Victor Keegan: Did Microsoft force Asus to axe Linux
Microsoft is right to warn about the danger of a serious monopoly in search because of Google's dominance. Its own revamped search engine, Bing, is a welcome addition and has some interesting features that should earn it more followers. Maybe it is time to apply Microsoft's enlightened approach to monopolies to what is happening in its own backyard where, amazingly, it still has almost 95% of the global market for PC operating systems (Windows), word processing (Word) and spreadsheets (Excel). Last year, a new generation of "netbooks" running the open-source Linux operating system seemed set to capture the bottom end of the market. I bought a $199 Asus , which I thought would be my dream machine as it weighed barely 1kg and came with the free OpenOffice.org word-processor, Linux operating system, Skype, educational and arts programs and Google documents. It didn't turn out so well: the screen was too small, wireless links flaky and battery life poor.
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Victor Keegan: Did Microsoft force Asus to axe Linux
Letters and blogs: 16 April
On the road again All very good, Victor, but did you enjoy The Road? (A new chapter in mobile reading, 9 April). Patrick Dodds Richmond To be honest, I don't like to read online – it is annoying, hurts my eyes, and I can never get comfortable when looking at a computer screen. But to hold a book in my hand is one of the most relaxing things I could ever do. pdorn.wordpress.com Google's right on rights In regards to your article about Street View (Google Street View does not breach privacy laws, 12 April (), which says: "It also dismissed Privacy International's argument that Street View should seek people's consent. If consent were required by the law, then the producers of, say, Match of the Day, would have to gain the consent of all people attending televised football matches who might be caught on camera." Well, Match of the Day does, by proxy. The terms and conditions of buying a ticket, in this case at Manchester United's site, are: "18. The Club may from time to time create images and/or audio-visual video footage of Ticket Holders attending the Stadium. The Club owns all rights in such images and footage and shall be entitled to use the same for the purpose of promoting the Club and its commercial partners." This appears to break down that if you purchase a ticket you agree to being filmed and rights belong to the club and its partners (ie, TV programmes). Ben Jordan Via email 50 years and counting Your picture of a computer operator sitting at the console of an IBM 360 machine (Cobol hits 50 and keeps counting, 9 April) brought back happy memories – 40-plus years ago, that was me
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Letters and blogs: 16 April
Ask Jack: 16 April 2009
Copyright violations Are sites such as freebookspot.ws – which provide links to thousands of books to download – actually in breach of copyright? Paul Foy JS: Freebookspot.ws, like many other websites and bulletin boards, carries links to files that users have uploaded to storage sites such as Rapidshare. It's a safe bet that, where copyright restrictions apply, these have been uploaded without the express permission of the copyright owner.
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Ask Jack: 16 April 2009
Eee Box PC, TV set, and Blu-ray?
I'm planning to add the new Asus Eee Box B204 to a 32-inch, 720-line HDTV set as a space-saving combined PC and entertainment centre. The Eee Box is designed so it can be clipped to the back of a TV. It has an ATI Radeon HD 3400 graphics card and HDMI output. I'm also thinking of getting an external Blu-ray BD-RW/DVD-Rom.
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Eee Box PC, TV set, and Blu-ray?
Are there any free alternatives to Dreamweaver?
I use Dreamweaver at school, and I obviously can't fork out £400-odd for the program. Do you know of any free equivalents? Cormac Ó Maoláin Companies that sell high-priced software are aware of the problem, and you should be able to find a student version of Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 for about £100. However, there are plenty of alternatives, though I don't know which ones will have the features you need. Check the list of open-source alternatives at Osalt.com . There's also a review: Web design on a budget: six free alternatives to Dreamweaver . Computing Open source Software guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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Are there any free alternatives to Dreamweaver?
Netbook market could hit 30m units this year — is that enough to tempt Apple?
DigiTimes reports that: "The global netbook market reached a scale of 14 million units in 2008, and with shipments continuing to rise, the scale will reach 25-30 million units in 2009, and 40-45 million units in 2010, according to Scott Lin, president of Acer Taiwan." This is rather more than even the Taiwanese were predicting last year. For example: back in August, MIC (Taiwan's Market Intelligence Center) predicted "that the market size of mini-low price notebook PC will reach 8.02 million units in 2008, and will reach 18.3 million in 2009, a 128% growth from 2008." Western analysts were, I think, predicting rather smaller numbers. As I reported, Gartner was predicting 5.3m for 2008, and 7.8 million in 2009. But netbooks are still a rather small part of the market. There should be around 300m PCs sold this year, based on actual sales of 271m in 2007 and 302m in 2008. (You can make your own guess about how bad things might get.) Anyway, 30m netbooks (topside) out of 300m PCs would only give netbooks 10% of the market. Or, if you want to look at it another way, netbooks would have at least 20% of the market for portable PCs, probably more. It would be interesting to know what Apple is thinking at the moment. It does not usually compete in low volume markets -- tablets, convertibles, handheld PCs etc -- and it does not compete at all in low cost markets. However, Apple has roughly 3.3% of the PC market today (based on Apple's November 10-K statement that it sold 9.7m Macs in fiscal 2008), and I reckon it could sell at least 10m Mac netbooks, if they were competitively priced. And since Apple uses exactly the same Taiwanese contract manufacturers as everybody else, I don't see why they shouldn't be. Yes, it might well hurt sales of more expensive MacBooks, but the gains -- including market share gains -- might be worth more than the losses. Apple Computing guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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Netbook market could hit 30m units this year -- is that enough to tempt Apple?
Vodafone clinches Google phone deal
Vodafone has landed a deal to supply the next Google phone. Vittorio Colao, the Vodafone chief executive, confirmed this morning that the mobile network operator had secured the rights to supply Taiwanese manufacturer HTC's new G2 smartphone. It will be called the HTC Magic, and Vodafone will sell it exclusively in Europe for a limited period. A formal announcement is expected later today. Colao was speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, following negotiations with Taiwanese manufacturer HTC that continued up to the start of the show. Like the G1, the original Google phone, the G2 runs Google's Android operating system. Rival mobile operator T-Mobile won an exclusive deal to supply the G1, so Vodafone was keen to offer the upgraded version of the smartphone. The HTC Magic has a 3.2 inch QVGA touchscreen display and features a trackball and navigational buttons for quick, easy access. It will support several email options such as Google Mail™, POP3 and IMAP and Google Talk for instant messaging.
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Vodafone clinches Google phone deal
Combining a PC monitor and an LCD TV
I'd like to replace my PC monitor and the family's old 24-inch CRT television with a single LCD TV/monitor, perhaps somewhere between 22 and 26 inches. Mark McCann In general, I don't recommend this approach, because of the practical and family problems. First, computer monitors are usually set up for viewing by one person at around a metre or less, whereas TVs are set up for viewing by two or more people two to three metres away. Second, there may well be problems when one person wants to watch a TV programme while others want to surf the net, play a game or whatever. However, I asked Bob Raikes, who runs the Meko consultancy and is managing editor of Display Monitor. He says: "Assuming we're talking about sizes where both products might be available - broadly 15 to 26 inches - then these days, they tend to use similar LCD panels. TVs may have brighter backlights and will typically be 16:9 format to match widescreen TV. Most monitor panels are typically 16:10 (so a TV panel would be 1920 x 1080 pixels, while a monitor would be 1920 x 1200 pixels). However, this is changing as monitor makers are starting to adopt 16:9. "Traditional TV brands are generally likely to have better video-processing than the monitor/IT brands, although there are exceptions. So, if you are using the TV to receive digital TV over the air, then a TV may be better. It should also have support for Freeview and a CI slot if you want Top Up TV, etc. The TV may also have better audio facilities and a remote control. On the other hand, if you are watching video from a PC or an upscaling DVD player, set-top box or PVR and using a good digital interface such as HDMI, then the monitor-style product should be fine. The same hardware sold in the IT department of a store is likely to cost less than from the TV department. Profit margins have historically been higher on TV, so that's what the retailers expect." Incidentally, Raikes adds: "Viewers judge screen size by height. To get a widescreen that looks around the same size as Mark's 24-inch 4:3 screen would need a 28- 30-inch LCD." Backchat : Niel Anderson recommends "Avermedia's AverTV Hybrid STB 1080i, a separate Freeview and analog tuner box about the size of a VHS cassette. It allows any monitor with a DVI connection (or suitable adaptor) to be either a TV or a monitor. You don't have to switch your PC on to watch TV, or you can watch TV picture-in-picture in a resizable window on the PC desktop
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Combining a PC monitor and an LCD TV