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Google Squared gives all the wrong answers
Generally people search to find the right answers or to deepen their knowledge on a subject. Not on Google Squared.
People using the new search tool should be prepared to be misinformed. Google should be prepared for a few complaints.
Google Squared was launched on Thursday with the product's manager, Alex Komoroske, admitting the technology "is by no means perfect", which some testing the tool would say is an understatement. So far the technology looks like it will cause users more trouble than its worth.
Google Squared is designed to allow users to research a subject without visiting many different web sites. Search results are delivered in a table, which users can then compare side by side.
However, so far the tool has pronounced both Prince William and Prince Charles dead.
A search for 'UK national papers' lists the Guardian as a tabloid while the Times maintains its status as a broadsheet. The Express is apparently a mix of student books, audio tapes and CDs. The Metro is a movie.
A search for 'Social Network' lists the MySpace owner as Facebook Will Win for Now while Facebook is owned by mario. Luckily Google knows that it owns YouTube and the tool correctly lists Flickr as Yahoo's.
A search for Good Camera Phones prices the Motorola Razr V3 at a bargain price of $3.45.
Symbian demos multi-core handset
The Symbian Foundation has revealed it now has the Symbian OS running in a test symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) configuration on an evaluation handset.
In a post on the Symbian Foundation blog, executive director Lee Williams wrote that "a team at ST-Ericsson, and ARM have the operating system now running on a highly capable SMP configuration."
The test platform is apparently a reference smart phone built around a ST-Ericsson U8500 chip, one of the first silicon implementations of ARM's Cortex-A9 MPCore, a multi-core version of the ARM architecture found in almost all today's smartphones.
Williams said that multi-core handsets can accommodate features such as high-definition video and hardware accelerated 3D Graphics supporting OpenGL.
Symbian said it intended to support the Cortex-A9 MPCore architecture when it was announced in 2007, but that multiple core processing is only likely to be used when required, to preserve battery life on handsets.
Hands on with Easeus Partition Master 3.5
In days gone past, when Windows contained panes of glass and a mouse was furry and ate cheese, hard drive partitions were something you only messed with if you were pretty technical and usually could only be altered by formatting the drive completely and starting again, wiping all the data in the process.
Over time a few tools have arisen to help more easily deal with partitions, Partition Magic being one of the most well known. Another player in this field is Easeus, a data recovery specialist who developed Partition Master.
Currently on version 3.5, the Home Edition is free to download and use; perfect for my requirements.
For some reason many laptop manufacturers split the hard drive into two logical, equal sized partitions when setting up the machine, ideally to try and keep the data and the applications separate. Of course most users don't realise this and especially with the Windows My Documents folder set on the C: Drive, you invariably end up with one partition bursting at the seams and the other emptier than Paris Hilton's head.
This is precisely the situation my dad recently found himself in, and being 'the tech guy' in my family I was asked to sort it out.
Getting up and running with Easeus Partition Master was a simple process of downloading the 8.81MB install file, available on a number of popular download sites, and running through the run-of-the-mill installation process.
Once you fire up the application you are presented with a simple graphical interface showing the status of the various drives and their associated partitions connected to the PC. One thing we couldn't find was any kind of refresh option, so if you make any changes such as copying files around or adding or removing another drive you have to exit and restart the program for the changes to be reflected.
From here you are given a number of different possibilities on a drive and a partition level.
At the top level you can obtain data about the drives and there are options to copy the entire drive or delete all the partitions on a particular hard drive.
On a partition level there are options to Resize or Move, Copy, Create, Delete, Explore, Label or Format the data in that partition. There are also some advanced options to change the drive letter, convert the file system, hide the partition, check it for errors or set it as the active partition. Where appropriate Partition Master allows you to create bootable disks as well, ideal when changing primary hard drives or creating a bootable external disk.
In this particular case, what I wanted to do was essentially merge the two partitions. The best way to do this is to empty the D: Drive of any data, copy it off to the C: Drive or to another source if the that doesn't have enough space, and then delete the D: Drive and resize the C: Drive to take up the entire hard drive space.
Incidentally, when deleting the partition, Partition Master provides the option of destroying the data as well, which wipes the partition sectors as well - while this is probably overkill for many users, this is good for businesses trying to make sure the data is unrecoverable.
One particularly nice feature is that Partition doesn't perform these actions straight away, instead it queues them up and then executes them in a batch process. This allows you to experiment with various options before committing yourself. In my particular case here, it also allowed me to queue up the partition deletion and resize it as a single process, saving time and extra reboots of the PC.
Even with a straightforward and simple interface like Partition Magic, messing about with a hard drive at this level can possibly mean the loss of all the data should something go wrong, so it is advised to back up information when performing these tasks.
These sorts of changes can't be done with Windows running, so once hitting the 'Apply' button, the laptop rebooted and the requested actions got underway.
Deleting the partition took no time at all, but expanding the primary logical drive from 17GB to 35GB took around four minutes to complete the process. Pretty quick in this case, but if you have a very large drive that you're resizing this is probably a good time to go do something else.
Once completed, the machine rebooted itself again and Windows booted perfectly happily, with just a single much larger C: Drive and no D: Drive remaining. After an operation like this I would recommend defragmenting the drive in order to help optimise the new layout and get the data in order.
I only looked at a slice of what Partition Master can do, but this is going to be one of the most common uses of the program, along with doing a full copy of data between drives or partitions for cloning or backup.
For our purposes, Partition Magic worked perfectly with the entire process taking less than an hour. The interface was simple and easy to understand, the graphics gave a good visual impression of the state of the various drives and the associated partitions, and there was plenty of help at hand to explain most of the features.
It would have been great if there was some kind of 'partition merge' option, however even if it could be done it would almost certainly be a very long process as essentially the system would have to incrementally shrink one partition, grow the other one, copy some data between the two, wash, rinse and repeat. Depending on how full both partitions are, this would be not only very complex, but the probability of some or all of the data being lost or corrupted is very high.
The convert option may also prove very useful to some who wish to upgrade from the old FAT32 file system to the more reliable and compatible NTFS.
Our only other real gripe is that the home edition should ideally be a standalone program. Given that the majority of users are going to be in a similar to position where they need it to perform one particular task and then nothing else - rather than having to install it, perform the needed operation and then have to uninstall it, if Easeus made Partition Master able to simply run without having to be installed it would make more sense. This would also allow engineers or 'the tech guy' in the family to keep a copy on a flash drive and use it to easily fix several PCs.
Author: Ian Williams
Under the hood of HP Z series workstations
At a launch event in Los Angeles last week, HP gave journalists an opportunity to go under the hood of its new Z Workstation series, which were officially unveiled on Monday.
The Z400, Z600 and Z800 models were designed by BMW Designworks to have a sleek look and clean lines, and all three feature Intel Nehalem processors.
Terry Pilsner, vice president of HP Workstation R&D, said the new line has been designed to be energy efficient and easy to pull apart to service. He opened up the machine to demonstrate how parts such as the graphics cards, fan unit and power supply can be removed without having to disconnect lots of cables.
"There's a green light at the back of the supply. When you plug it into an AC outlet, the light comes on to tell you if the power supply is good or bad," Pilsner said. "If the green light doesn't come on, we can get a replacement out within 24 hours."
The power supply unit has also been redesigned for better cool air distribution.
"With Nehalem, you have two processors and the memory is right next to them, it's a very close design requirement," said Pilsner. "With one processor in front of the other, if you let normal airflow happen hot air would blow on the second one from the front one and cause an imbalance." In response, the power supply has been designed to ensure fresh air flows over the first processor and onto the second one through the column design.
HP was also keen to play up the environmental features of the new workstations line. The Z400 and Z800 will both offer a liquid cooling option from this summer (this won't be available in the Z600 due to space constraints) while Pilsner said the design is 90 per cent recyclable and offers 85 per cent efficiency. "The instructions have been etched onto the metal to eliminate plastic labels" he added. "They're also halogen and lead-free processors with the Intel components."
HP also has plans to expand the upgraded workstation line with advanced AMD chips, with the launch of its first 12-core model based on an AMD processor slated for this summer. Future models will also include a 64GB Intel Solid State Drive.
Portability vs battery life
How short can the battery life be on a laptop before it negates the whole point of having a mobile computer?
I was pondering this while trying out Toshiba's Portege R600 (see image), which is a fantastically light system weighing in at just 773g, but preliminary tests suggest it will give users less than ninety minutes work from its standard battery pack.
Of course, the good point of having such a lightweight laptop is that you hardly notice you are carrying it. If your job involves giving presentations at customer sites, then battery life presumably doesn't matter too much - but then you would probably want a larger screen than the Portege's 12.1in display.
It seems to me that such ultra-slim models are in a way self-defeating; if you really need to work while away from a mains connection, then you are probably going to have to carry several fully-charged spare battery packs around with you - or else take a heavier laptop that boasts a longer battery life in the first place.
Perhaps better battery technology might improve the situation, but then again, perhaps not - modern laptops are stuffed full of drivers and background services that keep the system busy and using up more power than it needs to, even when the user isn't doing anything other than reading the screen.
The dream of an all-day laptop that doesn't require a course in body building before you can carry it around seems as far away as it ever has been.
A full review of the Toshiba Portege R600 will feature on VNUnet.com in the near future.
Photo: HP’s sat-nav smartphone
This photo shows the HP iPaq 614 Business Navigator alongside a standard-sized PDA and a smartphone, showing how it fits somewhere between the two in size.
In fact, the iPaq 614 is almost exactly the same size as a Palm Treo, although it has a numeric keypad instead of the Palm’s qwerty keyboard. Like the Treo, it has a touch-screen as well.
The Business Navigator part of the device’s name refers to the act that this iPaq has built-in GPS capability and uses Google Maps to show your location and give directions to a destination when travelling.
This means that the device pulls down the map data as needed, instead of storing it on a memory card, and so you need a live data connection to use the navigation feature.
Fortunately, the iPaq 614 supports 3G with HSDPA where this is available, and also has Wi-Fi capability for speedier web browsing when near an access point. It also supports Bluetooth for hands-free calls. A full review of the HP iPaq 614 Business Navigator will appear in a future issue of IT Week.
Picture: Using OQO's HSDPA UMPC
OQO's new version of its Model e2 UMPC is already shipping, and here's a (slightly blurry) picture to prove it. OQO kindly left this model with me to try out when they dropped in to our offices where IT Week Labs is located.
As you can see, the unit is almost indistinguishable from the original Model e2, which we reviewed back in October. It is very slightly heavier (but not so you would notice) and has a new antenna to support HSDPA – the high-speed 'wireless broadband' version of the 3G mobile networks.
The antenna can be extended out from the top right corner of the case, in a manner that makes it look like some kind of spy gizmo that James Bond might have used in the sixties. This is theoretically to boost the signal if reception is poor, but it seemed to have little extra effect when I tried it, and the antenna looks like it might easily snap if the user isn't careful.
From our central London office I managed to get a 3.6Mbit/s connection on T-Mobile, as reported by the Novatel MobiLink Network Connection Manager tool installed on the OQO. Using some of the free broadband speed test tools available on the web, the HSDPA connection was rated at various speeds up to 688kbit/s, which is roughly comparable with what you would see with a 1Mbit/s home broadband connection.
Using the device backed up this finding – it seemed reasonably fast when browsing web sites, but not as fast as you would expect from using a Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection. I even accessed one or two web-based applications and found performance acceptable, if not great.
Of course, get away from metropolitan areas and performance will almost certainly be worse than this, and will drop back to standard 3G or even GPRS the further away you get from a big city. I haven't tested this with the OQO so far, but have frequently found 3G coverage to be patchy outside of London.
This extra wireless capability does not really make the OQO a rival for a smartphone. The device I tested did not have the ability to make voice calls, although there is nothing preventing you from installing Skype or some other voice-over-IP client and using this instead.
Adding shared storage the easy way
Much has been written over the last few years regarding the influence of consumers on new technology, and how products designed for consumers can even end up being used in a corporate IT environment. A prime example is the PDA, but many firms will have discovered workers operating clandestine wireless access points in the office. In many cases, the consumer kit turns out to have many or all of the features of much more expensive enterprise-grade products.
In the same vein, I've just upgraded my home network with some extra storage in the shape of a LaCie Ethernet Disk mini. The device, which doubles as either a USB external hard disk or as network-attached storage (NAS), is designed for the home or small office, but is a low-cost and relatively simple way to add extra storage to any network.
The drive is quite compact, sitting neatly underneath the Linksys wireless router that forms the core of my home network. But despite its unobtrusive appearance, the Ethernet Disk mini is essentially a self-contained server running an embedded version of Linux and equipped with a web-based administration console.
LaCie provides a configuration tool that scans the network and reports the IP address the Ethernet Disk mini is using. Armed with this information, you can then point a web browser at the drive and configure its network name, create a shared volume, and specify users allowed access, among other things.
Although aimed at the home or small office, the Ethernet Disk mini could be used to provide shared storage for a small workgroup or branch office in any company, while the web-based admin console allows it to be remotely configured and managed.
The product is available in 250GB, 300GB and 500GB versions, priced from £129.
Tiny Flash drive offers security
USB Flash memory sticks are two-a-penny these days, but the OnlyDisk
U220 from Netac is notable for a couple of reasons. The company sent me one to try out.
Firstly, the device is quite small; scarcely wider or deeper than the
USB connector that plugs into the PC, and about an inch and a half long. It is
also encased in metal, which makes the device feel sturdier than many other
products.
The Netac drive also features security protection for files. It is
partitioned into two volumes, one of which is password protected and encrypted.
The only file visible in this volume is the PASSWORD.EXE program, which must be
run to unlock access to its content. As delivered, the password is blank,
allowing the user to define one. The password protection also works without
requiring administrator privileges, unlike some comparable products I have
seen.
As well as defining a password, the OnlyDisk U220 lets you set how many
incorrect password attempts are allowed before the secure volume becomes
locked. Netac warns that only its engineers can unlock the device if this
should happen, and that this will lead to loss of the device's contents.
While I had no problems with the password system, the drive does seem
to have one oddity. Windows users are supposed to close down USB devices - using the 'Safely Remove Hardware' tool in
the System Tray - before unplugging
them. However, the OnlyDisk U220 almost always throws up an error message
saying it 'cannot be stopped because a program is still accessing it', requiring me to wait several minutes before trying again.
The Netac OnlyDisk U220 is available in 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB versions
for £23.99, £29.99 and £49.99, respectively.
Wyse move for resellers
The tests of Wyse Streaming Manager are going well, but things are rarely as easy as they seem at first glance. A sales engineer for Wyse walked me through the process of publishing an application so that it could be streamed to the thin client from the server. He made it look simple.
Later, I tried to follow his steps, taking a system snapshot of the test workstation, installing the application (actually the OpenOffice.org suite), then taking a second snapshot, before building an image from the differences between the two.
This captures the files and settings that the install program has introduced – the essence of the application, in other words.
But after making an application AppSet of this, then adding it to the server and trying to access it from the Wyse terminal, I found that nothing happened.
Hmmm. It seems that there is a certain amount of tweaking that needs to be done once the Publisher has sorted the application wheat from the chaff of all the other files on the system, and it seems that this can be highly specific to the particular application.
Looks like resellers or system integrators with a sound knowledge of the Windows Registry will find themselves in demand if sales of Wyse Streaming Manager pick up....
