Tech Bitch

Corel bought DVD software maker InterVideo for $196m (£125m) at the back end of 2006, thus becoming owner of the leading DVD and video playback software on the PC (over 200 million copies shipped). InterVideo has been a major player in PC DVD software market for years now and its most famous product is its DVD player application, WinDVD. The company also develops a variety of other DVD-related products, including DVD backup software called DVD Copy and DVD creation program called WinDVD Creator. So has changing hands altered WinDVD in any way? Yes, it has actually, and in a totally positive way.

WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-ray (£65/$99) features a new, sleeker Windows Media Player-like user interface, new video technologies including advanced upscaling that enables near-high-definition viewing with standard-definition DVDs, enhanced Blu-ray Disc playback (also supports HD DVDs) up to 1080p, as well as the latest in high-definition surround sound. This is all good news because WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-ray is designed for the demanding movie buff and not the casual trans-Atlantic commuter.

The new ‘Graphite’ user interface looks spiffy and makes viewing and navigation easier. And because it has been de-cluttered the whole package looks cleaner and is more intuitive. Corel has been busy behind the scenes too, with a range of impressive features that help to improve both picture and audio quality. In particular, WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-ray does an impressive job of converting standard-definition DVDs and videos to near-high-definition video without the added expense of high-definition drives and media. There’s also technology that removes digital noise from MPEG, H.264 and VC-1 low-resolution video to provide clearer images, in addition to removing the judder effect from fast-motion scenes for smoother playback.

Full BD-J support means the software is ready for next-generation Blu-ray interactivity including pop-up menus and picture-in-picture - all without interrupting the movie - and support for HDCP, AACS and BD+ content protection systems means you shouldn’t have any problems playing your original discs. Furthermore, WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-ray supports playback of video from AVCHD camcorders copied from the camcorder hard disk drive, on AVCHD disc or memory card.

It’s great to see that Corel hasn’t neglected laptop users, especially as a growing range of machines from the likes of Dell and Sony are now being offered with integrated Blu-ray drives. WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-ray optimises the on-the-go movie viewing experience with a TimeStretch utility that increases video and audio playback speed so you don’t miss the end of a movie while travelling. Smart Stretch provides standard or widescreen viewing for varying movie and laptop types, and there’s even support for virtual surround sound technologies even when listening on headphones and stereo speakers.

WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-ray is an excellent all-rounder. Its new video and audio standards, such as nVidia’s PureVideo HD, ATI’s Avivo, Intel’s Clear Video processing technologies, Advanced Video Codec High Definition (AVCHD) recording format, and Trimension All2HD advanced upscaling technology all do a great job, and the addition of DTS 96/24 decoding to provide a 96KHz sampling rate where available (in place of the 48KHz standard) is also welcome.

Whereas some might prefer the traditional interface and stability of CyberLink’s PowerDVD 8 Ultra (£65/$99), WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-ray is definitely the current champ. Having said that it’s not without its faults. Most noticeable is that you can’t select WinDVD 9 for playing only some video and audio file formats, as it does not use file associations. This means you can’t designate it as your default player for MPEG-2 HD and use something else for MOV and WAV files. Also, load times for movies stored on your HDD are long. Still, while it’s not entirely perfect, Corel has a winner on its hands - at least until the next release of PowerDVD. [9]

Criminals are never at a loss for new materials. They’re also a pain in the friggin’ ass. Professional malcode authors are constantly evolving their tactics at the expense of unsuspecting victims, driven by the goal of detection evasion and greater profitability. Authors, like those behind Storm Worm, have automation systems designed to pump out new variants every hour, minute, or even second. With malware authors releasing new variants at a blazing pace, 2008 will be another record year of malware.

There is a raft of anti-malware solutions on the market, but Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0 is a little different - it’s a highly effective and totally free software firewall application. It’s a proactive solution based on Comodo’s new ‘A-VSMART’ technology architecture - short for ‘Anti-Virus, Spyware, Malware, Rootkit and Trojan’ - and helps prevent virtually all types of threats from penetrating your computer. Yet despite its sophisticated level of prevention, the software remains easy to install and use, and offers plenty of customisation options for the advanced user.

Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0 does a great job of protecting computers from malware because it operates from a prevention rather than a detection perspective, and incorporates a sophisticated, layered threat management approach. Unlike detection/signature-based firewalls and anti-virus solutions that allow all applications to gain access to system resources and then try to detect previously identified viruses by their signature, Comodo Firewall Pro takes the opposite approach - it allows only those applications known to be safe to gain access to computer resources, greatly reducing the probability of damage occurring.

Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0 uses an advanced Host Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS) that proactively monitors system and system processes to detect and prevent system changes such as rootkit installations, inter-process memory injections, and key-loggers. HIPS technology is driven by a white list architecture which identifies trusted applications and prevents untrusted applications being installed onto your computer. Comodo says it has one of the largest white lists in the industry, with a database of nearly 1 million safe executables. The integrity of every executable is checked against this database to determine whether or not it is genuine before it is given installation rights. With this system, potentially damaging applications should be prevented from being ever being installed.

How much interaction you have with the software relies on how you install and configure it. Typically, if you choose ‘Basic’ mode you don’t need to do much at all - you get a simple personal firewall that protects against attack from outside and controls which programs can access the Internet, much like ZoneLabs’ ZoneAlarm. Opting for ‘Advanced’ monitors and protects many other critical system resources, meaning you’ll get a lot more queries and notifications which need actioning. Thankfully, you can minimise pop-ups by allowing the software to automatically approve any program found in Comodo’s database of safe programs.

It also provides you with the ability to install the solution in Clean PC mode, which is useful for new PCs. In these cases, Comodo Firewall Pro creates a profile of the computer with all existing applications registered as safe. The firewall then prevents any unrecognised applications from being installed unless the application is recognized by Comodo’s white list, or you grant installation permissions. It also prevents any suspicious system processes from running. Furthermore, ‘Stealth’ mode helps to make your PC ‘completely’ invisible to opportunistic port scans, there’s a Wizard-based auto-detection of trusted zones, and you can password protect all firewall settings.

Version 3.0 sports a redesigned user interface without the separate Comodo Launch Pad used by Version 2.0. The updated software also offers a default summary screen displaying an immediate heads-up on all vital security settings and provides a central point of navigation to every part of the application. Pop-Up alerts also provide critical security information, such as when the firewall detects a potential security threat. Version 3.0 gives you more control over security settings. For instance, you can quickly set granular Internet access rights and privileges on a global or per application basis using the flexible and easy to understand interface, and the introduction of pre-set security policies allow you to deploy a relatively sophisticated hierarchy of firewall rules with a couple of mouse clicks. A vastly improved log management module allows you to export records of firewall activity according to several user-defined filters.

Comodo Personal Firewall locks down your system against internal attacks such as Trojans, viruses, malicious software and external attacks by hackers. It supports Windows Vista, a new interface and a whole host of improved security features, including host intrusion protection, network-based firewall and an application analysis engine. As malware writers use a variety of techniques to evade simple program control, virtually every such technique is covered by Comodo Personal Firewall’s monitoring. If you are still using the Windows Firewall (or worse, no firewall at all), give Comodo a try - it’s free and you’ve got nothing to lose … [8.5]

The concept of computer imaging is a Godsend for anyone who’s endured the Setup program for Windows more than 10 times in their lives. You can create a single system image and send it out across your network to keep all your workstations uniform and up-to-date.

Cloning was originally developed as a method of quickly setting-up new Windows computers and rolling out applications and updates. An ‘ideal’ desktop computer’s software and configuration is captured as an ‘image’ that is then replicated onto multiple machines using cloning software. The IT landscape, however, has become vastly more complex, with constant updates to applications, configuration software, plug-ins, intelligent chips and motherboards. This means that two otherwise identical desktop computers (let alone adding laptops to the mix) can have enough driver differences to cause the cloning process to render machines inoperable without considerable manual modification.

Universal Imaging Utility (UIU) was developed to resolve this issue by simplifying the process, ensuring that when an image is taken of the ideal machine, all the driver combinations required by each machine are made available to each machine. The software therefore enables IT departments to reduce the time and money spent on image creation and deployment by streamlining the cloning process. It works with leading cloning applications such as Symantec’s Ghost, PowerQuest’s Drive Image Pro, Altiris’ Migration Suite, Novell’s ZENworks and Acronis’ TrueImage, making it possible for these programs to create a single, clean disk image. The image created will then work with virtually any Windows platform or configuration.

So how does the software work? Used in conjunction with your regular hard disk drive imaging software it creates a disk image that can be successfully deployed to nearly any PC in your environment, regardless of HAL type, processor, PC make or model. Maintaining individual images for PCs from Dell, HP, IBM, etc. is no longer required. Designed for Microsoft Windows Vista, XP and 2000 systems specifically, UIU resets your existing Windows installation to a similar state, allowing for correct detection of different hardware platforms upon image deployment without crashing the systems. A regularly updated driver database is also installed, assuring greater compatibility with new hardware components. So, as you get new hardware, with new video, network and audio components, you need not maintain those drivers.

How difficult is it to use? The procedure is actually relatively easy: you setup your Master Windows 2000, XP or Vista computer and capture a base image using the guidelines provided. This is the most time consuming step of the process. UIU will then modify your system, install drivers, launch Sysprep, and then shut your PC down - all in less than 10 minutes. At that point you need to take a normal image in DOS or Win PE (do not reboot to Windows!) using your disk imaging software. That’s it. No drivers, no Plug-n-Play IDs, no need to sweat through Sysprep. UIU even creates your Sysprep.inf or Sysprep.xml file for you. You can then deploy the image to your other PCs the way you always have.

Support for Microsoft’s System Preparation tool (Sysprep) helps keep you in compliance with Microsoft’s standards for disk imaging, and UIU uses it to help detect the hardware components on a machine receiving a Universal Image. Additionally, Sysprep will change the Security ID (SID) on your recipient PCs, allowing for consistent interaction with any Active Directory domain structure. UIU handles Sysprep for you though, so there is no need to build a custom Sysprep answer file.

Because UIU strips the image to its bare bones, you could potentially take an image built on an IDE-based machine and port it directly to a SCSI or SATA platform. It also incorporates other Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) configurations into the base image and resets the original HAL, so you don’t even have to confine your image to similarly configured machines (the HAL acts as the interface between hardware and software). During the UIU master image installation process, you can specify these as additional options. You can also use your own .INF file. Sysprep doesn’t achieve nearly as much as this as it mainly does things like initiate the mini-setup to search for new hardware, reset user/machine details and rewrite SIDs.

Licensing for UIU 2.0 is per-seat and is based on the number of computers that receive an Image which was prepared with the assistance of UIU. Corporate pricing starts at under £11 per-seat for up to 99 computers and goes down to less than £5 per-seat for 5000 or more licenses. Academic and Government pricing is also available. Almost as important as the software itself, when you license UIU, you get the driver database, which Binary Research updates on a regular basis. These regular updates are most helpful if you frequently refresh your images. If you have a great diversity of workstations, desktops and laptops on your network, UIU can save you tons of time in terms of keeping your images up-to-date.

There are some limitations, however. Windows Server installations aren’t supported, even if the imaging software can create server images, and RAID disks aren’t supported. SCSI drives can’t be used as sources either, so although an image can be installed to a SCSI drive it can’t be created from one. Furthermore, an image created on an ACPI-compliant system won’t be happy on a system that isn’t. And finally, your disk-imaging software must be able to run from a DOS prompt - Windows-based imaging software isn’t supported. It’s definitely worth a look though. [7.5]

Finally, an interesting GPS news piece. A new GPS tour guide that alerts you to Britain’s greatest historical sites as you drive near them should liven journeys up a bit. Invented by history buff Daniel Taylor, the RoadTour software works with Global Positioning (GPS) equipment to trigger audio commentary and pictures of 600 key attractions, including castles, stately homes and battlefields.

The software (£19.95) responds to satellite prompts as cars approach places of historical interest throughout the UK, delivering information narrated by a hot friendly female voice through the SatNav. It means you will no longer have an excuse for being an ignoramus.

Get this: new research commissioned by RoadTour shows that a quarter of people think Leeds Castle is in Yorkshire, rather than Kent, one in ten that the Romans built the A1 and 10% of 18-24-year-olds that Stonehenge is in Norfolk. A further 38% of all those questioned by YouGov believe that Hadrians Wall is in Scotland, not England.

Five years in the making, this invention fulfils Daniel Taylor’s passion for history and his desire to help Britons as well as tourists use technology to get the most out of our heritage. Ironically, GPS technology has perhaps until now put us out of touch with roadmaps and chance discoveries en route. For the dunces, there’s at least one picture of each place.

Sneaky Microsoft. At MIX08, Microsoft’s Web designer and developer conference, the company unveiled the beta release of Internet Explorer 8, plus some other boring stuff like Silverlight 2 and Expression Studio 2.

Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of the Internet Explorer team, demonstrated the latest version of the world’s crappiest most popular browser.

In Beta 1, it allegedly delivers significantly improved standards support and developer platform investments with enhanced user experiences. MS suits also said it increases interoperability, offers developers better predictability when designing sites, and will feature full support for cascading style sheet (CSS) 2.1 at release to manufacturing.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 includes integrated developer tools to quickly debug HTML, CSS and scripts in a visual environment. Two new features, Activities and WebSlices, will enable developers to reach beyond the page and introduce news ways for users to stay connected to the content and services of their choice. Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 is available for download.

Symantec’s all-in-one software security solution now includes backup to iPod, Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. The newest version also includes Symantec’s patent-pending ‘Browser Protection’ technology, which defends against drive-by downloads and other new or unknown threats that exploit vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer.

Designed to protect on multiple fronts, Norton 360 includes anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, intrusion protection, and SONAR behavioural detection technology. There is now also Norton Identity Safe, which stores passwords and other personal information securely, in addition to automatic form-filling capabilities and one-click log-in to trusted sites.

Fans of the product’s backup feature now have even more options. Local backup options now include Blu-Ray, iPods, HD-DVD discs, or shared drives, in addition to internal drives, CD/DVD drives, USB drives, mapped network drives, or external hard drives.

Also new to Norton 360 is Network Monitoring, which checks the status of wireless security, maps connected devices, alerting you when you are connected to an unsecure network. Smart Background Scheduler has been enhanced with the ability to prevent tasks from initiating automatically while in battery power mode and now throttles bandwidth for online backups to minimize impact on performance. Finally, you now have the option to manually scan individual files and folders and to shutdown your computer upon completion of a task.

Norton 360 version 2.0 is available now for £47.99 (includes 1-year service subscription and protection updates) and can be installed on up to three PCs. The product includes 2GB of online storage, though additional online storage can be purchased.

Roxio has brought BackOnTrack Online to the UK. It’s a digital media storage solution that automatically and continuously protects your personal data. Content is encrypted and uploaded to a remote and secure Roxio online backup centre for future access.

In the event of data loss due to a system crash or you just being an idiot, digital files can be restored from any Web-connected computer. A 1-year subscription offering unlimited storage space is available for £39.99, or a 2-year package will set you back £69.99.

Powered by the backup solution provider Carbonite, BackOnTrack Online takes the complication and guess work out of data protection thanks to automated data uploading and unlimited storage capacity. Lengthy videos, extensive photo and music collections, or even the entire contents of a hard drive can be uploaded!

Set it once and forget it means new and changed files are automatically detected and uploaded whenever the computer is connected to the Internet. BackOnTrack Online will upload content to the Internet after the computer is idle for a few minutes. All files are automatically encrypted for privacy before being transferred to Roxio’s secure remote backup centre.

Producing music on a computer is a pain, typically made inaccessible to wannabe chart toppers thanks to expensive hardware and complicated software. Steinberg plans to fix all that with Cubase Essential 4, an entry-level VST3-powered personal music production system.

Tailored to musicians, home studios and anyone on a tight budget, Cubase Essential 4 is a streamlined version of Steinberg’s amazingly powerful Cubase 4. Including a relatively powerful set of audio recording and mixing tools, comprehensive MIDI features and a full set of VST3 plug-ins (including a great guitar amp plug-in), the sequencer makes a great entry-point for those looking beyond Garage Band, Guitar Tracks Pro or Sequel.

Cubase Essential 4 offers a great music production system, but it’s still not the most intuitive music software around. But it does leave products like GarageBand standing in terms of features and sound quality. For instance, Cubase Essential 4 offers comprehensive composing, recording and mixing tools including 64 audio tracks and unlimited MIDI tracks. It even supports MIDI plug-ins and has full latency compensation.

That’s not all. Integrated HALionOne sampling provides over 100 playable instruments (including waves from the Yamaha Motif synthesiser), an Amp Simulator allows instant guitar recording with 14 amps and 10 speaker simulations, and real-time time stretching and pitch shifting with formant correction provides natural-sounding transposition and full tempo matching.

An Arranger Track with pattern-based arranging tools stores up to 16 different arrangements for on-the-fly reordering of song sections, and MediaBay sound management technology lets you manage all audio, MIDI and video files, track and instrument presets with in-context auditioning. Those upgrading from Cubase SE3 should welcome Track Freeze, VST Plug-in Bridge, a redesigned Sample Editor, better QuickTime 7 support and more, so it’s definitely worth a look.

Compatible with both the latest Mac and Windows operating systems, Cubase Essential 4 (£119/$199) takes some beating considering the advanced functionality it offers for the relatively low price point. Sound quality, effects and instruments are all excellent, too. Don’t expect to create a number-one hit over night (you’ll need to spend a few hours with manual in hand), but it’s great for the newbie looking to dabble with MIDI and VSTs. [8]

In September 2007 Microsoft announced the worldwide availability of Microsoft Online Services for businesses with more than 5000 users. The Redmond monolith has now announced that it is offering these same services to businesses of all sizes.

Big wigs at the company said the combination of software plus services gives customers advanced choice and flexibility in how they access and manage software. With Microsoft Online Services businesses can deploy software as a subscription service, from servers they manage on-site, or a combination of the two, depending on their specific needs. In the future, customers and partners should expect to see this kind of choice and flexibility for all of Microsoft’s software and server products.

Based on the software available in Exchange Server 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007, the new services enable businesses to access e-mail, calendaring, contacts, shared workspaces, and webconferencing and videoconferencing over the Web. The new services are managed through a single Web-based interface. IT professionals can monitor the performance of the services, add and configure users, submit and track support requests, and manage users and licenses.

Microsoft introduced a new licensing model with options. New customers and customers without Microsoft Software Assurance can purchase Microsoft Online Services as a per-user subscription. Existing customers with Software Assurance on their Microsoft Client Access Licenses can purchase a user subscription at a discount. Customers with a subscription have rights to both Microsoft Online Services and to access on-premises server software.

Microsoft will offer Exchange Online and SharePoint Online together with Office Communications Online and Office Live Meeting as a suite of services or as individual service offerings.

This online music thingy is really taking off. Apple said its iTunes software/service is now the number two music retailer in the U.S., behind only cheepo retailer Wal-Mart.

There is now an army of over 50 million iTunes Store customers, and iTunes has sold over four billion songs - with an incredible 20 million songs sold on Christmas Day 2007 alone. The ubiquitous service offers the world’s largest music catalogue of over six million songs from all of the major labels.

Last month Apple push ahead with its world domination plans by launching iTunes Movie Rentals, featuring movies from all of the major movie studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Lionsgate and New Line Cinema.

You can rent movies and watch them on your PC or Macs, most new iPods, iPhone and on an Apple TV. iTunes Movie Rentals will offer over 1000 titles by the end of this month, including over 100 titles in high definition video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound which you can rent directly from their widescreen TV using Apple TV.