Technology, Gadgets, IT, Games

Market Capitalisation is a measure of the total worth of a company – simply the cost of a share, multiplied by the number of shares. Apple today finally overtook Microsoft as the world’s largest technology company, and the second-largest company in the US.

This is no mean feat, and it is to Apple’s credit that is has dominated the smartphone market and maintained its ‘cool’ image with a wide range of customers.

For some reason, there are still many Apple fans who see Microsoft as a big evil corporation, taking away their freedoms and stealing money. Apple is actually the bigger corporation, taking away a lot more freedom, and charging hugely extortionate prices… Read more

As a result of a series of lawsuits claiming that Microsoft is unfairly forcing its browser on users, by making Internet Explorer installed by default on all Windows systems, they are unveiling the Browser Ballot in March.

This is a small webpage that will pop up for all Windows 7 users in March, allowing them to choose a default web browser from a list of 11. The first six browsers are arranged randomly (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari) then the next seven are also random (Flock, FlashPeak, K-Meleon, Avant, Maxthon, Sleipnir & GreenBrowser).

Not only does this update let all users freely select a browser, but it also un-pins IE from the SuperBar (the Windows 7 replacement for Quick Launch).

You can view the browser ballot directly at: www.browserchoice.eu

Do you think this browser ballot is enough to give users adequate choice? Do you think it is fair for Microsoft to have to do this? Will the ballot suppress the critics? Leave a comment to tell us your views.

I’m not a great believer in big TVs or monitors, as they tend to be impractical, distracting or just pointless. However the 43 inches of curvature in the NEC CRV43 are simply sublime, and an impressive solution to a number of display problems.

It’s not all good news though. At $8000 it’s not exactly in league with a pair of normal 22-inchers, and the display is very thick (see photos after the jump), and an extremely unusual 32:10 aspect ratio. However for that size and money you get 200 nits of brightness (candelas per meter squared), 10,000:1 contrast, 0.02ms “Rapid Response,” covers 99.3% of the Adobe RGB color gamut, and packs at least one USB2.0 jack and DVI-D and HDMI 1.3 connectors.

The NEC CRV34 will be on sale in July for $7,999. Check out the tech specs and a link below…

Read more

The Release Candidate (RC1) of Windows 7 has been around for a few weeks now, and we’ve been checking it out.

The RC1 (build 7100) has a few changes since the public beta (build 7000) from January, and is mostly tweaked and improved. Compared to other RC1 releases (especially Vista), this is an incredibly stable piece of software. It’s not quite perfect yet, so I wouldn’t recommend it to your Grandma for her first PC – but it should be absolutely fine for most users who want to try this exciting new OS out.

It’s still a lot more stable than Vista, a lot more intuitive, and seems to be a lot faster. XP still has a lot of advantages compared to both Windows 7 and Vista, but in terms of features and security, Win7 really looks like a worthwhile upgrade. Finally, people (like me) who refused to go to Vista can upgrade in confidence.

Let’s just hope that Microsoft have learned the lesson from the Vista launch, and let everyone use it from the start. A staggered initial business-only launch hurt consumer adoption, as people couldn’t even buy it if they wanted to! Also, they aren’t hyping up Win7 as the amazing next-big thing, which they did with Vista, then when it turned out to be “passable” or “adquate”, people were hurt and rejected the upgrade. Now they’re being reserved and honest, letting people figure it out for themselves.

RC1 will expire on June 1st 2010, whilst old Beta 1 installations will expire August 1st this year. Final release is expected any time in the 2nd half of this year – Microsoft say in time for Christmas shopping, and Paul Thurrot cites a precise date of October 1st.

In related news, the new branding for Windows 7 (right) was leaked out by Microsoft China during their RC1 launch event. Let us know what you think!

Check out Windows 7 RC1 for yourself here.

The TVonics DTR-Z500 is a digital-terrestrial Personal Video Recorder (PVR) – basically a Sky+ or V+ box for recording free-to-air digital TV; also imaginateively known as Freeview+

It has several advantages over Sky+ and V+, since they both require a subscription to their services. According to TVonics, Sky+ installation costs up to £150, and there’s a minimum subscription of £16 per month. However, the Z500 works off terrestrial digital TV (not cable or satellite), which is free to receive and watch. The Z500 costs just under £200, so is instantly cheaper on paper, if you use it for more than a couple of months.

As for features, there’s another big difference – the Z500 has a 500GB hard drive for recording TV to, which works out to 250 hours of digital TV. This is massive in comparison to Sky+, which can only offer 40 hours. Other features are equally impressive – the Z500 can record two channels whilst watching a recording (or record one, and watch/record a second), pause and rewind live TV, and schedule recordings using the in-built Electronic Programming Guide (EPG)… Read more

The BT Stratus 1500 is a very stylish cordless landline phone set, coming into the middle of the cordless market, between £40 and £90 for the various sets. The unit we tested was the standard single unit, with one handset and a base.

The 1500 has all the features we expect from these phones, such as a 100-number phonebook, polyphonic ringtones. It also features text messaging, and fairly good battery life. However it does lack a colour screen which other comparable devices do feature.

The handset features a white on black screen, and sunken buttons for a smooth streamlined finish. The Stratus’ functions include text-messaging, polyphonic ringtones and a 100 name and number phonebook.

The Stratus 1500 has a range of up to 300 metres outdoors and 50 metres indoors; and boasts battery life of up to 10 hours talktime and 100 hours standby time.

The handset feels firm and comfortable; and although light, feels robust and worth holding. However other people who have tried our unit have complained that they have to grip the phone, due to it being quite thin, and that it is awkward to hold between ear and shoulder. The buttons are the silly type of U-cut in the faceplate, which means that only around half the button actually pushed in. They don’t have to be pushed in far, and the click and beep is useful to reassure that it has been pressed… Read more

At PDC, Microsoft have also demoed Office 14, the successor to Office 2007, slated for release either in early 2009 or closer to the release of Windows 7.

The key new features are due to its integration with the Windows Live Mesh, which shows Microsoft is really thinking about cross-device collaboration.

• Several users can open the same document at the same time, without being locked out, and collaborate. You get a little notification saying someone else has changed this part of the document, and you can accept their change or communicate with them (email, IM, call).
• There will be web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote,  similar to Google Docs
• There will also be Mobile versions, which can also get in on the collaboration act
• The gist of this is that several home/office PCs, web browsers and phones can all collaborate on the same document at the same time, receiving and providing real-time updates to/from each other. This is a big mashup of simultaenous editing, online storage, instant messaging and whiteboarding.
• The Ribbon interface, which has proved popular in Word/Powerpoint/Excel etc is being ported to Visio and Project

This new version of office won’t be tied to Windows, nor Internet Explorer, nor Silverlight. It will work on Macs, Linux and the iPhone, in Firefox and Safari and across many other demographics.

Microsoft has said a technical preview of the Web-based Office apps will come later this year. Microsoft hasn’t explicitly said there will be a free version, though executives have said the apps will be part of Office Live, which has both free and subscription-based options.

We’ll provide more information as it comes!