Category Archives: Hardware

Category containing all information relating to hardware.

OLED will bring even thinner TVs!

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Sony are now demoing the new kid on the block in the TV department – OLED. OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode, and is a new technology that might open up a brand new era in television.

This new technology means that the TV picture is naturally much brighter, so you don’t need a backlight on the TV. This not only saves a large amount of electricity, but means that TV’s can be so much thinner!

They aren’t cheap though – and the majority of people won’t be able to afford them for a little while yet (especially in the financial crisis at the moment), but maybe in a year or so they’ll be a bit cheaper and affordable.

For me though, I’m looking forward to OLED TV’s in laptops – I mean imagine how much it would improve battery life! We’ve got a lot to look forward to!

Should you defragment your RAM? (How to guide)

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Well, everybody knows that Vista can’t really be ran on 1GB RAM – especially if you use a lot of system programs. I personally know differently, because I’ve found out that if you can “defragment” your systems RAM once the amount of available RAM falls below a certain point, you can clear up some used RAM (often quite a lot) and make your computer much more usable.

Trouble is, there isn’t much free software you can find that does the thing I want it to do. I have found one program, though, and despite the fact it doesn’t claim it will run on Windows Vista (the program was created in 2003), it will run fine without any issues.

You can grab the program here, and it is completely free (unlike most of the shareware I found on the internet). Just download the ZIP file, run the included EXE file, and when it is installed and it runs for the first time say Yes when it asks if you want to configure it.

Make sure your configuration options match mine:

ram

When that’s done, you should see it defragment in a dialog box. When it’s done, just click Send to Tray. You’ll see in the notification tray area a black box with a number in it. That is the amount of RAM available.

The system will automatically defragment the RAM when less than 1/3 of it is available. But, if you want to manually defrag it, just double click the icon.

Simple as that. You’ll get better performance and also be able to run more programs at the same time. The program will automatically load up on boot, so you won’t have to constantly reload it.

Also, the program will work on all computers from Windows 95 upwards so you can basically use it on any PC.

Enjoy, and post a comment if you have any problems.

Mobile phone cameras are improving…

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Well, today I took my Nokia 3120 Classic out into the lovely snow and decided to take some good old snaps – partly because other people wanted to see them, but mostly because I wanted to test my phones camera.

And, frankly, I am amazed at how much mobile phone cameras are improving. My 3120 Classic has just 2 megapixels and flash, but it takes fantastic shots. Shutter response is not quick due to slow phone processors, but as long as you aren’t moving fast, it takes digital camera quality photos.

And when I’ve taken the shots, I can shoot them over to my PC either via USB or bluetooth.

I’m really loving how I no longer need to worry if I have forgotten to pick up my camera (or in the most common case of mine, forgotten to charge it up!!). As long as I have my phone, I’ve got no problem. My 2GB memory card will cover a couple of thousand 1600×1200  images so I’ve got no problem for space.

And by no means is the 3120 classic the lead in mobile phone cameras. There are 5 megapixel phones which take much better pictures, but the 3120 classic proves that you don’t have to burn a huge hole in your pocket to get good mobile snaps.

Asus EeePC 1000HE on the way with 9.5 hour battery claims!

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Asus’ latest addition to the well known EeePC series is the very good looking 1000HE. Asus claims that it has a 9.5 hour is battery life which is perfect for that long plane flight or tiring car trip.

EeePC 1000HE

Above: EeePC 1000HE

It doesn’t have a CD/DVD drive so film-watchers will be dissapointed, but it does have a 160GB hard drive (plus 10GB online storage provided by Asus) with Windows XP preloaded so you could load a few movies onto the hard drive. I’m not sure that the inbuilt graphics card would cope with very high quality films but it should be able to cope with a fair quality film.

It also comes with a 1.67GHz processor which is quite enough for word processing and document handling in Windows XP, plus the fair sized keyboard will make typing much less of a chore on such a small device.

It also has 1GB RAM preloaded, so you might even be able to do a little bit of multitasking on it.

The screen size is thereabouts 10″ so it’s not great unless you have good eyes, but most people should find it just-about usable – and any user of the previous EeePC’s should have no problem.

I was unable to find any information about the actual screen resolution, but I would guess it was either 1024×600 or 1024×480 judging by previous models of the EeePC.

The product itself has a 1 year warranty, but the battery warranty is only 6 months – so you may have to replace the battery ever so often to keep that 9.5 hour claim up.

Generally, it looks like a nice piece of kit for any regular traveller. I won’t use one myself because I love my 13.3″ dual core laptop which is fine for my travels, and I don’t think I could live without a DVD writer (or even player) built in as I watch a lot of DVD’s on my laptop.

It’s price tag is about 300$ in the US, which means it should be around £230 in the UK.

What do you think of it? Take a look at the Asus promotion page at http://promos.asus.com/US/1000HE/ASUS/index.html

Ridiculous costs of companies fitting your products

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It seems insane – the amount of money we have to fork out to have our products fitted. If you’re an amateur with tech and all the latest gadgetry, it might seem sensible to have an “expert” come to your house and fit your product for you.

But at what price are you paying for this service? I’ve been looking around on the internet, and I was horrified at some of the costs for fitting basic items in the home.

For example, a well-known UK company (who’s name I will not mention) is charging £200 to fit a television in your home with a wall-mount. And the wall-mount isn’t even included. £200?!! For a vaguely experienced person it takes all of 20-30 minutes to fit a television so where the hell does that figure come from? 

The same company is charging £90 to fit a PC in your home. That’s another 20 minute job for someone who has even a vague idea in computing.

Or how about £30 to install any software on your computers. For god’s sake – you don’t have to be a rocket-scientist to install a piece of software on a PC.

The list goes on – including £90 to set up a wireless router. No router included.

I think it’s horrifying that companies can take that much money out of your pocket for half and hours work. No wonder we are running out of money. 

To say it makes me angry would be an understatement, but come on – these prices are gobsmacking. 

Have you ever had kit fitted for you in your home? How expensive was that?