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Microsoft seem to have been making it harder to personalise the search engines used by the IE search box. There is a process for adding any search engine but it doesn’t seem to be as easy to find as it once was.
To add a new search provider, simply click on the link below and follow the instructions:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/searchguide/en-uk/default.mspx?dcsref=http://runonce.msn.com/runonce2.aspx
You can make any search engine the default option when it is added – by ticking the ‘make default’ box - or by the following process:
Click the little arrow by the search box and choose ‘Manage Search Providers’
Clicking on your chosen search provider
Then finally click the ‘Set as default’ button
Happy searching!
According to a posting on Twitter by ‘Intel Global PR’, HDCP copy protection has been hacked. HDCP is used to protect data being conveyed between digital devices via HDMI cabling and was partly developed by Intel. The benefits of hacking HDCP are a little unclear as the video signal on HDMI is uncompressed and therefore runs at a very high bitrate – not easy to store or re-compress on consumer equipment.
There is as yet no confirmation of this exploit.
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.
PS3 owners can breathe a sigh of relief. Sony have identified todays problem with the PlayStation Network which was causing mayhem for console owners. Players reported that consoles had also lost track of trophy collections. Fortunately the trophy data is not lost – get a new trophy and the list will reappear.
Apparently the problem was caused because 2010 is not a leap year. Somehow Sony thought it was when they wrote the code. Odd that they made the error as it was well documented way back in 1999 – when it was known as the Millennium Bug. Sony say that the problem only occured in older models – newer slim consoles were unaffected.
If the time displayed on the XMB is still incorrect, users can update the clock (either manually or via the internet), and all will be well.
Due to a foul-up by securty firm Symantec, users of Norton anti-virus products found that Spotify had mysteriously stopped working today. The reason was that the security product had falsely identified the program – Spotify.exe – as a Trojan Horse and quarantined it.
It is possible to restore the program to its rightful place but it is a bit of a pain. Note that there is some risk in doing so as the law of averages means that some people with compromised PCs may have copies of the program that are infected by a Trojan, and this could include you. Anti-virus programs would normally attempt to clean the original program by removing the Trojan from it, warning if this is impossible. In our case Spotify.exe had itself been mis-identified as a Trojan, so it was safe to restore.
Norton’s official advice is to reinstall Spotify but ‘free’ users who don’t have the install files or their registration details may find it is no longer possible to register for the free version of Spotify. (Premium users can invite up to 10 friends to register for the free service.)
To restore the spotify.exe, simply follow these steps. Note that you need to wait until Norton have fixed the problem and your antivirus has been updated or it will simply quarantine the file again:
- Double-click on the Norton icon in your System Tray (the bar on the bottom right hand corner of your screen, next to the clock)
- Click on Quarantine. You should now see a list of Security History events that resulted in a file being quarantined
- Near or at the top will be a message that a Trojan Horse has been removed, click on this so it is highlighted
- Now click on the More Details button at bottom right
- You should now be looking at a Security History Alert Summary saying “Trojan horse detected by Auto-Protect”
- Clicking on the underlined words Risk Details will open a new window. Clicking on the Details tab should show that the supposed Trojan is spotify.exe. (If it doesn’t, go back to the Security history and lok for another Trojan removal event.) You can now close this window
- Back in the Security history window, the final step is to click on the Restore button on the right
You should now see a screen a bit like this:
And you should now find that normal Spotify service is fully restored.
So, Steve Jobs of Apple announced their new tablet product today. The fact that it features on the US Apple website but not on the UK site is probably not good news for the UK’s early adopters. Rumours are June/July but I wouldn’t hold your breath. The product itself is…hmmm… interesting.
Here is the spec of the $499 basic model – essentially an iPod Touch on steroids:
9.7″ multi-touch display
1/2″ thick
Weight 1.5lbs
16 GB flash memory
Wi-fi
Bluetooth
Single speaker (ie not stereo)
Microphone
Accelerometer
Compass
Optional keyboard
For another $130 you will be able to buy a model that is in effect an iPhone on steroids - it comes with 3G. There are also options for 32Gb and 64Gb of flash memory on both models. The highest spec model will cost $829. You might note the lack of GPS or a camera, which both seems pretty unforgivable at the price.
So those are the headlines. But what is the device for? Well it is obviously going to be good for web surfing – except that it lacksFlash – and publishers are getting excited about selling you magazines or your daily paper without their having to bother with all that messy ink. But is it too heavy for the intended market? 1.5lbs isn’t far off the weight of a netbook – which would come with a proper keyboard, two speakers, a webcam and a lot more storage.
Yes, the iPad will weigh more than the average newspaper or magazine but guess what? It weighs exactly the same as a copy of today’s London Times plus the latest edition of UK Wired. How did Steve know that??
Microsoft’s Steve Balmer demonstrated a new HP slate computer in his keynote speech at the annual CES in Las Vegas on Wednesday, neatly pre-empting Apple’s planned launch of a similar device later this month. The HP device had a 10″ screen and was claimed to support full multi-touch. Other manufacturers, incuding Archos, are reported to be developing slate PCs.
Key questions about the Windows-based products will be their weight, cost and battery life. Running Windows 7 and ‘as powerful as a PC’ could it be that the devices are a bit over-specified for their own good?
Apple’s new ebook and web surfing tablet is due for launch on January 26. The device will not be called the iTablet or iBook as had been rumoured – neither names are available as .com domains - and the iBook name has already been used for Apple laptops. iTablet.com is registered to a company in Taiwan, while iBook.com is registered to a company in the Isle of Man.
iSlate.com has been registered by a San Francisco Trade Mark protection company and looks set to be Apple’s site for the new product. Device details are very thin on the ground but one Apple employee is reported to have said that Steve Jobs is extremely happy with the new tablet.
The new device seems likely to feature a 7″ screen but whether it will be a black & white e-ink display or a full-colour OLED display remains to be seen. Expect multi-touch like the iPhone and a similar ‘soft’ keyboard.
The Microsoft search engine Bing has signed a licensing deal with Wolfram Alpha, allowing Bing to feature results from Wolfram Alpha. It appears that nutrition information will be the first type of results to appear.
The service will be rolled out first in the US and follows the launch of the Wolfram Alpha API, which allows developers to harness the power of the knowledge-based search engine. Wolfram Alpha have also recently launched an iPhone app.
Customers with Windows 7 on pre-order had copies arrive in the post today, 19 October, no doubt benefitting from attempts to avoid the planned UK postal strikes.
The official Windows 7 release date is October 22.
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Apple iPad: when? how much?
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.