Category: Computer-Centric

Microsoft Previews 64 bit Windows XP Professional

Microsoft have released a preview of the 64 bit version of Windows XP Professional for beta testers. Now called Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, the final version of the OS will now be released in 2005, having been delayed from winter 2004, no doubt because of delays with XP SP2. Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition will also be released in 2005.

Those of you wishing to test the OS have a 450 mb download ahead of you – which doesn’t seem that bad, really though copies are available free on CD with a modest shipping charge. From a feature standpoint, 64 bit Windows is virtually identical to the standard version, the program and kernel code is compiled to take advantage of the increased processor world length. Pricing for the final OS will be similar to 32 bit versions.

64 bit XP will run on a range of 64 bit processors and support up to 16 gigabytes of physical RAM and eight terabytes of virtual memory. RAM support will increase as hardware manufacturers catch up. 32 bit users on some processors will be able to upgrade to the new OS for free.

An overview of Windows XP Professional x64

AOL’s Optimised PC

AOL have launched the AOL Optimised PC – a cheap PC that gets the AOL brand into homes and under people’s noses.

The base US$300 (€246) cost of the system is subsidised by the AOL subscription purchasers also have to buy with the PC. That adds a further US$23.90 (€19.60) a month for a year to the total cost.

The base unit is built around a 2GHz Celeron processor, 256Mb of memory and a 40 gb hard dirve. The PC comes with a 17” monitor, printer and speakers and AOL Office – which is essentially Open Office. Naturally, the PC is preconfigured with AOL’s suite of tools and applications with parental controls, Computer Check Up and internet access ready to go.

“We’re addressing the needs of the millions of Internet intenders who are first-time PC buyers or novice computer users,” said Kenn Turner, Senior Vice President and General Manager, AOL Key Audiences.

“They’ve told us that affordability and an interest in making one simple buying decision for everything they need to use the computer and get online is important to them. We think the complete AOL Optimized PC solution delivers unprecedented value, while maintaining performance and quality.”

AOL are supplying the computer in with English and Spanish language options, and it can be easily swapped between them.

“Fifty-five percent of English language dominant Hispanic households have Internet access at home, compared with only 20% of Spanish language dominant households, according to the Synovate 2004 Hispanic Report,” said David Wellisch, Vice President and General Manager, AOL Latino.

“The AOL Optimised PC is one of the only widely available PC plus internet solutions that makes it easy to select and switch between language preferences. Combined with an affordable price and a comprehensive PC bundle, we hope to empower these consumers to take advantage of all the resources the Internet has to offer.”

AOL is also hoping that the PC will raise awareness of their brand and get it into more homes, as Disney has demonstrated recently with their mouse-eared Disney PC.

The AOL Optimised PC

Disney’s Dream Desk PC

Disney have released their Dream Desk PC – a US$600 (€500) 2.6 gHz Celeron-based computer that comes complete with digital pen and suite of software. A 14” flat screen monitor with the characteristically round Mickey ears is a US$300 (€250)optional extra – but if you’re going to buy the PC, you have to have the ears too, right?

The striking blue computer was designed by Frog Design and made by Medion AG, a large German manufacturer. It even has a child-sized mouse for those little hands, and a unique cable management system to keep tempting electrical cables away from curious fingers.

To protect children, the PC comes with the EmailProtect and ContentProtect email and internet filtering applications. Plus on the entertainment side, the PC comes preloaded with several Disney games and tools for playing with Disney media (just play fair with the DMCA, kids!). A DVD player and CD writer is included for budding pirates.

This is Disney’s first attempt at a PC aimed at children. Bob Iger, Disney President said at the unveiling yesterday: “We’ve travelled a long way since that first Mickey writing tablet hit the market in 1929. At the core of Disney is our mission to entertain and enlighten audiences through products that spark the imagination. With the launch of the Disney Dream Desk, a computer designed with kids in mind, we’ve developed a tool box for children to unleash their imaginations and expand their minds.”

Disney Consumer Products

Apple’s Q3 – and the new G5 iMac

Apple’s Q3 results are out and they’re good – the quarter saw them shipping 876,000 Macs, the highest unit shipment for three years, increasing their Macintosh revenue by 19%.

US$60 million (€48.5 million) of Apple’s income came from music accessories and other related items – showing that iPod demand is far from slowing.

Steve Jobs said: “It was an outstanding quarter-our highest third quarter revenue in eight years. Our Mac-based revenue grew a healthy 19 percent, and our music-based revenue grew an incredible 162 percent. We’ve got a strong product portfolio, with some amazing new additions coming later this year.”

Those of you who have been holding off buying a new Mac in the hope that the new iMac models will feature G5 processors can finally dust off the piggy banks. Although IBM has had manufacturing problems, resulting in a shortage of G5 processors and G5-based Macs, the new model is expected to ship in September.

Apple normally doesn’t pre-announce new products as it tends to hurts sales of the previous model – though in this case, the previous iMac has ceased production.

Apple’s results

Nvidia Expect Media Centre Shipments to Treble

One of the leading manufacturers of video cards, Nvidia, has stated that it expects worldwide shipments of media centres – PCs used to play video, music and games in a living room environment – to treble in 2004. This would take global figures to around six million units.

Huang Jeh-hsun, president and CEO of Nvidia made the statement at Computex 2004, saying that demand was picking up, and further growth was expected as prices fell.

Most media centres are still based around a PC paradigm – and many home users find PC concepts and interfaces off-putting. Operating systems such as Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Centre Edition are a step in the right direction but are still daunting for casual users, and it’s frankly a pain to have to boot up your PC and navigate menus and settings just to watch K-PAX on DVD.

Nvidia’s optimism on increased shipments, however is no doubt inspired by their own range of products, principally their nStant Media platform. Currently a laptop-only solution, nStant Media allows users to use digital content without having to boot into an operating system – and consequently uses less power too.

Nvidia

Media Center Xbox 2 On the Cards?

Microsoft has been investigating options for a new variant in its Xbox games console line, and it might be bringing out a version that’s a PVR/PC hybrid.

Working with the B/R/S Group, a California-based marketing research company, Microsoft have been conducting focus groups and research on what they’re calling the Xbox Next PC. The proposed unit has a hard disk and CD burner and is a proper PC running Windows.

Microsoft were keen to emphasise that the Xbox was not a PC when it first appeared, but are perhaps happier to blur this distinction now that multifunction home media centres such as Sony’s PSX are gaining coverage. Microsoft’s XNA software solution, enabling easier porting of software between DirectX platforms may make this goal even easier to achieve.

It may be that when XBox Next finally appears, there will be two variants: the next generation Xbox console, and its PC/PVR/console cousin. However, poor sales of the PSX in Japan and lack of US/European launch dates for the console may show the concept to be a bit of a lemon.

For some reason the Xbox Next PC reminds me a bit of those Amstrad PCs you could buy with a MegaDrive built in. Hmmmm – eBay.

B/R/S groups – making life complicated for URLs

The Amstrad MegaDrive Computer

AMD outsells Intel-equiped Desktops claims analyst

Intel has had an enormously aggressive period where they have attempted to out Ghz their competition. We now learn that desktop computers fitted with their processors from the competitor, AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) have outsold those equipped with Intel.

It is important to get this into perspective. The figures claimed by Current Analysis were only for the week ending April 24 and Current Analysis have only been studying this particular market since November last year. The figures were also just for desktop computers, not portables, where most of the market growth is. Intel currently hold 81 percent of that market.

The analyst, Toni Duboise from Current Analysis appears to not see the AMD-equipped desktop continuing in the same way, citing Intel’s new-this-quarter Grantsdale chipset to return them to dominance. Grantsdale will have faster memory (DDR2 -double data rate 2) and importantly an integrated wireless access point. We feel this is the killer feature, enabling the normal, non-technical user to easily setup their own home network, for file sharing and importantly media sharing.

Current Analysis

Read

Elonex’s Wall-mounted Media Centre PC

Elonex have produced an all-in-one media centre that is so simple to install you just need to drill some holes in the wall and provide an aerial and power.

The eXtentia (UK£2114, €3162) is essentially a slim wall-mounted PC with a TFT display – the display is bright and clear and has a 17” diagonal viewing area, running at 1280 x 768 pixels.

The media centre will connect to your home network through its integrated 802.11g interface, or even plain old Ethernet. Interestingly, there’s a dial up modem on the motherboard, though this probably won’t see much action: if you’re going to hang something this expensive on the wall to watch your DVDs, no doubt your internet access will be broadband.

Also inside the eXtentia is a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 processor with 512mb of RAM. Both memory slots are full, so if you ever want to upgrade you’ll have to throw the original sticks out. The graphics card is a Radeon 9600 – which isn’t bad for a media centre, though it might struggle in a couple of years when playing new games.

Sound is stereo with the integrated speakers and sub-woofer – but since there’s a full set of 5.1 outputs, including optical, presented at the back you can plug it into your existing set-up. Other connections for getting media into and out of the PC include five USB ports, Firewire and a variety of AV ports for camcorders.

Control of the eXtentia is through a wireless keyboard and mouse, and more traditional infra-red remote control. There’s a handy 8-format memory card reader so that you can display photographs and transfer files form all your other devices – and let’s face it, you probably use at least four different card types.

The unit runs Microsoft’s Windows Media Centre, and this provides the user interface for recording TV programmes onto the 250gb hard disk.

We can look forward to seeing a lot more of these devices in the future – Sony have already had success with their Vaio lifstyle PC, whilst Dell and Gateway are offering more products that are aimed at domestic media use.

What’s not known though is if public are ready yet for a TV that needs service packs, a firewall and anti-virus software – perhaps media centres will come to use an embedded OS and be more like the TiVo.

Elonex

Gateway’s Wireless, XP Media Centre-aware, DVD Player

Gateway have released an upgrade to their wireless DVD player – and it seems to be a world first. The ADC-320 Wireless Connected DVD Player will take a wide range of content from your PC and show it on your TV. Ideal for watching all those TV programs you recorded with the Windows Media Centre PVR.

The 802.11g enabled player will connect to a PC up to 300 feet away, and is compatible with Windows Media Centre as well as ordinary Windows boxes. Interestingly, multiple ADC-320s on the same wireless network can “listen in” on a media stream and display the same content in multiple locations – handy for events and large parties. Consequently, the DVD player incorporates security features to enable it to comply with secured networks, supporting WEP and WPA encryption.

The player also supports a large range of formats: MP3, MPEG1, 2 and 4, Windows Media , Microsoft PVR and AVI files.

This new hardware is essentially the previous ADC-220 with a firmware upgrade and a 802.11g card in the back – in fact, Gateway are already offering an upgrade path to the 320 through their website.

An ADC-320 will set you back US$199 (€166), and is available now.

More about the ADC-320

Apple’s Faster, Cheaper eMacs

Apple has revised its eMac computer line with two new models. At US$799 and US$999 the two additions are faster, a bit cheaper and have a lot more features than previous versions.

Both of the new models have 1.25GHz G4 processors and 128mb of memory, and incorporate beautiful 17” displays. The more expensive of the two models has an 80gb hard drive (the cheaper only has 40gb) and has Apple’s SuperDrive built in. Both computers have Radeon 9200 graphics with 32mb of its own video memory. It might be because I’m sitting here with a 256mb 9800 that 32mb seems a bit mean, graphics memory wise. But then, I’m sure my card doesn’t even need to wake up to render my typing in OpenOffice.

The new Macs come with iLife ’04, Apple’s digital lifestyle application – see our previous write up on features like GarageBand.

Apple is heavily promoting their AirPort extreme technology for wireless networking with the new eMacs, though it is not included as standard.

Apple Store on the new eMacs