technology

Until yesterday I had never bothered really checking out the Zune, the actual device wasn't available in the UK. The marketplace obviously wouldn't work in the UK, not that I'd probably buy anything from there I do prefer my CD-quality sound. But one thing about the Zune had always interested me, the social aspect of it, and the recent rumours of a Zune client being available for Windows Mobile has made it far more interesting, and removed a lot of the potential lock-in aspects, like only syncing protected tracks to Zune devices....

Since Catherine got the HTC HD2 I've been hoping that HTC would release a keyboard equipped phone in the Touch Pro series that sported the 1Ghz processor, and the capacitive screen would be a nice too, and of course Touch Flo/Sense that supported landscape mode. The good news is HTC's product roadmap for the first half of next year has leaked. The bad news is, there's no sign of any such phone....

Just a heads up for those who have been waiting for the Office Mobile 2010 bits to show up on the UK Windows Mobile Marketplace, they're up now. Previously it was limited to the US marketplace. Still waiting to see what the deal is with the OneNote Mobile client. The desktop version seems to have at least temporarily lost the ability to install one to a mobile device.

A few of you probably know I've been after storing OneNote Notebooks on the web for some time now, we've had the ability to stick them on the local network for sharing with other users, but I really need them on the web. Since the main collaborator I work with isn't on my local network and I'm always having to sync his changes back manually. OneNote 2010 has almost gotten there now, which will be using SkyDrive for storage....

Well after years of complaining it looks like Multimap is no longer linked from the UK Bing page. Instead it links to Bing Maps directly. How it should have been. Best of all Bing Maps now have Ordnance Survey maps too, which previously only Multimap had. What's so cool about Ordnance Survey maps? You're not going to find the Hundred Stone, the old dismantled railway, old Roman villas or Jack the Treacle Eater on a "...

The BBC are running this as their lead story under technology at the moment. How the hell is this worthy of being the lead technology news item at the moment. Microsoft have always banned modified consoles from Xbox Live for the last 7 years since the service was launched has anyone given it this much coverage when the other batches of users were banned? No. What's worse, the BBC even features the opinions of one Radio 1 listener who was banned and turn it into an entire article....

I've had a couple of people e-mail me asking what they should install on their new Windows 7 computers since some of the firewalls and anti-virus software they've used in the past aren't compatible. Long time readers of my blog will know the epic battle I've always had with anti-virus. To the point where during the Windows Vista timeframe I didn't run anti-virus. Obviously I don't recommend the average computer user to do that....

For those people installing Windows 7 Professional you might notice that the Games Explorer and Start Menu look a bit sparse game wise. By default the games aren't installed in the Professional version. You can of course quickly add them back. Press Start -> Control Panel --> Programs ---> Turn Windows features on or off Up the top of the list of components you should see Games. Check that box, or drill into it and specify individual games....

As you may recall a day or two ago I blogged about a pretty major mistake the BBC made in an article looking at Windows 7. Well I'm following up with another issue I have with the review. At the end of the video the chap doing the review throws out: In truth we've had a couple of problems with programs and updates we've tried to install. Oh really? At the same time the following is displayed (yeah they couldn't even be bothered to use some screen capture software, instead filming a monitor argh):...

Just a quick note for those blasting Windows 7 onto their machines this week. You may notice lower than usual volume with your SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS. I've had a few e-mails along these lines and it seems to be due to the drivers currently on Windows Update. I'd recommend trying the latest Daniel K drivers, in the past these have resolved problems I've had with lower than normal volume compared to Windows XP/Vista....