The 10 most optimistic press releases of 2011

Friday, December 30th, 2011

Like most media organisations, we receive a steady stream of press releases here at PC Pro. On an average day I’d estimate we receive around 30 emails and letters from manufacturers, developers and PR agencies, all earnestly drawing our attention to something or other.

Sometimes these releases are useful, and even interesting: a press release might, for example, contain advance warning of a forthcoming product launch, or an important announcement from a major industry figure.

If I’m honest, though, I’d have to say only a minority of press releases are so worthy. Many of them are what I call downright optimistic – in other words, the people sending them are being rather hopeful if they imagine that we will have any use for the information.

Here, for your entertainment – but with some names removed to protect the innocent who are, let’s be honest, only doing their jobs – are ten of the most optimistic press releases we’ve received in 2011.

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The Great PC Pro Christmas Quiz

Saturday, December 24th, 2011

How clued up are you on the world of computing? We’ve put together a fun quiz – well, let’s say a quiz, anyway – to test your knowledge of recent events, and not so recent technological lore. There are sixty questions: hover over each question with your mouse to check your answers. If you’re on a mobile platform and can’t hover, scroll down to the end for a complete list of answers.

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Mobile phones: 15 years and a world apart

Friday, December 2nd, 2011

Fifteen years ago – almost to the day – I got my first mobile phone, a Motorola mr20. It was a chunky thing, with a two-line black-on-green LCD display and a battery that lasted for up to 12 hours (so long as you didn’t use it to make calls or try out any of its three different ringtones). It could receive text messages, but not send them: for that you needed the upmarket mr30 model.

Today, a decade and a half later, I’ve taken delivery of a Samsung Galaxy S II. If ever you wanted an illustration of the phenomenal pace at which technology advances, here it is. In what seems like an alarmingly short time, we’ve progressed from that rudimentary brick to a slim, slate-style affair with a vibrant full-colour touchscreen, a feature list as long as your arm, 16GB of internal storage and, well, slightly better battery life.

Consider that voice calls are now just a small part of a smartphone’s job and you could question whether the two phones are even really the same sort of device. (more…)

Toshiba’s Ultrabook: any port in a storm?

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

On my way in to the office this morning, I saw an advert for the Toshiba Z830 Ultrabook. It was, pretty much, just a photo of the device. Evidently Toshiba reckons that, in this case, seeing is believing, and it’s certainly a striking image. Here’s the picture, as helpfully reproduced on the Toshiba website:

The small amount of text accompanying the picture emphasises the care that’s gone into the design. In particular, it mentions that, despite its thinness, the Z830 has “all the ports you’ll need.”

Looking a little more closely at the picture, however, I’m not quite so certain that’s true:

So, that’s all the ports you’ll need… so long as you can fit your Kensington lock into a round socket – and cram your USB devices into a card slot.

Eight of the best projects at Intel’s Research Day

Thursday, October 13th, 2011

I’ve just got back from one of Intel’s occasional research days. The last one I went to – in Santa Clara, California last June – showcased some fascinating projects, including wireless power, a processor with 48 cores and a home energy sensor that could automatically identify when particular devices were switched on and off.

None of them has so far become a real product (though there are definite similarities between the 48-core Rock Creek CPU and the 50-core Knights Corner architecture). But it’s always fascinating to see what the chip giant’s boffins are working on. This week’s event – held at the company’s offices in Leixlip, near Dublin, and opened by Irish business minister Richard Bruton (above) – showcased several intriguing new ideas – as well as one eerily familiar one. Below the cut are some of the highlights. (more…)

Big disks: what are they good for?

Friday, August 5th, 2011

No one enjoys receiving angry emails. But in this case it’s probably my own fault.

For the latest issue of PC Pro (with subscribers  now, on sale Thursday) I carried out a Labs group test of 15 USB 3 hard drives in a range of capacities going right up to 3TB. And in my column I questioned whether the typical customer has any legitimate need for this much space. (more…)

Google+: big companies can cause big problems

Monday, July 25th, 2011

In its first three weeks of availability, Google+ reportedly attracted 20 million users. That’s a pretty impressive launch – especially since it’s been accompanied by what can only be described as a negative marketing campaign. Even as millions of users have poured onto the service, Google has insisted on calling it a “limited field trial”. At this rate, by the time they officially make it available to the public, everyone will already be on it.

Everyone, that is, except for Mr Matthew Brock of Swiss Cottage. I have it on good authority that the gentleman in question, an old friend of mine, is giving Google+ a miss. (more…)

What LulzSec logins reveal about bookworms

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Today the hacking group LulzSec posted 62,000 hacked email usernames and passwords online. But don’t panic: I’ve been through the list and I can confirm that none of my details have been compromised. So far.

Not everyone has been so lucky, though. As I write this, unscrupulous voyeurs around the globe are sifting through these compromised email accounts looking for… well, whatever they can find. We’ve heard of people finding login details for social-networking sites, online-dating services and even porn sites.

Here at PC Pro we can’t condone such behaviour, fascinating though it would doubtless be to gain such an insight into a stranger’s private life. Happily, the email addresses and passwords themselves are quite revealing.

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Apple OS X 10.7 Lion: first-look review

Friday, June 10th, 2011

Eighteen months after the launch of Snow Leopard, the latest version of Apple’s desktop operating system boasts “more than 250 new features”. Predictably, many of these are minor tweaks: for example, in Lion you can now pick a solid colour for your desktop, pause the screensaver slideshow and search the web directly from Spotlight. Whoopee.

Click here to read our full Apple OS X 10.7 Lion review.

Happily, Lion brings plenty more significant changes too. (more…)

Google Docs for Android review: first look

Friday, April 29th, 2011

I still haven’t seen a “killer app” for tablets; but I’m coming round to the idea that if a tablet does enough things in nice enough ways, perhaps that’s enough.

So I was interested to read today of the launch of Google Docs for Android. Though it runs on both smartphones and tablets, it sounded like a newly ticked box for tablets in particular, since their screens and keyboards are better suited to casual document editing.

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