Mac Malware March 12, 2009
Posted by Jake in future, Hardware, software.add a comment
If there are computers there are hackers to hack it. With the increase in the number of Apple Macs being used it will no-dout have more and more malware for it. From the first virus for the Apple II appears writen by a 15 year old school boy viruses has been attacking macs. However no major attack has hapened jet.
However recently Apple has advised that mac users should use anti-virus software after three Trojans were descovered. It shows with the ever growing market share now nearly 10% attacks are becoming more and more frequent.
However as most computers are windows not meany people will take the effot to write malware for Macs. So mac is still safer than windows but you still need to protect your Mac from malware.
How do I protect myself
There are Mac vertions of internet security software such as McAfee and Symantec that costs about the same amount as its windows equivelents. However I don’t know of any free mac Security software unlike windows.
True wireless January 18, 2009
Posted by Jake in future, Hardware.add a comment
Company’s are claiming there devices to be ‘wireless’ from laptops to surround sound speakers. They do receive the information they need but you still need to find a cable to the mains wall socket to work.
So along comes PowerBeam (www.powerbeaminc.com) with its true wireless. It can send electricity through the air. With PowerBeam you could potentially have your phone or Laptop start charging as soon as you enter your house. You would no longer have to put your lights and other computer devices next to a power socket just to make it work. Gone is the ugly power cables that tangled the back of you TV.
Electricity could also be sen’t to other planets from satalites meaning that mitions to other planets won’t need to worry about powering its self.
But of course there are some problems with it. For a start it only has 15%-60% efficiency depending on the system you use. This means that it could be adding huge costs onto your electricity bill, not what you want at the moment, not to mention the environmental impact. Plus some people still have problems with the relatively low power microwaves emitted by mobile phones and fear of the health effects this has 9It has been tested to be safe). So imagine what people will think sending real usable electricity through the air not to mention panicking about the 40%+ electricity that go’s missing.plus the problem of people hacking into your wireless will become a much costlier affair than now pushing up your electricity bill.
Is this the future? Who knows but if it is then in 30 years we will be compleately wireless and wonder how we did without it.
OLED screens January 14, 2009
Posted by Jake in future, Hardware.add a comment
OLED screens are paper thin and saves energy. They are the Future for computer and Tv screens. However there are reasons why you aren’t using one at the moment (Assuming you aren’t you can but them now) is because of the cost and the lifetime. OLED doesn’t have anywhere near the lifetime of normal LED which is about 60,000 hours. Plus with the price it has yet to catch on. However with more company’s starting to make them the price will no doubt start to go down.
But why are these screens better? Well as I said above they use less power and as each pixel makes its own light you don’t pay to run the black bars you sometimes get when watching wide-screen movies. Plus it is also super thin which gives it a place in Laptops and mobile phones potentially making the super thin laptops from Apple and now Dell even thinner!
However the screens are yet to get to TV sizes and you can currently only buy them in small screens however with the price going down and the sizes avalible going up, the future looks good for the next gen of Tv’s and monitors.
Games Consoles January 13, 2009
Posted by Jake in Company, Hardware, Reveiws.add a comment
There are several different games consoles out at the moment from 3 main companies, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. The first you will probably know as windows creator and about 9/10 computers are Microsoft. Sony you probably know as a amazeing TV maker. And Nintendo are the only ones who only makes games and game consoles.
The main market has all three company’s in it, with Microsoft’s XBox 360, Sonys Playstation 3, and Nintendo’s Wii. First thing you notice is that Microsoft has gone for the boring naming system and Nintendo has gone for the completely random, but the names aren’t important.
The most expensive is Sonys Playstation at about £430 with a 60GB hard drive where as the XBox 360 with a 60GB Hard Drive is about £200!! That is a £230 difference. Plus they both have similar graphics. But why is Sony’s baby better? Well it comes with a free internet connection that allows you to play games against other people that costs about £30 for the XBox.
But we seem to be forgetting Nintendo and its strangely names Wii. The Wii gets rid of the idea of sitting down to play the games and gets you to stand up throwing your arms about to make all sorts of things to happen on the screen. However the Wii has graphics sub standard compared to the others but has found a place under peoples TV’s.
Then we go on to the hand held gaming market where Microsoft is gone and left is only Sony and Nintendo. Sticking with the nameing systems Sony called theres the Playstation Portible or PSP. Where as Nintendo came up with DS. The name mmay be better for Nintendo but the product is horrible. With 2 screens and over doubling in size from the model before (GBA SP -> DS) this is to make space for TWO screens one of which is a touch screen as well as buttons. It is so horrible to use when you often have to attempt to hold a stylus, press buttons and try not to drop the stupid thing. Not to mention the horrible screen which was a huge downgrade from the SP and they had to design another one to sort the problem
However the PSP is a work of art and is only £30 more. it gets rid of the clumsy two small screens to a large clear screen with buttons to easily play the game without having to balance it in your hand. any Semi-Serious gamer will have no choice but to go for the PSP put off but the sheer rubbish of the DS. Now XBox just needs to come and better them both.
DisplayLink January 12, 2009
Posted by Jake in future, Hardware, Reveiws.add a comment
You are most likely looking at this on a computer monitor. It is also probably conected with a VGAor even a HDMI port. Your computer is also probebly conected to this through a Graphics card.
Display link is a fairly new technology that uses a USB 2.0 port to connect up a monitor.
But what benefits does this have?
Well first off it means that in the future you could just have USB on it, keyboards and mouses has already changed over (Mostly) from ps/2 ports to USB and after monitor there will be few other connections you will need. Plus DisplayLink reduces your power consumption by 80% according to there website.
Normally to have multi-monitor set-ups you need expensive graphics cards to connect and run them all, however with this you just need USB ports. However DisplayPort is only compatible with USB 2.0+ because of the large amounts of data that is handled. However as USB’s become faster with USB 3. DisplayLink is the future.
Mac RAM? January 11, 2009
Posted by Jake in Hardware, Web.add a comment
Macs are always expensive and if you thought that £1,950.00 was a lot for a laptop then wait till you ask for a RAM Upgrade from 4GB to 8GB then be ready for a extra £839.99 for 4 GB of RAM. That’s £210 Per GB.
You can even pay up-to “£5,522.21 if you set all the options to max cost, so this still looks like its staying for the pro’s
MacWorld was very unexciting this year, where items like the IPhone and the MacBook air was released, but Steve Jobs didn’t do this years MacWorld and its the last they will ever do.
So apple better do something exiting before it get forgotten.
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