Category Archives: In the News

Tech news and opinions

Official Windows 7 pricing, no upgrade DVD in Europe

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Microsoft has unveiled the plans for pricing on Windows 7.

If you currently have a license for Windows Vista Home Premium, you will pay £79.99 for an upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium when it is available. If you just want a normal copy of Windows, you will need to pay £149.99.

However, there will not be an upgrade DVD for Windows 7. In Europe, Microsoft decided not to sell a separate upgrade disk. Microsoft is doing this because they are trying to comply with various regulations.

However, there is good news. Microsoft will be offering a discount preorder of Windows 7 from the 15th July, meaning that UK users will be able to get a full copy of Windows 7 Home Premium for release day for just £49.99 – while stocks last.

So there is some good and bad news there, but I think I shall definitely opt in for the £49.99 early upgrade. A full version of Windows for that price is too good to miss!

Windows 7 Beta Bi-hourly shutdowns begin July 1st

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If you are still running the Windows 7 Beta and haven’t bothered to update to the release candidate, you’re about to hit the bi-hourly shutdowns.

Starting July 1st, Windows 7 Beta users will start getting bi-hourly shutdowns, meaning that your computer will automatically be shut down every 2 hours.

If you want to avoid the Windows 7 Beta bi-hourly shutdowns, you’ll need to upgrade to the Release Candidate for free. You can download it from here for free until August 15th so make sure you upgrade if you want to continue using Windows 7.

Samsung introduces a 32GB RAM chip!

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Yep, you are reading that correctly. Samsung has managed to squeeze in 32GB memory into one chip.

It’s great news that means that technology is moving on at a really swift pace. The chip is aimed at server use, but it’s still very exciting news.

The 1.35 volt chip also claims to run a bit faster than previous 1.5 volt DDR3 chips. Of course, the chip will definitely not come cheap. There is no price set at the moment since the word at the moment is that Samsung probably won’t have it available to the public anytime this year. There’s also the question of finding a computer that will support that much RAM.

And when you think of it, what the hell are you going to do to fill up 32GB RAM. I have a 2GB RAM laptop here running Vista and that struggles to get past using more than 1.5GB, even when I’m doing intensive work on it such as video editing. You’d have to run hundreds of resource-hogging programs to fill up 32 gigs! Even a server would struggle to gobble up 32GB of RAM – you’d have to have excessive load on it to choke on RAM that big. On the other hand, it hopefully will bring more reliability to shared servers meaning less downtimes and more power availability.

But anyway, it’s nice to hear that RAM technology is progressing.

iPod Touch/iPhone OS now LIVE!

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It’s June 17th today, and today’s the day of the live OS 3.0 launch! At last!

Yes, you can now download the update for both the iPod Touch and the iPhone. Bare in mind it’s free for the iPhone but you’ll get charged for the iPod Touch update.

To get the update, hook your iPod Touch/iPhone up to your computer, run iTunes, and then click ‘Check for updates’ on your devices’ front page.

Enjoy the new firmware update, and GEEK! will be posting a review shortly.

THE UPDATE FOR IPOD TOUCH COSTS £5.99

Virgin to attempt to kill music piracy with a brand new idea

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Virgin Media has decided to launch a brand new idea which, they think, might kill off some of the music piracy in the UK.

The new idea is supposedly going to launch sometime before Christmas, and it will mean that Virgin Media broadband users can download unlimited DRM-free music for a monthly charge to their broadband bill.

In addition, Virgin have used their brains. You would think “what a stupid idea – people will get the songs from Virgin and stick them on P2P networks”, but Virgin has agreed to aggressively police all the big P2P networks to make sure this doesn’t happen.

The deal is backed by one of the biggest music labels, Universal, and Virgin are hoping to have even more labels by launch date.

Personally, I think it could work, but only if people are willing to pay the price. If it does work, then the chances are that other ISPs will catch on and maybe we’ll be able to combat music piracy.