PC UTILITIES NEWS ▲

IN DEVELOPMENT

Belkin’s Washable Mouse Many of us have struggled with a dirty

mouse that has got clogged up with

grime and won’t work

properly, or have picked up germs

from shared equipment. Belkin (wwwwww..bbeellkkiinn.. ccoomm) has now come up

with a solution to this problem with its new Washable Mouse. The

mouse, which is scheduled for a UK release in the Autumn, can be

washed directly under the tap. Belkin’s new range also includes the

Mouse Trap, which will also be out later in the year. This doubles up as

both a mouse mat and a carry case for your new beloved and clean

piece of hardware.

2.5in can offer so much The hardware expert

Fujitsu (wwwwww..ffuujjiittssuu.. ccoo..uukk) has unveiled

its newest external hard disk. The drive

will only measure a meagre 2.5in, but will play home to a whopping

300GB worth of storage space. Featuring an integrated USB 2.0

cable, Fujitsu claims the drive will be a very safe place to store your work,

because of its “distinctive 16-point omnidirectional shock mounting

design”. This is designed to protect your data from butterfingers. Out in

the third quarter of 2007 in the US, a European release date has yet to

be confirmed.

Google Health In its latest bid to cover every possible

aspect of your life, Google has employed

a number of

esteemed medical experts to advise

it on health matters. The new advisory group will give feedback to

any of the company’s health projects. Google’s utlimate aim is to develop a

health-based online search service in the near future, providing users with

answers to all their medical needs. This will join other projects in the

Google Co-op scheme – online at wwwwww..ggooooggllee..ccoomm//ccoooopp//– which

already enables users to create their own customisable search engine

using Google technology.

▲Apple hopes Safari will become the second most popular browser on the Web, surpassing Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla savages Safari John Lilly, Mozilla’s Chief Operating

Officer, has called Apple’s market-share

plans for its Web browser Safari “out of

date” and “duopolistic”.

The Safari browser is used widely on

Mac OS computers, and has recently

been released as a public beta version

for Windows XP and Vista (reviewed on

page 43 this month). In a recent speech,

Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, predicted that

Safari will eventually dominate a quarter

of the browser market, and showed a

graphic that indicated the rest of the

market would be taken up by Microsoft’s

Internet Explorer program.

Blockbuster backs Blu-ray

The UK’s largest video-rental retailer, Blockbuster, has

announced that it will support the Blu-ray disc format in its

US stores, in preference to HD DVD. The battle between

Blu-ray and HD DVD has been billed as similar to the 1980s

video recorder clash between VHS and Betamax.

Blockbuster’s support of Blu-ray could have a big

influence on which of the two high-definition disc formats

gains prominence in the next few years. Most major movie

studios have been producing discs in either both formats or

solely Blu-ray, apart from Universal, which has been

concentrating exclusively on the HD DVD format.

Blockbuster says it will continue to offer HD DVD rentals

online and in 250 stores in the States, but with the movie

chain having a total of 1,450 outlets in the US, this will be

little consolation to fans of the format.

▲

Blockbuster’s support for Blu-ray could be a massive blow for the HD DVD format

www.pc-utilities.co.uk issue 90 10 ▲

Lilly criticised Apple’s stance on

Safari, stating it was: “out-of-date,

corporate-controlled, duopoly

oriented, not the-Web-thinking.

And it’s not good for the Web.

Which is sort of moot, I think,

because I don’t think this

two-party world will really

come to be.”

Only time will tell if Safari can

claim a sizeable chunk of the PC

browser market. A large number of

security flaws in the Apple software,

discovered soon after its debut, won’t

help its cause, and a number of patches

have already been released. Despite

Safari for Windows being downloaded

over 1 million times in the first few

weeks after its release, it has a long way

to go to catch up with Firefox.

YouTube wants to encourage more online editing with its Remixer applet ▲

Edit video with YouTube YouTube directors can now edit their

clips online using software built into the

website. Still in its beta stages, the

YouTube Remixer enables users to join

different clips together, cut videos into

sections and add borders or effects.

Based on Adobe’s Premiere Express

software, the current version still has a

few glitches to work through. However,

it gives visitors an idea of the future of

video-sharing sites. Rivals like

wwwwww..ppiinnnnaacclleesshhaarree..ccoommhave already

released their own online editing suites,

and YouTube won’t want to fall behind

this trend.

Until all the kinks have been worked

out of the YouTube editor, you may want

to try Roxio Buzz (hhttttpp::////llaabbddss..rrooxxiioo.. ccoomm) – a free and simple video-editing

tool on this issue’s coverdisc. See page

49 for our full review.

Dell rapped over cable confusion The Advertising Standards Agency has

upheld a complaint made against PC

manufacturer Dell (wwwwww..ddeellll..ccoomm). A

customer complained that an advert

featuring the Dell Photo All-in-One

Printer 926 did not specify that a
PC UTILITESNEWS ▲

Ultimate Extras in short supply

When Microsoft Windows

Vista was launched,

Ultimate Extras – optional

add-ons available through

Windows Updates – were

touted as a major feature of

the operating system’s most

advanced and expensive

version. However, since

Vista’s initial release, the

extras have been few and far

between.

In response to various

websites and message

boards’ criticism about this,

Microsoft has apologised for

the delay and has assured

users that more Ultimate

Extras are on their way. So far,

only four add-ons have been

released, none of which have been

▲

Ultimate Extras are one of the unique features of the most expensive version of the new operating system

particularly spectacular.

Director of Windows

Vista Ultimate, Barry Goffe,

said: “We want to let our

Windows Vista Ultimate

customers know that we

are actively working to

deliver the remaining

Extras that we identified in

January. Our goal is to

provide the highest-quality,

most secure and reliable

offerings, and as a result we

are continuing our work on

these offerings. We apologise

for taking so long to provide a status update

to customers.”

▲Dell has been rapped for failing to make it clear that a cable was not included in a printer’s price

Paying to go green

Results of a survey conducted across

France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK

show that 55% of people would pay a

premium cost of up to 10% for

electronic products manufactured in a

more environmentally-conscious way.

Over 2,000 people were interviewed for

the research, which showed that there is

little difference in opinion between

people of different genders, income

groups, or educational levels.

printer cable – costing £14 – was not

included in the price.

Dell argued that most purchasers

would already own a printer cable and

therefore would not need or want

another one. The newspaper advert

described the product as “an affordable

All-In-One scanner, printer and copier.”

The price of £70 was crossed out and

replaced with £59.

The Advertising Standards Agency

decided that £14 was a significant cost

in relation to the price of the printer,

and told Dell to make their future ads

clearer. Dell must now inform consumers

if a printer cable is not included in the

price when they advertise printers.

▲The many colours of the Zen Stone Plus, Creative’s new MP3 player

▲People are willing to pay slightly more for technology developed in an environmentallyfriendly manner

Zen Stone Plus The Creative Zen Stone Plus MP3 player

has been launched on the UK market,

following the recent release of the

simpler Zen Stone series. The Plus,

which costs £49.98, has a few more

features than its little brother (£27.99),

including an FM stereo radio, a built-in

microphone, a stopwatch and 2GB of

memory – enough space for 1,000 four

minute tracks. The standard Zen Stone

is similar to Apple’s iPod shuffle – a

basic music player with few functions –

but is quite a lot cheaper than Apple’s

player. See wwwwww..ccrreeaattiivvee..ccoommfor

more details.

SECURITY THREATS

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Worm Hackers are taking

advantage of the

release of JK

Rowling’s final Harry

Potter book by

releasing a malicious worm, which

poses as a copy of Harry Potter and

the Deathly Hallows. The worm

infects removable USB memory

drives, posing as a file named

HarryPotter-TheDeathlyHallows.doc.

Opening this file can lead to the

worm copying itself onto other USB

sticks. The Hairy-A worm also

changes the Internet Explorer

homepage to an Amazon.com link of

a spoof Harry Potter book.

YouTube video risk Internet security

firms in America are warning of possible

flaws in the popular video-sharing site,

YouTube. Secure Computing (wwwwww..sseeccuurreeccoommppuuttiinngg..ccoomm) claims

that the advert-producing Zlob Trojan has found its way into a few

videos. “The fact is, no one expects to find malware hidden in YouTube

files,” the company commented. “Yet the medium’s popularity is highly

alluring as a mass distribution vehicle for malicious code. What’s

alarming is that – from a security perspective – many users and

organisations will be blind sided and potentially seriously exposed.”

Fake PDFs Business emails

with an attachment

entitled John

Smith_report.pdf

(your name

replacing John Smith) should be

deleted – they are spam. Spammers

take your name from the

information contained within your

email address to make the .pdf file

seem more authentic, rather than

just a generic spam email. Recently,

a German company’s stock price

rose when spam of this sort

penetrated the country’s email

system with incorrect economic

advice. The PDF format is not a

traditional source of spam, so keep

your eyes peeled for this one.

issue 90 www.pc-utilities.co.uk 11 ▲