CES 2010: Final Thoughts

The Consumer Electronics show, the behemoth of tech, the Valhalla of gadgetry, has come and gone for yet another year. But this time, rather than arriving with a bang, it slinked into sight with something more like a whimper. CES…

CES 2010: Day 3 Round-Up

Another day, another Tech Digest CES 2010 round-up. Fancy Tweeting hands-free in your car or controlling your PC by breathing? Check today's top stories below and find out how. Twitter coming to Ford cars The digital equivalent of drink-driving? Motorola…

Grey Warships of Death preparing for Blue Screen of Death – UK Navy fleet updates to Windows 2000 and XP

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The UK’s warship fleet is getting itself an update, with versions of worst-windows-ever Windows 2000 and best-windows-ever XP rolling out across the fleet.

First to replace its ageing custom software with the “new” Windows operating systems is the HMS Montrose, which will soon enter a refitting phase where its old kit will be replaced by standard PCs.

The Type 23 frigates, which make up the bulk of our sea-faring death machines, are expected to gradually switch over to Windows machines as and when they’re due for a servicing, and, as ever, it’s all about reducing costs. Navy man Commodore Graham Peach said the Windows-based warships “will enable us to provide…

Microsoft on viruses and malware: It's not our fault, guv.

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Turns out that the vast majority of virus attacks are against badly-written third-party software, rather than Windows itself. So claims Microsoft, anyway, in the graph to the right. In XP, 58% of attacks target third party software, and in Vista, 94% target third-parties. The most popular targets are Apple’s Quicktime, Realplayer and Winzip.

When you drill down to the top ten browser vulnerabilities, Microsoft admit that they account for half of the biggest flaws on XP, including by far the top one, but on Vista, they don’t feature in the top ten at all – the number one place goes to a bit of software called Baofeng, which I suspect is a toolbar of some sort…

HP announces Mini 1000 and Compaq Mini 700 netbooks, including designer option

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Just a couple of days after the leak, HP has announced details of the Mini 1000, in both standard and designer editions, as well as the Compaq Mini 700.

The HP Mini 1000, at 25.2mm thin and weighing 1.1kg, features a 10.2-inch widescreen display, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, either 8GB or 16GB SSD, webcam/mic, WLAN, and Bluetooth. Depending on operating system configuration, you can choose from 512MB or 1GB of RAM (XP Home) or 1GB/2GB (MIE Linux).

Bundled with the hardware is HP’s new Mobile Internet Experience software and HP MediaStyle, for “one-stop entertainment through a single interface”. In other words, it’s a dashboard interface which lets you play music, watch videos, visit favourite web sites, read email, and so on. Great for the everyday consumer, perhaps, but those wanting a stripped down netbook might want to turn off the “always on” applications…

Asus "Bamboo" EcoBook laptop now just slightly laminated on the inside

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Remember this thing? That was the mock-up. The dream. The reality, as ever, is much more disappointing than the original crazed fantasy. The final Asus U6 now just comes with a small strip of wood surrounding the keyboard and screen, no doubt to stop warping and to help it pass stringent modern fire regulations.

So it’s not really an “eco-friendly” laptop any more. It’s now just a regular notebook with a bit of wood stuck on the front of it. It’s more of a design statement than a planet-saving option…