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PC Advisor August 2009

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Blogs


Firefox 3.5 can learn from its rivals

July 4, 2009

Internet & BroadbandMozilla is shaking up the web-browser world with Firefox 3.5 and its support for new web standards. But it can still improve its performance, reliability, and usability by learning from its rivals.

Firefox has the misleading status of second most popular browser. Two-thirds of all sites are still visited by some version of Internet Explorer. It's no secret that Microsoft only wins because the majority of computer users run Windows and aren't quite savvy enough to make a conscious decision about which browser to use. In fact, when 50 people in Times Square were asked, "What is a browser?", most confused it with a search engine.

PC Advisor Blog | Michael Scalisi | Read more...


Facebook causes cancer, and other myths

July 3, 2009

Internet & BroadbandThere's nothing like a good, eye-catching headline. Such as 'Facebook causes cancer'. If that were true it would be pretty alarming. Fortunately, it's not.

This story is just one of many examples when the national press (on this occasion the Daily Mail) has taken a recent piece of scientific research and chosen to ignore important elements or exaggerate the research findings to help sell newspapers.

PC Advisor Blog | Richard Clooke | Read more...


Pirate Bay sale: no more sticking it to The Man

July 2, 2009

Digital audioWith all the outrage over The Pirate Bay going legit, I think it's time to reconsider the merits of filesharing. The world has changed since Napster introduced peer-to-peer filesharing in 1999, and the culture that made the practice seem necessary has transformed.

Global Gaming Factory X, a Swedish company, is in the process of purchasing The Pirate Bay (TPB) for $7.8m. The company intends to continue to allow filesharing, but legally and by making sure content owners get paid. It's speculated that it may also try to compete with YouTube in the user-uploaded video market. Regardless, what seems clear is that unchecked illegal downloading will come to a halt on TPB.

PC Advisor Blog | Michael Scalisi | Read more...


How to secure your PC: pile on the layers

July 1, 2009

PC SecurityIt used to be so simple. To secure your PC, you simply shelled out 30 or 40 notes for an internet security suite, it checked your system's files against a database of known malware, and then removed any that matched up. Safe.

Actually, it was never that straightforward. Take a quick glance through PC Advisor's reviews of security products, and you'll see that even the best miss some things. In the world of the zero-day threat, that's not good enough.

PC Advisor Blog | Matt Egan | Read more...


Memories of the Sony Walkman, 30 today

July 1, 2009

AudioThe Sony Walkman turns 30 today, yet the Walkman brand persists in digital audio players and mobile phones. We look back on its impact on the worlds of technology and music.

PC Advisor's sister website PC World ranked the Walkman at the top of its 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years list a few years back. I suspect that even if the Apple iPhone had been a contender back then, the Walkman would still have come out on top.

PC Advisor Blog | Melissa Perenson | Read more...


Firefox 3.6: a sneak preview

July 1, 2009

Internet & BroadbandWhile most of the tech world is busy getting to know Firefox 3.5, which incorporates significant speed increases and a host of added features, Mozilla's engineers are already deep into their next big project: the tentatively numbered Firefox 3.6, codename Namoroka.

Here's what we know about the features, enhancements and timeframe for the next Firefox web browser.

PC Advisor Blog | JR Raphael | Read more...


Is iPhone 3GS really too hot to handle?

June 30, 2009

iPhone 3GS Over the weekend I read several reports from various sources claiming that the iPhone 3GS was getting abnormally hot - hot enough to discolour the case, apparently.

I'm not saying that these reports are wrong, or somehow invalid, but I've been using my iPhone 3GS constantly and consistently for the past 16 days and haven't noticed anything like this.

PC Advisor Blog | Paul Venezia | Read more...


Why in the end you'll pay for Google Voice

June 29, 2009

InternetGoogle Voice means Google is technically, literally and actually a telephone company.

Google owns and maintains the servers, switches and other equipment necessary to connect phone calls. They're regulated just like any other telephone company. And they're connected into, and are part of, the national telephone network.

PC Advisor Blog | Mike Elgan | Read more...


Microsoft Security Essentials is a no brainer

June 26, 2009

PC securityPeople often turn to me for advice regarding what anti-virus package to get. Usually I recommend McAfee or AVG, but Security Essentials will be my go-to anti-malware package once it's released from beta. For small-business and home users, the price, performance, and ease-of-use of MSE can't be beat.

Of course, this is all meaningless if the product isn't effective. Fortunately, preliminary Microsoft Security Essentials tests show it to be very effective.

PC Advisor Blog | Michael Scalisi | Read more...


Firefox add-on compares Wolfram Alpha & Google

June 25, 2009

Internet & BroadbandA free Wolfram Alpha Google add-on for Firefox lets you run a side-by-side comparison of results from Google, and the new Wolfram Alpha search engine. Google matches run down the left side of your browser as always, while Wolfram Alpha results are displayed on the right, where text ads would otherwise appear.

Note: At the time of writing, Wolfram Alpha Google's relative infancy (and lack of Mozilla public review) meant that it's still considered an experimental add-on; you'll need to tick a box acknowledging this before you are able to install it. Usefully, this release does fix previous incompatibility issues with the popular AdBlock Plus Firefox extension.

PC Advisor Blog | Danny Allen | Read more...


Acer Aspire Timeline 5810T offers 9-hour battery

June 24, 2009

LaptopTwo contrasting notebooks are currently attracting attention, but only one of them marks a landmark in laptop design.

In the interests of topicality, we won't dwell too much on HP's tiny dv2 laptop, which was announced back in January. We'll simply nudge your memory by mentioning that this 12in portable runs the low-power AMD Athlon Neo 64 processor and sits in the nebulous area between dawdling netbook and dashing notebook.

PC Advisor Blog | Andrew Harrison | Read more...


Here comes Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer killer

June 23, 2009

Internet & BroadbandMozilla's Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate 2 is now out in the open, and the web browser's release could accelerate the decline of Microsoft Internet Explorer as the dominant choice for computer users worldwide.

The long-awaited final version of Firefox 3.5 is probably right around the corner. If past trends are any indication, the debut of Firefox 3.5 may do more than just speed up your online experience - it may also speed up the ongoing shift within the browser market.

PC Advisor Blog | JR Raphael | Read more...


Next up for Apple iPhone: a better screen

June 22, 2009

PhoneFollowing last week's launch of Apple's latest iPhone, the iPhone 3G S, the rumour mills are buzzing with speculation about what the secretive company is planning for its next handset.

The biggest possible change could be in the screen. The iPhone's screen has been praised since Apple launched the phone in 2007.

PC Advisor Blog | Martyn Williams | Read more...


Smashing the digital divide

June 22, 2009

Internet & BroadbandLord Carter's Digital Britain recommendations included an upgrade for digital radio, measures to improve mobile phone coverage and new efforts to tackle music and video software piracy. But it was the announcement of what critics are calling a 'broadband tax' that captured the most headlines.

The Digital Britain report, the most highly anticipated technology report to come from the government in years, recommends that every household in the UK with a landline connection pays 50p per month to fund the rollout of superfast broadband to 90 percent of the population by 2017.

PC Advisor Blog | Paul Trotter | Read more...


Apple iPhone 3.0: one small step for phone kind

June 19, 2009

AppleThe first iPhone was revolutionary, the first smartphone that really worked. But this, the third release isn't nearly as interesting.

People who expect today's iPhone 3G S or this week's Apple iPhone OS 3.0 software upgrade to be equally exciting will be disappointed. Not because the product is bad, but because It's hard for any third release to be as dramatic as the first.

PC Advisor Blog | David Coursey | Read more...


Bing continues to grow, but is Google suffering?

June 18, 2009

Internet & BroadbandMicrosoft is gaining new ground with its freshly rebranded Bing search engine, some recently released data suggests. Bing, the research finds, grew 0.8 percent during its second week online, following a 2.2 percent jump during its debut week. One question that has yet to be answered, though, is how that growth is affecting other search engines.

The answer, in short, is that Bing may not be harming Google at all; in fact, it may actually be helping.

PC Advisor Blog | JR Raphael | Read more...


Apple to break Palm Pre's iTunes synch

June 17, 2009

Palm PreOne month after Palm declared its new Palm Pre phone syncs with iTunes, Apple has posted a warning to third-party vendors that although the Palm Pre's sync may work now, it probably won't last for long.

"Apple is aware that some third-parties claim that their digital media players are able to sync with Apple software.

PC Advisor Blog | Brennon Slattery | Read more...


Twitter proves its worth in troubled Iran

June 17, 2009

Internet & BroadbandTwitter has suffered endless wise cracks about its users tweeting more about their favourite sandwiches and coveted parking spots than anything truly important, but the past few days have showed the microblogging site's real promise.

During a government crackdown following the disputed Iranian elections, the Twitter social network has become something of a lifeline for the people of Iran. The Iranian government may have blocked or shut down various communication mediums - phone lines, the Facebook social network, YouTube videos and even text messaging - but people are still sending photos and information from Iran in short 140-character bursts.

PC Advisor Blog | Sharon Gaudin | Read more...


Google rattled by Bing? Pull the other one

June 16, 2009

Internet & BroadbandIf the US newspaper New York Post is to be believed, Microsoft Bing has got Google on the run. The paper's recent "Fear grips Google" story certainly got some attention, if only for its over-the-top headline.

According to 'insider sources' the Post conveniently declines to describe, let alone identify, "Google's Sergey Brin is so rattled by the launch of Microsoft's rival search engine that he has assembled a team of top engineers to work on urgent upgrades to his web service."

PC Advisor Blog | Robert X Cringely | Read more...


Snow Leopard to boot Windows out of the enterprise?

June 15, 2009

AppleIt could be that a real battle is brewing between operating systems. Apple will fire first by releasing Mac OS X 10.6, known as Snow Leopard, in September. Microsoft's response, Windows 7, will hit store shelves a few weeks later, on October 22.

More and more, this battle is shaping up to be about more than the hearts and minds of consumers. After years of ignoring the needs of the enterprise, Apple seems to be making a concerted push into the business world.

PC Advisor Blog | Michael Gartenberg | Read more...


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