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Made-for-web shows starting to flourish
Made-for-Web shows look like they may well soon start to flourish, if a number of new corporate-sponsored shows in the US are anything to go by.For those Brits that can remember as far back as the early noughties, when Peter Serafinowicz and Peter Baynam's 'The Junkies' looked like a promising way forward for innovative and cutting-edge TV sit-coms, it seems a long way on, a decade later, to be talking about the possibilities of web-based TV.
Ikea-sponsored web TV
However, the broadcast entertainment industry is a slow-moving beast, so when a new show starring independent movie actress Illeana Douglas arrives, sponsored by Swedish flat-pack-furniture giant Ikea, then the US TV industry starts to pay a little more attention to the commercial appeal of this new business model.
Douglas' new web video show, Easy to Assemble sees her play an Ikea employee and has drawn over 1.5 million views every month from October 2009 to February 2010.
"The brand [Ikea] is a co-worker in the story line," Douglas said, speaking at a recent awards ceremony.
Web-original progs
Next New Networks Chief Executive, Lance Podell – whose shows include the popular The Key of Awesome and Indy Mogul said:
"We realised we were putting a burden on web-original programming by trying to make it like TV."
ComScore says that 86 per cent of internet users in the US watch at least one online video a month.
"There's an inevitability to web video that makes it exciting," says Rob Barnett, Chief Exec of My Damn Channel.
"I often think of my daily business life as a guy running a cable network in the early 1980s," Mr. Barnett said.
"There is, no matter how you slice it, a timeline for any new industry to grow."
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Nokia N8 UK release date set for 26 August?
The Nokia N8 launch might have been pushed back more times than a slow-but-relentless zombie, but it seems its appearance might be imminent.The N8 has now popped up on online e-tailer MobileFun, and the chaps from that neck of the woods have stated the UK release date is 26 August, with a higher-than-previously-quoted £420 price point.
Given the Nokia N8 is supposed to be launching at 'some point' in Q3, time is running out for the Finnish firm to actually release the phone, but we're loathe to believe we'll definitely be able to purchase on from 26 August as some online phone sites have a habit of suddenly pushing back the shipping dates.
Brave new Nokia World
Nokia World is happening in London from 14-15 September, so we'd imagine that it would be launched by that time as we'd assume there will be more handset announcement to coo over.
Either way, the fact the phone is appearing on mobile sites is at least a good indicator that the Nokia N8 is nearing release, and we're desperate to have a good play with the 12MP camera and HDMI-out capabilities in our in-depth Nokia N8 review.
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Torrent site 'buys Russian town', gives it free internet
One of the biggest torrent sites on the internet, TorrentReactor, is claiming it has bought up the town of Gar in Russia, renamed it and given its residents free internet access.The town, which was set up in 1958 by a religious group, has been allegedly bought for the princely sum of 4.5 million rubles (£94,580), and contains just 214 inhabitants, three computers and one dial-up internet connection.
TorrentReactor is apparently looking into giving the whole town broadband access – presumably so it can log onto the torrent site and download a copy of whatever the latest movie is out.
Supporting complete strangers
Although Russian sources in the area claim that TorrentReactor has made the whole thing up, a spokesperson for the torrent site has contacted TorrentFreak and said the deal is in fact legit and it has a page showcasing its new 'village'.
"We realise it's just a drop in the ocean comparing to the amount of money needed to help thousands of other villages. But we at least do something to support complete strangers," said a spokesperson for TorrentReactor.
"We are proud that we are able to do so and hope we will be proud of this in the future."
Is it 1 April already?
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PlayStation Move 'takes 3D to new level'
The head of Sony's 3D Games development Mick Hocking is getting excited about the possibility of Move in the 3D environment, explaining that the motion-sensing technology takes 3D "to the next level".In an interview with Sony's official PlayStation site, Hocking explains how Move will work with 3D, noting: "What we've done with PlayStation Move is to take that spatial control of gaming into a very accurate and very dynamic realm; it's really taking it to a new level.
"You can just imagine the possibilities of controlling something in 3D outside of the screen and looking at it being controlled in 3D within the TV screen."
Never been done
Hocking believes that because nobody else has tried 3D with motion control, Move will be a game changer.
"What's fantastic for us is that this is the first time this has ever been done. The games we've already converted are great fun and we're still only dipping our toe in the water.
"Once we educate all of our teams on how to create 3D content and how they can use PlayStation Move in 3D, you can just imagine what they're going to start producing."
Sony's PlayStation Move has been given a UK release date of 17 September, costing £34.99, with the Nav controller £24.99.
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Review: YoYoTech Warbird 750 SE
What do you do when you've produced an excellent, sub-£1,000 rig that benches fantastically well for the money and garners awards from the likes of PC Format? Apparently, you stick the innards into an oversized, over-priced chassis, give it an extra 500GB of storage space, downgrade the graphics card and slap a £200 price premium on it for the pleasure of owning one. Smart move?
Well, if you really want the BMW-designed Level 10 chassis for less than the price of the crazy £5,500 rig we last saw dressed up in this gimp suit then I guess this is for you. Poor, sad, deluded hermit, you…
Essentially, these are the same basic components you saw squeezed into the understated Silverstone chassis in YOYOtech's original Warbird i750, though with a little more space, a chunk less graphical grunt and some added weight on your bank balance.
So what are the benefits to buying this special edition? Just the ThermalTake Level 10 case. That's it.
Below par
But this is a £400+ chassis, you may cry, if you haven't yet realised how much we dislike this case. Yes, you are getting the case at a fair discount, but you're also having to put up with sub-par graphics performance for a £1,000 rig.
It still just about delivers acceptable frame rates at the more standard 1,680x1,050 resolution, but at the high-end you lose up to 13fps in Far Cry 2. Personally, when I'm gaming I spend more time looking at my screen than admiring the over-designed chassis surrounding the humming workings of my PC. But hey, that might just be me and there may be many people out there who would prefer an interesting-looking machine than a fast one. (I doubt they read PC Format, though…)
The cynical portion of my mind, which seems to be evergrowing like a bile-filled tumour, would say that maybe YOYOtech didn't sell as many of the Level 10 clad uber-rigs as it was hoping to. And perhaps it's wrapping some of its lower spec rigs in this emperor's new clothing simply to ship spare units.
The Warbird 750 SE does still have that excellent, overclocked i5 750 CPU beating away at its heart. But the lack of supporting GPU eats away at a lot of the performance metrics you throw its way. The lack of OS too becomes more of a worry when you're spending this much on a machine.
At the £800 mark you could just about accept it as a cost-saving device for those with an existing spare copy of Windows, but the £1,000 mark demands a wee bit more.
So unfortunately, this special edition rig just isn't quite as special as the non-special edition. Which is quite an achievement considering the base it had to work from.
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12-Core Mac Pros now up for pre-order on Apple Store
Apple has begun taking orders for its latest range of Mac Pros, with the 12-Core version of the computer now available for pre-order.Although it will take two weeks, the store is now open for those who want a Mac Pro, which is boasting 50 per cent improvement in processing power.
Announced at the end of July, the Mac Pro offers 12 cores, via two six-core 3.33GHz Intel Xeon, ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB graphics, and a 1TB hard drive.
Dirty dozen
If you are looking to splash out, then you can purchase a new 12-Core Mac Pro with every available extra feature – including adding solid state drives, a bundle of software, extra LED monitor and a printer – for a jaw-dropping £18,296.84.
For those who just want the base model, then expect to pay around the £4,000 mark.
Also available to order are the new Quad- and 8-Core range, which aren't as headline grabbing but still powerful bits of kit.
Go to store.apple.com/uk for more details.
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Review: Crucial Ballistix 4GB DDR3 1600MHz
Crucial's Ballistix range of high performance memory modules are well known amongst the overclocking fraternity for faster clock speeds and lower latencies. And in some instances fancy LED displays. The latest addition is a 4GB memory kit of DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) modules. The new modules also bring a change in design to the product line and a new feature overclockers should find rather useful.
The small, discrete heatsink covers found on the rest of the Ballistix range have been replaced by the high profile finned heat spreaders favoured by most of Crucial's competitors on the performance memory front.
These new modules have also been fitted with a thermal sensor which, when used in conjunction with Crucial's new Ballistix MOD utility (downloadable from Crucial's website), allows real-time monitoring of the module's temperature on your desktop.
They certainly look the part with the new design of heat spreader. But when you get down to the nitty gritty, performance is disappointing.
The most we could stably overclock them at was just 200MHz over the stock 1600MHz speed at 1800MHz.
Power limit
This is down to the fact that even to run at stock speeds the modules are right on the power limit at 1.65v, while the chips themselves don't seem that keen to run at too high a clock rate.
On the other hand the hardware thermal monitoring and Memory Overview Display (M.O.D) Windows-based software combination is more interesting. Although it's at an early stage in the development it works well and it'll be interesting to see if Crucial adds the thermal sensors to the rest of its Ballistix range.
As it stands though, it's only available on these modules. As well as showing the temperature of the modules (which can also be logged to a file) there's a fairly standard settings page that enables you to change the polling times and the temperature units it displays. There's also a SPD data page showing details of the modules themselves, which includes JEDEC timings as well as the Intel XMP profiles.
Crucial's 4GB Kit (commonly known as the BL2Kit25664FN1608) is a well-priced 4GB memory kit and the combination of the integrated thermal monitoring/M.O.D utility is a neat touch, especially if Crucial decides to add it to the rest of the Ballistix lineup.
But don't choose this kit if you want to do some serious memory overclocking. The major problem is the limited range of overclocking options, mainly due to the fact that running at 1.65v out of the box, there's nowhere to go voltage-wise.
Which wouldn't be a problem if the chips themselves were capable of being tweaked more than they are.
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Review: Technisat HDFV
Most Freeview HD receivers do what they say on the tin, but little else. TechniSat's impressively small and refined-looking HDFV black box packs in more than just access to the three free-to-air high definition channels. Ins and outs seems comprehensive at first, with outputs for HDMI, Scart and composite video. There's also a set of analogue audio outputs, a USB 2.0 slot and an Ethernet LAN port. The USB slot can play files stored on a memory sick or external USB hard drive, but also lends the HDFV another dimension.
In a move that puts this machine ahead of the curve, live TV shows – even from the likes of BBC HD and ITV 1 HD – can be recorded straight to a USB device in MPEG format. It's not possible to set series links (this isn't a Freeview +HD box), but there is a timer for setting recordings. It's certainly one up on rivals such as the Icecrypt T2200, which will need a firmware upgrade (due shortly) to perform a similar function.
That Ethernet LAN port is an essential part of the Freeview HD spec, but it serves another purpose on the HDFV – streaming from a PC on the same broadband home network.
In practice the HDFV badly needs a second USB port because using a Wi-Fi adaptor (available separately from TechniSat) renders USB playback or recording impossible.
Whatever the resolution of your flatscreen TV – HD Ready 720p pr Full HD 1080p – it's worth using this box's 1080p output if your TV can accept the signal; you'll find the onscreen menus are a jot clearer.
Attached to a Full HD telly the HDFV managed to deliver clear and concise images from BBC HD, with a sequence from athletics' European Championships spotlessly rendered without any picture noise.
Colours are also impressively bold and bright, and though that characteristic remains for standard definition digital channels, there's none of that stunning HD detail; BBC One appeared relatively clean and upscaled just enough to fit a bigscreen TV, but with the odd jagged edge and pixellated area on show.
Recordings, meanwhile, are identical to the original broadcasts; good news, since archiving to a PC (as TS files) is possible.
The interface for working the HDFV's Freeview HD tuner is pure simplicity. An eight-day EPG in grey, black and white tones makes good use of the remote's numbers and Fastext coloured buttons.
Schedules for ten channels over two hours are squeezed into one screen, while jumping back and forth in two-hour chunks – and changing day – are each a one-button job.
Attach a USB stick or drive and a split-screen holds basic file directories for both it, and any PC on the same network. USB playback is restricted to MP3, JPEG and MPEG files, with recordings made in MPEG format, but saved as TS files.
Streaming from MPEG, JPEG and MP3 files from a PC is also possible (we encountered a few problems with a Mac running TwonkyMedia, although MPEG files played OK) from the interface's NAV menu, though a shortcut on the remote wouldn't go amiss.
If you pause live TV, it essentially starts recording it to a buffer on a USB stick, and when you eventually take it off pause there's an option to save it as a bone fide recording.
It may not be the finished article, but this Freeview HD receiver-cum-recorder's all-round performance combines with some nifty features that ought to help it do well in an increasingly crowded market.
We liked:
It may lack the flourishes of others, but the HDFV's interface is the quickest and easiest we've seen on any Freeview HD receiver or recorder. It's almost impossible to get confused.
Picture quality is impressive from SD and HD channels – either live or recorded – and playback of digital media from a USB stick, while limited, is slick.
We disliked:
Video file playback is limited to MPEG files, making the HDFV's ability to stream video files rather wasted. The interface's NAV menu, which hosts the machine's recording, streaming and digital media tools, resembles a simple file list more akin to a PC than a thoroughly ambitious machine such as this.
Verdict:
With a generally polished interface and only minor rough edges, this is one of the best – and certainly the best value – pieces of Freeview HD kit on the market; plug in an external USB hard disk and this competent receiver grows into a competent recorder that's mostly a joy to use.
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HTC Desire HD shown off in video
HTC has never been particularly good at keeping things under wraps, but photos and videos of the new 'HTC Desire HD' show another level of leaking ability.The pictures, from Chinese site Uwants, of the new device were the first to drop, showing a handset that looks very much like a hybrid of the HTC HD2 and the HTC Evo (which was only released in the US).
Word is that this phone is packing a 4.3-inch screen, 1GHz processor and a similar aluminium body to the HTC Legend.
Latest and greatest
We'd assume this would land with Android 2.2 as well, along with the previously mentioned 8MP camera and 720p video capture.
The phone has also been shown off in video too, meaning it can't be too long until leaps from the rumour mills of the interwebs and into real live pockets. Albeit it big ones.
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Bill Gates: internet more important than university 'in five years'
Bill Gates has outlined his predictions for education in the next five years, believing that universities will become less important and the internet will rise to being the dominant force in education.Speaking at the Techonomy 2010 conference, Gates spoke of changes in the education system that he thought would happen, noting that there will still be a place for primary and secondary education in schools but place-based learning – going off to college and university – will become far less important in the next five years.
"The self-motivated learner will be on the web and there will be far less place-based [learning]," Gates notes.
"The web can offer feedback, you can have group discussion, you have video… you have all sorts of things that [prove] college needs to be less place based."
Web chat
The reason for this sea change in education is money. Gates, who gives away most of his fortune to charity, is hoping to bring down the cost of higher education, making it fairer and far less elitist, and he sees the internet as the perfect conduit for this.
"We are trying to take the $200,000 education that is increasingly hard to get because there is less money for it and the capacity is not there, and we are trying to provide it to every kid who wants it," Gates explains.
"Only technology can bring that down that figure not to $20,000 but to $2,000. So place-based learning will be five times less important than it is today."
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Guide: How to overclock the GeForce GTX 460
Is Nvidia's new Geforce GTX 460 the finest pixel pumper you can buy? It's certainly the most cost effective performance graphics card of the moment. But did you know it has hidden performance reserves ready and waiting to be unlocked?
Put simply, the GTX 460 overclocks better than any high performance in recent memory. Here's how to overclock the GeForce GTX 460.
1. Tool up
Overclocking the GTX 460 is easy. Even better, it's free. All you need is a pair of software tools, one to tweak the card's settings, the other to make sure they've been properly applied. A number of options are available to achieve the first.
Our current favourite is MSI's Afterburner utility. It's a nicely put together app which makes all the necessary controls available and provides a handy visual aid in the form of graphs which track changes in frequency and operating temperature – and yes, it does work on non-MSI boards. The other item you want GPU-Z, the essential tool for identifying and analysing graphics chips.
2. Getting to know you
Fire up Afterburner and you'll be presented with a number of sliders for settings including core voltage, core clock, shader clock, memory clock and fan speed. However, GTX 460 features vary from vendor to vendor and some options may be greyed out.
At bare minimum, the core and memory clock will be available. Frankly, that's all you really need. In any case the following warning applies to all cards. Safe overclocking is all about baby steps. In other words, only make changes in small increments. We'd recommend increasing the core clockspeed in steps no larger than 25MHz.
3. Crank up the clocks
The drill goes something like this. Knock the core clock slider up by 25MHz, hit apply, confirm in GPU-Z and then hop into your favourite game. If all is well, jump back to Afterburner and rinse and repeat until you begin to see weird artefacts in-game or your PC crashes. Then do it all again for the memory.
As for the core voltage, dicing with that is more hazardous to your card's health. We'd steer clear unless you know what you are doing. Overclocking mileages will vary, but we'd be surprised if your GTX 460 didn't hit a core clockspeed of at least 825MHz. That's a boost of around 25 per cent. Nice.
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Review: Humax HDR-FOX T2
Freeview HD receivers such as Humax's own HD-FOX T2 are great for watching subscription-free high definition TV but are no use when it comes to time shifting as the copy protection police won't allow you to make HD recordings on to external devices such as a DVD recorder or PVR.Hence the significance of Freeview+ HD, where several players are eager to cash in on a potentially lucrative market.
The HD-FOX T2 was the first ever Freeview HD receiver but Humax sensibly avoided trying to cash in on the World Cup with a prematurely early release of its debut PVR, a lesson that Sagemcom will have learnt with its RT190-320 T2 HD, which was poorly received and is only now properly ready for sale having received numerous software updates.
Humax has a very good reputation in the Freeview PVR market and the HDR-FOX T2 is expected to do a similar job for the company in the fledgling HD sector. The box certainly has its work cut out with rival models appearing left, right and centre on almost weekly basis.
Competing products
The HDR-FOX T2 joins the likes of the Samsung BD-C8500M, Digitalstream DHR8205U, Triax T2-HD 217 PVR, Philips HDT 8520, 3view 3VHD, Sharp TU-T2HR32 and the aforementioned Sagemcom among the Freeview+ HD fraternity as well as models such as the Panasonic DMR-BW880 which brings a Blu-ray burner to the party allowing you to copy HD shows in high definition on to Blu-ray.
The mega-bucks Panasonic aside, most Freeview+ HD boxes are priced at around £300 for a 500GB model with one or two 320GB variants available for just £50 less.
The 3View model is easily the best value uniquely offering BBC iPlayer, YouTube, Facebook and Google online browsing plus multi-media networking with the promise of Sky Player to come.
As it stands, Humax's HDR-FOX T2 is geared up to enjoy VoD later in the year with Sky Player and possibly BBC iPlayer joining the PVR party courtesy of a software update.
For now, the box's non-Freeview talents are restricted to multimedia file playback from USB or DLNA compliant devices connected over a wired network.
Despite the (temporary) absence of VoD functionality the HDR-FOX T2 offers more features than most Freeview+ HD PVRs including a CI slot that will provide a means of watching ESPN for £9.99 a month with Top Up TV.
The whole issue of pay TV on Freeview is a bit of a minefield for although Sky Sports 1 and 2 appear in the Freeview channel list they can only be watched by subscribing with BT Vision or with Top Up TV and the latter only works on Top Up TV's non-HD Freeview+ box plus Sagem's IDT68 and IDT72 boxes.
COMPARED: The Humax HDR-FOX T2 dwarfs the more compact Humax HD-FOX T2
Back to the Humax HDR and it's a joy to find a digital optical audio output that is actually capable of outputting multichannel Dolby Digital sound.
All other boxes have Dolby Digital decoders but most can't transcode from AAC which is used to carry vital audio description metadata.
But Humax has implemented the latest Dolby Digital Pulse technology to make sure that by adding an amp and speakers you can actually enjoy 5.1 surround sound where it's broadcast (which actually isn't very often).
You can choose to output digitally in stereo if you prefer or use the analogue stereo phonos. The HDMI socket will output upscaled standard definition and HD shows in 1080i or can be set to upscale to 1080p.
There are composite video and Scart outputs too but we won't dwell on them. An RF loop-through ensures your TV's tuner will still function whilst the box is connected to your aerial.
Multi-media maestro
Other handy extras include the convenient on/off switch at the back and front-mounted USB port that's discretely hidden behind a black flap. Media playback extends to JPEGs, MP3s and most movie codecs except MKV.
The HDR-FOX T2 can also be hooked up over the ethernet to a DLNA compliant server and you can copy files to the box's own hard disk.
The fascia's LED display is one of the better ones, clearly spelling channel names and functions in a legible font. The box in general is nicely designed with a top quality plastic fascia, basic volume/channel controls and a central power button that faintly glows blue round its circumference when in standby and brightly when switched on.
The light changes to red when a recording is taking place.
Installation is a breeze if you leave out the networking. First, choose your language from English, Scottish Gaelic, Irish and Welsh. Next, set the display (screen ratio, format and resolution).
Do a channel scan, which is quicker than most, and you're off and running. The excellent fonts, graphics, icons and menus combine beautifully and navigation is so fast that set-up and use is a cinch. The only real downer is that the HDR-FOX T2 takes around 15 seconds to power up.
The menu system lets you alter settings such as the transparency level of the menu screens, parental controls and the video output, which is scaleable to 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 576p or 576i.
Remote control
The HDR-FOX T2's remote control is superior to most other Freeview+ HD handsets.
It's really well made and is a decent size so that the majority of buttons aren't cramped. It sits nicely in the hand and it doesn't take long to familiarise yourself with although some of the more oft-used buttons such as Menu and Guide could be a bit larger or colour-coded to stand out more.
Several menu functions also have dedicated buttons on the remote. For example, the Opt+ button lets you select five channels as Favourites.
EPG and channel navigation
The 8-day EPG, as first seen on the HD-FOX T2 receiver, has the good grace to keep the live channel showing in a small window.
Seven channels are displayed in grid form with two hours worth of programmes. Annoyingly you can't skip ahead or back by 24 hours but you can search by genre or keyword (eg title) or you can choose to filter the EPG to show just TV, radio, HD-only or recent channels.
Pressing OK lets you record the show (or an entire series) or set a reminder. Manual padding (up to 10 minutes at the start and end) can be done from the set-up menu.
The EPG tells you if a show on a standard definition channel is also showing in HD but the box can't tell you if HD content is native 1080i or upscaled from standard definition, like say the Triax box can.
The info banner, or i-plate as it's known, does at least scroll through the entire EPG rather than the usual Now and Next limit. A real rarity.
Tuner and recordings
The HDR-FOX T2's standard definition and HD tuners are both industry-leading.
Now the World Cup is over, ITV's native HD output is rather meagre but the onset of the new football season will add to the occasional movie. There's a huge gulf in quality between the low bit-rate used for a lot of standard definition broadcasts and HD ones.
At least standard def Freeview looks as good as you can get.
Recordings are pixel-perfect replicas of the original broadcasts. You can pause and rewind live broadcasts or view scheduled recordings by pressing the Media button. A nice feature is the ability to add bookmarks on the fly.
Once or twice the sound dropped out on playback but was restored by restarting the box.
Media player
Insert a USB stick and a menu conveniently appears asking you if you want to copy any or all of the music, video or photo files on to the hard disk. Media navigation in general is well executed but we did experience that annoying dropped audio problem a few times.
The box is DLNA certified and handled beautifully a broad range of multi-media files copied over from USB including DivX HD and MP4.
Expectations were high for the HDR-FOX T2 and after feeling frustrated and let down by most other Freeview+ HD boxes it comes as something of a relief to be able to say that Humax has come up with the goods.
It feels like the company has taken many of the best bits of the other Freeview+ HD PVRs on the market and melded them into the HDR-FOX T2. By and large, this is a really nice box to use.
We liked:
The overall user experience is unmatched by any other Freeview+ HD recorder. The sensibly-designed remote control, attractive menu system, fascia information and slickness of navigation are major positives.
Freeview HD and standard def images and sound are as good as we've seen (apart from the issue of sound drop-out on recordings on our review sample). Multi-media functionality is certainly a nice bonus, especially the ease with which files can be copied on to the hard disk from USB.
We disliked:
The EPG does falter by not offering 24-hour skipping and by not indicating which shows are in native HD or upscaled standard definition. The plug and not play nature of the network is highly frustrating and the (albeit temporary) lack of BBC iPlayer is irritating.
Verdict:
Assuming the audio playback niggle is an isolated case then there is very little about the HDR-FOX T2 to seriously damage Humax's reputation as a maker of better quality digital TV boxes.
Our other complaints about the HDR-FOX T2 are not terribly serious and although it's not perfect, the positives far outweigh the negatives.
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WIN! Virgin Media 50Mbps broadband for a year
Virgin Media has teamed up with TechRadar to offer one lucky reader atheir ultrafast 50Mbps service, completely free for a year.The recent Ofcom reports showed the gulf between Virgin Media's broadband offering and that of its competitors, with the might of a fibre optic infrastructure becoming increasingly obviousand delivering true next generation performance.
And to celebrate this, one entrant who lives in acablearea that will win a year's free subscription from Virgin Media.Want to know if you can get it? You can find out if you're covered at http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/broadband/speed.html.
Already with another provider? Don't worry - Virgin Media uses it's own cabling so won't disrupt your existing service or phone line.
"We've invested billions building our fibre optic networkand we're the only ISP that delivers customers the speeds they expect.It's the most advanced way to enjoy broadband," explains Virgin Media
"Other providers deliver their broadband through copper telephone wire, which means your speed gets slower the further you live from the phone exchange, and.
"Optical fibres are made of glass, and they're designed to send vast amounts of information at the speed of light. That's how we canreachspeeds of up to 50Mb- and actually deliver that to our customers for the ultimate broadband experience, be it for gaming, TV services or just plain old browsing."
You can enter on our special competitions page
Terms and conditions
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There is no cash alternative to the prize and unless agreed otherwise in writing the prize is non-refundable and non transferable.
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Adult actress speaks out over HP boss sacking
Hewlett Packard boss Mark Hurd resigned his post at the helm of the world's largest PC company this month following a sexual harassment investigation.The HP investigation followed allegations from a former contractor with whom Mr Hurd had admitted to having "a close personal relationship" with and had submitted false expense reports over, in order to conceal the nature of the relationship.
Profound lack of judgement
Michael Holston, HP's general counsel, told Bloombergthat Hurd had "demonstrated a profound lack of judgment", but that he had not breached HP's sexual harassment policy.
Mr Hurd himself added: "As the investigation progressed, I realised there were instances in which I did not live up to the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity that I have espoused at HP."
He is to be replaced on an interim basis by Cathie Lesjak, HP's Chief Financial Officer.
The contractor whose sexual harassment accusation against Hurd has since stepped forward to claim that she was "surprised and saddened" and never intended for Hurd to lose his job.
Accuser steps forward
Former adult movie actress, Jodie Fisher, said via a statement released by her attorney:
"I was surprised and saddened that Mark Hurd lost his job over this. That was never my intention.
"At HP, I was under contract to work at high-level customer and executive summit events held around the country and abroad," Fisher added. "I prepared for those events, worked very hard and enjoyed working for HP."
Fisher worked as a contractor for HP from late 2007 through 2009. Mr. Hurd has since settled the matter privately with Ms. Fisher for an undisclosed sum.
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Apple iPhone 4 antenna boss in shock departure
Apple's iPhone boss, Mark Papermaster, has left the company in a surprise exit this month, with growing speculation over the reasons for his departure.Papermaster was Apple's senior executive responsible for engineering on both the iPod and the iPhone. He has been at Apple just under two years. Previously he worked at IBM for 25 years where he was an expert on IBM's Power chips.
Papermaster's departure follows the iPhone 4 'antennagate' PR debacle, with many industry observers suggesting that his exit from Apple may well be closely connected to the mobile reception problems with the iPhone 4.
Fall-out with Jobs
It is unclear whether or not Papermaster has resigned or has been fired. Apple spokesman Steve Dowlings confirmed that Bob Mansfield, senior vice-president of Macintosh hardware engineering, is currently set to assume his responsibilities.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Papermaster and Steve Jobs fell out months ago and that Jobs had lost confidence in the iPhone exec.
The reasons for Papermaster's departure will no doubt become clearer over the coming days. Stay tuned for updates.
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Apple iPhone 4 antenna boss in shock departure
Apple's iPhone boss, Mark Papermaster, has left the company in a surprise exit this month, with growing speculation over the reasons for his departure.Papermaster was Apple's senior executive responsible for engineering on both the iPod and the iPhone. He has been at Apple just under two years. Previously he worked at IBM for 25 years where he was an expert on IBM's Power chips.
Papermaster's departure follows the iPhone 4 'antennagate' PR debacle, with many industry observers suggesting that his exit from Apple may well be closely connected to the mobile reception problems with the iPhone 4.
Fall-out with Jobs
It is unclear whether or not Papermaster has resigned or has been fired. Apple spokesman Steve Dowlings confirmed that Bob Mansfield, senior vice-president of Macintosh hardware engineering, is currently set to assume his responsibilities.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Papermaster and Steve Jobs fell out months ago and that Jobs had lost confidence in the iPhone exec.
The reasons for Papermaster's departure will no doubt become clearer over the coming days. Stay tuned for updates.
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Review: ASRock 890FX Deluxe 3
The ASRock 890FX Delexe 3 is a high end board for mid-range money, what's not to like?That's what Asrock hopes you'll think when you clock the 890FX chipset and a £125 sticker. But does this performance-orientated board deliver?
If you're in the habit of tag-teaming multiple graphics cards, Asrock has the bases covered with a trio of PCI Express graphics slots and has gone to town on the northbridge and MOSFET cooling, too. It's an active arrangement with a fan on the MOSFET cooler connected to the Northbridge via a heat pipe.
The only slight downside is that it does impinge a little on space around the socket. That said, it is removable.
Anyway, factor in the top-spec 890FX chipset and the 10-phase voltage regulator circuit and we're expecting some spectacular overclocking results.
Next up is the onboard digital status display and CMOS reset switch on the back panel. Neither is essential, but both are genuinely useful and the sort of touches that separate big-money mobos from bargain basement boards.
Indeed, Asrock has gone better than many board makers by soldering on not one but two of those ubiquitous NEC USB 3.0 chips. The Deluxe 3 therefore sports four highspeed USB ports.
Like any 890FX board, the southbridge delivers six SATA 6Gbps ports for nippy storage performance. But Asrock has added an extra SATA 6Gbps controller, allowing a pair of additional ports and also an eSATA socket on the rear panel that also supports the full 6Gbps Monty.
Move into the BIOS and the Deluxe 3's polished act continues. It's heaving with options for both the casual and committed overclocker. You can, for instance, choose from a list of percentage overclocks using pre-optimised settings up to 50 per cent for some quick and easy extra performance.
High, high-end
Alternatively, you can hit the [X] key on boot. This enables Asrock's Turbo UCC feature.
First, it will unlock hidden cores in the CPU. Second, it automatically hunts down the ideal oveclocked settings for any given processor. That's the theory anyway.
For those who prefer to do their own dirty work, all the usual clock, voltage and timing settings are provided. They're also presented in a straightforward and intelligible manner. Handy given that most will not be familiar with Asrock's BIOS menu.
The Deluxe 3 therefore talks like a high-end board. Does it walk like one? In a word, yes. In terms of overclocking prowess, it matches the much more expensive Asus Crosshair with a maximum bus speed of 325MHz. It's not quite as deft with our DIMMs, topping out at 1,600MHz, where the Asus manages 1,800MHz.
As for the Turbo UCC feature, it returns a disappointing 3.45GHz with our 3.2GHz Phenom II chip. Elsewhere, the numbers look pretty solid.
Application and gaming performance is good, as for the most part is storage throughput. The only slight demerits are an underwhelming 297MB/s in the HDTach burst test and a marginally off-the-pace 12.0MB/s of memory bandwidth using default settings.
But this is still an intriguing board with bags of features for a very reasonable price.
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