I haven’t been in the mood for writing while the weather’s been reasonably nice, I’m still in the summer mood, football season has started but I haven’t taken interest yet, still too warm, football’s for winter, infact I’ve upgraded my sports package with Sky and have been enjoying the baseball every night on ESPN. I believe the season has nearly finished, that’ll be the sign to start watching football again, but hopefully not for a few weeks yet.

Anyway enough of my rantings, here’s a quick overview of updates and exciting new things….

Adobe Reader has been updated to 9.3.4, open up the program and you should be automatically prompted to download the update.
If you’re a regular PDF user and rely on Adobe Reader then maybe a change will pleasantly surprise you, update to Foxit Reader for super fast opening of PDF’s, no splash screens, and the rather handy tabbed reading for multiple documents.

Java, updated to release 21, head to Java.com and download the latest update.

Avast anti virus is now updated to version 5 with a new orange coloured logo, if you’re still running version 4.8 with the blue logo please update now at Avast.com
If you’re in the market for a new Internet Security Product I currently have stock of BitDefender 2010 with free download of the 2011 version, I also have great pricing on Avast’s Pro & New Internet Security package and Norton 2010. Current Norton users login to the account page and use the free update checker, if you’re using 2009 or prior, or 360 version 3 or prior you’ll be prompted to download the latest versions free of charge!

I was recently asked to record a radio program from the BBC iPlayer, after lots of searching and trying many shareware programs I stumbled upon a fantastic free program to do just the job, and aptly named Radio Downloader. The program outputs to MP3 format and you can subscribe to frequent shows.

You may have seen from the homepage or from the PC World television adverts that Microsoft has released the 2010 version of Office, building upon the ribbon interface which launched with the 2007 version. This time there’s no upgrade pricing structure and to simplify further there’s only three packages to choose from:
1. Home & Student
2. Home & Business
3. Professional

As always I have great pricing available, please see the upgrades page.
If you purchased Office 2007 recently you will be entitled to a free upgrade by download or supplied on a disc with a nominal charge, for more info go to: http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/tech-guarantee/

I have now moved over to a pre built Windows Home Server, reducing the cost, size, and time to deliver. The Acer easystore comes with Lights Out energy efficiency software pre installed along with an itunes server and 6 months of McAfee Home Server security, available in 3 storage sizes, 2x640gb, 2x1tb and 3x1tb, the units have a total of 4 drive bays for further expansion. For more details view the Home Server page.

PCTools has released a BETA version of Spyware Doctor version 8, currently only available with the antivirus plugin, I’m awaiting news of a standalone BETA version and will bring you more news on that later in the year. Meanwhile PCtools has updated and released its Simple Backup program at just £25, if you’re looking for a budget backup system here’s a great starting point http://www.pctools.com/simple-backup/

I recently upgraded my mobile phone and chose the HTC Desire with Google Android operating system, last weekend the handset offered me the upgrade from Android 2.1 to 2.2 which although has been around for a good few months now, HTC integrate their own home screen interface and apps into the OS accounting for the delay. But as the saying goes “all good things come to he who waits”, maybe in political correct world we live in that should read “he/she who waits”?? Anyway there’s a few button changes and tweaks here and there but the performance is the biggest boost and the handset feels faster than ever, I also like the Google voice search now integrated into the default browser rather than a separate app.

New apps for Android I’d like to give a mention to include: LogMeIn (I can now provide remote PC assistance direct from my mobile!), PayPal (official app finally launched, fully featured and very polished), Sky+ (another official app finally launched and very nice too!) Photoshop Express, Cineworld (unofficial), WordPress and amazon Kindle being my favourites. Natwest please hurry up and launch an Android app, iPhone’s had it for a long time, banking on the go is a must these days and Android is now just as big as iPhone, chop chop (rant over)

I’ve finally managed to get my mitts on the iPad camera connection kit, over 6 weeks waiting time from the Apple online store, but I managed to pick one up from my local PC World store, yes that’s right, you heard correctly, I ventured into the abyss, luckily I only had to walk in a meagre 10 feet before I was pounced upon, my question of “iPad camera kit” was quickly replied with “yes, 10 in today, follow me”, to the till, purchased and out, 3 minutes, not bad! Obviously they do have some uses???

Which moves me on to Photo apps on the iPad, after wading through nearly all of the 544, not quite making it to the end purely due to boredom I managed to purchase a selection to aid my photographic needs: Pow – a comic strip creation tool, Retouch HD – a simple yet powerful app for removing unwanted items from photographs with ease, the description stated “your ugly partner” quite harsh! ColourSplash – turns photos to black & white then re adds colour to your chosen areas, Photoshop Express – free app worth every penny… And I’m still undecided on Photo FX Ultra & Photogenie? Any thoughts on either please let me know.

Other notable apps I’ve downloaded recently include: Yell, BBC News, Sky Sports News, LogMeIn, TV Guide (now with Sky+ integration), UK Cinema Times Ad Free, Dragon Dictation, and the one I haven’t got working yet but haven’t had the time to play with is HP iPrint.

I hoped you’ve enjoyed the update, lots more to follow…..

I’ve just spent a good hour or more fascinated by a You Tube phenomenon called Will it Blend? Which then led me to the official website www.willitblend.com. If you’ve ever wondered what can be blended other than fruit for a nice smoothy drink then take a look at this. The latest iPad, iPhone, TV Remotes, a Ford Fiesta! Glow Sticks, light bulbs, a crowbar just to name a few of my favourites, and there’s pages and pages of these videos. A great bit of fun and worth an hour of anyones time! Take a look…….

The Pac-Man game Google put on its home page gobbled up almost five million hours of work time, suggests a study.

The playable version of the classic video game was put on Google’s front page on 21 May to celebrate 30 years since the launch of Pac-Man in Japan.

The search giant reworked the game so the layout was arranged around letters forming its name.

The Pac-Man game proved so popular that Google has now made it permanently available on its own page.

Time delay

The statistics on how many people played and for how long were gathered by software firm Rescue Time. It makes time-tracking software that keeps an eye on what workers do and where they go online.

On a typical day, it suggests, most people conduct about 22 searches on the Google page, each one lasting about 11 seconds.

Putting Pac-Man on the page boosted that time by an average of about 36 seconds, the firm said based on the browsing habits of 11,000 Rescue Time users.

The firm believes this is a relatively low figure because only a minority realised that the logo was playable. To play, people had to click on the “insert coin” button which replaced the more familiar “I’m Feeling Lucky” button on 21 and 22 May.

Extrapolating this up across the 504 million unique users who visit the main Google page day-to-day, this represents an increase of 4.8 million hours – equal to about 549 years.

In dollar terms, assuming people are paid $25 (£17.50) an hour, this equates to about $120m in lost productivity, the firm said.

For that money, suggested Rescue Time, it would be possible to hire all Google’s employees and put them to work for about six weeks.

The BBC takes a close look at the Apple iPad and it’s closest rivals including the new Dell Streak in a 4 minute video documentary, take a look here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_10180000/newsid_10180000/10180016.stm

A few weeks ago I downloaded the remote record app from Sky for my Windows mobile phone. At the time it didn’t seem to function correctly and a search online brought up mixed results, more non working than working. Of course the flavour of the moment is the iPhone and of course there’s an iPhone app for remote record, no complaints about that one! (or non that I’ve come across?)

Well, this weekend I thought I’d give my app a workout as it hadn’t seen screen light in a few months. I was amazed at how quickly the app started and navigated through the menu’s, within 30 seconds I’d sent my request to record a film that evening. In truth I just couldn’t be bothered to turn the TV on just to set the record and turn it all off again, and with mobile in hand it was worth the little effort I had to put in!

Equally I was amazed at the new online remote record function on the Sky website, the move to a flash based planner with full drag functionality to scroll around the times and channels was a huge improvement to the previous “click next, click next, click next” page navigation, not too far dissimilar to the TV planner structure.

If you’re a TV buff or just regularly miss your favourite program then remote record is the missing gem in your life. Full instructions can be found on the Sky remote record website here: http://www.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/skyproducts/remoterecord

You’ll have to register your Sky+ box for remote record, then download the app for your mobile phone, check the list first as only certain handsets are compatible, enter your login details in to the app and away you go! There’s no excuse to miss your favourite shows ever again!

And don’t forget if you haven’t got your mobile you can still remote record through the internet at Sky.com, just login to your account and head for remote record and that new easy navigate planner.

Look out for a new Simple PC – Sky+ service coming soon!

30th Anniversary Pacman celebrated by Google Doodle

The Pac-Man 30th anniversary Google doodle

Google has become famous for changing its logo for special events, but it has never converted it into a playable game before. Today, it is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man’s launch in Japan with a version that lets you steer your pizza-shaped protagonist* around a maze that spells out Google’s name – at least for as long as you can evade the ghosts Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde.

Read full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/may/21/pac-man-30th-anniversary-google-doodle

I’ve had some interest in these new units from customers wanting to reclaim space, great for family PC’s especially in a kitchen or family room. Enjoy the video!

I received an email this morning regarding my recent purchase of Saving Private Ryan on Blu Ray disc.

A manufacturing error is causing the audio to fall out of sync by 1/5 of a second during a chapter crossover in the middle of the film. This has affected all the discs currently released in to the market. If you have purchased a copy then you can email or telephone the following freephone number, you’ll then be sent a freepost envelope to return the disc and receive a new corrected disc.

Freephone: 08000 852 613

or

Email: savingprivateryan.recall@technicolor.com

Amazon have at this moment withdrawn the disc from sale.

We’ve been building and selling home servers since the launch of Windows Home Server back in November of 2007. We’ve reduced the size of the unit to a small cube and will some launch our budget range of home servers (look out for news of that coming soon). With a home server running constantly we’ve also reduced power consumption with energy efficient Atom processors and low noise low power PSU’s (Power Supply Unit).

I recently purchased a software plugin for the Windows Home Server platform called Lights Out, the software uses a calendar function to hibernate the server and wake it when needed with a small application on the PC to wake the server if required out of the calendar schedule. With a lot of reading the manual and tweeking I’mextremely happy with the plugin and will be adding it as a standard feature on all new Home Server builds. This makes at least a 60% energy saving which is good for your pocket and the environment.

If you already own a Simple Cube Home Server and would like to try Lights Out then please contact me for more info.

You can find out more about lights out from: http://www.wegotserved.com/2008/12/28/add-in-review-lights-out/

A while back I posted an article which showed you how to add ITV HD to your Sky HD box. Now ITV has seen the light and finally given the all clear and it’s available within the standard set of channels, head over to channel 178 to view!