AWIECO Ivy Bridge Sever Pre-order Special

Andrew Edney
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0
AWIECO Ivy Bridge Sever Pre-order Special

If you pre-order an AWIECO Ivy Bridge Server today you can get a discount of 50 Euro!

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This is what AWIECO told us:

We updated our server models. Powered by the latest 3rd generation Intel Ivy Bridge processors, they are more powerful with less power consumption. The Ivy servers will be available in June. If you pre-order one of our Ivy models: HS-Pro, BS-Pro or PowerServer in May, you will get 50,- Euro off!

Just enter the coupon code: IVY2012 in the shopping cart!

Check out our Exclusive Review of the AWIECO Windows Home Server Visit the AWIECO shop today

Microsofts talks about multiple monitors in Windows 8

Andrew Edney
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0

In the next of their Windows 8 articles, Microsoft talks about the use of multiple monitors to enhance the user experience.

monitors

This is how the next article starts:

Connecting multiple monitors to a PC is one of the easiest ways to enhance your Windows experience. Plug in a second monitor and you instantly double your working surface. I’ve had a multi-monitor setup for the past 10 years; once you start using multiple monitors, you’ll never want to go back to your old setup. A multi-monitor setup allows you to be more productive by having more windows across multiple screens. We’re very excited about the ease at which tablets in Windows 8 will be able to support large screen and high resolution monitors (often through HDMI connectors), as this opens up a broad range of exciting new scenarios.

When we embarked on planning Windows 8, enhancing multi-monitor functionality was an important area to improve. A multiple monitor setup is certainly more common today than they used to be, and many technical professionals (developers, graphics professionals, architects, etc.) have started using it. Today, support for multiple monitors is standard on virtually all PC hardware, and monitor prices are at an all-time low (as of writing this post, you can purchase a 21” LED display in the $140 USD range). As a result, we continue to see increased adoption of multi-monitor configurations, both by enthusiasts and technical professionals.

Data collected through the Windows Feedback Program indicates that approximately 14% of desktop PCs and approximately 5% of laptop PCs have run with multiple monitors. It is important to note that this particular opt-in data set is enthusiast-leaning so represents the high end of usage (relative to previously shared measures that look at the entire universe of PCs), but we thought we would share this data set to reinforce another data source.

To continue reading, click here.

Microsoft launches Kinect for Windows SDK version 1.5

Andrew Edney
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0
Microsoft launches Kinect for Windows SDK version 1.5

A couple of months ago we told you about Kinect for Windows version 1.5, and today Microsoft have released it.

kinect

This is part of what Microsoft posted today:

I am pleased to announce that today we have released version 1.5 of the Kinect for Windows runtime and SDK.  Additionally, Kinect for Windows hardware is now available in Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. Starting next month, Kinect for Windows hardware will be available in 15 additional countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, India, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. When this wave of expansion is complete, Kinect for Windows will be available in 31 countries around the world.  Go to our Kinect for Windows website to find a reseller in your region.

We have added more capabilities to help developers build amazing applications, including:

  • Kinect Studio, our new tool which allows developers to record and play back Kinect data, dramatically shortening and simplifying the development lifecycle of a Kinect application. Now a developer writing a Kinect for Windows application can record clips of users in the application’s target environment and then replay those clips at a later time for testing and further development.
  • A set of Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) to guide developers on best practices for the creation of Natural User Interfaces using Kinect.
  • The Face Tracking SDK, which provides a real-time 3D mesh of facial features—tracking the head position, location of eyebrows, shape of the mouth, etc.
  • Significant sample code additions and improvements.  There are many new samples in both C++ and C#, plus a “Basics” series of samples with language coverage in C++, C#, and Visual Basic.
  • SDK documentation improvements, including new resources as well as migration of documentation to MSDN for easier discoverability and real-time updates.

To read the rest, click here.

Skype for iPhone and iPad Updated to version 4.0.1325

Andrew Edney
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0
Skype for iPhone and iPad Updated to version 4.0.1325

The Skype app for the iPhone and iPad has been updated to version 4.0.1325.

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What’s New in Version 4.0.1325

– Improved stability.
– Fix for sign in error.

Download now from the Apple App Store

BYOB Podcast Episode 86 Out Now

Andrew Edney
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0
BYOB Podcast Episode 86 Out Now

The guys over at the BYOB podcast, including our very own Tim Daleo have just released episode 86.

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Here is what is included in this weeks show:

[box style=”rounded” border=”full”]Short show this week, but we pack it full of hardware info. PCs on a Stick, AMD Trinity update, nVidia releases the GTX 670 Kepler GPU, Dirt cheap hi-res monitors? Server issues all around, Mike & Mike talk about their hard drive server issues on this weeks BYOB Podcast.[/box]

As usual you can listen to the show from here.

Eben Upton talks about Raspberry Pi

Andrew Edney
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7
Eben Upton talks about Raspberry Pi

Over the last couple of months we have had the pleasure of seeing and talking to Eben and Liz Upton about Raspberry Pi. Here are the videos we shot of Eben talking about the Pi at some recent events.

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The first video was taken at the Beeb @ 30 Event:

This second video was taken at the Sci Fi London Horizons Event:

Have you ordered one? Let us know if you get yours before us, or even after us.

Mine has finally been ordered and should be here in a few weeks time!

ZOTAC announces ZOTAC GeForce GT 630, GT 620 and GT 610 series graphics cards

Andrew Edney
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0
ZOTAC announces ZOTAC GeForce GT 630, GT 620 and GT 610 series graphics cards

ZOTAC this week expanded the successful ZOTAC GeForce 600 series with new value offerings. The ZOTAC GeForce GT 630, GT 620 and GT 610 series deliver a savoury taste of Microsoft DirectX 11 technologies for an outstanding visual computing experience.

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“ZOTAC is pleased to bring the GeForce 600 series to value shoppers seeking a superior visual experience discrete graphics brings to computing,” said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International. “By installing one of our ZOTAC GeForce GT 630, GT 620 or GT 610 series graphics cards, users can experience faster video and image processing and perfect high-definition video playback with a simple upgrade.”

The ZOTAC GeForce GT 630, GT 620 and GT 610 series are available in a variety configurations with 512MB, 1GB, 2GB and 4GB memory options in PCI Express 2.0 x16, PCI Express x1 or PCI interfaces, and active or passive cooling configurations to cater exclusively to all user computing needs.

General details

· ZOTAC Expands successful GeForce 600 series

· ZOTAC GeForce®GT 630 series

o 96 processor cores

o 1GB, 2GB and 4GB memory configurations

o 128-bit memory interface

· ZOTAC GeForce GT 620 series

o 96 processor cores

o 1GB & 2GB memory configurations

o 64-bit memory interface

· ZOTAC GeForce GT 610 series

o 48 processor cores

o 512MB, 1GB & 2GB memory configurations

o 64-bit memory interface

· NVIDIA 3D Vision capable

· NVIDIA Adaptive Vertical Sync

· DirectX11 technology & Shader Model 5.0

· OpenGL 4.2 compatible

· Hardware-accelerated Full HD video playback

· Blu-ray 3D ready

· Loss-less audio bitstream capable

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Learn more from the Zotac website

New Sony VAIO S Series notebooks pictures and hands-on

Andrew Edney
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2
New Sony VAIO S Series notebooks pictures and hands-on

Earlier this week we told you that Sony had announced it’s new S Series range. Well we got to see them up close and personal and get some hands-on time with it.

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The new Sony VAIO S Series of notebooks is designed for both power and portability

It has a backlit keyboard which makes it easier to use in low-light situations.

All of the new Sony VAIO range has hibernation features, and the S series can maintain hibernation for up to 90 days!

CDW Sony VAIO S Series notebook - 4 CDW Sony VAIO S Series notebook - 7CDW Sony VAIO S Series notebook - 8 CDW Sony VAIO S Series notebook - 9CDW Sony VAIO S Series notebook - 11 CDW Sony VAIO S Series notebook - 12CDW Sony VAIO S Series notebook - 13 CDW Sony VAIO S Series notebook - 14CDW Sony VAIO S Series notebook - 3 CDW Sony VAIO S Series notebook - 5

All S series VAIO’s come with a full copy of Adobe Acrobat X, plus a 1 year anti-theft service.

There is even a dock for the S series that has a built in hard drive so that all your important data is automatically backed up whenever you dock it.

Considering there is a 17” version of the S series notebook it is still quite portable!

The screen is excellent and you even get a Blu-Ray drive.

Price wise, the S Series starts from around £654 for the base model and there are a lot of different configurations to choose from!

Learn more about the Sony VAIO S Series notebook range from here Check out our pictures and hands-on with the VAIO T13 Ultrabook

New Sony VAIO E Series notebooks pictures and hands-on

Andrew Edney
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0
New Sony VAIO E Series notebooks pictures and hands-on

Earlier this week we told you that Sony was expanding it’s E Series range. Well we got to see them up close and personal and get some hands-on time with it.

CDW Sony VAIO E Series notebook - 5

The VAIO E Series 15 teams fresh, individual looks with everything you need for everyday tasks. With Intel processors, generous storage, smooth graphics and clear, high-contrast 15.5” VAIO Display, there’s all the power you need to breeze through the day.

Boasting a 17.3” VAIO Display Plus Full HD on selected models, the VAIO E Series 17 gives you extra screen space to enjoy movies on Blu-ray Disc (on selected models), edit photos or play games.

The E Series is Sony’s most popular range and comes in either 14, 15 or 17” variants and a wide variety of colours.

The E14 comes with a full version of Adobe Photoshop Elements where as the E17 comes with Sony Vegas.

The E series has a wrap-around look to it and felt very natural to use and the 17” screen was very bright and clear with it’s 1600 x 900 ratio.

CDW Sony VAIO E Series notebook - 1 CDW Sony VAIO E Series notebook - 2CDW Sony VAIO E Series notebook - 3 CDW Sony VAIO E Series notebook - 6

Price wise, the E Series starts from around £409 for the base model and there are a lot of different configurations to choose from!

Learn more about the VAIO E Series from here Check out our pictures and hands-on with the VAIO T13 Ultrabook

Media Center Master updated to build 14012.1382

Andrew Edney
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0
Media Center Master updated to build 14012.1382

Peter Souza IV has released a new build of his excellent Media Center Master software.

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What is Media Center Master?

Here is how Peter describes Media Center Master for those of you who don’t know what it is:

Smooth, powerful interface to organize your media collection.
Support for the built-in Windows Media Center Video Library strip (dvdid.xml) as well as MediaBrowser extension (mymovies.xml).
Movies, television, and adult title search from a variety of configurable meta data sources.
Built-in, fully-automated episode torrenting from multiple sources. Keep your T.V. series updated through the internet for free.
Full meta-data editor with tools to automate movie and T.V. episode renaming.
Theatrical trailer downloader with options for automatic re-encoding.
Extendable fetcher system allows other programmers to write fetchers — sample source code included in the forums.
Configurable to download actor/actress thumbnails and movie/T.V. posters, fan art, backdrops, and banners.
Flexible post-processing allows command-line operations after a movie title has been fetched — works great with Stark Covers.
…and a whole lot more…

Build 14012.1382

MCM

Learn more from the Media Center Master forums

Raspbmc for Raspberry Pi is now in beta

Andrew Edney
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0
Raspbmc for Raspberry Pi is now in beta

If you have your Raspberry Pi, you might be interested to know that Raspbmc is now in beta!

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This is what was just posted:

Some good news. Raspbmc is now in beta. Let’s face it — project updates aren’t that great, users want to see results and try out what’s in the works, rather than hear about them. So that’s what I’m allowing you to do today. I wanted to make this a closed beta, seeing as release isn’t far around the corner. This was originally because I wasn’t too sure about the stability of the build, but I believe that Raspbmc is good enough for public testing.

When trying the beta, please remember that this is a test build. Some things will be broken and performance won’t be at its very best. What I’m trying to say is that this beta will not reflect the final performance of Raspbmc, and remember, Raspbmc performance and features will improve in future updates too.

The beta comes in the form of an Gzipped image file, available for download here. Windows users can restore directly from USB Image Tool, and Linux and OSX guys can just run something along the lines of:

gunzip -c installer-testing.img.gz | dd of=/dev/mmcblk0

Note: you need at least a 2GB SD card. Raspbmc will use the full size of your card.

Check out a Slice of Raspbery Pi at Sci Fi London Horizons

Have you ordered one? Let us know if you get yours before us, or even after us.

Mine has finally been ordered and should be here in a few weeks time!

Camera module for the Raspberry Pi coming soon

Andrew Edney
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0
Camera module for the Raspberry Pi coming soon

Liz has posted some pictures and information about a camera module that is coming soon for the Raspberry Pi and it’s cool!

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This is what Liz just posted (head over to the site to see all the pictures):

I was sent this image this morning from Gert (not pictured), Naush (right eye and half-moustache) and JamesH (stripy shirt and chin). It’s not a terribly exciting photo – until you realise that it’s the first picture ever taken from the prototype camera add-on board we’re developing for release later in the year, which will plug into those CSI pins we expose in the middle of the Raspberry Pi. I will ask Gert, Naush and JamesH, who have been working on this in their free evenings, to answer questions in the comments below – they are also very active on our forums, so please come over and have a chat.

We may downgrade the super-duperness of the camera to something with fewer than its current 14 megapixels before release; we need to keep things affordable, and a sensor of that size will end up pricey. Before you ask (I know it’ll be the first question most of you have), we don’t have a price for the camera module yet; we’ll need to finalise exactly what hardware is in it first, but we will, of course, be ensuring that it’s very affordable.

Check out a Slice of Raspbery Pi at Sci Fi London Horizons

Have you ordered one? Let us know if you get yours before us, or even after us.

Mine has finally been ordered and should be here in a few weeks time!

Microsoft talks about Creating the Windows 8 user experience

Andrew Edney
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0
Microsoft talks about Creating the Windows 8 user experience

In the next of their on-going series of Windows 8 articles, Microsoft talks about creating the user experience.

win 8 user experience

This is how the article starts:

At the D: All Things Digital conference in June 2011, we demonstrated for the first time the new user interface that we developed for Windows 8. This new UI is fast and fluid to use, and optimized for mobile form factors such as laptops, tablets, and convertibles, where people spend the vast majority of their time today. Windows 8 works equally well with mouse, keyboard, or your fingers, and has the best pen support of any OS. It supports multiple displays and the widest array of configurations and form factors of any OS. On top of all that, Windows 8 introduces a new kind of app, which we codenamed “Metro style” following the design language that has evolved going back to Windows Media Center and the new Windows Phone. These apps are immersive, full-screen, beautiful, and optimized for the ways that people commonly use devices today.

I thought it would be useful to take a step back and describe a little bit of the background of how the Windows 8 user interface was designed, and discuss some of the decisions we’ve made and the goals of this new experience in more detail.

To continue reading, click here.

My Movies Collection Management for Windows Media Center 4.04 PR4 Released

Andrew Edney
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0
My Movies Collection Management for Windows Media Center 4.04 PR4 Released

As well as the news versions of My Movies 4.03 PR4 for Media Center and My Movies 2.11 PR4 for Windows Home Server 2011, Brian has also released version 4.03 PR4 of the Collection Management component.

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Here is the complete changelog:

Added: TIFF besides TIF as cover file option.
Added: Remote Server API functions for Windows Media Center music control.

Change: Better handling of database upgrades, so that later versions does not need all clients to be upgraded when server is upgraded.
Change: Do not include series/box container title in Media Center option deprecated, is now always true.
Change: “Is Box Set” checkbox removed, and box sets moved up under global data rather than personal data, as preparation for upcoming box set functionality.
Change: Show digital copy in HTML preview.
Change: Media Center Background service updated to later API version

My Movies CM

Download My Movies 4 Collection Management Now

What do you think of My Movies?

Check out our review of My Movies for Windows Home Server 2011 2.0 Pre Release 7
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