Tech Bitch

S3 Graphics has gone xenophobic on us Brits and released the S3 Graphics Chrome 430 GT desktop card in the U.S. only.The first of the S3 Graphics Chrome 400 Series to market, the Chrome 430 GT promises ‘advanced’ 3D graphics and ‘incredible’ 1080p HD multimedia performance with ‘extreme’ power-efficiency and rigidly low thermal specifications.

Based on the low profile PCI Express Gen 2 graphics card specification, the Chrome 430 GT is pitched at small form factor PC designs and energy-conscious PC users who wish to upgrade their PC to provide HD playback and the latest DirectX 10.1 graphics engine.

S3 said the Graphics Chrome 430 GT outperforms the current market leader in its class by over 20% in 3D benchmarks and rendered frames-per-second in the most popular DX 10 and DX 9 games - do you believe them?

Display connections allow dual-link DVI (DVI-D/DVI-I), VGA, and 1080p widescreen HDTV support.

It also utilises the ChromotionHD 2.0 scalable video engine for decoding MPEG-4/AVC (H.264), MPEG-2, VC-1, WMV-HD, and AVS video for Blu-ray and HD content. To further enhance operation for home theatre applications that demand cool-and-quiet operation, the Chrome 430 GT features PowerWise technology to minimise heat dissipation without compromising performance or features.

The S3 Graphics Chrome 430GT costs just $59 and is currently available online.

Another awesome graphics card for your consideration. Albatron has enthusiastically announced the dual GPU 9800GX2. Two heads are better than one as SLI pundits have proven, but with the 9800GX2, you don’t have to fumble with manipulating two cards into your case.

The 9800GX2 has two nVidia 9800 GPUs tucked into a sleek black case with a single PCI-e 2.0 slot connector. In addition, this card features the latest 65nm technology assuring the highest processing efficiency, lowest power consumption and the most optimal 3D gaming performance and HD Video playback – much like every other nVidia 9800 solution.

Each GPU contains 128 stream processors and boasts a 600MHz core clock. The shader clock is rated at 1500MHz with a texture fill rate of 76.8bn/s. This card comes with a whopping 1GB (512MB per GPU) of GDDR3 memory with a memory clock of 1000MHz using a 512-bit (256-bit per GPU) memory interface. The memory bandwidth is 128GB/s.

Is this card HD ready or what? The 9800GX2 has an HDMI connector which can pass pure uncompressed high-definition video and audio to your HD monitor. But, if HDMI doesn’t fit into your plans, this card also provides Dual-link DVI connectors with HDCP compatibility. Dual 400MHz RAMDACs can also support dual QXGA displays with refresh rates up to 2048×1536@85Hz. Simply said, this card rocks…

G.Skill is showing off its new DDR3-1800 CL7 memory. The DDR3-1800 CL7 is pitched squarely at enthusiasts upgrading to the next generation platforms. The DDR3-1800 HZ Series is available in 2GB dual channel kits to meet the specific needs of gaming systems or high performance workstations.

The DDR3-1800 HZ Series is equipped with the Antazone RamMod cooler to improve module stability and performance while operating under extreme overclocking conditions. Engineered with quality and performance in mind, G.Skill’s DD3-1800 HZ Series is pitched as the ultimate solution for extreme gamers, overclockers, and PC enthusiasts.

The Antazone RamMod cooler uses industrial standard silent micro blower fan as a memory cooler. This original innovative cooling solution provides more efficient heat dissipation. The 8000rpm silent micro blower fan is ideal for overclocking where every degree matters. It ensures that your system can operate smoothly even with the toughest gaming software, overclocking, or system applications.

Flash memory manufacturer Silicon-Power has released its latest high-capacity USB flash drive to date - a stunning 16GB. The Ultima 110 series is a USB 2.0 storage device with full body aluminium brush surface that should help to minimise scratches. The retro styling is also pretty cool. Silicon-Power’s Ultima 110 series comes with security software, the SmartKit, which compresses your data and keeps it safe from prying eyes. And it comes with a lifetime warranty.

Leadtek is hot on the heels of MSI. The WinFast PX9800 GX2 combines the power of two nVidia GeForce 9800 GPUs in a single graphics solution and 256 screaming fast stream processors. This, it’s also the world’s fastest graphics solution. It too boasts nVidia HybridPower technology.

Powered by 65nm technology and nVidia multi-GPU technology, the WinFast PX9800 GX2 comes with 1GB of 512-bit GDDR3 memory. It is also designed for the new PCI Express 2.0 bus architecture, offering the highest data transfer speeds for the most bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications. At the same time it maintains backwards compatibility with existing PCI Express motherboards for the broadest support.

With the latest Microsoft DirectX 10 with full Shader Model 4.0 support, PX9800 GX2 should deliver realistic film quality gaming effects, guaranteeing the best 3D graphics under Windows Vista. Furthermore, nVidia HybridPower technology lets you switch to the motherboard GeForce GPU when running non graphically-intensive applications for a silent, low-power PC experience.

Featuring second generation nVidia PureVideo HD technology engine, the PX9800 GX2 enables HD gaming at eye-watering resolutions of up to 2560×1600 pixels with all available in-game features turned on. Besides, the new card delivers hardware acceleration of HD movies and dual-stream picture-in-picture content for the ultimate interactive Blu-ray and HD DVD movie experience. Meanwhile, with an integrated HDMI connector, it allows you to send both high definition video and audio signals to your HDTV via a single cable.

The card comes bundled with Neverwinter Nights 2. No pricing has been announced, but it’ll set you back at least £400.

MSI is really stoked about its latest MSI N9800GX2 Series graphics card. And it should be.

Engineered for extreme graphics performance, the MSI N9800GX2 Series is an ultra-powered, dual GPU-based graphics card that provides a complete, high definition entertainment and gaming solution for the PC.With nVidia HybridPower technology, two on-board GPUs and a total of 1GB graphics memory built-in, the N9800GX2 Series will blow your head off.

nVidia said the card is up to 50% faster than the awesome GeForce 8800 Ultra. Yikes! MSI N9800GX2 Series comes with total 256 units stream processors and a combined 512-bit memory interface.

That’s not all. The card supports Quad SLI technology, which offers amazing performance scaling by implementing 4-way AFR (Alternate Frame Rendering), for the world’s fastest gaming solution under Windows Vista. This puppy is available now and costs a sweet £409.

Ever felt somebody breathing down your neck when you’re working at your laptop? Quite often it’s just a busybody after a good nose at what you’re doing, but it could be a lot more sinister. Shoulder surfing is a simple yet very effective technique used by identity and data crooks to get personal and business information from your computer monitor while you’re unaware. According to 3M, 40% of information looked at on other people’s laptops is business critical information. Of course, personal e-mails or confidential documents to a colleague or a customer should remain private and confidential.

3M’s Vikuiti Privacy Filters (from £28.95/$39.95) are one of the most useful travelling accessories we’ve come across in a while. Ideal for the frequent flyer and high-tech commuter, the filter restricts the viewing angles (horizontal more so) of your laptop’s screen so that only you (i.e. the user positioned directly in front) can view on-screen data. From either side, your screen simply appears blank (black) - perfect for keeping prying eyes from your sensitive spreadsheets and yearly figures! The filters have another benefit - protecting your laptop or desktop monitor from scratches and other damage, as well as reducing glare.

Available in a number of sizes, from 12.1- to 19in. (up to 17in. widescreen), the filter is basically a hard-wearing plastic film. Featuring patented micro-louvre optical technology that restricts the viewing angle of the entire screen, 3M filters block out the view from either side of your computer screen without blurring or distortion. The filter can be mounted to either a CRT or LCD monitor, and makes perfect sense in busy, high-traffic offices and public access areas. It’s also available in a choice of black or beige, in either ‘flat’ or ‘contoured’ frame profiles to provide a match to your PC. The filter can be installed and removed easily, with no training or special technical skills required. In fact, it simply attaches to your laptop’s display or computer monitor using the supplied stick-on brackets and can be readily removed and stored when not required.

3M recently announced that the Vikuiti Privacy Filters are even suitable for use as privacy screens in e-examinations, eliminating the need for partitions or the other security measures specified in section 5.14 of the 2008 Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) standards for conducting e-examinations. The filter allows examination centres to site workstations closer together than the specified 1.25 metres without using cumbersome and costly partitions. These requirements are included in paragraph 5.14 of the Instructions for Conducting Examinations issued by the JCQ, on behalf of major examining bodies including AQA, City & Guilds, Edexcel, OCR, CEA and the WJEC.

The Vikuiti Privacy Filter is a great accessory if you frequently work in high traffic areas such as airports, aeroplanes, Internet cafes, and other public places. Relatively effective in helping to keep confidential and private information (or anything else on your screen) safe from snoopers, the filter even does a good job of never blurring or distorting screen data. We also like the way the filter reduces reflections when used with the matte side facing you, in addition to protecting fragile LCD screens from scratches and damage, and being easily removable. However, the brightness of your screen is diminished significantly, which may cause discomfort after prolonged use.

My only criticism is that the filter doesn’t filter as effectively as I’d have liked. In other words, I could still just about read documents on a neighbouring laptop - albeit after a little more effort than usual - and it doesn’t work if anyone is standing right behind you and looking down at your display. It’s also expensive, but so is your data. Not a totally effective solution, but as good as anything else on the market. [7]

Businesses are relying more and more on extending staff beyond the conventional office setting in order to reduce cost in terms of office resources, utilities, and amenities. At the same time, businesses rely on remote professionals to extend the reach of their offerings, remove obstacles based on distance, build healthier and more personalised business relationships, and bring more customised services to their clients.

While on the road or working in home offices, workers are separated from many office resources, limiting productivity, creating redundancy, and impacting responsiveness to internal and external customers. Mobile technology allows business professionals to interface more seamlessly with business processes fundamentally tied to existing office automation.

Fujitsu’s ScanSnap S300 (£210/$249) is a mobile scanning solution which packs a raft of practical features into such a compact device, making it a great tool for the road warrior or home office worker looking to digitise important A4 documents. It’s actually the world’s smallest colour duplex automatic document feeder (ADF) scanner, enabling anytime, anywhere colour scanning for mobile professionals.

With a compact footprint measuring a mere 284×95x75mm and weighing less than 1.4kg, the sheetfed ScanSnap S300 scanner is small enough to fit in a briefcase or laptop bag, making it a great solution for frequent travellers. And with a good range of features and respectable scan quality, it’s equally well suited to sitting comfortably beside you in your office/home office when not on the go.

The first thing that hits you about the ScanSnap S300 is how good it looks and how well it’s built. The silver-and-black livery is guaranteed to impress potential customers, and the flip-open paper tray should survive years of relatively heavy use. The scanner as a whole feels like it has been designed for living out of a briefcase, with no flimsy attachments or other parts you have to be careful about handling. Having said that, we would have liked the paper tray be secured once closed, as it does have a tendency to flip open.

The ScanSnap S300 is particularly well suited to users who work with forms because it offers ‘one-touch’ conversion of paper documents into searchable Adobe portable document format (PDF) files. You simply load a stack of up to 10 documents into the top-loading ADF and press the silver ‘Scan’ button to produce searchable PDF files at speeds of up to 8ppm (pages per minute) for single-sided documents and 16ipm (images per minute) for double-sided documents.

The scanner can be powered from a USB connection (USB 2.0/USB 1.1) on any PC, allowing road warriors to scan paper documents, receipts, bills, invoices and business cards anywhere they go. If A/C power is unavailable, the ScanSnap S300 can be connected to a second actively powered USB port on a PC and provide colour batch scanning speeds of up to 4ppm (simplex) and 8ipm (duplex).

Some other key highlights of the scanner are that it reproduces both sides of a document in a single pass, and multi-page documents containing colour, black-and-white, text and graphic information on both sides are processed with just one touch of the Scan button. The scanner also has the capability to sense whether a page is blank and eliminate it from the scan, and automatically senses when images are misaligned (skewed) and corrects the alignment automatically before presenting the final image. It also automatically gauges page size and crops the edges accordingly (senses up to nine different paper sizes and can also be configured to support ‘custom’ paper sizes), and a document protection feature lets you password protect newly created PDF files.

Fujitsu’s ScanSnap Manager v4.2 utility provides a simple user interface that allows you to change settings for selecting applications, creating searchable PDF files, activating intelligent settings, choosing paper sizes, and modifying image compression output. The company also provides a utility (CardMinder v3.2) for converting business cards into editable information which you can then export to other contact managers such as Outlook, as well as software (Organizer v3.2) for viewing and controlling scanned content, including large thumbnails consisting of all the pages scanned within the batch.

Scan quality is very good for general business documents, but the ScanSnap S300 is certainly no match for a regular desktop scanner - especially at scanning colour photographs. It offers dual 600dpi optical resolution, and you have the choice of Normal (150dpi colour), Better (200dpi colour), Best (300dpi colour), and Excellent (600dpi colour).

Text quality is good, but it’s the fact that data is extractable and manageable that makes the ScanSnap S300 a great business asset. Whether you’re a business professional in need of capturing mission critical documents, or in need of an easy solution to digitise invoices at home, the ScanSnap S300 is up to the task. With the ability to digitise documents into PDF format almost instantly to protect critical business papers, you may wonder how you ever lived without it. [8]

Lindy’s USB VoIP Phone is no different to any other USB handset on the market - it allows you to take advantage of free and inexpensive phones calls over the Internet, with all the ease that is associated with using a regular phone. However, Lindy’s USB VoIP Phone (£21.99) looks a whole lot better than most products, and its two-piece design gives the look of a more traditional telephone. Its build quality is great too, and technophobes will love the oversized keys.

Once the handset is connected to your Windows PC using the built-in (non-removable) USB cable, Skype users will be able to benefit from the phone’s auto launch functionality that launches the popular VoIP software as soon as the handset is picked up. Lindy doesn’t supply a copy of Skype in the box, which is a shame for inexperienced users, but at least you know that when you download the software (it’s free, by the way) you’ll be getting the most up-to-date version available.

The black-and-red handset isn’t designed exclusively for Skype, as it’s also compatible with other popular VoIP software such as Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. The handset comes with a handy 1.3m USB cable and can be desk or wall mounted (no screws or raw plugs provided). Furthermore, it requires no soundcard, eliminating the need to unplug your speakers. In addition to dialling numbers, the larger-than-normal keypad allows you to navigate through the Skype software on your computer and also has a quick dial function. Another neat feature is that you can rotate the handset and place it in the cradle for hands-free communications.

VoIP can sometimes be a barrier for technophobes, particularly if they are just presented with a headset and microphone. Lindy’s two-piece VoIP phone makes you feel like you’re using a normal telephone and the auto launch for Skype makes VoIP so easy that even your granny could use it. You can’t be too hard on a VoIP handset costing just of £20, but the lack of an LCD will turn off more experienced users because you can’t see the day, month and time, nor is there a counter displaying how long a call has lasted.

With the raft of VoIP phones on the market these days - including some rather smart wireless numbers - the USB VoIP phone from Lindy is basic but still one of the better models if you’re looking for the familiarity and comfort of a conventional telephone to help you experiment with VoIP. Needless to say, advanced users will be left wanting in terms of features, and those demanding the best audio quality will be better served elsewhere. [6.5]

Before you dispose or replace your computer’s hard disk drive (HDD), remember that all the data you saved on it - credit card numbers, business data, e-mail address book/contact list, e-mail conversations, financial data, legal documents, passwords, software license keys, personal photos of friends and family, and even your Web browser’s history - is recoverable. Did you not know that deleting a file does not erase it from your HDD, or that formatting a drive does not erase it fully? It’s possible - and sometimes quite easy using the right software tools - for someone else to recover your files if you don’t dispose of them properly.

Think of WiebeTech’s Drive eRazer like a digital shredder for HDDs. It works independently from your computer, wiping hard disk drives clean of all data. This lets IT managers redeploy or dispose of drives without fear of confidential data escaping your organisation. It’s also perfect for individuals looking to recycle their old PCs, or to donate to charities and schools.

Drive eRazer is an ingeniously simple and secure answer to complete data removal from HDDs. From the makers of the ToughTech XE Mini, the Drive eRazer doesn’t even need to be connected to your computer to run - simply connect the blue aluminium box to a HDD removed from your computer, power it using the supplied AC adapter, and then flip a switch. The downside is speed - erasing a drive at an average speed of 35MB/s means a 250GB drive will be erased in about 2 hours.

At the time of purchasing the Drive eRazer you’ll have to decide on a number of models, each of which supports different HDD interfaces. For instance, the DRZR-1 is the entry-level model (£59) supporting 3.5-inch IDE/PATA drives. Next up is the DRZR-2 Pro (£89) for 3.5-inch IDA/PATA drives, followed by the DRZR-3 for 2.5-inch IDE/PATAs drives (£89). Unfortunately, even the top-of-the-line DRZR-2-VBND (£11 only supports either 2.5-/3.5-inch SATA or IDE/PATA HDDs - there’s currently not a single boxed solution for all HDD types. Having said that, used with WiebeTech’s optional v4 Combo Adapters (from £29.99), the DRZR-1 and DRZR-2 can be used with many drive types, such as most flash drives, PCMCIA, ZIF drives and DOM drives.

The unit works by writing ‘zeros’ over every bit of your drive. After it’s done, there’s nothing left to recover. For those who want even more assurance, the Pro model is capable of more than one pass with different characters, ending with a complete zero of the drive. Using the Single-Pass Mode (Standard and Pro models) a single data pattern is written once across the whole disk, deleting blocks including partitions and Host Protected Areas. Verification is also done after a single pass.

Using Multi-Pass Mode (Pro model only) almost totally eliminates ways of recovering bits of data even after completely overwriting everything on the drive - so much so that Wiebetech believes the laboratory cost required to actually pull off such a feat would cost millions of pounds. However, if you must convince someone that there’s no way data can be recovered, the Pro model with the multi-pass feature is for you. Multi-Pass mode deletes all blocks including partitions and Host Protected Areas, even ones normally invisible to operating systems. It also automatically checks for and removes DCOs, as well as writes to every sector of the disk using different data each pass and verifies after the last pass that the last pattern was successfully written across the disk.

For further piece of mind, the U.S. Department of Defence (DoD) recently (June 28, 2007) updated its specifications regarding sanitisation and the Drive eRazer meet all requirements for ‘clearing’ a ‘Non-Removable Rigid Disk.’ The specification requires destruction of a HDD containing government-classified data. As far as the DoD is concerned, Drive eRazer is as good as it gets without a degaussing machine or other destructive methods. Another benefit is that the Drive eRazer only destroys the data on a drive, allowing you to use the drive again or safely sell it on. It erased Mac, Windows, Linux, already blank, as well as home-brew formatted disks equally well in our tests.

Most people are comfortable simply clicking ‘Empty Trash’. The problem is that this data isn’t properly deleted, and can be recovered by a determined individual and forensic firm. Wiebetech’s Drive eRazer is a brilliantly compact solution for IT folks that de-commission a lot of drives. It’s a completely stand-alone solution, does not require a computer, is a snap to use, and is amazingly effective. It’s slow on larger drives, plus getting all the add-on interface adapters could prove expensive, but it’s an excellent solution to a growing problem. [9]