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Techradar |
- Buying Guide: The best student laptops for Christmas
- Review: Keene KLAB20D
- PlayStation Phone plans: Sony boss comments
- Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs plan 'The Daily' iPaper
- In Depth: 25 of the best free PC apps to download
- Buying Guide: 6 of the best 1TB external hard drives for your Mac
- Review: DSpeaker Anti-Mode 8033
- Review: Velodyne CHT-15Q
- Tutorial: 10 tips to protect your online privacy
| Buying Guide: The best student laptops for Christmas Posted: 22 Nov 2010 01:30 AM PST  Buying the best student laptop can be a tricky purchase, because it's highly dependent on the needs of the individual. Some students will look for portability, so that they can take their laptop to the library or to lectures, and this means buying something lightweight. Anything less than 2.5kg should be fine to carry around all day, and this isn't a hugely difficult target. However, living the student life means that others will be looking for a big screen and decent performance for watching DVDs, instead of having a separate TV. This is great for the cramped conditions of student halls of residence, but portability and media performance are normally polar opposites. We've found the best student laptops to suit most needs, but before you buy, think about what it's going to be used for so you can make the right decision. 1. Acer Aspire 1410-742G25N – £299
Performance isn't this laptop's strong point, but it isn't meant to be – instead it offers superb portability. At only 1.4kg, it's a pleasure to carry around and the small form factor makes it very easy to fit into almost any bag, which makes it great for lectures, although not so great for movies and entertainment. The 11.6-inch screen is bright, crisp and clear, and the screen is LED-backlit, which is resource-light on the battery. The Acer Aspire 1410-74G25n sets a very high bar, and the excellent battery life will be a clincher for many buyers. Read our full Acer Aspire 1410-742G25N review 2. Acer Aspire 5551-P32G32Mn – £385
Another budget offering, the Aspire 5551-P32G32Mn is built around a 15.6-inch screen, and despite being large enough to watch movies comfortably, the 2.6kg chassis is nice and light for its size. While its 207-minute battery life is easily bettered, it provides adequate mobility for commuting or use in student digs. Offering impressive performance, great usability, a stunning screen and cutting-edge connectivity, the Aspire 5551-P32G32Mn is perfect for first-time buyers. Add its surprisingly generous software package and you've got a fantastic bargain on your hands. Read our full Acer Aspire 5551-P32G32Mn review 3. Samsung R530 – £387
Not only is the Samsung R530 a nice looking laptop, it also boasts great usability, performance and portability – and all at a very competitive price. What's more, the line-up has been recently updated to include a Core i3 processor, which makes it an extremely attractive proposition. The more we used the Samsung R530, the more we liked it. Performance is above average and the design and usability of the machine really endeared it to us, making it a perfect study companion. Read our full Samsung R530 review 4. Acer Aspire 5741-333G32Mn – £419
The Acer Aspire 5741-333G32Mn is a budget laptop that combines strong performance and mobility with a solid and highly usable chassis. At 2.5kg, the chassis is a little heavier than many in our round up, but it's still light enough to carry in your bag all day. The Intel Core i3-330M chip offers more than enough power to comfortably multitask with fairly demanding office software, making this a successful budget entry in Acer's portfolio. Performance is assured by the Intel Core i3 processor and the strong build makes for a robust and highly usable laptop. Read our full Acer Aspire 5741-333G32Mn review 5. HP G62-a45SA – £477
An Intel Core i3 processor provides ample performance for office tasks. The Core i3-350M chip includes integrated graphics, so while there's not enough power for running complex multimedia applications or playing the latest games, watching high-definition movies and basic photo and video editing is fine. Overall the G62-a45SA is a good machine that offers strong Intel Core i3 performance at a reasonable price and features such as LightScribe disc burning support and a fast hard drive are a welcome bonus. Read our full HP G62-a45SA review 6. Packard Bell EasyNote NM86 – £499
With a weight of 2.3kg and thickness of 34mm, this is a compact and portable laptop. The 303-minute battery life is a great result and means you can leave the charger at home and work at university without too much worry. With excellent build quality and a sharp and vibrant screen, not to mention strong performance for the price, the EasyNote NM86-GN-010UK offers fantastic value for money. Granted, the limited storage is a let-down, but is forgivable considering the many strengths on offer. Read our full Packard Bell EasyNote NM86 review 7. Samsung R730 – £515
Over the past few years, Samsung has impressed us time and again by releasing a range of high-quality laptops at staggeringly low prices. The R730 is an entry-level, big-screen model and proves to be a fantastic home media centre for students who don't want a TV and DVD player. Offering bags of style, great usability and stunning big-screen entertainment, the R730 is a fantastic laptop for students looking for a work and entertainment tool for their bedroom. While it's not at the top of the range in terms of power and features of the Acer, this is still one of the best entry-level laptops you can buy at this price and comes highly recommended. Read our full Samsung R730 review 8. Asus K52F-SX065V – £579
The Asus K52F-SX065V is a 15.6-inch laptop that packs a cutting-edge Intel Core i3-350M processor and manages to greatly impress with a long-lasting battery and high-quality build. The Core i3 processor is designed to provide impressive performance at a budget price and the results are stunning, no doubt helped by the 4GB of system memory. The Asus K52F-SX065V is a great performing laptop at a truly budget price – and it all comes at no cost to battery life. The solid build may be a little heavy for long days on campus, but it offers good protection and great usability. Read our full Asus K52F-SX065V review 9. Apple MacBook 13-inch – £849
The Macbook can easily be bettered by many PCs in terms of performance and value, but design students and those conscious of looking good on campus, will find the £849 price tag worth the premium. The mid-2010 refresh was useful update for the MacBook and the incremental processor boost and a significantly better graphics chipset makes it good value for money. The Nvidia GeForce 320M is a lot more energy efficient than its predecessor, giving the new MacBook a battery life of up to 10 hours on a single charge, which is enough for an entire day at uni, with plenty of juice yet for burning the midnight oil, or listening to tunes late at night. Read our full MacBook 13-inch review 
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| Posted: 22 Nov 2010 01:30 AM PST  This ingenious stereo tuner-amplifier module is the same size as a double mains socket and is designed to fit into a surface or flush-mounted wall box. The KLAB20D includes a FM-only tuner with 10 presets, auxiliary inputs and an efficient 20W per channel Class 'D' amp. One of the auxiliary inputs is a 3.5mm socket, accessible from the unit's front panel and thus ideal for plugging in iPods, personal CD players and so on. Performance The sound quality, although not up to audiophile standards, is very good indeed. With appropriate speakers, which are also connected via screw terminals, the KLAB20D will wipe the floor with the average iPod dock. The basic operating controls take the form of membrane keys, which are resistant to wet fingers and everyday grime; however, the KLAB20D isn't designed for use in damp environments (it's not IP-rated). A remote control handset is also supplied. Bass, treble, loudness and balance controls are available in a 'setup' mode. You can thus adjust the tone to suit your speakers and listening material. There are also 10 volume levels that can be preset. The lack of a frequency display makes radio tuning awkward, and a good aerial feed is needed for all but the strongest of stations. Also, being 25mm deep it may neatly screw onto a double wall box, but the supplied 15V power unit doesn't. The latter is of roughly the same size and shape as a laptop type. Once the unit is installed, you have to partially remove the front panel membrane to access these screws, which can damage it, so be careful. Thankfully, Keene can supply replacement front panels. Related Links
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| PlayStation Phone plans: Sony boss comments Posted: 22 Nov 2010 12:55 AM PST  Following leaked images of a prototype 'PlayStation Phone' earlier last month, the CEO of Sony Ericsson mobile phones has alluded to the development of the gaming phone, claiming that there is "no smoke without fire." Of course, this is far from an official confirmation that such a 'PlayStation Phone' exists, although it strongly suggests that Sony Ericsson and Sony Computer Entertainment are looking at ways of jointly developing gaming on mobile phone. Smoke, fire, mirrors "There's a lot of smoke, and I tell you there must be a fire somewhere," Sony Ericsson Chief Executive Bert Nordberg said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, when quizzed about the leaked images' authenticity. "Sony has an extremely strong offering in the gaming market, and that's very interesting." Whether or not Sony Ericsson's new gaming offering will be PlayStation-branded or Xperia-branded is still to be confirmed, although however the gaming controls on the device are developed and marketed, the phone is set to run Google's Android 3.0 OS when it arrives at some point later in 2011. Current phones not 'optimized for games' iPhones and other current smartphones with touch screens are still not "optimized for games," argued Sony Ericsson's Nordberg. When asked why Sony Ericsson had not released a gaming-focused phone making use of Sony's PlayStation experience, he responded: "I haven't dug into that history, but the future might be brighter," adding, "I'm very glad that we work with a company like Sony, who actually knows how to do it." PSP Phone in Barcelona next Feb? The Sony Ericsson CEO added that there was no technological issues in developing such a phone, but that the major hurdles were legal ones – discussing game rights with third party games publishers. Nordberg promises that the new gaming phone will be making a big noise at next February's Mobile Word Congress in Barcelona "Sony is of course a very strong brand, and why shouldn't we use that?" said Nordberg. "Gaming, including content, is a very interesting proposition." 
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| Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs plan 'The Daily' iPaper Posted: 22 Nov 2010 12:30 AM PST  Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is reportedly set to team up with Apple to launch an iPad newspaper called 'the Daily' this month. Jobs and Murdoch hope that the new iPad newspaper, called 'the Daily' is set to be a game changer when it arrives later in November, according to reports in US newspapers over the weekend. The iPad newspaper project has been under development in New York for months, with both company's hoping that providing quality exclusive content to the iPad should prove to be both profitable and revolutionary. Tabloid meets Broadsheet The editorial line of 'the Daily' hopes to combine "a tabloid sensibility with a broadsheet intelligence", and there is no print edition or – most interestingly – web edition planned. So if you don't have an iPad or a compatible tablet PC device, you will not be able to subscribe and obtain the content on offer from the Daily. The Daily is set to be US-focused and will cost 99 cents (62p) a week. News Corp has reportedly hired 100 journalists to work on the project to date. An announcement is soon to be made about the publication's editor, with rumours in Manhattan media circles pointing towards Jesse Angelo, the managing editor of the New York Post . One source told The Guardian: "He envisions a world in which every family has a iPad in the home and it becomes the device from which they get their news and information. If only 5% of those 40 million subscribe to the Daily, that's already two million customers." The Times recently claimed to have over 100,000 paying customers for its subscriber-only online edition. "Obviously, Steve Jobs sees this as a significant revenue stream for Apple in the future," noted Roger Fidler, head of digital publishing at the Donald W Reynolds Journalism Institute. 
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| In Depth: 25 of the best free PC apps to download Posted: 21 Nov 2010 04:00 AM PST  The internet is an ocean of freeware apps that can be both overwhelming and confusing. How do you know which is best? What happens if you download one and it turns out to be malware? Fear not, computing enthusiast, because PC Plus is here to allay those fears and guide you through the deluge. Here, we'll give you the lowdown on 25 of our top freeware applications. If these aren't already on your PC, you should be asking yourself why not. 1. Firefox We kick off with Mozilla's flagship Firefox, the internet browser that everybody with a clue is using. Its constant updates and wealth of extensions that let you expand the app's functionality to epic proportions are a massive plus.
Built-in features include its private browsing function, the Awesome Bar for finding sites in seconds and session restore for loading the same websites and tabs after a crash. Now really is the time to ditch Internet Explorer. 2. TeamViewer The crucial disadvantage of having an understanding of computers can be that you're the go-to person for your entire family when they're in need of IT support. It can be especially tricky to provide advice over the phone when you're not able to see the problem in front of you. The solution is to install TeamViewer and share the desktop of the person who's asked for your advice, so you can interact with it and discover any issues they're having difficulty with. It has the ability to work behind firewalls and there's even an app called TeamViewer Web Connector for accessing remote desktops from within your internet browser. 3. Skype You'll want to tell the world about your finely-tuned PC and its collection of superb apps – or, at the very least, your close family. What better way to do this than with the power of Voice-over-IP in the form of Skype? Friends on the other side of the globe will be easily contactable by voice or video, and you won't have to pay your gluttonous telephone provider a penny when calling other Skype users. As well as all this, you'll also have access to some incredible offers when calling landlines. 4. ZoneAlarm Free Firewall Once you've got online with Firefox, finding yourself some protection from the various foreign bodies that roam free on the internet should be a priority. That protection will come in the form of a firewall – think of it as a virtual shield against hackers and other baddies – and ZoneAlarm is at the top of its game when it comes to preventing all the unsafe code that hurtles down your copper cabling. 5. Panda Cloud Antivirus In the unlikely event one of said foreign bodies evades your firewall and sets up camp on your hard disk, you'll want another line of defence – a secondary row of ramparts, if you will. Virus-searching and purging are top of the agenda, and Panda Cloud Antivirus does that in a novel way, by storing definitions on a remote web server in the cloud, saving you the hassle of regular heuristic additions. 6. Trillian So you don't have a microphone or webcam? That's no problem, because we have the solution for you: instant messaging from Trillian. You'll be able to type out conversations using your trusty keyboard on a number of different networks, including Astra, Windows Live, Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo. If you grow tired of this, there's also video and audio functionality, so Trillian certainly has all your bases covered. 7. Orbit Downloader While chatting to a long-distance friend, there's a good chance the conversation will stumble onto the topic of music. But if your chum posts a URL to a track recommendation then you'll want to save it to your hard disk with a program more reliable than your default internet connection. With Orbit, the power to download tunes from services including MySpace, YouTube, Imeem, Pandora and Rapidshare is at your fingertips. 8. TrueCrypt It's always important to encrypt your files, including any of your recent downloads. With TrueCrypt, it's possible to secure your entire partition or create a virtual encrypted disk. Either way, in the unlikely event of an adversary attempting to force you to reveal your encryption password, you have plausible deniability because of the lack of signature in the random data. 9. Evernote Life is complicated and keeping tabs on everything can make you become reliant on reminders scrawled on Post-it notes. This isn't very efficient, and using your computer to help is a great solution. Evernote is the king of productivity and you should definitely consider using it to help you get things done. You can plan your next trip, keep a record of your favourite wine, store a file of anything great you've seen in the shops and want to buy, and organise everything so that you can find it in double-quick time. 10. Sumatra PDF Like it or loathe it, thanks to Adobe the PDF is here to stay. Fortunately, you don't have to use the company's own unwieldy Reader application for viewing files. There are very usable lightweight alternatives that just open the files and don't do the kind of song and dance that eats up your resources. Sumatra PDF is one of these and, best of all, it's portable – so you can carry it around on a USB stick for use whenever it's needed. 11. PrimoPDF You don't have to blow the trust fund on an expensive desktop publishing tool when freeware applications can achieve the same goal. All you need is a copy of the very popular OpenOffice.org for layout purposes, along with this handy add-on, and you're able to save out PDFs through a dropdown menu. 12. Paint.NET Graphics applications that are both free and feature-rich are few and far between, but they do exist. Paint.NET is a case in point. It contains functionality to rival commercial products, such as layers, special effects, unlimited history and a whole host of powerful tools, including Gradient, Magic Wand, Clone Stamp, Zoom and Recolour. If you fancy expressing yourself without a huge outlay, then it's one to download. 13. 7-Zip Even with our zippy modern broadband technologies, files can still become corrupt, which is why it's advisable to use archiving software as a kind of wrapping paper. Not only does it help to further decrease the size of the document, but it also gives you a heads-up if something's wrong, whereby extraction is impossible. 7-Zip supports a myriad of formats, including ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, DMG, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MSI and many more, preventing you from being hamstrung when somebody sends you an archive with an obscure extension. 14. uTorrent There are many clients available that you can use to download files from the BitTorrent network. Unfortunately, the majority are clunky and like to inhabit a large memory footprint. uTorrent is not one of these. It uses less than 6MB of memory when running and the executable is only 220kB in size, which means that now there's a lightweight way to access the wealth of content available – most of it legal, some of it... not so much. 15. ImgBurn Gone are the days when you had to fork out cash for writing data onto an optical disc. Now you can burn your files onto CD, DVD, HD DVD and Bluray for free. ImgBurn has everything you'd expect from a utility of this type, including several modes for performing different tasks, such as reading a disc, building an image from your files, writing an image file to disc and verifying that it's 100 per cent readable. There's also a Discovery feature for checking the quality of the burns your drive is producing. ImgBurn supports a wide variety of image, audio and video file formats. 16. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware It's good practice to be on guard against adware, which antivirus suites can sometimes overlook. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware minimises the risk of your computer and its data being infected with worms, trojans, rootkits, diallers, spyware and malware. 17. CCleaner You might be surprised how clogged with binary filth your hard disk becomes over long periods of time. CCleaner sweeps away temporary files, cookies and any other cobwebs that might be slowing down your PC. Best of all, it often takes less than a second to run. 18. Revo Uninstaller You may be under the impression that using Windows' built-in routines for removing software is sufficient, but it's not as thorough as it could be. Revo Uninstaller, on the other hand, clears everything associated with a program from your hard disk. 19. FBackup When PCs crash, there's often data loss. If you're not backed up, this can lead to a great deal of anguish. Make sure you duplicate everything of importance onto a secondary drive, using a tool such as FBackup, for use in the event of a hard disk catastrophe. 20. Recuva When you delete a file, it isn't necessarily purged forever and there's always a possibility that it can be recovered if you've culled it by mistake. With Recuva, you can resurrect those files you've deleted in Windows from your Recycle Bin, your camera's flash card or an MP3 player. 21. VirtualDub Looking to undertake some simple video editing? Then we've found the tool for you. VirtualDub can capture video and process it, but its interface isn't so complicated that it requires a manual as thick as your fist to understand it. There are also plenty of third-party filters available. 22. AutoGK VirtualDub has video editing locked down, but its drawback is the limited export options. AutoGK supports DVDs; MPEG2, such as DVB capture; MPEG1 sources and AVI/DV. Compress footage to DivX or Xvid for small-sized backups of a similar quality to the originals. 23. Songbird If iTunes were an animal, it would be a warthog because of its slow pace. You'll be happy to hear that a usable alternative is available. With Songbird, you can build smart playlists, purchase and download music and rip your CDs. There's even support for the latest smartphones. 24. RealPlayer SP RealNetworks has been quiet for some time – and after its nagging, ad-heavy software of days gone by, it possibly needed to be. But it's back with a remarkably slick offering: RealPlayer SP can download web video, trim it and rip out the audio. 25. VLC Media Player When this app was released, it immediately consigned Windows Media Player to its grave. The reason? VLC's support for pretty much every video format imaginable. Gone are the days when you had one player for one video file type and another player for a different type. 
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| Buying Guide: 6 of the best 1TB external hard drives for your Mac Posted: 21 Nov 2010 02:00 AM PST  Upgrading your Mac's internal hard drive can be a tricky task. It's simple enough if you own a Mac Pro, and the drives in the current MacBook range are designed to be user-accessible. But if you're running an iMac or a Mac mini, replacing the HDD is a task for the professionals. Plugging in an external drive is far more convenient and gives you an extra drive rather than a replacement one. But with so many on offer, which do you choose? For this group test, we're looking at mains-powered desktop devices, based on 3.5-inch form factor hard drives. To make sure we're comparing like with like, they're all 1TB, though most models are available in more than one capacity. The advantage of these drives is that their price-per-GB ratio is better than that offered by portable drives, which are smaller, use 2.5-inch HDDs and are powered through their USB or FireWire data connection. Of course, desktop drives are also less convenient to take from A to B. If your external drive seldom, if ever, leaves your computer, a desktop drive is for you. Macs recognise Windows formatted drives, and reformatting is a simple task anyway, so we've not taken out-of-the-box formatting into account when awarding marks. All drives were formatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for testing.
External hard drives on test Buffalo DriveStation - £74 Test one: Design quality
Full marks for the LaCie here. Designed by top industrial designer Philippe Starck, its sturdy aluminium casing and shiny, molten metal front look absolutely gorgeous. Starck's signature cross sign is projected onto the desktop as a drive status LED too, which is a nice touch. The G-DRIVE is designed to match the Mac Pro, but looks good next to any modern Mac. Build quality is excellent too, being sturdily crafted from brushed aluminium. The Quattro is equally sturdy, but is clearly built for function rather than aesthetics. It's not ugly, but it's just not all that eye-catching either. The Hitachi LifeStudio Desk Plus's plastic build is solid enough, but its form factor and detachable USB key means it demands accessible desk space, and cannot be tucked away out of sight. Buffalo's DriveStation also features a plastic casing. Its shiny surface is reasonably attractive, but it picks up fingerprints faster than the CSI team. Test results
Test Two: Performance
Of the six drives on offer, the Starck, LifeStudio and DriveStation are USB-only, but the DriveStation includes turbo drivers for increased speed. The others all offer FireWire 800 connectivity. Only the Quattro has a FireWire 400 port, but the eGo and G-DRIVE units bundle a FW400-800 cable so you can connect the drive to your Mac's FireWire 400 port. We tested each drive twice, using its fastest connection and bare-bones USB. As most modern Macs have FireWire and desktop drives are rarely carried around and shared with USB-only computers, the fastest test is the most important. And not surprisingly, quickest off the blocks is the Iomega eGo, closely followed by G-Tech's G-DRIVE, both under FireWire 800. Freecom's Quattro also has FireWire 800, but is a little slow compared to the fastest two. Buffalo's USB 2.0 connectivity is significantly boosted by a bundled turbo driver – a great touch for the cheapest drive on offer. Test results
Test Three: Features
Hitachi describes its LifeStudio as 'the hard drive redefined'. It's far more than a bare storage device. Its bundled management suite lets you find, organise and share digital content, view your photos on social networking sites, access online content such as games, news, music and videos, and autosync with the removable USB key mounted on the front of the drive. It's probably not the best choice if you only want data storage, though. Check out everything it can do at www.lifestudio.com. LaCie's Starck has a touch-sensitive section used to launch applications, open files, mount and unmount the drive and more. But the software used to configure it is very flaky when running Snow Leopard. The Starck also gives 10GB of Wuala online storage for a year and a backup package. Iomega's eGo offers a good range of software, including a year's subscription to Trend Micro's Trend Smart Surfing and 2GB storage with MozyHome Online Backup. Test results
Test Four: Value for money
Most of the drives put in a solid rather than spectacular performance when assessed for value for money. The Hitachi LifeStudio Desk Plus is an exception. Given its feature set, its online price of under £90 is a bargain, though once again, not every Mac user wants its unique abilities. The eGo and Quattro drives are very good value for money given the range of connectivity options they offer, but the also-versatile G-DRIVE is a little expensive for a hard drive of 1TB capacity, despite its good looks and quality. Considering its pedigree, you'd expect the LaCie Starck to cost more, but it's actually pretty reasonable for such a uniquely fashioned device. It would certainly have scored higher had its support software not proved so unreliable under Snow Leopard. Buffalo's DriveStation is the cheapest drive on test here, but too many of its bundled features, such as encryption, are Windows-only. Its turbo driver is welcome, though. Test results
The Winner: Iomega eGo Desktop Mac Edition
When adding an external HDD, most of us just want a big, dumb drive for data storage. Iomega's speedy eGo Desktop Hard Drive Mac Edition is ideal. It boasts FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 connectivity, with a bundled cable that lets you connect it to a FireWire 400 port if necessary. The bundled stand lets you position it on its side, and with its grey plastic finish and front grille, it looks right at home next to any aluminium-bodied Mac. Two drives make worthy runners-up. Hitachi's LifeStudio Desk Plus offers a great range of features, accessed via a neat 3D browser, but if all you want is storage, it isn't for you. The G-Technology G-DRIVE is ideal for Mac Pro owners who like matching peripherals, but it isn't cheap. Test results
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| Review: DSpeaker Anti-Mode 8033 Posted: 21 Nov 2010 02:00 AM PST  It's a sad truth, but the average living room isn't suited to sub-bass. Room modes (aka standing waves) can create havoc with the lower frequencies, and can contribute to a response that is often far from smooth. However, insert the DSpeaker Anti-Mode 8033 between the amp's LFE output and your sub's line-level input, calibrate the listening area with the supplied mic, and a series of test tones will allow the 8033 to analyse the response and apply correction, so that the overall LFE response is as flat as possible. Performance It works exceptionally well and makes those lower octaves firmer, smoother and better-defined. Reduces boominess, rendering explosive movie soundtracks cleaner. The Anti-Mode 8033 works across the 16Hz – 144Hz range. Inside the device, a battery of 24 anti-mode filters (with a resolution of 0.5dB) have been implemented in DSP. Despite such internal sophistication, it's easy to install and use. Handily, a bypass switch lets you switch the 8033 out of circuit, and judge the benefits of its processing for yourself. Two outputs are provided, one of which is out of phase with the other. We would have liked the ability to download the original and corrected LFE response-curve data, via a USB port, so we can quantify the effects. Another slight design flaw is the phono sockets are partly recessed, making it difficult to fully insert some varieties of plug (such as the ones QED fits to its Qunex cables). Also worth mentioning is that all of the processing (the signal is converted to digital and treated by DSP before going back to analogue) introduces a delay of milliseconds. Related Links
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| Posted: 21 Nov 2010 01:30 AM PST  I love a purist. When I buy kit I want it to be the offering of those obsessive designers, who create trends that get the ultimate kudos of being copied. That's why I love Velodyne – for its approach and its purity. A company run by utter bass heads. Like rival brand REL, Velodyne is blessedly bonkers and truly 'gets' bass in the same unashamed way. No pathetic mutterings about 'where music finishes', but sheer, unadulterated delight in lows that drop deeply, with powerful, room-inflating might and a literally visceral kick in the intestines. That's the level of performance you get from this CHT-15Q subwoofer. I played some surround tunes from early nutty DVD-A DTS discs and Will Smith's Hancock on Blu-ray. With the latter, the huge impact of a train being stopped on the spot, followed by the basso rumbles as two miles of moving freight pile up in the distance, were wonderful. Meanwhile, music was tracked deep and with grip. The CHT-15Q is filled with Velodyne's very own design of driver and from a range priced like family cars rather than Bentleys. The company do make awesome top-end subs in the DD range but these CHT-Q models, running from 8-inch to this still compact design with a 15-inch dustbin lid in it, are far less costly. Structurally it's quite simple, with classic slot porting built into the enclosure. But it has a neat control system with self EQ-tuning via a supplied microphone. The auto-EQ really does prevent crass hooliganistic boomy settings, even for the hard of thinking.
This has to be a piece of the cost, yet this is the biggest CHT-Q sub, with three quarters of a kilowatt of horribly efficient Class D amplification inside, and still retails for only £1,200. So it's considerable value for money. If this behemoth is too big, you can get it in three smaller sizes. If it was a car, it'd be a Volkswagen Sharan people carrier – big, affordable, roomy, well-made, durable and solid... but with a V6 engine. Related Links
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| Tutorial: 10 tips to protect your online privacy Posted: 21 Nov 2010 12:00 AM PST  Protecting your online privacy should be top of any serious PC user's list of concerns. Here's our guide to how the bad guys steal personal data, and tips revealing how to foil even the most devious villains. 1. Be careful what you put online First, the obvious one. Once you've released something onto the internet, it's never, ever coming back. That doesn't mean you need to become an online hermit, but it does mean that everything you put out either under your own name or a constant pseudonym can come back to haunt you. 2. Check yourself out online After Googling yourself, check out a site such as 192.com, where you'll be able to find your details from the Electoral Roll. The good news is that you can have yourself removed by sending in a form at www.192.com/help/help-home. Repeat this process on similar sites to make yourself completely ex-directory and you should be clear from at least opportunistic searchers. Another thing that people often miss is that if you register a website address, by default your name and address are listed in the Whois database. Non-commercial users can opt out of this on .co.uk addresses, making them a good one to register for personal sites. For other domains, many registrars offer an anonymity service, which really means claiming the domain belongs to a third party, but forwarding any information that comes in. This usually costs a few pounds per year. 3. Watch out for scams Always be on the lookout for phishing sites pretending to be your bank, favourite game's homepage, social media service or similar pages. Never visit one through a link – always type the address in directly. Most phishing attempts are woeful, but occasionally a convincing one slips through. Whatever you do, make sure you never enter any payment or other critical information onto a site with no padlock icon. This means the connection is secure. Without it, anyone could be eavesdropping on the data you send. Many services, such as Gmail and Backpack, also let you use these 'SSL' connections while you're using their service. It slows them down slightly, but not to the extent that you'll notice. 4. Don't trust the padlock Even if a page does have the padlock icon, don't trust it fully. All it means is that technologically speaking, your data is safe, not that the company will treat it properly. As boring and over-padded as they are, it's always worth checking sites' privacy policies to see what they let their employees do. As an example, does that backup site encrypt your data so they can't see it, or do you just have to take their word that they won't sneak a peek? At the very least, you'll be able to seek better restitution if they're caught with their fingers in the till. 5. Only use networks you trust Remember that there's no better way for someone to get your information than by controlling the computer you enter it on. Never use email, banking or similar services from a public terminal, such as at a cybercafe or in an airport, or over a non-trusted Wi-Fi connection. Just because it says 'Free airport Wi-Fi' doesn't mean it's not actually controlled by the man two seats away. At the same time, you're not safe just because you're at home. Regular malware sweeps are essential to make sure you're the only one with the keys to your trusty PC, and that your data's staying put. 6. Check your privacy options Originally, everything on Facebook was locked down. Now things have changed and almost everything is public. Visit http://bit.ly/fbk-privacy to customise your settings and switch off anything you don't want the whole internet to see. 7. Stick to Friends Only Anything you do want to make available, switch it to Friends Only. Friends of Friends opens you up to spammers getting into your network through friends who add everyone who asks. It's best not to play the numbers game and only add people you actually know and trust. 8. Separate your friends Facebook lets you categorise Friends by group, separating work colleagues from friends or family. It's well worth doing this. Remember, it's not just what you post – if one of your friends tags you dancing on a table at a drunken party, that'll appear in your feed too. 9. Check your permissions Facebook now plugs into many websites, which can also get their hands on your data. You should regularly check that you've given them all permission in 'Applications Settings'. If it's a website or application you don't recognise, cancel its access. 10. Stay alert to changes Keep a close eye on any changes to Facebook's privacy options. It's made it clear that it wants people to live more open lives, if only because the more we do, the more it can do with our data. That doesn't mean you have to let it. Keep using it, but remember to stay vigilant. 
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