Author Archives: GEEK!

PS3 slim coming 1st September

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The PlayStation 3 “Slim” has been announced by Sony, and will arrive in stores on September 1st.

It will be one-third lighter and slimmer, with the addition of it being one-third more power efficient.

Also, Sony has said that the new version will be about £50 cheaper than the current PS3 model, costing £249.99 in the UK! Finally the PS3 is decreasing in price!

If you’re in the US, the new PS3 will cost you about $299.

In terms of internal features there isn’t much to get excited about – it won’t be much faster, but it will be nice to see a more space-saving PS3.

However, Linux users will be ashamed to know that Linux will not run on the PS3 “Slim”!! In my opinion, that is a big shame.

Ah well, hopefully the smaller price tag will attract a few more buyers and help the PlayStation rise in the gaming market!

TomTom Sat Nav Software now available on the iTunes Store!

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If you have a iPhone 3G or 3GS you’ll probably be pleased to know that TomTom has launched it’s own app for satellite navigation!

As you can probably guess, the software uses the GPS navigator to run the software.

The software doesn’t come cheap but TomTom is a very well-known provider of sat-nav facilities so I suspect it will do well.

The software is currently available in 6 packages each relating to a different part of the world:

  • UK & Ireland (costs £59.99)
  • Australia (costs £44.99)
  • New Zealand (costs £54.99)
  • U.S. and Canada (costs £59.99)
  • Western Europe (costs £79.99)

An exciting idea that may prove a success to the company, but this certainly isn’t the first piece of sat-nav software available for the iPhone. There have also been a few complaints that the software has its problems – one of them being that the software apparently pauses when a call is received which would be a pain if you are driving. I guess only time will tell if the product sells.

Guide: Stay legal online – top tips!

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With one of the top legal problems being illegal downloads over the internet, you need to be aware of what could happen if your internet connection is tracked down as being illegal. It could go as far as court, and if you (being the bill payer) are found guilty of running illegal downloads of your internet connection you could be subject to thousands (if not millions) of pounds in fines. It doesn’t have to be you downloading the illegal files – it could be a family member, a friend using your wi-fi, or somebody in your neighbourhood stealing your wi-fi connection. And as far as ISPs are concerned, it is your problem – no matter who actually downloaded the illegal content.

So, to make your life a little easier and to avoid the risk of ending up in court, GEEK! has compiled some top tips to stay legal online…

  • Make sure your wi-fi is secured – you don’t want people stealing your wi-fi and downloading illegal files without you being aware of it. Remember, it’s your problem even if somebody else downloading something illegal on your network. You can easily secure your wi-fi network with a password by going to your router configuration. You’ll probably need to refer to your router’s instruction manual, but it should only be a 5-10 minute job.
  • Check that yourself or other family members aren’t illegally downloading. Check computers in your home – if any of them have programs such as Limewire or Vuze installed, users of that computer may well be downloading illegal files such as music or films. Teenagers are the most common users of illegal filesharing software so make sure you check their computer systems. Ask your family members where they are getting their music from. If they are purchasing it from stores such as iTunes, 7digital or Napster they are OK, but if they are downloading it from illegal P2P (peer to peer) software you are at risk.
  • Actively encourage your family members that copyrighted content should be paid for. Remind them that illegally downloading copyrighted music and video is the same as shoplifting sweets. It might only be an 80p song they are downloading for free, but the consequences of that could be immense.
  • Remember that downloading commercial software via P2P software is also illegal.
  • Avoid Bittorrent software/sites. Although some of the content on Bittorrent sites is legal, the majority of it isn’t. Any copyright music, video, TV shows, films, software (etc) that is download from bittorrent could result in legal issues so it’s best to just avoid P2P altogether. In addition, constantly using P2P software is likely to result in problems with your ISP (internet service provider) as P2P uses large amounts of bandwidth very quickly.
  • Buy your music, TV shows and films legally. If you want to get your music and video online legally, the best way of doing so if using services such as iTunes, 7digital or Napster (all of these are legal – including Napster as it was made legal many years ago). If you’re not sure how to get your digital content legally, just go to a high street shop and purchase it there. There are still tonnes of high street stores selling digital content and it is the best way to get legal content as you can be 100% sure that what you are buying has been paid for properly.
  • Don’t have a credit card to purchase content online? There’s plenty of ways around that. For example, you can purchase iTunes gift cards from most digital content stores with cash, which you simply redeem at home with your iTunes account. You are then free to spend whatever gift card you buy on whatever you want. In addition, 7digital offers pay by SMS which allows you to redeem vouchers for songs online – this is perfect if you are under 18 years of age.

Those tips are the best ways to avoid legal trouble with your internet connection. Use them well and remember that you only have to download illegal content once to end up in trouble.gui

Karoo changes policy yet again!

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A while back GEEK! reported about Karoo – the only ISP in Hull (UK) that screwed up on its internet policy.

Well it would appear that Karoo has changed its internet policy yet again. Now they are saying that a full court order will be required before the suggestion of a service cut-off can take place.

This statement was issued by Karoo to TorrentFreak: “We will no longer suspend a customer’s service unless we receive a court order from a copyright owner taking legal action. As a result it is the responsibility of the legal system, not Karoo, to ensure the accuracy of the information provided by the copyright owners.”

This changes the rules a lot. What they are saying is that Karoo will not cut off their users for illegal downloads by themselves. They will wait until a copyright owner files a case in court, and (supposedly) if the court order affects someone from their user base then they will cut that user off, either temporarily or permanently depending on what conclusion is made by the court.

Karoo have finally made the decision that it is the legal system that must deal with illegal downloaders, not Karoo themselves. I respect this decision, personally. I’m not a Karoo user myself, but I would agree with what they are now doing.

However, that isn’t game over if Karoo do get a report from a court. There are some issues that can come up. There is no guaruntee that court orders are 100% accurate so innocent users may get cut off. IP addresses are too easy to hide or modify so it would be unfair to cut off a user because of their IP address downloading an illegal file. The only real way that ISPs (or courts) can be sure of illegal downloads is to analyse a user’s hard drive, but even this has its issues – there would have to be warrants involved and before you know it a quick illegal download can become a huge matter.

GEEK! has never encouraged illegal downloads and never will. GEEK! will shortly be posting a guide about staying legal online so make sure you stay tuned if you want some key tips on how to avoid getting in trouble with the law because of your internet connection.

I never realised Google Picasa was so good!

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A couple of days ago I was just trundling through my day-to-day tasks on my computer, and then I noticed that I ought to organise and backup my photos on my computer. I do actually have rather a lot of photos – believe it or not, I do manage to get outside and have some great times that need to be captured and saved for later.

So, thinking that this could take a while manually using Windows Explorer, I decided to download Picasa. And when I installed, I was gobsmacked at what this free software was capable of.

Immediately when Picasa starts it will ask to search for any pictures on your hard drive, which I told it to do. Picasa very quickly scans your drive for any photos and then archives them in date order.

After about 5 minutes I had a whole archive of photos ready to sort out. Within Picasa I could easily delete photos I didn’t want, and create my own photo albums for pictures I do want.

The brilliant thing is I can get Picasa to back up all my photos to my Network Drive right away, and if I want to share my photos with friends and family it is even easier! I can upload my photos to Picasa Web Albums in minutes and I can either choose whether I want my photos public or just open to specific friends.

It works so seamlessly and effectively, I love it. I would probably pay for it if I had to, but it is even better that Picasa is free – as with most Google software.