Apple have still not announced details of UK iPad pricing despite the fact that the product is due to launch this month. Apple’s website currently says the WiFi iPad will be available in ‘late March’ with the 3G product following in April.
While the lack of a 3G product price may be down to negotiations with mobile networks there seems little reason for Apple not to have announced a UK price for the Wifi version. Perhaps they are counting up the US pre-orders to see if they can make the next price-break…
There is another secret Apple are keeping from us – how did they author the iPad product announcement page so badly that it slows even faster computers to a crawl? Whatever you do, don’t bother looking at it with a puny Atom powered netbook or you’ll be there forever.
admin Comment apple, ipad, price, uk
You may have seen some of the hype for the much rumoured Apple Tablet. The device has been talked about for years and is reported to be near launch. In fact a major feature of the new device is likely be its use as an eBook reader.
With the iTunes store, Apple are in the ideal position to act as the bridge to the fast-disappearing world of the newspaper. We have seen a few paper closures in the UK (such as the London Paper) but the situation in the US is dire, with papers closing left, right and centre. Expect iTunes newspaper subscriptions to sell like hot cakes to commuters starved of their daily news fix. Add in sales of books and electronic magazines and it is clear that the market is one Apple will find hard to stay away from.
The device is likely to be usable as a web tablet but its processing and display capabilities may disappoint those expecting a large-screen device with PC-like power for the rumoured £350.
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PC processors have been 64-bit capable for quite a few years but for one reason or another we have virtually all stuck with 32-bit operating systems. With users’ needs growing , the need to address larger amounts of RAM is growing beyond the capabilities of 32-bit operating systems.
Windows Vista 32-bit can address up to 4Gb of memory. Although that sounds a lot, some applications would benefit from more and – a crucial point here – that 4GB limit includes graphics card memory. So buying the latest graphics card with 1GB RAM onboard will seriously eat into the amount of RAM that can be addressed by a 32-bit processor.
In comparison the 64-bit version of Vista can address 16Tb of memory (yes 16,000 GB). Not only that but programs that have been written for 64-bit use will run faster and the system will make better use of the latest hyperthreaded multi-core processors.
The major drawback of the 64-bit version of XP was the poor level of support for device drivers. Things are now much improved with far fewer driver problems,although it is still true to say that it is best to check whether drivers are available if you need support for specific hardware devices. Beta versions of Windows 7 are available in 32 and 64 bit versions but the emphasis is likely to be on the 64-bit version, at least for PCs above entry level.
It may be a great relief to hear that Vista and Windows 7 64-bit versions work fine with 32-bit programmes. The only things to watch out for are 32-bit programmes that use a 16-bit program to install themselves (and which won’t run) and programmes that address hardware directly, rather than using a driver.
And here is a final thought – as many as 20% of new PCs sold in the US now come with a 64-bit version of Windows. The buyers can’t all be wrong!
admin Comment 32, 64, bit, vista, windows 7
Type any two words into Google and press enter. The result usually brings you hundreds or even thousands of pages. The elusive Googlewhack is a magic combination of words that returns a single result.
There are two rules – the words must be genuine and the result bar must show “1-1 of 1″ results.
You can easily check the words are genuine. You’ll note your search terms in the upper right of the results page. If they are underlined they’re listed at Dictionary.com and you have a Googlewhack!
bill Comment googlewhack
How long do you expect your holiday snapshots to last? Five years? Ten? Maybe you found a box of old black and white photographs of long-dead relatives. How old were the prints – maybe fifty years?
You might be surprised to know that you can’t even be sure the CDs you burned of this year’s digital photographs will last five years, let alone the inkjet prints you made. They might have faded noticeably after 6 months, even if they’re not in bright light.
You may be wondering how best you can keep your photographs. Protecting your original files seems like the place to start. If you’ve got those at least you’ll be able to get the photographs printed out again. The trouble is nobody is even sure of the best way to do that. CDs are fairly good but Verbatim have suggested DVDs are a better bet. Because they are sealed on both sides they are thought to be less likely to suffer from external contamination – a major factor in optical storage deterioration. Stick to top quality brand-name disks. It’s also good idea to burn your files onto a couple of disks, ideally from different manufacturers. For years people have been saying that rewritable disks (CD-R/W, DVD-RW and DVD+RW) are much worse that burn-once disks (CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R). In fact it turns out that some manufacturers CD-R disks have already become unusable while their CD-RW disks are still going strong.
Another problem with storing data files is the difficulty of knowing whether the technology to read the media or file format will still exist when you need it. How many of us have still got 5.25″ floppy disk drives or software capable of reading old Word or Wordstar files? According to the Image Permanence Institute “Color prints, not files are the best way to ensure that digital images will be preserved for future generations”.
Making your prints last longer means selecting the right materials (cheap replacement inks for instance are probably the worst thing to use) and displaying or storing them the right way. A major factor is the mix of chemicals in ink and paper. One advantage of buying a printer manufacturer’s own-brand ink and paper is that they’re usually formulated to work together. If you want to display prints put them in a glazed frame and hang them out of direct daylight. Ideally prints should be kept in the dark except when viewed – the old photo album isn’t that bad an idea, provided the pages don’t contain chemical contaminants.
bill Comment archival, archive, cd, dvd, photo, print