Nero Free For All
Back in the days when recordable CDs were still a bit of a novelty there were only a couple of applications on the market that could actually make recordings, and one of them was Nero Burning, and it is still regarded as one of the best CD/DVD utilities you can get. Now here’s the good news, you can get it for free, that’s right, Nero 9 Essentials Free version is all yours for the cost of a download. There are no catches unless you count the pre-checked facility to install an annoying toolbar – so read before you click – and the nags to upgrade to the paid for version. Otherwise it’s good to go with a decent set of basic but efficient CD and DVD burning and copying facilities.
Yet Another Disc Format?
How much data can you cram onto a CD/DVD sized optical disc? Well, we know CDs manage around 800Mb, DVDs can ramp that up to around 20Gb using both sides and multiple layers, and a two-sided Blu Ray disc manages around 50Gb, but that’s small beer, compared with the new General Electric Holographic Versatile Disc (ugh!) or HVD.
Instead of the reflective pits used on conventional optical discs this uses a ‘microholographic’ process to store data, raising the bar to an impressive 500Gb per disc, enough to store more than 100 DVD movies. Read more
Hitachi Hard Drive with Half a Brain
I am so old that I can remember when PC’s boasted having one kilobyte (1kb) of storage and I can still recall placing a special order, and waiting weeks for 1Mb hard disc drive, which I was convinced that I could never fill in my lifetime… So it is with a world-weary shrug that I learn than Hitachi is planning to market a 5 terabyte hard drive, probably within the next 18 months.
What makes this particularly interesting, not to say a bit spooky, is that Hitachi’s Dr Yoshihiro Shiroishi reckons that just two of them will be need to match the storage capacity of the human brain, which he estimates around 10Gb. Frankly I find that hard to believe; a lifetime of memories in a mere 10Tb, when a 2–hour movie swallows up 5 gigabytes? There must be some pretty impressive compression involved… Read more
How HVDs Work
HVDs, or Holographic Versatile Discs, are a type of optical digital data storing devices bearing a striking resemblance to the construction and operation of more common optical storing devices, such as CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray, relying on read/write techniques based on the principles of holography. Similar to typical optical data storing devices, the first holographic memory systems were created several decades ago; however, they did not became as popular as CDs and DVDs mostly because of the manufacturing costs involved and the complexity of the read/write processes.
Lately, holographic memory systems have started gaining more ground in relation to more common optical storing devices, as HVDs become cheaper to manufacture. After all, HVDs have both significantly superior storage capacity and read/write speeds. Read more
VHS VCR USB DVD
First there was the USB turntable, then the PC cassette deck, now we have, you guessed it, USB VCR. Anyone who has a collection of old VHS tapes will know that time is running out and if you want to save those precious home movies and recordings you had better get your skates on because VCRs are disappearing fast, and in five years there may not be anything to play those tapes on. The USB VCR Converter from Firebox comes with everything you need to replay your tapes, download them to the PC and convert them to the file format of your choice (iPod, PSP, DVD etc.). It goes on sale next month for just under £150.00. For those of you that still have a working VCR don’t forget the Boot Camp articles, which show you how to make DVDs from VCR tapes.
The Right Mixxx
I have to say straight away that the last time I did any DJ-ing, record players still had a 78rpm speed setting. I freely admit to being a bit out of touch with current trends, but I’m reliably informed that this free Open Source program, called Mixxx is just the job for all of you hep cats out there who enjoy mixing your tunes and generally fiddling around with musical tracks. Key features, so I’m told, include the ability to read new fangled music formats, like MP3, Ogg Vorbis and Wave (something to do with turntable speed, I suppose…), it can import M3U and PLS playlists, whatever they are, and it has Beat Estimation and Pitch Independent Time Stretch features, which is probably a good thing. Read more
Microsoft Gives Free Taste of Madonna’s Hard Candy
Microsoft is gearing up to deliver a free taste of Madonna’s Hard Candy album via MSN. The Redmond company will offer access at no charge to Madonna’s performance at New York City’s Roseland
Ballroom on April 30. Via Control Room and MSN, fans will be able to watch the singer’s concert streamed live, with Microsoft promising that the event will feature the No.1 single “4 Minutes,” from the Hard Candy album released on April 28.
“Madonna is a legendary performer, and we’re thrilled to be bringing this live online broadcast to her fans on the heels of her Hall of Fame induction, her record-breaking 37th top-10 single ‘4 Minutes,’ and in conjunction with the launch of this hotly anticipated new album,” revealed Aaron Grosky, Control Room president. Read more
Watching the Weather
Billed as the world’s first ‘Weather Watch’ this widget from Oregon Scientifictells you what the weather is going to be over the next 24 hours, oh yes, and it also tells the time. Quite how it performs this semi miraculous task wasn’t’ fully explained in the advance publicity blurb but it’s a fair guess that it measures barometric pressure, and by plotting a trend, can give an indication of what direction the weather is heading. In other words it is probably just a wrist barometer, though it’s just possible it picks up some form of weather data transmissions, though with a retail price of under £40 that seems a bit unlikely. Either way, in addition to the time and date it also has alarm and stopwatch functions, and just in case it fails to warn you that it’s about to rain, it’s waterproof too. Read more
Free Video Capture Makes its Debut
If it moves and it appears on your PC screen then you can capture it with this freeware application, called Debut. Now don’t get too excited, it can record streamed video (and audio), like You Tube and iPlayer, but the unless you have a blisteringly fast PC the frame rate will probably be quite slow if you don’t want to sacrifice too much picture quality, but it’s definitely worth experimenting and its certainly good enough for a quick and dirty archive. It’s just the job for making tutorial videos, showing someone how to do something on a PC, by recording everything that happens on the screen. It also has a built in timer and it can be set to email or upload your movie by FTP. You can even get it to burn directly to DVD with an optional add-on and there’s a facility to record from external sources like web-cams and USB capture devices.
Watch Out Windows
Radio, phone, GPS, MP3 player, TV, camera… been there done that, but just when you thought there wasn’t anything else that could be shoehorned into a wristwatch, think again. A company called Epoq has managed to fit a copy of Windows Mobile onto one, which you drive using a 1.4-inch OLED touch screen, and just for good measure the EGP-98B has built in 1.3MP camera, wi-fi, Bluetooth and a 4-band GSM phone. Now, it might all be a wind-up (pun intended) because details and availability are all very sketchy, and good images are also hard to find. Read more
