Tech Bitch

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.

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.

Earlier this month Apple dropped the price of its smallest flash memory player to just £32. Wow! It also bumped its capacity to 2GB (around 500 songs in 128Kbps AAC format) and charges just £45 for the pleasure (1GB model still available). So I thought now was as good a time as any to get one in for review and see what I’ve been missing.

The immensely popular iPod Shuffle is a sight to believe - it’s just half a cubic inch in volume, weighs an unnoticeable 14g, features a minimalistic aluminium design with a built-in clip and comes in five metallic colours - silver, blue, green, purple and a (PRODUCT) RED special edition. There simply isn’t anything else on the market that’s as portable or as hard wearing.

The iPod Shuffle is also the world’s most wearable iPod - just take a look around the next time you’re in the gym! Now let’s not get carried away - the iPod Shuffle’s features list is almost non-existent and you have to use iTunes to get your music onto in. On the plus side there’s a vast ecosystem of accessories with over 4000 products made specifically for the iPod including cases, fitness accessories, and speaker systems. It should work with a lot of modern automobile stereo systems, too.

There’s no display on the iPod Shuffle, so it’s not great for discovering new artists, but using it is a snap. Tactile controls on the front let you alter volume levels and skip tracks, and there’s a dedicated on/off switch and shuffle switch - the latter either randomly mixes up the song order or resets back to the order in which the tracks were synced from iTunes. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the player actually outperformed Apple’s 12-hour battery life rating, and not by just a few minutes, but a few hours - I managed to get 15 hours!

The iPod Shuffle requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later and iTunes 7.4; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) or later and iTunes 7.4 or later (not supplied). The headphone jack doubles as a dock connector - simply flip the player upside-down and drop it into the included dock.

The iPod Shuffle isn’t about features or sound quality - it epitomises ease of use, portability and convenience. It’s time to join the revolution! [8]