left right double arrow
↔	8596	harr	A	left right arrow
♥	9829	hearts	S	black heart suit
…	8230	hellip	P	horizontal ellipsis
í	237	iacute	1	latin small letter i with acute
Í	205	Iacute	1	latin capital letter I with acute
î	238	icirc	1	latin small letter i with circumflex
Î	206	Icirc	1	latin capital letter I with circumflex
¡	161	iexcl	1	inverted exclamation mark
Ì	204	Igrave	1	latin capital letter I with grave
ì	236	igrave	1	latin small letter i with grave
ℑ	8465	image	L	blackletter capital I
∞	8734	infin	M	infinity
∫	8747	int	M	integral
Ι	921	Iota	G	greek capital letter iota
ι	953	iota	G	greek small letter iota
¿	191	iquest	1	inverted question mark
∈	8712	isin	M	element of
Ï	207	Iuml	1	latin capital letter I with diaeresis
ï	239	iuml	1	latin small letter i with diaeresis
Κ	922	Kappa	G	greek capital letter kappa
κ	954	kappa	G	greek small letter kappa
λ	955	lambda	G	greek small letter lambda
Λ	923	Lambda	G	greek capital letter lambda
〈	9001	lang	T	left-pointing angle bracket
«	171	laquo	1	left-pointing double angle quotation mark
←	8592	larr	A	leftwards arrow
⇐	8656	lArr	A	leftwards double arrow
⌈	8968	lceil	T	left ceiling
“	8220	ldquo	U	left double quotation mark
≤	8804	le	M	less-than or equal to
⌊	8970	lfloor	T	left floor
∗	8727	lowast	M	asterisk operator
◊	9674	loz	E	lozenge
‎	8206	lrm	U	left-to-right mark
‹	8249	lsaquo	U	single left-pointing angle quotation mark
‘	8216	lsquo	U	left single quotation mark
<	60	lt	C	less-than sign
¯	175	macr	1	macron
—	8212	mdash	U	em dash
µ	181	micro	1	micro sign
·	183	middot	1	middle dot
−	8722	minus	M	minus sign
Μ	924	Mu	G	greek capital letter mu
μ	956	mu	G	greek small letter mu
∇	8711	nabla	M	nabla
	160	nbsp	1	no-break space
–	8211	ndash	U	en dash
≠	8800	ne	M	not equal to
∋	8715	ni	M	contains as member
¬	172	not	1	not sign
∉	8713	notin	M	not an element of
⊄	8836	nsub	M	not a subset of
ñ	241	ntilde	1	latin small letter n with tilde
Ñ	209	Ntilde	1	latin capital letter N with tilde
Ν	925	Nu	G	greek capital letter nu
ν	957	nu	G	greek small letter nu
ó	243	oacute	1	latin small letter o with acute
Ó	211	Oacute	1	latin capital letter O with acute
Ô	212	Ocirc	1	latin capital letter O with circumflex
ô	244	ocirc	1	latin small letter o with circumflex
Œ	338	OElig	O	latin capital ligature OE
œ	339	oelig	O	latin small ligature oe
ò	242	ograve	1	latin small letter o with grave
Ò	210	Ograve	1	latin capital letter O with grave
‾	8254	oline	P	overline
ω	969	omega	G	greek small letter omega
Ω	937	Omega	G	greek capital letter omega
Ο	927	Omicron	G	greek capital letter omicron
ο	959	omicron	G	greek small letter omicron
⊕	8853	oplus	M	circled plus
∨	8744	or	M	logical or
ª	170	ordf	1	feminine ordinal indicator
º	186	ordm	1	masculine ordinal indicator
Ø	216	Oslash	1	latin capital letter O with stroke
ø	248	oslash	1	latin small letter o with stroke
Õ	213	Otilde	1	latin capital letter O with tilde
õ	245	otilde	1	latin small letter o with tilde
⊗	8855	otimes	M	circled times
Ö	214	Ouml	1	latin capital letter O with diaeresis
ö	246	ouml	1	latin small letter o with diaeresis
¶	182	para	1	pilcrow sign
∂	8706	part	M	partial differential
‰	8240	permil	U	per mille sign
⊥	8869	perp	M	up tack
φ	966	phi	G	greek small letter phi
Φ	934	Phi	G	greek capital letter phi
Π	928	Pi	G	greek capital letter pi
π	960	pi	G	greek small letter pi
ϖ	982	piv	G	greek pi symbol
±	177	plusmn	1	plus-minus sign
£	163	pound	1	pound sign
″	8243	Prime	P	double prime
′	8242	prime	P	prime
∏	8719	prod	M	n-ary product
∝	8733	prop	M	proportional to
ψ	968	psi	G	greek small letter psi
Ψ	936	Psi	G	greek capital letter psi
"	34	quot	C	quotation mark
√	8730	radic	M	square root
〉	9002	rang	T	right-pointing angle bracket
»	187	raquo	1	right-pointing double angle quotation mark
⇒	8658	rArr	A	rightwards double arrow
→	8594	rarr	A	rightwards arrow
⌉	8969	rceil	T	right ceiling
”	8221	rdquo	U	right double quotation mark
ℜ	8476	real	L	blackletter capital R
®	174	reg	1	registered sign
⌋	8971	rfloor	T	right floor
Ρ	929	Rho	G	greek capital letter rho
ρ	961	rho	G	greek small letter rho
‏	8207	rlm	U	right-to-left mark
›	8250	rsaquo	U	single right-pointing angle quotation mark
’	8217	rsquo	U	right single quotation mark
‚	8218	sbquo	U	single low-9 quotation mark
Š	352	Scaron	O	latin capital letter S with caron
š	353	scaron	O	latin small letter s with caron
⋅	8901	sdot	M	dot operator
§	167	sect	1	section sign
	173	shy	1	soft hyphen
Σ	931	Sigma	G	greek capital letter sigma
σ	963	sigma	G	greek small letter sigma
ς	962	sigmaf	G	greek small letter final sigma
∼	8764	sim	M	tilde operator
♠	9824	spades	S	black spade suit
⊂	8834	sub	M	subset of
⊆	8838	sube	M	subset of or equal to
∑	8721	sum	M	n-ary sumation
⊃	8835	sup	M	superset of
¹	185	sup1	1	superscript one
²	178	sup2	1	superscript two
³	179	sup3	1	superscript three
⊇	8839	supe	M	superset of or equal to
ß	223	szlig	1	latin small letter sharp s
Τ	932	Tau	G	greek capital letter tau
τ	964	tau	G	greek small letter tau
∴	8756	there4	M	therefore
Θ	920	Theta	G	greek capital letter theta
θ	952	theta	G	greek small letter theta
ϑ	977	thetasym	G	greek small letter theta symbol
	8201	thinsp	U	thin space
Þ	222	THORN	1	latin capital letter THORN
þ	254	thorn	1	latin small letter thorn with
˜	732	tilde	D	small tilde
×	215	times	1	multiplication sign
™	8482	trade	L	trade mark sign
ú	250	uacute	1	latin small letter u with acute
Ú	218	Uacute	1	latin capital letter U with acute
⇑	8657	uArr	A	upwards double arrow
↑	8593	uarr	A	upwards arrow
û	251	ucirc	1	latin small letter u with circumflex
Û	219	Ucirc	1	latin capital letter U with circumflex
Ù	217	Ugrave	1	latin capital letter U with grave
ù	249	ugrave	1	latin small letter u with grave
¨	168	uml	1	diaeresis
ϒ	978	upsih	G	greek upsilon with hook symbol
υ	965	upsilon	G	greek small letter upsilon
Υ	933	Upsilon	G	greek capital letter upsilon
ü	252	uuml	1	latin small letter u with diaeresis
Ü	220	Uuml	1	latin capital letter U with diaeresis
℘	8472	weierp	L	script capital P
ξ	958	xi	G	greek small letter xi
Ξ	926	Xi	G	greek capital letter xi
ý	253	yacute	1	latin small letter y with acute
Ý	221	Yacute	1	latin capital letter Y with acute
¥	165	yen	1	yen sign
ÿ	255	yuml	1	latin small letter y with diaeresis
Ÿ	376	Yuml	O	latin capital letter Y with diaeresis
Ζ	918	Zeta	G	greek capital letter zeta
ζ	950	zeta	G	greek small letter zeta
‍	8205	zwj	U	zero width joiner
‌	8204	zwnj	U	zero width non-joiner

LEGEND
Section	Description
P	General punctuation
A	Arrows
1	General characters
C	Controls and basic latin
S	Miscellaneous symbols
D	Spacing modified letters
T	Miscellaneous technical characters
U	General punctuation (special characters)
E	Geometric shapes
G	Greek symbols
I	Latin extended B
L	Letterlike symbols
M	Mathematical operators
O	Latin extended A

How to Improve Your Computer’s Performance

2011-04-09T23:58:00.001-07:00

Tips for Speeding Up Your PC

Few things are as frustrating as dealing with a slow, sluggish computer. When a computer is brand new, it works wonderfully well. Over time, though, its performance can slowly begin to worsen. This happens for a number of reasons, but the biggest culprits are things like spyware, adware and other computer threats that are unwittingly downloaded along with other content while online. You don’t have to download thousands of MP3s, movies or other items to experience these problems, either – nobody is immune to them. Instead of accepting the situation, there are plenty of techniques and strategies that you can use to make it better – a few of the best ones are outlined below.

Strategy #1: Clean Your Computer’s Windows Registry

The biggest cause of slow, sluggish PC performance is errors and problems within its Windows registry. Adware, spyware and other threats usually target the registry, damaging or misplacing important files within it. When it comes to PC cleaning, a daily Windows registry cleaning should be at the top of your list of priorities. However, this should never be done manually – there are too many opportunities for major errors that could seriously damage your PC’s operating system. Instead, invest in a high-quality Windows registry cleanup program and configure it to run once per day – you won’t believe the difference that it makes.

Strategy #2: Remove Unneeded Files

Every time you log on to the Internet or otherwise use your computer, temporary files are generated. They are usually only needed once; however, they don’t disappear on their own. Instead, they accumulate over time until they are cluttering up your computer’s file system and affecting its performance. While it’s possible to remove these files one-by-one, it’s much easier and quicker to use a PC cleaning tool that’s designed for the purpose. Try to do so about one time per week to keep your computer humming along with ease.

Strategy #3: Remove Unneeded Programs

Like many people, you probably download and try out many different programs each month. How many of them do you actually end up using on a regular basis? Chances are, not very many of them. By getting into the habit of uninstalling unused and unneeded programs, you can keep your computer’s file system a lot less cluttered. In turn, your PC’s performance will improve dramatically. You can optimize your computer in this way by using its Add/Remove Programs feature. Its location varies by operating system, but you should be able to find it somewhere in the Control Panel.

Strategy #4: Empty the Recycle Bin

When you click “delete” on a file or a program, it doesn’t go away for good – not immediately, anyway. Instead, it sits in a kind of purgatory in your computer’s Recycle Bin. As things pile up in the Recycle Bin, your computer can start exhibiting some very annoying problems. If sluggish startups and frequent crashes are occurring with increasing frequency – and your computer’s recycle bin is very full – go ahead and empty it. From then on, get into the habit of doing so about one time per week. This small but important strategy can make a huge difference.

Strategy #5: Perform a Disk Defragmentation

Windows isn’t very efficient when it comes to storing files. It actually splits them up, depositing them into whatever spaces are available. The more spaced apart the pieces of a file are, the harder your computer has to work to make them run. The Windows disk defragmentation system tune-up utility works to piece all of those files back together again. The process is a long one, though, and only needs to be done about four times per year. Set it up to run automatically once every three months. By doing so, you’ll be able to keep your computer running in tiptop shape.
When it comes to keeping your computer running optimally, small but regular maintenance is the best way to go. Protecting your PC only does so much; even the most careful Internet users in the world unintentionally download malicious software from time to time. By using basic system tune-up tools, cleaning your computer’s Windows registry regularly, performing regular file-cleaning maintenance and otherwise optimizing your PC, you should be able to keep it in like-new condition for a lot longer. Even if your computer has been performing slowly for some time, beginning this regimen is sure to produce results. In the end, you’ll be able to enjoy a computer that flies along – instead of one that spins its wheels.

How to Remove an Added Word to the Dictionary in Microsoft Word

2011-03-21T23:52:00.000-07:00

My friends family had some pretty intense Scrabble games when we were growing up. In fact I remember when her dad left them for good in the Christmas of 1989 because her brother won the holiday championship on the word “grushie.” Ironically, this is an adjective that means thriving and healthy which unfortunately her family wasn’t for the next 5-8 years.
Nowadays, we don’t have to consult a dictionary when performing our word processing because if Microsoft Word spellchecker doesn’t like a word, we can simply select add to dictionary like I just did with grushie, and it will be part of our lexicon forever. That may seem fine, but what if you accidentally add a word that doesn’t exist like juveline and years later put it in your business plan?

How to remove an added dictionary word from Microsoft Word 2007?

In Word 2007, the process is similar to the old days but the exact commands are called proofing and edit word list. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to download the latest dictionary every year as new words are constantly being added and it’s important to keep your grammar list healthy and thriving, or grushie.
1. Press on the office icon in the top left corner.
2. A menu will appear. At the bottom choose the Word Options button.
3. In the left pane choose Proofing.
4. Then press on Settings. See the screen shot below for more details. It is under the “When correcting spelling and grammar in Word” section.

5. A box will appear.Click on Edit word list.

6. Choose a word in the list to remove and press on the delete button to banish.

How to remove an added dictionary word from Microsoft Word (prior to 2007)?

Removing an added word from Microsoft Word is a simple task to save you embarrassment and the perception of laziness from your co-workers.
1. First, go to Tools
2. Choose Options.
3. From here you’ll enter the Spelling & Grammar section and modify the custom dictionary.
4. Browse through the list of ‘credible’ words and find the one you want to banish (remove) then select OK.

Change your paper size to Letter size instead of Legal in MS Word

2011-03-12T23:40:00.000-08:00

MS Word settings not sure which MS Word I’m using?

My teacher sent me this email and I don’t know how to do what she’s asking me to do? I’m using MS Word and i know its set up wrong but don’t know how to change the setting: Please set up your word-processor for a letter-sized document. Your past two assignments have been set up as legal-sized documents???? how do i do that please?

There are a few different document sizes in MS Word to choose from and if you have the wrong one it can drastically change to look of your document. When printing it out you will notice an even bigger difference. You can choose from Letter size, Legal, Executive, A4, Various envelope sizes, and more.

Microsoft word 2007 – Change Page layout to letter size:

In Micorsoft Word 2007 go to the Page layout tab.
Choose size from the Page setup section.
A drop down menu will appear. Choose the document size you want.

See the screen shot below.

Older versions of Microsoft Word

Go to the file menu at the top of the screen.
Choose Page Setup from the drop down menu.
When the Page Setup dialog box appears, click on the paper tab.