Latest Articles

The Past, Present and Future of Notebook Batteries

In this article we give you the skinny on the types of batteries in use today, plus a look at what might power your notebook of the future.


PC Monitors and LCDs - Acronyms and Terms Explained

[Basic-Medium] This article intends to explain some of the important acronyms, terms, and numbers which you can notice on the specification list of PC monitors.


Opera 9.5

[Basic – Medium] Opera is perhaps one of the less well-known Internet browsers but it has a surprisingly rich feature set as we will explain in this review.

 
Latest News
Current News  More News    
1 2 3 4 5
Hardware news
Friday, August 17, 2007

If you can't really be bothered reading a review today, why not watch a video review instead? 3dGameMan.com review the Zalman Z-Machine GT1000 case.

PCApex review the Ultra X3 1000W Modular PSU. Ultra is such an over-used word in the IT industry, but this PSU is actually manufactured by a company called ULTRA. "Ultra, a word derived from the Latin word meaning 'beyond'. Used as a prefix it indicates greater than normal quality or importance. Living up to their name ULTRA is known for bringing products to the enthusiast that could be considered beyond that of the normal." Does the PSU live up to their prestolatio (expectations)? Read on to find out.

Having 160GB to take with you anywhere would be nice wouldn't it? TrustedReviews.com have taken a look at the Western Digital 160GB Passport. "The Western Digital Passport is small, stylish, light, cheap and capacious. It may be a little delicate but with a bit of care it should be the perfect portable storage solution."

    
Tranquil PC targets home server market
Friday, August 17, 2007

Millions of households in the developed world now have more than one PC and what's more, they have video, photo and music collections that all need to be backed up. Windows Home Server aims to cater for this growing market - and consumers don't want another beige beast humming away in their den. Tranquil, the UK's premier designer of silent PCs is stepping up to the challenge. "What's so clever about the T7-HSA, though, is what you don't see - or hear, come to that. There isn't a single fan in the whole system, with the chipset, hard disk and CPU all cooled by the case itself via heatpipes. With the hard disk the only source of noise (and suspended in a vibration reducing cradle), that makes it all but completely silent..." Read more at PCPro.co.uk.
    
I've been waiting for this to happen...
Wednesday, August 15, 2007

"I'm on to the main task of the week... installation of Linux on my newly acquired Oqo O2. ... Right now, I have wiped the Windows XP from the machine, replacing it with the Ubuntu. More reports later on!" I'll be keeping my eye out.
    
Hardware news
Wednesday, August 15, 2007

OverclockersClub.com think they might have found every Top Gun fan's fantasy realized: "I know I am guilty of it. You think, "well for games with flying scenarios in them, all I need is my mouse or maybe a cheap joystick", right? Yeah, that's what I thought too, until I got my hands on the Saitek X52 Pro Flight Control System. Like the popular X52, the Pro is an upgrade to the already proven platform that precedes it. The Pro takes all the best features of the X52 and better engineering to make the upgrade to what Saitek calls, "The most fully integrated PC Flight Control System"."

Meanwhile, XBitLabs.com have a round-up of nine 20 inch LCDs. I still maintain that one of the best upgrades I've ever had was getting an LCD and then a couple of years later, a second one. Everyone pays so much attention to hardware specs but it's the screen that's right in front of us all the time!

Techgage.com have taken a look at an interesting design for mobile storage: "We've taken a look at a fair amount of external storage devices in the past, but here's one that's unique. At home, you can plug the drive in like a diskette for full S-ATA speeds, and eject it to take on the go with USB-functionality." So it kind of has a drive bay, but it's portable as well! What a great idea!
    
First impressions of the OQO
Tuesday, August 14, 2007

"My first impressions aren't very clear so far because I have spent the time since I got the unit getting my stuff working so I can do a good evaluation. The biggest impression I have so far is how good the integrated keyboard really is. You can type very well with the keyboard and the little track stick works as advertised." Read on at Blogs.ITToolbox.com.
    
Just how well do you know Google?
Friday, August 10, 2007

We all use Google don't we? I would use it dozens of times every day. But did you know that Google made massive changes to the default search in mid-2007? And do you know about all of the options - operators, vertical searches, beta searches, desktop, toolbar? There's more to Google search than that one default entry point.

"In mid-2007, Google revamped its search engine to provide Universal Search. Now, instead of going to a specific search engine like Google Images, Google News, Google Video, or one of the other vertical search engines, Google serves up an all-in-one search. When you type a query, Google will present results across all its specialized search engines. Google's other vertical search engines, like Google Base and Froogle, are also now being folded into the primary search index."

Read on to learn how to refine your searches and get the most out of Google.

    
No full service pack for Vista yet
Friday, August 10, 2007

Two updates for Windows Vista have been released, both requiring a restart after installation. TheInquirier.net reports: "Performance problems have cropped up with screen savers, network printers, corrupt AVI files, slow response times and corrupted RAW files with some Canon cameras. More serious problems addressed by the patch include corruption of offline files and machines forgetting their default gateway addresses. Memory management has also been improved, says the company."
    
What do you want to read about?
Thursday, August 09, 2007

I am in the process of commissioning freelance writers to research and provide articles for VIA Arena. What do you want to be able to find here? Technical how to guides? Editorials? Guides to Windows Vista? Hardcore hardware guides? Let me know.
    
Checkpoint Charlie #9
Thursday, August 09, 2007

Checkpoint Charlie’s platoon has finally engaged the robot attack group in their hunt for the robots’ VIA NanoBooks. It seems like a clear-cut case of a perfect ambush, but what will happen when the smoke clears? And how long before The Hegemony’s own ambush closes on the platoon?

Catch ‘Checkpoint Charlie #9 – Close Combat’ to see what happens next.

    
Hardware news
Thursday, August 09, 2007

Back in the early days of computing (7+ years ago) when computer manufacturers were just coming to terms with the idea of enthusiasts, every second article on emerging tech review sites was about how far they'd managed to overclock their CPU. Last year I wrote an article for an Editing course about the changes in language use by online IT media and I came across this old gem from HardOcp.com, circa 2000: “Just when you thought CPUs sucked and were no fun anymore, this thing shows up. Is it special? Dunno, but you sure have the possibility of bumpin' a chubby the first time you see that 1000MHz mark on your OWN monitor...” Maybe those days are over - unless you're at the stage of reading this Newbie Overclocking Guide on XBitLabs.com.

3dExteme.net take a look at a multi-function device that's so cool even a beige box would look cool: "The FP-01 can only be defined as a multi-function device because it's a 55 in 1 media reader, fan controller with a flip up LCD panel that reports temperatures and fan speeds. Add in an eSATA external jack, fire wire port and USB and we've just begun to touch on everything the FP-01 can do."

And if you want to turn your PC into a TV, you might want to check out the review of the Kworld PlusTV Dual DVB-T PCI-Express TV card on Bit-tech.net: "The Kworld PlusTV card is a product which makes a lot of boasts on the packaging and on the website. Bullet pointed lists on the box outline how it can operate in 16:9 widescreen, that it can use teletext and subtitles and even that it comes with its own remote control! Gee-whizz, Batman!" Yes, that's sounds fantastic Robin, but you'd better read the full review to find out the full story.

    

 
Syndicate  Print  
Latest Videos
My PC’s Dead – What can I do?!: There is panic if a computer just stops working, if it simply won’t boot up and you can’t figure out the problem. This video explains some tips and tricks for troubleshooting a PC that just suddenly stops working.
Building a Blu-ray HTPC, ep 6: Testing Playback: In this episode, John and Fiona have tested the playback on the all new Blu-ray HTPC. They also explain some options available in WinDVD and PowerDVD.
 
Most recent blog entries
Update in Process
John Gatt's Babblings By John Gatt onThursday, August 21, 2008 2:13 PM
So, there’s a new iPhone update out there. The first thing I did this morning was plug in my iPhone to sync it with iTunes and get the latest update, hoping it would fix some of the crash Apple screens ...
Comments (0)More...

@Me dot com
John Gatt's Babblings By John Gatt onTuesday, August 19, 2008 9:34 AM
iTunes has advertised the Apple @Me service to me a couple of times, so I thought I’d give it a spin. If you don’t know what @Me is, it’s iTune or Apple’s solution to Gmail but it’s meant to have more ...
Comments (0)More...

VIA Leaving the Chipset Business – Oh my God, is that News?
John Gatt's Babblings By John Gatt onThursday, August 14, 2008 2:41 PM
As some of you may know, I was once heavily involved in the VIA chipset business for quite a number of years. I did everything from reference board designs to chipset presentations at QuakeCon. Last ye ...
Comments (0)More...

Updating my iPhone
John Gatt's Babblings By John Gatt onTuesday, August 12, 2008 11:39 AM

iPhone 2.0.1 software update is now available from iTunes. This 249.2MB update was released to fix numerous issues that have been plaguing the release of the 3G iPhone. I personally have found the iPhone to be less stable than your average V ...

Comments (0)More...

Print