Tag Archives: new

Nokia Ovi Suite launched – presumably replaces Nokia PC Suite

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Is Ovi set to take over the world? OK maybe that’s overreacting a little…

Nokia PC Suite today notified me that a new update was available, so I checked it up and realised that a final version of Ovi Suite is now available.

The new Ovi Suite brings a brand new interface that seems to work really well.

Nokia Ovi Suite

It replaces the rather tired and limited interface from Nokia PC Suite, and seems to bring a couple of new features that work well.

For example, it now fully integrates with Ovi accounts and synchronises your photos, contacts and messages instantly.

So far, I really like it. It brings a new tidy look to my phone management, and seems to be fully compatible with Windows 7.

You can go ahead and download it from here, or do an update check from PC Suite and it should come up.

With 2TB memory cards on the way in the next 2 years, hard drives may become superseded!

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Just browsing through the various tech news going round at the moment – with CES (the Consumer Electronics Show) dominating posts, I noticed that companies are aiming to have 2TB memory cards on the shelves in the next 2 years.

Now when you think that the most common hard disk size at this moment in time is 250-500GB, it makes you realise how quickly memory cards are growing in size and how quickly they could take over hard drives.

At the moment the biggest memory card you’ll find on the shelves is about 32GB – at most 64GB – but recent technology has enabled companies to rapidly expand the amount of storage on one memory card.

Obviously there are some factors will slow down the use of these bigger cards – cost being the biggest. It’s unclear how much these supersize cards will cost and therefore hard drives will probably continue to dominate the market for the next 24 months, at least.

However, with the larger cards now available, it opens up opportunity for Linux builders to start optimizing their operating system for memory cards  – so computers without hard drives can boot and run their operating systems with ease.

In addition, it will hopefully expand the netbook even further as the small memory cards will help to free up space for better batteries that last longer. It also solves the annoying problem of the lack of memory space in some netbooks.

So overall, the new memory cards coming in the next 12-24 months will hopefully bring new hope to computer users as they are much more convenient than big, bulky hard drives.

My new homebuilt PC – is it worth it?

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Well, after many months of wanting to do it, I have finally built myself my own computer. It was great fun – for a tech nerd like me – and it also saved me a lot of money!

Here’s what I bought myself:

  • An AMD Entry Level Barebones PC kit costing £140 – that includes the case, motherboard, a dual core AMD processor and 2GB RAM
  • A 512MB Gigabyte HD4550 graphics card costing about £35
  • A 250GB hard drive costing about £25
  • A DVDRW drive costing £18
  • A 19″ LG monitor costing £92
  • A Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse set costing £17

That was it. If my calculations are right that comes to £327 and in my opinion that is a bargain. I’ve got a really good spec PC and a nice monitor and keyboard/mouse set to go with it. Perfect!

It does go to show how much cheaper it can be to go for the build your own PC option. It is much cheaper so is perfect if you’re on a tight budget, plus it can be really good fun if you enjoy working with computers.

I wouldn’t recommend this way of getting your hands on a nice new PC if you consider yourself a novice with computers. You do have to be careful – put the wrong component in the wrong place and you’ll be adding costs for replacements. Also, make absolutely sure that you have some sort of anti-static kit for your hands. Static electricity and internal computer components do not mix!

If you like a challenge and have a few hundred pounds to spare give this a go! You might be really pleased you bothered!

    Sony announces 2TB Memory Stick XC

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    Sony, a worldwide leader in technology (best known for the PlayStation format and common consumer electronics) has announced upcoming production of a 2 terabyte memory stick, dubbed part of the “Memory Stick XC” range.

    It will be the same shape and size as the current “Memory Stick Pro” format, so perhaps there may be some backward compatibility meaning that PSP and Sony digital camera users could be in for a big boost on memory. GEEK! can’t find a lot of information regarding backward compatibility but it would be nice (although who would need 2 terabytes of storage on their PSP?).

    Not a lot of word on pricing yet but word on the internet is that we might see it available in the next few years.

    It looks good – but why would I want a memory stick that has several times the capacity of my hard drive? I mean the idea sounds pretty awesome, but honestly – is there a limit to how much storage we need (or can afford)? My concern would be that Sony might be “biting off a bit more than they can chew”, if you get my drift – I don’t see who is going to want to shed out hundreds (more likely thousands) of pounds on a memory stick.

    In the mean time, it looks like Sony is going to concentrate on slowly increasing the capacity of the Memory Stick range. We already have 16GB and 32GB memory sticks, so maybe in the short term we will begin to see 64GB and 128GB. This will mean that Sony can slowly start to reach that maximum capacity of 2TB.

    USB 3.0 to be shipping with PCs by end of year!

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    It’s good to know that USB 3.0 is expected to start arriving on PCs and laptops from the end of this year.

    The new Superspeed USB means that transfer speeds will rise from 480mbps to a whopping 5gbps. That means that if you are constantly transferring big files to USB drives, you’re in luck.

    It’s being predicted that the new USB format will start shipping towards the end of the year, with it being available in a few high-end PCs. From 2010, it’s expected that about 26 million PCs will ship with USB 3.0. And by 2012, it’s expected that the number of PCs with USB 3.0 will be way over 300 million.

    I’m very excited by the news, but it does mean that my laptop and PC will probably need upgrading. I can probably just upgrade the motherboard in the PC, but in the laptop it will be a bit more difficult. In addition, all of my USB 2.0 devices will seem horribly slow after USB 3.0 arrives.

    Ah well, no worries for now. But you know, it’s a bit of a pain when you have so many outdated USB devices that transfer really slowly. Never mind.