Sony has launched the first 8GB Memory Stick Micro(M2) card, doubling the capacity from the existing 4GB version.
If you own a Sony Ericsson blower then, that means you can store 5,000 5-megapixel (MP) photos, over 2000 MP3 songs at 128kbps or over 88 hours of MPEG 4 video at 192kbps.
 |
 |
Looking at digital SLR cameras, most appear to use xD cards. I already use SD cards. What is the difference?
Maurice
JS: The SD (Secure Digital) card standard was developed by Panasonic, SanDisk and Toshiba to provide a small protected storage format for devices such as PDAs, MP3 players and mobile phones. There are now miniSD and microSD versions, plus SDHC cards.
The SDHC cards look the same but are generally incompatible with older devices that lack SDHC support, so this is the main point to watch. Digital SLRs that use SD cards are available from Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Panasonic and Samsung.
The xD (extreme Digital) storage format is similar, but was introduced later by Olympus and Fujifilm. This now has variants called Type M and Type H, so again, watch out for compatibility problems. Since xD is less popular that SD, prices are usually higher and cards will fit fewer devices. Frankly, I can’t see any reason for choosing xD rather than SD or CompactFlash - an older but very reliable format that uses a much bigger card - and I avoid the numerous Sony Memory Stick cards for the same reasons. If you have multiple devices, then it should be cheaper and more convenient to stick to a couple of popular formats, instead of having a different type of card in each device.
I like Outlook Express but cannot use spellcheck with my new laptop because it has only French spelling.
GP Ray
JS: Funnily enough, this is a common complaint, because Microsoft Office 2007 installs English, Spanish and German files that are incompatible with Outlook Express 6. This is a problem because OE does not actually have a spellchecker: it borrows one from Microsoft Office or Microsoft Works. Microsoft’s Help Centre article offers a solution. It says: “There are a variety of third-party free spell-checking programs available on the Internet”. One popular option is Vampirefo’s Spell Checker For OE, which is also available from SnapFiles. You could also use the inline spellchecker in Firefox 2 or Internet Explorer 7 with IE7Pro. If you really want to try to fix the problem, however, Tech-Pro.net has an article on How To: Fix spell checking in Outlook Express 6.
For several years I have been very satisfied with Microsoft’s Picture It! program. However, having changed my computer, it is no longer available.
JH Prentice
JS: Microsoft’s Picture It! was included in the Microsoft Works suite and subsumed into the Microsoft Digital Image Suite. Microsoft discontinued it after adding most of the features to Windows Vista. However, your old CD could work: according to web reports, Picture It! 9 and 10 will work in Vista if you run it in XP compatibility mode and check the box “As Administrator”. Sadly, the very easy photo retouching features were not added to Vista, and I don’t know of any other program that takes the same non-geeky approach. The closest may be an online Flash-based picture editor, Picnik. Otherwise, Paint.net is a good free picture editor for Windows, though it’s in the traditional mould.
One of my three anti-spyware programmes keeps reporting a Trojan backdoor in the internat.exe Windows file. This has a large query as its icon, and properties describes it as a Keyboard Language Indicator Applet. If I let the program remove it, or if I delete it myself, then it promptly reappears.
Richard Parish
JS: Try running a search for internat.exe, the name of the software that detects it and “false alarm”, because that’s what it probably is. There are at least two versions of internat.exe, one of which puts a small blue square in the SysTray to let you change languages. Most UK users don’t need this feature and don’t run it. This has a question mark icon and is about 20K. The Trojan version is about four times larger and has a zip file icon. If it also says “Hello. I’m NetSnake” on startup, then it’s definitely a virus. For more information, see Symantec’s write-up.
· Bill Taylor has come up with “a very simple typo that causes a Word document to be closed without saving” - which was Stafford Linsley’s problem. It’s “Ctrl+W - an unadvertised keyboard shortcut for Close”. He says he learned the hard way by typing “When” and hitting Ctrl instead of the shift key. I’ve previously recommended Ctrl-W as a quick way of closing unwanted popups and browser windows.
|
|
Control systems for portable devices like MP3 players and mobile phones can start to get a bit silly sometimes, and though the trend was arguably started by Apple’s scroll wheel, this is also one of the few that can genuinely be labelled a success.
LG is pretty culpable in this area and seems to have a clear penchant for building a touchscreen into everything, and iRiver mixed things up a bit with its Clix and Twist players.
|
|
Following recent news from Amazon and Napster, music service Rhapsody will be the latest to start offering DRM-free downloads.
These moves are undoubtedly an attempt to try and ruffle Apple’s feathers as its iTunes store still reigns supreme in the digital music arena, yet its certainly not forthcoming in offering a similar deal to consumers.
|
|
Despite offering a range of solid players across the board in the MP3 player market, Zen Stone aside we’ve been a little uninspired by some of Creative’s devices in the field of late.
At one point it was one of two or three big players in the UK market, but since then companies like Apple, Archos and even iRiver and Sansa have overtaken it in terms of appeal.
|
|
Apparently Chrysler is looking to turn your car into a rolling WiFi hotspot, allowing you to connect to the internet both for the sake of accessing information, but also for providing it (such as traffic info). Of course, automakers have talked about internet access in cars before, but it hasn’t gone very far — so unless you brought your own EVDO card, you weren’t doing much. But is there really a strong demand for such things? As some analysts note, it seems like the automakers may be “leapfrogging the market,” when they should be focused on making cars work better with the gadgets we already have. This is a problem that has come up before. Automakers love to build new technology into their cars in order to control the experience, but that’s not what consumers want. Having an MP3 player is nice, but it’s easier if you can just use your iPod. Having a built in GPS system is cool, but the new Garmin has a lot more features. Working with consumer electronics devices that people buy seems like it may be a lot more sensible than trying to recreate the wheel. And, then, of course putting WiFi connectivity in cars may eventually lead to xkcd-style scenarios:
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
I have problems with “Compress Old Files”. When I run disk cleanup, deleting old compressed files takes a long time and may not finish after an hour.
Reza Masoudi
JS: Compress Old Files is a feature of the Disk Cleanup tool (cleanmgr.exe) in Windows XP, but it does not delete files. What it does is take files that have not been accessed for a specified number of days and compress them to save disk space. This wasn’t a bad idea when hard drives were small and expensive, but it’s not such a good idea now. The files that benefit most from compression are things like Microsoft Office files, and these are already compressed as standard when saved in the new Office 2007 and OpenOffice file formats. The files that take up most room - sound, image and video files with extensions such as jpg, mp3 and avi - are already compressed. Trying to compress them further takes a long time and they can end up larger than they were before. If you’re really short of disk space, it’s better to back up some large files to CD or DVD then delete them. External hard drives are an even handier option, but these should also be backed up.
Disk Cleanup can also perform a number of functions such as removing temporary internet files, removing downloaded program files such as ActiveX controls (not always a good idea), removing restore points (a bad idea) and uninstalling Windows components that you don’t use (possibly a bad idea). As such, it provides a useful one-stop shop for people who don’t want to be involved with the operation of their PCs. However, I think it’s better to get slightly involved and download CCleaner from ccleaner.com, which does most of the same jobs. If you need to compress files, you can do this separately. Bear in mind that Windows XP needs lots of disk space to store its swap file (code that temporarily doesn’t fit in memory), hibernation files, temporary files, directory entries etc. You should always try to leave 2GB of hard drive space free, and never less than 1GB, to keep XP running at its best.
I have some unwanted software installed on my laptop which I can’t remove using the Windows uninstall tool. Can you suggest any free software that would do the job?
Mel Hallworth
JS: Add or Remove Programs, in the Windows Control Panel, is usually the safest way to uninstall programs. However, some programs come with their own uninstallation files, and these should be visible in the program’s Start menu folder, or in its folder in the Program Files directory on your hard drive. If neither of those applies, there are several free utilities that will do the job. The one you are most likely to have already is CCleaner. If you run CCleaner and click on the Tools icon, Uninstall is the first tool. The main problem with uninstalling software is removing the right registry entries without also removing ones you still need. CCleaner includes a good registry cleaner, and will also back up any changes it makes, so I tend to trust it.
However, there are a few more specialised uninstallation utilities, such as ZSoft Uninstaller 2.4.1 and Revo Uninstaller. The ZSoft program is quicker and has more features than Add/Remove programs, such as search and analyse, and it looks reasonably safe to use. Revo Uninstaller has lots of extra features including Auto Run Manager, Evidence Remover, and Unrecoverable Delete. It looks powerful, but could do a lot of damage if used carelessly. There are other options at SnapFiles. Bear in mind that some programs are designed to be hard to remove completely, either because they need to resist viruses that try to remove them, or because they have hidden anti-piracy features, or both. It’s a good idea to run a web search for the word “uninstall” plus the program’s name, to see if a special tool is available.
When I minimise Windows programs they no longer go to the Taskbar but disappear off the screen completely.
Phil Boddey
JS: The programs should still be running, so you can Alt-Tab to them. If so, Kelly’s Korner has a registry tweak to fix the problem: Line 240.
When closing down Windows XP I get lots of ads, which I have to close as well. I bought AVG8, but the ads still come.
Sean Brogan
JS: There are no legitimate programs that display ads on shutdown, though it could be an adware program that you installed along with some free software. AVG should have identified it. Try running it again in Safe Mode. If that doesn’t solve the problem, try SuperAntiSpyware.
Nicola Richard wanted a simple way to scan slides on a Mac and I suggested the Plustek OpticFilm 7200i AI film scanner. Roger Larkinson says Plustek’s OpticFilm 7300 (£169.99) “works well. The CD includes SilverFast software for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), and software for OS X 10.5 (Leopard) is available as a download, I believe.”
· Get your queries answered by Jack Schofield, our computer editor at jack.schofield@guardian.co.uk. More at blogs.guardian.co.uk/askjack
|
|
DAB radios usually cost that bit more and, in some cases, prohibitively so but market leader, PURE, has just announced the ONE Mini, an affordable DAB/FM radio that squeezes in under the £40-mark.
Pitched as the Volkswagen of DAB players, this compact fellow is a shrunken down version of the award-winning PURE ONE radio with a price tag to match. Arriving in white, black and pink the £39.99 radio claims to pack punchier audio than its diminutive size would lead you to believe and sports an input that lets you also use it as a speaker for an iPod or MP3 player.
|
|
Amazon MP3 is shaping up to be one of the bigger rivals to iTunes in the US and it looks like the service will be rolled out here in the UK, sooner rather than later.
The Telegraph is reporting that Amazon MP3 music execs were in London this week to ‘thrash out’ deals with the major record labels and that a UK launch will form of a big international rollout.
|
|
Everyone likes top 10s, and everyone likes gadgets, so how about reading through the top 10 gadgets for this summer?
Suggestions range from the practical to the downright scary. You’ll find a surfboard you can dismantle and keep in a reasonable sized bag to avoid the ignomy of having to buy a Scooby Doo van, and a waterproof MP3 player that’ll work up to 33 feet deep.
|
|