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Techradar |
- Buying Guide: Best monitor: 12 LCD screens tested
- Tutorial: 5 best uses for OS X smart folders
- Xbox chief: 2011 is all about the Kinect
- HTC 7 Pro UK release date set to January?
- In Depth: 60 best free PC software downloads from Microsoft
- Review: Buffalo LinkStation Mini 500GB
| Buying Guide: Best monitor: 12 LCD screens tested Posted: 27 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST  Picking where to put your pennies when it comes to pricing up a PC can be a pain. Buying the best of everything would sidestep the problem neatly enough. In reality, lottery winnings and banker's bonuses are hard to come by. Compromises must be made. But if any component deserves a large chunk of your dosh, it's undoubtedly a flat panel. For starters, the screen is quite literally a window into the workings of your PC. It's the one component that influences the user experience every time you sit down and fire up. Put another way, a shader-packed graphics card is great for games. For everything else, it's a billion transistors twiddling their thumbs. A high-end CPU admittedly has a wider repertoire. For most things, most of the time, however, a cheap quad-core chip delivers all the performance you can actually use. So, a good PC monitor gives more and it gives it more often. That's not all. Flat panels do not develop as rapidly as most PC-related technologies. Buy a high-end pixel pumper today, and it will be looking old hat inside six months; Performance boosts of 50 per cent or more from one generation to the next isn't unheard of. Likewise, CPUs, hard drives, you name it. But not screens. A great example here is our very own Dell 30 incher. It's over three years old. That's an eternity by the standards of most PC components. But it's still a stunning screen. In terms of scale and resolution, in fact, it hasn't been bettered. What's more, it probably has at least a year or two as a high-end screen left in it. In that context, if you'd paid £800 in 2007 you can spread the cost over five years. Suddenly, it doesn't look so expensive. That's not to say flat panel technology is at a stand still. As we'll see, there are some interesting developments afoot in all parts of the market. But what it does mean is that is that a quality monitor is almost definitely the best long-term investment that you can make for your PC. With the general case in favour of flat panels all sown up, it's time to get specific. The PC monitor industry is currently dominated by a single screen technology, the liquid crystal display or LCD for short. However, there are several variations on that theme. Not all panels are equal. LCD panels explained Getting to grips with the three main LCD panel types is therefore your first and most important step towards flat-panel perfection. However, it's also handy to have a basic understanding of how an LCD panel works. Every picture element or 'pixel' in a liquid crystal display contains – you guessed it – liquid crystals. A typical LCD panel is made up of thousands, if not millions of these pixels arranged in a grid. Behind this grid is a backlight. Shove an electric current through the crystals courtesy of a pair of transparent electrodes and – presto-chango – they realign. In simple terms, there are two basic positions or states the crystals can assume, one that blocks light and one that allows light through. Strictly speaking the crystals don't actually block light, they polarise it and in combination with static polarisation filters light either passes through the LCD panel or is blocked. Anyway, the crystals can assume a huge number of intermediate positions between on and off, allowing some but not all light to pass through. What's more, in a colour LCD panel every pixel is made up of three individual elements covered by filters in the primary colours: red, green and blue. Vary the intensity of light passing through each of these elements and you end up with a full palette of per-pixel colours. Clever, eh? If that's the basics, the details of how each panel controls the crystals vary considerably and that throws up some very obvious differences in image quality. Which brings us to the first of our flat panel triumvirate: cheap 'n' cheerful Twisted Nematic. Usually known as TN, its raison d'etre is quite simply to be the most affordable full-colour active-matrix LCD technology. Consequently, TN panels aren't exactly renown for world-beating visual fidelity. The trouble with TN In fact, TN panels suffer from a number of inherent image quality problems. Poor viewing angles are perhaps the most obvious give away that you're looking at a TN panel. The problem here involves the way the liquid crystals in a TN panel are effectively fixed at one end. When a current is passed through, the crystals bend or 'twist', hence the name. However, this is not as effective or accurate as crystals that are free to fully rotate. The upshot of using this particular technology is that light tends to leak out at undesirable angles and that means that colours can look odd if the panel is not viewed from directly in front of it. Then there's the fact that the default position of the crystals in a TN panel allows light through. Combined with the restricted crystal movement, this tends to result in poor black colours, limited contrast and an overall watery, washed out appearance. Put simply, TN panels are leaky when it comes to light. Those bendy crystals make for relatively poor colour accuracy, too. However, it's not all bad news. The limited range of crystal movement does have one upside – quick response. Put a current through a TN pixel and the crystals jump to faster than any other panel type. That means sharper moving images. Perfect for games and films, in other words. In-Plane Switching Next up is In-Plane Switching or IPS. This technology is effectively everything that TN is not. In other words, it's pricey but pulchritudinous [Ed - the dictionary says 'bootiful!']. For starters, the crystals in an IPS panel are free to fully rotate about their axis. They also have a pair of controller transistors per picture sub-element where other panel types have just one. The net result of which is that IPS panels control light better than any other LCD technology. That translates into the most accurate and realistic colours and the widest viewing angles. And that's why you find companies, such as Apple trumpeting the use of IPS panels in devices like the iPhone 4. In many ways, IPS is the finest LCD tech available at the moment. IPS is not, however, the best by every metric. The extended range of movement the crystals can achieve makes for longer response times and blurrier moving images. IPS panels are also not all that hot at completely blocking out the backlight. VA, the halfway house Indeed, that's a trick done best by our final panel tech, Vertical Alignment. There are two types of VA panels, PVA and MVA. The former is more common, but the basic principles are common to both of them. Most significantly, the default, current-free position of the crystals blocks light from passing through. This allows the deepest and most convincing blacks of any LCD panel technology and the greatest contrast between dark and light tones. That in turn allows for the richest, most saturated (if not the most accurate) colours. In most other regards, VA panels are a perfect halfway house between TN and IPS panels. They're more colour-accurate than the former, but lack the fidelity of the latter. Likewise, VA screens are halfway between the two when it comes to viewing angles and pixel response. Screen tricks If that's the crucial panel types covered, there are a number of secondary screen technologies that are worth understanding. Until recently, backlight technology had been essentially static for a decade or more. You could have any backlight you wanted, as long as it was based on Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFL). More recently, LED or Light Emitting Diode technology has begun to assimilate LCD monitors, having already become de rigueur in high-end HDTV sets. It's important to appreciate that current LED monitors are still based on LCD technology for the panel itself. It's only the backlight that is LED powered. All the usual LCD caveats therefore apply. However, LED backlights do deliver a number of important advantages. For starters, they use less power. They also respond more quickly, making dynamic contrast technology more viable. But most of all, they produce purer light, allowing a wider gamut of colours. Another factor that effects image quality on any monitor is digital image processing technology. At least, that's what the manufacturers would like you to believe. The most widely publicised is dynamic contrast. The theory behind dynamic contrast makes a lot of sense. Games and movies vary in brightness from outdoor daytime vistas to dingy dungeon scenes. Why not vary the backlight to suit? That's just what a lot of monitors are now capable of doing. The result, on paper at least, are incredible contrast ratios measuring in the millions to one. In practice, dynamic contrast doesn't really deliver. More than anything, it tends to crush detail in darker scenes. Another lesser known digital enhancement technology is pixel overdrive. The idea here is to improve pixel response. It's achieved by pumping excess voltage through the liquid crystal in an attempt to get them to move more quickly. In practice, it does just that. But it also has a tendency to cause the pixels to overshoot the target colour state. When that happens, the colours can go a bit, well, weird. That's not all. When used in VA panels, overdrive can cause another problem, the dreaded input lag. This involves a tangible delay between the output signal from the video card and the resulting image update on the panel itself. As an end user, you notice this in the form of sluggish mouse responses on the Windows desktop or laggy inputs when playing games. Pick a panel (or two) That's key technologies covered. Now it's time to pick a panel and that means setting a budget, choosing a size and deciding on the resolution. When it comes to the latter, your choices have become more limited of late. Nearly all 22 to 24-inch panels now sport the standard full-HD 1,920 x 1,080 resolution. On the upside, that means that even bargain basement 22-inch panels below £150 offer as much desktop real estate as many larger screens. In fact, you have to go all the way up to the likes of Dell's £700-plus U2711 27-inch monitor or HP's £1,200 30 incher before you actually get more pixels than a cheap HD 22-inch monitor. It's also worth remembering that the pixel pitch, or pixel size, on a 22-inch HD monitor is much smaller than that of a 24-inch or larger HD monitor. That impacts image quality in a number of mostly positive ways such as improved clarity and sharpness. A more ambiguous benefit of a tighter pixel pitch is smaller text, which will or won't bother you depending on your eyesight. A further knock-on effect is that with 22-inch HD monitors, the pixel pitch is so small it's debatable whether anti-aliasing is really necessary. So, there you have it. It may seem like there's a lot to learn when it comes to picking a panel. But the key lessons are simple enough. First, remember that all panels are not equal. If a given screen is large and cheap, it's probably based on a TN LCD. Second, the latest LED powered monitors are desirable but not the huge leap forward manufacturers would have you believe. Finally, don't assume that a bigger screen will have a higher resolution, that's rarely the case. Hit the next page for the monitor reviews... HANNS.G HP222DJ0
When does a cut-price screen becomes a flat-screen false economy? It's tempting to think the Hanns.G HP222DJ0 is plenty cheap but not particularly cheerful. After all, by at least one obvious metric it's well behind the competition. This is an old school 16:10 aspect ratio screen where the rest of the known universe has gone 16:9. The old-school means full 1080p HD is not on the menu here. Instead, you must make do with 1,680 x 1,050. LG E2350V
A 23-inch monitor with a full-HD 1,920 x 1,080 pixel grid for under £150? Impressive stuff. But that's not all. The brandspanking LG E2350V adds a voguish LED backlight to what already seems like a bonkers bargain. Then there's the screen bezel hewn from transparent purple plastic and sporting a glossy finish, not to mention HDMI and DVI connectivity. It's a great package. Read the full LG E2350V review IIYAMA E2271HDS
When it comes to screens, bigger isn't always better. At least, that's the hope for the new Iiyama E2271HDS. By most metrics it looks competitive with the £150 monitor brigade. But at 22 inches in overall screen girth, it's a little short on stature. While the E2271HDS might be smaller than some of the competition, it's still a full-HD panel, packs 1,920 x 1,080 pixels and sports an LED backlight. Read the full Iiyama E2271HDS review BENQ EW2420
This is it, folks. The holy grail of LCD monitors. The messiah of flat panels. A truly affordable large display powered by something other than a TN panel, in other words. We give you the new BenQ EW2420 24 incher, yours for a whisker over £150 and sporting a VA panel. Cue much rejoicing. That's cheaper than many 24-inch TN monitors. But somehow the EW2420 also packs an LED backlight and delivers the real-HD deal courtesy of a 1,920 x 1,080 pixel grid. Read the full BenQ EW2420 review BENQ V2410T
Spare a thought for the BenQ V2410T. Until recently, it was an extremely attractive 24-inch monitor. Not only does it sport a full-HD 1,920 x 1,080 pixel grid. It also packs an LED backlight and a fully adjustable stand. Not bad for around £160. Problem is, BenQ itself has only gone and launched the even more desirable EW2420, taking the 24-inch plus LED recipe and adding VA panel technology to the mix. Read the full BenQ V2410T review SAMSUNG LD220Z
Got a desktop replacement laptop and fancy adding a second display in dual-monitor mode? Then the Samsung LD220Z Lapfit Touch is for you. It's a 22-inch full HD screen designed for portable PCs. As the name suggests, this has full multi-touch functionality. In fact, it doesn't even need special drivers. Connect via USB to any Windows 7 PC and the touch capabilities are enabled. Ergonomically, it works well enough and it's a slick-looking screen thanks to the minimalist design and glossy black bezel. Read the full Samsung LD220Z review IIYAMA E2710HDS
When it comes to sheer visual drama, there's no substitute for square inches. You need a really large display like the Iiyama E2710HDS. What you do not need, however, is a banker's bonus to afford one. An impressive 27 inches of flat panel is now available for under £250. Still, it's no surprise to find the Iiyama E2710HDS gives you little extra apart from those inches. The panel technology is, of course, trusty old TN and the native resolution is 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. Read the full Iiyama E2710HDS review SAMSUNG PX2370
Desktop monitors with cheap TN panels have been the bane of our computing lives in recent times. But what about desktop monitors with expensive TN panels? Enter the Samsung PX2370: a paradox in a flat panel. Without doubt, TN screen technology has improved dramatically in the last 18 months. But can this 23-inch TN panel justify its hefty price tag? Read the full Samsung PX2370 review HANNS.G HZ281
There can be only one winner in the battle of the big, budget-priced screens. But will it be this 28-inch Hanns.G HZ281 monitor or its nemesis, the 27-inch Iiyama E2710HDS? The 28-inch Hanns.G obviously squeaks it for square inches. However, the HZ281 also sports a 16:10 aspect ratio. That makes the size differential in square inches even larger. But it also means the HZ281 has more pixels. ACER GD245HQ
Whether it's gaming or movies, it seems the whole world is going mad for stereoscopic 3D. Does that make the 3D-capable Acer GD245HQ the monitor of the moment? By most metrics, it's a pretty ordinary panel. It's a 24 incher with a TN panel, a CCFL backlight and the standard issue 1,920 x 1,080 HD pixel grid. None of that would be bad if it weren't for the near £300 pricing. Read the full Acer GD245HQ review DELL U2711
Can PC monitors be too big? Speak to owners of über 30-inch displays and you may be surprised by the answer. That's where the Dell Ultrasharp U2711 steps in. At 27 inches, it's significantly smaller than ultra-panels such as HP's ZR30W. But thanks to a monster pixel grid of 2,560 x 1,440, it gives very little away in terms of native resolution. It's also quite a bit cheaper than most 30 inchers. But you still get a first-rate feature set. Read the full Dell U2711 review HP ZR30W
Think about computing giant HP and we suspect images of corporate cubes leap to mind more readily than sexy screens. But there's no doubting the new HP ZR30W is an absolute stunner. It's a 30-inch monster with a high quality IPS panel and a monster resolution of 2,560 x 1,600. It comes with a massive price tag to match, of course. But the HP ZR30W is an awful lot of screen. And the best monitor is... The market for vaguely affordable LCD monitors has been dominated by mediocre TN panels with samey image quality for some time now. Mercifully, that has finally begun to change. Firstly, BenQ has blown things wide open with it's ridiculously cheap new 24-inch VA screen. Here's hoping that becomes a trend. Even if it's a one off, however, there are reasons to be optimistic. The rapid adoption of LED backlights is giving a welcome boost to image quality across almost all price points. Moreover, panel manufacturers are beginning to get to grips with the inherent shortcomings of TN technology. The best TN panels of today aren't far off matching IPS panels from a few years ago. On that optimistic note, it's time to wheel out the prizes. Bringing up the rear is Hanns.G's 22 incher, the HP222DJ0. In isolation, it's not a bad panel for around £130. But you get so very much more for an extra £20 in terms of everything from size to resolution and image quality. Next up is Samsung's PX2370. It's a surprisingly poor showing, but there's no getting around the fact that this 23-inch monitor is horribly, horribly overpriced. Another Samsung display takes the next slot. It's also overpriced, but the LD220Z Lapfit Touch does have a number of unique features, including multitouch capability, to justify its £225 tag. There's absolutely nothing ordinary about HP's majestic 30 incher, the ZR30W. It's a fabulous screen. Problem is, it comes at a fabulous price. Dell's gorgeous 27-inch U2711 is pretty pricey, too. But £700-odd feels much more attainable than nearly £1,200. In either case, if you can afford them you won't be disappointed. It's going to be literally years before anything significantly better than this pair comes along. If £700-plus is out of the question, do not despair. A pair of very serviceable large-scale screens is available for a fraction of the cost. The Iiyama E2710HDS is bright, powerful and gives you 27 inches of full HD for just £235. Even better, if only marginally, is the Hanns.G HZ281. It gives you an extra inch and a few more pixels along with an equally powerful backlight and decent image quality. All of which means there can be only one winning panel. You might think it was obvious from the beginning. But the BenQ EW2420 still had to deliver on the enormous promise of a 24-inch VA panel, plus LED backlight for just over £150. It's not a perfect screen, but it's by far the best budget monitor currently on the market. 
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| Tutorial: 5 best uses for OS X smart folders Posted: 26 Dec 2010 04:00 AM PST  One of the things Apple has been very keen on since the original Macintosh is the idea of making technology less complicated. By making things simpler and more streamlined, and decreasing complexity (sometimes – although not always – at the expense of very direct control), Apple has honed user experiences that have taken the industry in new directions. Nowhere is this clearer than in file and media management. Take a terrifying trip back to the distant past (well, the early 80s), and file systems were all about making you work with command lines. Apple obliterated this with Mac OS, encouraging a pointer-driven desktop metaphor that still exists in OS X and rival operating systems. However, with the huge number of files users juggle today, the drag-and-drop file system has become unwieldy, forcing users to spend hours filing documents, and then rifling back through nested folders to unearth them at a later date. In the Spotlight With OS X 10.4, Apple introduced Spotlight, its first blow against the traditional file system. The idea with Spotlight is that you use a search term to find what you want, and the list of suggested items dynamically updates as you amend your term. In many cases, this renders the file system obsolete. And with Spotlight also came the ability to save and edit searches, based on user-defined criteria, as smart folders. Smart folders in Finder are actually a type of virtual folder, a concept first fully championed by the innovative BeOS, but that's since been taken on wholesale by Apple. Prior to Spotlight's arrival, Apple had trialled the concept in iTunes (as smart playlists) and iPhoto (as smart albums), but it's now integrated directly into Finder, along with Mail (as smart mailboxes) and Address Book (as smart groups). Although there are variations in the way virtual folders work in these apps, it's important to understand that they are a relatively generic concept. In the same way that you don't re-learn how to cut, copy and paste in different applications, don't think you have to start from scratch when you've mastered virtual folders in iTunes and then move to iPhoto or Mail. There are common themes with virtual folders. You create and name the container, and then use one or more conditions and values to define what the container provides access to, regardless of where the items are stored on your Mac (or the library of an application, in the likes of iPhoto). Depending on your wishes, you can set the container to include items that match all or any defined conditions. (iTunes goes further, providing the potential for more complex logic via nested groups of conditions.) Containers can be edited later, so you can update conditions when needed. Also remember that virtual folders really are virtual – if you delete a smart folder in Finder or a smart album in iPhoto, the items that were in it are unaffected. How to effectively use virtual folders 1. Smart playlists in iTunes
iTunes offers the most powerful implementation of virtual folders in Mac OS X, enabling you to nest groups of rules. Create a smart playlist via File > New Smart Playlist (or Option+Command+N). In the Smart Playlist window, select a criterion from the left-most menu and add values using the second menu and the field. Use the + button to add extra rules. Rules can be deleted using the – button, although there's no undo. Create nested rule sets using the … button. Use all or any match menu item(s) to determine whether results depend on all or any conditions being met. For example, set Artist is [The Beatles] and Date Added is in the last [12] months; all then returns Beatles tracks added in the past year, but any returns all Beatles tracks and all tracks by other artists added over the past 12 months. Good uses for smart playlists include returning dynamic lists of highly rated tracks, those you've not heard recently, those you've recently added, or a combination of these things. To edit an existing smart playlist, select it in the iTunes sidebar and go to File > Edit Smart Playlist. 2. Smart groups in Address Book In Address Book, File > New Smart Group (or Option+Command+N) starts the process. Conditions are based on fields within a card, including notes; if you're a member of a football team, you could add [football team] to the Notes section of relevant contacts, and then create a smart group with the condition Note contains [football team]. If you check Highlight group when updated, groups are highlighted in the Address Book sidebar when changes occur. To edit a selected smart group, go to Edit > Edit Smart Group. Since Address Book integrates with other OS X applications, you can type a smart group name into iCal or Mail, and the application will automatically replace it with the members of the group. 3. Smart albums in iPhoto
File > New Smart Album (or Option+Command+N) creates a smart album, and conditions are defined in a sheet. With iPhoto, conditions can be based around tags applied to photos (manually or automatically), including description, date, face, keyword and rating. There are also hardware based options. You can set up date-based smart albums (Date is in the last [1] months), an album of iPhone pictures (Camera model is [Apple iPhone 4]), or a smart album of your imported iOS device videos (Keyword contains [movie]). To edit a selected smart album, go to File > Edit Smart Album. 4. Smart mailboxes in Mail
If you get lots of email, Mail's smart mailboxes are invaluable. Mailbox > New Smart Mailbox gets things started, and conditions similar to iPhoto. Checkboxes towards the bottom of the sheet enable you to toggle the inclusion of messages from Trash and Sent. Mailbox > Edit Smart Mailbox enables you to edit a smart mailbox. Good ideas for smart mailboxes include: creating a repository for unread mail (Message is Unread and Message is not in Mailbox Junk); date-based collections (such as Date Received is in the last [7] Days); and overlooked emails (Message is in Mailbox Inbox and Date Received is not in the last [7] Days). 5. Smart folders in Finder
Creating virtual folders in Finder differs from other applications. After going to File > New Smart Folder (or Option+Command+N), a new Finder window opens. You then define conditions in the window. To add keywords, type them in the search field. By default, few criteria are available, but you can access more via the Other… option in the search attribute menu; you can also check In Menu checkboxes in the selection sheet so your favourite attributes will show up in future. Click Save to save your smart folder. By default, they live in ~/Library/Saved Searches and the Add To Sidebar option adds them to Finder sidebars for easy access. To edit a smart folder, open it in Finder and select Show Search Criteria from the Action menu (the one with the cog icon). 
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| Xbox chief: 2011 is all about the Kinect Posted: 26 Dec 2010 03:25 AM PST  Microsoft's Stephen McGill has insisted that 2011 will be the Xbox 360's year of the Kinect. The Xbox chief believes that, despite a 'brilliant' line up of games for the 360, it will be the motion controller Kinect add-on that defines 2011. "As for the future, we've got a brilliant line-up for 2011 but it's ultimately all about Kinect," McGill told CVG. Blow people's minds " Kinect is going to blow people's minds. They're [already] buying it, but we've got a line-up of Kinect games that will blow people away." Microsoft was aiming to sell 5 million Kinects by the end of 2011, with reviewers conceding that several underwhelming launch titles did not detract too heavily from the potential of the device. TechRadar'sKinect reviewsuggested that the Kinect was turning the Xbox 360 into a much more rounded console. Many major developers will unleash their offerings for the Kinect next year, and hopes are high that the motion and voice controller will begin to show just why Microsoft is so excited about the device. Via CVG 
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| HTC 7 Pro UK release date set to January? Posted: 26 Dec 2010 02:37 AM PST  The HTC 7 Pro – the latest Windows Phone 7 Handset – could be set for a UK release date in January. The German O2 site has suggested that the eagerly awaited handset will be available early in 2011, after missing out on an early projection of a Christmasarrival. The HTC 7 Pro brings a QWERTY keyboard (that's the Pro bit) along with all the familiar offerings of the first raft of Windows Phone 7 handsets. Key manufacturer HTC has, of course, been a key manufacturer of handsets that sport Microsoft's operating systems, even before the software giant managed to bring itself bang up to date with its latest offering. Given the familiarity with Microsoft products in the average enterprise IT department, Windows Phone 7 is likely to be a popular choice, especially with the addition of a QWERTY keyboard. It will, however, need to show that it's a worthy competitor to RIM's BlackBerry, which has become the handset of choice of many businesses in the past five years. 
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| In Depth: 60 best free PC software downloads from Microsoft Posted: 26 Dec 2010 02:00 AM PST  Chances are, you know that alongside Windows and Office, Microsoft makes a number of apps that are free for all. But the actual number might just surprise you. When we started counting up all the best free Microsoft apps, we thought we'd find 20 or 30. In the end, by the time we'd reached 60, we realised we'd have to stop, just to fit them all in. And because this is Microsoft, these apps aren't just OK, they're good. Great, even. There's a free program or service for just about every aspect of PC use, from headline-grabbers such as Windows Live Essentials and Microsoft Office Web Apps to smaller but no less useful tools such as Microsoft Autoruns, Security Essentials and Desktops. It's not just about work, either; Microsoft is responsible for lots of apps that are enjoyable and fun to use. See through the eyes of the world's telescopes, play a game or two or – better still – create your own with Kodu Game Lab. The list just keeps on growing. Some of the programs here are unfinished, and clearly marked as such. That means there's a chance you may run into problems using them – nothing major, but take a System Restore point before you proceed, just in case. We also recommend you don't attempt to install every program in this list in one go; you'll quickly bring your computer to its knees. Instead, pick out tools that excite you and give them a go. With the Windows Live apps, you can choose the ones you want when you download the Windows Live Installer program. So, what are you waiting for? You're about to make your PC more efficient, secure and fun without spending a thing. Microsoft Office Web Apps This must be one of the company's biggest giveaways; you can now have access to the core features of Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote for free through your web browser. Just log on with your Windows Live ID to create new documents or upload existing ones from your computer to your Windows Live SkyDrive account, then edit them in your browser window. Even if you already own a copy of Microsoft Office, this useful freebie enables you to access your documents from any webconnected computer. Windows Live Mail It's simply the best free email tool there is – essential for Windows 7 users, and a step up from both Microsoft Outlook Express and Windows Mail, too. Reasons to upgrade? It works brilliantly with multiple email accounts, gives you offline access to web-based providers such as Hotmail and Gmail and organises your mail intelligently into conversations.
It also integrates cleverly with a built-in calendar, enabling you to organise your life, too. Windows 7 and Windows Vista users can also enjoy the new photo email option, which enables you to share dozens of pictures without clogging up other people's inboxes. Windows Live Hotmail The beauty of a web-based email account such as Windows Live Hotmail is that it enables you to access your messages from wherever you happen to be. If you log on through your browser, you can also reap the benefits of lots of other useful features, such as a junk mail filter and access to your other accounts, calendar and contacts list. Outlook Connector Pack If you want to get access to Hotmail in Microsoft Outlook 2003 or later, install this add-on, which comes with Windows Live Essentials 2011. Once it's set up, just create a new account in Outlook, choosing the option to manually configure when prompted to access the Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector option. Free Microsoft Office Templates Need some inspiration for, or a helping hand with, your next Office document? Just visit the Templates section of the Office website (see the link above), where you'll find a mind-boggling number of useful options. They're divided up into dozens of categories, which cover all of the major Office applications, and can be accessed through each of the individual Office programs when you create a new document. Microsoft Producer For PowerPoint This free-to-use add-on for PowerPoint makes it incredibly simple to create web-based presentations from existing PowerPoint slides. You can also use it in association with other media sources, such as video, audio and images. You'll need to use the Microsoft Office Animation Runtime plug-in unless you're running Office 2007 – a handy download link is provided on the Microsoft Producer download page. pptPlex This tool enables you to zoom into and out of your PowerPoint slides, as well as jump between non-sequential ones. Once it's installed, launch PowerPoint and view the video tutorial to find out how to use it. Forgotten Attachment Detector Do you often forget to attach files to important emails? Stop embarrassment by installing this add-on for Outlook 2007 and 2010. It flashes up a warning if it thinks you've forgotten to include attachments with your message. Free images and clip-art
Need to jazz up an Office document with some relevant imagery? Thousands upon thousands of free photos, clip art and other illustrations are available at the Office website – download individual pictures through the site or use the Microsoft Clip Organizer tool (part of Office). Noreplyall Outlook Add-in This tiny extension adds two buttons to the Ribbon in Outlook 2007 and 2010, enabling you to prevent people in the same organisation from forwarding or clicking Reply to all when they get the email you're about to send out. Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack This tool enables users of Office 2000, XP and 2003 to open, edit and save documents in the new 2007 formats in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Install it and the functionality is immediately available in Office's File Open and Save As dialogue boxes. Ribbon Hero The Ribbon interface was a great step forward for Office 2007 and 2010, but if you want to get the most of it, install Ribbon Hero. It monitors what you do in Office and makes suggestions as to which features you should learn about that could help you do your work more efficiently. It also helps you learn about the Ribbon interface using games and tasks that can be played with your friends and colleagues. Canvas for OneNote 2007/2010 Struggling to stay on top of your notes? This standalone app enables you to view, edit and organise your notes as though you'd laid them all out in front of you on a desk for easy access. Click a section to zoom in on it. You can then view and edit individual notes quickly and easily in the usual way. Microsoft Office Viewers Don't have access to a copy of Office on another computer? You can now install special Viewers for Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, Visio or PowerPoint documents, enabling you to open, look at and print your work without having to download Office. Microsoft SharedView This online meeting tool can be used for both professional and personal collaborations. Just log on using your Windows Live ID and start a session – it works like Windows Meeting Space in Windows 7, except that the program functions with Windows Vista and Windows XP, too. It also enables you to share individual applications, or even your entire desktop, and distribute important files as handouts. TrueSpace 7.61 Imagine this: an incredibly powerful 3D modelling application that's yours for free! TrueSpace enables you to create 3D models, landscapes and photo-realistic objects for all kinds of purposes via a point-and-click interface – you can even use it to design your dream home. Head to the Caligari website for a helpful series of comprehensive tutorials that will familiarise you with this powerful tool. IEToys Add extra features to Internet Explorer with this free collection of add-ons, most of which are accessible simply by right-clicking the page or selected text. Hide distracting images from a web page, look up words in an online dictionary, encyclopedia or search engine, and fix malformed web links. IEToys also automatically optimises Internet Explorer to take advantage of fast broadband connections when downloading files. Desktops
Too many open windows? Desktops enables you to organise programs and windows in up to four virtual desktops – switch via the Notification tray icon or by assigning hotkeys; perfect for comparing several open windows without having to resort to the taskbar. PageDefrag This tool enables Windows XP users to examine and – if necessary – defragment key system files when the PC is next restarted, giving their computer a performance boost. Internet Explorer Are you running the latest version of Internet Explorer on your PC? Windows 7 comes with version 8 already installed, but Windows XP and Windows Vista users should update to the latest model for better performance. You can also try the upcoming Internet Explorer 9, which promises speedy browsing among other advanced features. Microsoft Fix It Center Microsoft offers a collection of quick-fix tools to accompany many Microsoft Knowledge Base articles, and the Fix It Center troubleshooters bring them all under one roof, giving you quick and easy access to a wide range of solutions. The program is currently in beta, and only available for Windows XP and Windows Vista. Windows 7 users are directed to the Microsoft Fix It Solution Center, where the tools are available as standalone downloads. Malicious Software Removal Tool This is designed to detect and remove a wide range of known infections from your computer. It can't protect you against viruses in the first place – that's a job for your security software – but if something gets on to your system, it may be able to help with removing it. The program is updated once a month through Windows Update, when it scans your computer for possible infections; to run it manually, download it from the link above. Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer Give your computer, as well as any other networked PCs you use, a once-over for security problems with this free tool. It works by verifying that your system is fully patched with the latest Windows updates, and examines it for specific areas of weakness. For example, it can flag up whether or not adequate protective software has been installed. RichCopy RichCopy is designed to speed up large file transfers over the network, mainly by copying multiple files at once to make maximum use of your network's bandwidth. It's aimed largely at power users – click Settings to see a bewildering array of options – but it can also be used simply by choosing your source and destination directories (click Connect to select your network destination), then clicking the Copy button to let it perform its magic. Windows Search 4.0 Windows XP users jealous of how quickly searches are performed in Windows 7 and Windows Vista can benefit from the same super-fast technology with Windows Search 4.0. Once installed, allow time for your drive's contents to be indexed and then use the Search box on the taskbar to gain quick and easy access to all your precious files, wherever they're hiding. AutoRuns Start-up programs hit Windows performance twice over – firstly by extending the time it takes to start Windows, and then by hogging valuable system resources, giving your computer less to work with. Autoruns enables you to see what's starting with Windows, identify unknown items and disable or delete anything nonessential to make your computer faster. Windows 7 and Windows Vista users should run the program as an Administrator in order to make changes. ClearType Tuner Power Toy This enables you to calibrate your display to make your text sharper, clearer and more legible, which can only help those tired eyes. It's built into Windows 7, while Windows XP users can download a Control Panel applet from the Microsoft Typography website; Windows Vista users should use the online tool to calibrate their displays. Windows Live Messenger Microsoft's instant messaging tool has come of age – the 2011 version is designed to be the social hub of your online life, giving you access to social networking sites and your Windows Live account. Behind all of this is the same great chat tool, perfect for staying in touch via text, voice and video. Windows Live Writer One of the drawbacks of blogging is that it usually has to be done through your browser while you're online. Windows Live Writer changes that – you can access your page through a more civilised interface, composing posts offline and publishing them when you're good and ready. Windows Live Movie Maker You'll be surprised at how easy transforming a collection of video clips and photos into a movie can be. Windows Live Movie Maker ensures it's a breeze without compromising on quality – with just a few clicks, your movie can be burned to DVD or distributed over the internet via YouTube. And with HD support, you can really make the most of your camera's capabilities. Yule Log Visualisation Warm your cockles – virtually speaking – with this visualisation of a roaring fire, designed for Windows Media Player. Access it by switching to the Now Playing mode, then right-click to the left of the playback controls and select Visualizations ➜ Yule Log ➜ Yule Log. Perfect for Christmas time. Kodu Game
Why get frustrated playing other people's games when you can design your own from scratch? Kodu Game Lab employs a simple point-and-click interface – it's aimed at children, but adults will appreciate the efforts made to make programming more enjoyable. We recommend checking out the video tutorial before you begin. Windows Media Player 11 If you're still running Windows XP, upgrading to version 11 of Media Player is a must. The interface is slicker and friendlier, burning CDs is less troublesome and a new Sync tab ensures that sharing music with your portable device is easy. Windows Live Photo Gallery Import, organise and edit your photo collection without hassle using this powerful cataloguing tool. Windows Live Photo Gallery also boasts some nifty ways of sharing your photos, with tools for creating panoramas, slideshows and even movies. Once complete, you can upload your pictures to various online services, or send them in a photo email. Microsoft Image Composite Editor
Stitch together several overlapping photos to create a widescreen panorama. It can be saved as a single file or shared through the PhotoSynth website (see opposite). Microsoft Silverlight Many interactive websites and several applications require the free Microsoft Silverlight plug-in to be installed before you can enjoy their content. Get it from the web address above or install it as part of Windows Live Essentials. Microsoft Zune Player This online music and video store has expanded to include unlimited music streaming as well as sales of songs and movies. All of this is accessible through the sleek Zune Player, which is worth looking at as an alternative to Media Player, even if you don't plan on using the service. Games For Windows - Live This program puts you in touch with millions of other gamers, offering in-game chat and messaging to boost the atmosphere and add an extra edge to your experience. After you've signed in you'll be able to download a game, Tinker, for free. Bing Maps 3D View the web in 3D to make it easier to find and locate the information you're after. You can navigate with your mouse and keyboard to pan, tilt and move around the landscape, and even create your own 3D objects. Worldwide Telescope Enjoy the best imagery from the world's ground- and space-based telescopes, including Hubble. Look out for the Guided Tours tab – a great place to get started. Microsoft Photosynth Photosynth goes one step further than Microsoft ICE, enabling you to create a 360° panorama from photos quickly and easily. You'll need to sign up for free access with your Windows Live ID, and your finished results are uploaded to the same site, either for public consumption or private sharing. Server Quest II Indulge in some retro gaming with these re-imaginings of classic games, such as King's Quest. The graphics are old-school, but it's a great way to spend a quiet afternoon. Microsoft Photo Story 3 It may only create a photo slideshow, but Photo Story 3 does it exceptionally well. Import your photos, then follow the wizard to create your sequence, adding captions, transition effects, minor corrections and a soundtrack. The finished collection can be shared online or burned to DVD using Windows DVD Maker. Team Crossword This game is designed to enable you and a group of friends to tackle puzzles on a daily basis, with the aim of posting the fastest time for completion. It works through your Facebook account, making it easy to share with other people. Bing Twitter Maps Another Silverlight plug-in, this enables you to view tweets geographically, letting you see who's posting nearby. Christmas Trivia Pack For Windows Media Center This zip file holds pictures with Christmas trivia and quiz questions – just copy them into a suitable folder inside My Pictures and direct Windows Media Center to the file via Pictures and Videos. Click Play Slideshow to make them run in the background on your TV. You can also create your own trivia and slides in your image editor. Microsoft Expression Encoder 4
Although this tool is targeted at web developers, Expression Encoder 4 has a powerful feature set for video enthusiasts, too. Import clips, edit, de-interlace, crop and add overlay effects, then output the finished result to a WMV file, perfect for sharing over the internet. There's even a handy screen-capture tool built-in, too. You need to install .NET Framework 4.0 to run this program. Virtual PC 2007 While Windows 7 Professional users get Windows XP Mode built-in to resolve compatibility issues, those with Windows XP and Windows Vista can get similar functionality with the Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 program. You need to provide your own legitimate copy of Windows to use it, but once it's set up you'll have access to all your old software again. Note that the add-on throws up a warning about not supporting Home editions of Windows, but it should still work. Insomnia This tiny free tool does one thing, and one thing only: when you open the program, it prevents Windows from going to sleep. If you're about to download a large file or burn a DVD and you don't trust your computer to stay awake during the process, this is really handy. Just launch Insomnia and the problem is automatically solved. Windows Live Skydrive How would you like a generous 25GB of free, online, password-protected storage space? Well, that's exactly what Windows Live SkyDrive offers – all the extra room you could possibly need to share your favourite photos, important documents and more. It's designed to integrate with other Windows Live services, too – 5GB of it can be synchronised with other computers via Windows Live Mesh, for example, while Office Web Apps also uses it to store your online folders. Windows Live Family Safety Worried about what your children might be getting up to when they spend time online? This free tool enables you to monitor what they're looking at. If necessary, you can restrict access to the web, programs (including games) and even the computer itself, ensuring that they don't push their boundaries too far. Settings are stored in your Windows Live ID, enabling you to configure the program on multiple PCs in the home. Plus, the latest 2011 version links in with Windows user accounts, making it even easier to run. Windows Live Mesh If you often work between two or more computers, you'll know how difficult it can be to ensure that the latest versions of your documents are available no matter which machine you're sitting at. Windows Live Mesh doesn't just enable you to synchronise selected folders between PCs and Macs – it keeps your Internet Explorer and Office settings aligned, too. What's more, you don't even need your computers to be switched on and connected at the same time for the program to work – Live Mesh comes complete with 5GB of online storage, which can be used as an additional form of backup. What's not to like? JouleMeter
Get a decent estimate of your Windows 7 PC's power consumption by installing and running this tool – you can immediately gauge how much electricity your desktop or laptop is using by accessing the taskbar application. Alternatively, run the calibration tool to enable Joulemeter to test your set-up and produce a more accurate assessment. SyncToy 2.1 This handy tool enables you to keep the contents of two folders – one of which can be a shared file over your network – synchronised. Multiple folder pairs can be created, and you can preview any changes to be made before agreeing to them. Windows Easy Transfer You've just bought a new computer with an upgraded version of Windows and are wondering how you'll be able to transfer your key files and settings to it from your current PC. As long as you're running Windows Vista or Windows XP, just download Easy Transfer and let it do all the hard work for you. Windows NT Backup Restore Utility For Windows 7 This storage tool, supplied with Windows XP, isn't compatible with later versions of Windows. If you backed up using the program and need access to your data in Windows 7, download this courtesy of Microsoft. After installation you'll find it under Start ➜ All Programs ➜ Accessories ➜ System Tools. ScreenRecorder This screen-recording program is simple to use: launch the program, select whether to capture the whole screen or a specific open window or program, and start recording. To stop, click the big red button before saving the file in an efficient, compressed format. Windows Memory Diagnostic Strange behaviour – such as random crashes – could point to problems with, or even failure of, hardware. Find out if your PC's memory is the culprit with the help of this free testing tool. It's included on the Windows 7 and Windows Vista installation discs, but can also be downloaded from the link above and burned to a floppy disk or CD. You'll need ISO Recorder if you're running Windows Vista or Windows XP. Memory Diagnostic will then test your RAM and let you know if it needs checking or replacing. 
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| Review: Buffalo LinkStation Mini 500GB Posted: 26 Dec 2010 01:30 AM PST  This palm-sized NAS drive is designed for home use. Its fanless, well-ventilated enclosure means it runs almost silently, and it's small enough to fit just about anywhere. Inevitably for a drive this size, it uses 2.5-inch hard drives. The model reviewed here offers two 250GB drives, but a twin 500GB version is also available. You can set it up as a RAID 0 drive to enjoy the full capacity of the installed drives, or RAID 1 to mirror your data and protect against drive failure, but the drives aren't user-accessible, so you can't replace a failed unit. The LinkStation Mini's feature set belies its size. It has a built-in BitTorrent client, an iTunes server and a print server should you wish to connect a USB printer. You can stream media to a DLNA-compatible device, which is good news if you own a PS3 or Xbox 360. The LinkStation Mini's WebAccess feature enables you to store, share and access files from any web browser on a PC, Mac or iPhone, and backup is provided by the bundled software. You can control group and user level security. The LinkStation is easy on energy consumption; Buffalo claims it uses 60 per cent less than most NAS devices. It can be set up to switch off with your PC, but if you want to access files via the internet or your network, it's best to leave it on. The LinkStation Mini puts in a performance that matches its larger competitors. Its price per gigabyte ratio isn't great, but if you shop around you can save quite a bit on the RRP. You can't upgrade or replace the drives without invalidating the warranty, but it's well worth a look. Related Links
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