WINDOWS 8

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icrosoft has announced a massive simplification of the Windows product line. Windows 8 will have only two distinct editions for PC consumers the regular Windows 8 and Windows 8 pro roughly analogous to Windows XP Home and Pro. While the regular version contains everything a home user might ever need pro adds domain support for business along with Bitlocker encryption virtualization and management features. This eliminates the home premium and ultimate editions which were often confusing and misleading for buyers. While there is no home premium or media center edition that functionality will be an optional extra for pro users.

          Windows for ARM-based device such as tablet will be called Windows RT and will only be available preinstalled on those system. It won’t be able to join domains or run common Windows software but will come with a version of Microsoft Office of its own.

          China and other emerging markets will get local language only version of Windows 8 but it is not clear whether these will have other limitations such previous starter editions.

          The major non retail edition will be called Windows 8 Enterprise and features such as Windows to go which allows users to create their own secure portable Windows OS on a pen drive will require an Enterprise license. Other features for offices include network data caching virtualization enhancements and centralized app deployment.

COPY BLU-RAYS ONTO ANY DEVICE

Blu-rays disks are the new enemies of the digital nomad. While our phones and tablets travel the globe with us our personal movie libraries are stuck in the pre-mobile-entertainment era. However there are professional tools that enable us to copy HD films from Blu-rays discs and play them on any device without losing quality. Technology the process is not very difficult but there are coptyright ramifications. It is of course necessary to bypass the copy protection mechanism that these discs use and programs such as AnyDVD and DVDDab that are widely available on the Internet can do exactly this. In many countries and cases this act alone is enough to violate the law. However the chances of an individual being sued for personal viewing of his or her own legally purchased discs are remote. DRM is designed to stop mass piracy and the sharing of files with strangers via the Internet and these are the cases which have been prosecuted.

          Only professional applications can successfully perform the balancing act between picture quality and file size. This is because each parameter can be controlled manually. At first glance these tools seem intimidating. You will quickly get the hang of them though. We have chosen the best program in its class, MeMUI to show you how easy it is to copy films as MKV files from a Blu-ray discs and then to add suitable audio tracks.

          MeGUI gives you full control over the final file’s quality. To ensure that it runs without any problems you must prepare your PC. Install the following codecs as well as script collections AviSynth, ffdshow and NeroAAC. You will also need the tool eac3to to extract audio tracks.

          MeGUI needs no installation but it is a good idea to apply all available updates and download all the recommended add on tools. MeGUI will also throw up an error related to the NeroAAC codec which is a known issues. You need to manually specify the path to this codec under option | setting | External program setting for achieving the optimum video quality we shall select the versatile MKV container format though MP4 will also do in case your devices do not support MKV video.

1.     FINDING THE FILM FILE after copying the Blu ray data onto your hard disk you will need to find the film stream. You can identify it by its file size because most other the files are only a few MB each while the film is about 30 GB in a single file.

2.     LOADING THE FILM IN MeGUI in the program click tool-AVS script creator and select the film file in the video input field. You can check the original resolution of the film under input DAR.

3.     CUTTING now enable the checkbox crop and select auto crop so that any automatically created black letterbox bars are removed.

4.     REDUCING THE RESOLUTION if you want to scale the resolution down to 720p to save space then compare the resolution under input DAR with the table alongside and side. Under resize enter the pixel values given against 720p videos in the table and select suggest resolution.

5.     OPTIMIZING COMPRESSION under the script tab you can extend the specified AviSynth script with ConvertoYV12 (). This command adjusts the color space and improves compression. Saving completes the video setting for the time being. Other script are available online to make the use of this professional software more easy.

6.     FINDING THE AUDIO TRACK open the Windows prompt by typing cmd.exe in the start menu of Windows 7 and by then pressing enter. Navigate to the eac3to folder for example cd C:\Downloads\eac3t\, with the command cd. You can determine the audio tracks with eac3to c:\video.m2ts.

7.     SAVING INDIVIDUAL SOUND TRACKS the program lists the audio tracks in a numbered sequence. In our example we have selected the English AC3 track i.e number 3. You can save the audio file with the command 3:c:\video path\English.ac3. if you want to have several audio languages in your MKV file later repeat the process for the other tracks.

8.     LOADING THE AVISYNTH SCRIPT in order for MeAVI to use the video profile created in point 5 load it in the main menu under aviSynth Script.

9.     DETERMINING THE VIDEO CONTAINER select the MKV container under file format. In case your devices do not support MKV you can use the MP4 container instead.

10.                        CALCULATING THE FILE SIZE you have now completed most of the setting it’s now time for fine tuning where you can also define the size of the output file. For this open the Bitrate Calculator under tools and load the audio file first.

11.                        DEFINING BIT RATE finding the right bit rate is an art in itself. If you select very fe bits per second the video is small but the picture quality drops drastically this will then have not live up to its HD tag. If the bit rate is too high the size of the file increases even though the picture quality will not improved beyond a certain point. Experience tells us that a bit rate of 4000 to 8000 kbps is good for a 720p video while 8000 to 14000 kbps suits 1080p better. In the example we have decided to use a bit rate of 8000 to prioritize quality over file size. The film is therefore approximately 7.65 GB in size still a good value for a 120 minute video in excellent HD quality.

12.                        OPTIMIZING THE ENCODER select the point x264 scratchpad under encored setting in the main menu of MeGUI and click config. Professional can then manually define all decoder settings. However inexperienced users are better off adjusting the default settings using the slide control. You will get the optimum picture quality with the very slow setting but the process takes very long to complete. On our test system MeGUI took about nine hours for a 90 minute film. If you are in a hurry you can get a good enough result with the medium setting. Do not slide the control further as this will deteriorate the quality considerably.

13.                        CREATING AN MKV since you have made all the setting now it is time to create the MKV file. To do so click enqueue in the main menu and start encoding under the queue teb by clicking start.

14.                        LINKING AUDIO AND VIDEO the MKV file is now ready but there is no audio track. To integrate the AC3 file created earlier with the MKV container click tools| Muxer| MKV Muxer in the main menu and select both files. Then click Queue and again Queue | start in the main menu. And you are done! Your film with the best audio and picture quality is now readily available as a digital file and you can transfer it to any device you choose. Long journeys need not be so boring anymore.

APRIL FOOL’S JOKES

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oogle this year unleashed a smattering of April fool’s gags right from really advanced search Google Maps in 8 bit for Nintendo, Gmail Tap, Google Fiber Bar, Google Voice for pets, Google Racing and more, Youtube came up with the Youtube collection the option to have your favorite videos delivered at your doorstep on DVD’s on the other hand in what seemed a bit over Mashable after kicking out its CEO pets cashmore. But let’s take a look at some of the classic April Fool’s day pranks through history.

          BBC has gained quite a reputation by coming up with some of the brilliant April Fool pranks and by far the best has been about bumper spaghetti crop in Switzerland. On April 1, 1957 a news broadcast on BBC named Panorama ran a report with video footage showing swiss farmers plucking strands of spaghetti from trees. Large numbers of viewers were fooled and BBC was flooded with phone calls inquiring about how they could go about planting a spaghetti tree and apparently they were advised to plant a strand of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce!

          Another memorable April Fools joke comes from Sweden. In 1962 SVT Sweden’s only television channel decided to pull a fast one. They had their technical expert demonstrate how they could with the help of a fine-meshed screen covering the TV screen turn it from black and white to color. And surprisingly a nylon stoking can also do the trick Kjell Stensson the technical expert also cautioned the viewers that they were required to maintain correct distance from the screen and move their head very carefully back and forth in order to align the color spectrum.

          Then in 1977 a popular British tabloid The Guardian successfully managed to fools its readers by publishing a whopping seven page special report about San Serriffe an nation located in the Indian Ocean with nothing less that several semicolon shaped islands. Its two primary islands were named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse while its capital was Bodoni and its leader was General pica. Of course the readers wanted to know more about this supposedly idyllic holiday destination and failed to notice that curiously everything about the island had reference to typography.

          If you think people would have wished up over the years then think again. In 2008 BBC was at it again when it announced that the camera crew of its natural history series ‘Miracles of Evolution’ had filmed flying penguins near the Antarctic. The video showed penguins taking flight and it became one of the most viewed videos on the Internet. BBC claimed that the penguins flew thousands of miles to tropical South America to escape the harsh Antarctic winters.

ASHAMPOO WINOPTIMIZER 9

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very new operating system from Microsoft comes with new tweaks and features such as menu options while the older features seem to simply disappear. This makes using a new operating system slightly more painful. For example Windows 7 has features that are vastly different from Windows XP with newer visualization option background tasks and more. This causes the system to lag as it hogs the processor’s actual power the RAM’s potential and imposes additional work on the hard drive. For those who need to upgrade their older PCs from Windows XP to Windows 7 it is usually an expensive option as the hardware also needs to be upgraded to match the performance. But it is not practical to opt for expensive hardware. Hence optimizing the new operating system to run as smoothly as possible on older hardware makes more sense. This is where optimizing utilities come into play.

                Tweaking the operating system minutely is not possible for new users as they cannot understand what runs in the background and what needs to be done so an optimization utility is what is required to do the needful automatically. A tweaking tool actually does the required actions by shutting down unwanted service and programs deleting unnecessary junk files and handling the registry according to the requirements.

                There are many system optimizing utilities available ranging from free ones that have limited features to expensive ones which have full blown features integrated into one single package. While many utilities do a good enough job there are many others that fail to perform satisfactorily. Ashampoo WinOptimizer is a utility that can match your optimization needs as it features a number of modules. The program is easy to use as well as being intuitive and efficient. WinOptimizer includes a host of features within a single package. Here is a glimpse of what it can accomplish.

OVERVIEW:

This section contains three sub sections. One highlights the operating system  and basic hardware information which includes installed apps, drivers, RAM and processor load and hard drive status. The second one is the maintenance section which searches and tweaks the important areas such as autostart entries, services, internet traces, unwanted files and registry entries. The final section inclides a live turner which helps automatic tuning on the fly and a hibernation monitor. A small load meter for live CPU and RAM usage is also featured here.

MODULES:

This section features all the small modules that can be pulled up individually for tweaking the performance of the PC under one single umbrella. This includes one click optimizer, drive cleaner, registry defrag, system analyzer, drive inspection and repairs, service and process manager, startup and internet turner, application uninstaller, file wiping, encryption/decryption, splitter/joiner and undelete, etc. you can choose to view this page as all Modules, catagories or as functions.

FAVORITES:

This section includes the most important and constantly used modules in winoptimizer. The modules can be deleted and others added according to your own preference. You may call this a shortcut menu to the most used tweaking tools that one would use on a everyday basis.

BACKUPS:

This section features up to ten backups. You can view and delete the backups at your will in case if something goes wrong during an optimization process.

STATISTICS:

This section features all the actions taken by the utility including stats of the registry values and keys which were analyzed and deleted files and folders database entries and their total values.

VERDICT

Ashampoo winoptimizer is a very easy to use system optimization utility for windows. It has a very user friendy front-end interface with modules that are easy to locate and understand. It won’t matter if you are a novice in the computer world as Ashampoo winoptimizer will make you feel at home.

Aoao photo Resizer

High resolution photos are good for archiving however if you wish to share them cropping and resizing them makes sense. Images scaled to 1920x1080 or 1024x768 are good enough to be viewed in photo galleries. Aoao photo resize lets you resize your images and also enhance them by adjusting the brightness, contrast, saturation and color values. You can also add effects such as sharpen, grayscale, emboss and mosaic, add frames, and crop out unwanted elements. You first have to load the photos carry out  the desired operation and finally export them to JPG, BMP, TIF, PNG or GIF. The software is easy to use but it would have been more convenient if it supported drag and drop to load images. According to us freeware such as irfanview are smarter choices as they can do the same job for no cost.

NUCLEAR COFFEE VIDEOGET

There are plenty of reasons for wanting to download videos from you tube or similar sites for offline viewing- you could be travelling on the road without internet access or your connection might be so slow that buffering the same video over and over again becomes frustrating. If a video is not copyrighted, Nuclear Coffee’s VideoGet is a great way to download it. Copy the URL from your browser window and paste it into Videoget. You can queue up multiple videos and even choose a format and resolution/framerate to convert them into for compatibility with your mobile devices. Videoget has been turned to dozens of different video sites ones, through these can be hidden from the master. Videos come through quickly and can be resumed if the connection breaks. The free version lets you download only 20 videos.

KINGSTONE SSDNOW V+ 200

The 90 GB SSDNow V+ 200 SSd from Kingston is designed to keep costs down to a bare minimum so all you get is the SSD in a clear plastic packet like you would find value RAM Kingston have also thrown in their data integrity features like Duraclass technology and RAISE for better data reliability. In our write teats the Kingston managed just 127 MB/s for sequential data whereas in comparison the Intel SSD now 520 gave us 315 MB/s. with a street price of Rs 10,000 the Kingston V+ 200 is quite an expensive proposition for just 90 GB of storage space. We recommend you pit a little more money and pick up Kingston’s own HyperX series of SSDs instead. You can get the 120 Gb HyperX SSD which has the Synchronous NAND flash for about Rs. 12,500.

BUFFALO CLOUDSTATION CS-X

Buffalo’s cloudstation is not like most NAS drives. Rather than just sitting on a network and being accessed via Windows Explorer the cloudstation is designed to be used like an online service. It uses the little known PoGoplug architecture to enable setup and access entirely through a Web service. The “cloud” bit comes from its ability to be accessed from any PC or web connected device in the word. After plugging in the power and network cables you will need to visit a website which will guide you through creating an account and linking up with your drive. The website or an optional app then allow you to begin storing and organizing files. The drive is time machine compatible and you cn also torrent directly to it allowing you to power down your PC when not in use. You can have it mirror your music, photos and other folders. The main attraction is being able to access 1 TB worth of files from anywhere yet keep them stored safely at home. If you use this as a backup solution instead of an online service you won’t be protected against physical damage and natural disasters. The apps are free and there is no monthly fee for enabling remote access.

          Although there’s no documented manual setup process we were able to detect the drive on our network and manually configure it as we liked. We could also mount in explorer and use it just like any other network drive.

ASUS WICAST EW2000

The EW2000works on the wireless home digital interface technology that allows streaming of up to 1080p video and 8 channels of audio with a latency period of less than 1 ms. The transmission distance is a cool 32 feet but there has to believe line of sight. The device has an operating frequency from 5.15 to 5.85 GHz and a data rate of 3 Gbps. We tested the transmitter and receiver at various distance points. When the two devices were placed in the same vicinity we saw no less of image quality and 1080p videos were streamed flawlessly on our HDTV. Projecting the screen also worked well and even mouse movements were smooth. As we widened the distance to approximately fifteen feet we saw a sight change in the quality of the images but nothing of major note. The WiCast EW2000 is currently selling at a price of Rs 8,500. It works fairly well besides the slight distance issues we had. For those wanting a wire free experience the WiCast makes for a great device. It even makes for quite an expensive buy considering how a few wires might just get the job done for you.

CM STROM XORNET

This lightweight and ergonomical optical gaming mouse is equipped with an anti slip rubberized sweat proof compound and both sides. The Xornet has five buttons plus two more for on the fly switching of the cursor resolution  between 500, 1000 and 2000 dpi. The anti-drifit control sensor ensures stability and reliability during extreme gaming. The Xornet also uses Omron Micro switches featuring good tactically with a life span of five million clicks. The mouse is comfortable to use and fits well in the palm of the hand. It does not need any driver and is completely plug-n-play. Apart from gaming graphics designers can also take advantage of the precision comfort and accuracy of the mouse. This is great product ideal for gamers on a budget.

COOLER MASTER TPC 812

This beefy tower type entry level CPU cooler employs six heat pipes that travel through the copper base and transfer heat to the stack of aluminium fins a feature we’ve come across in the past. What we’re seeing for the first time in an air-cooled CPU cooler is the use of vapor chambers. There are two of them in the form of three fourth inch hollow metal ribbons containing liquid coolant. The bases of the chambers are in direct contact with the heat pipes. A 120 mm fan isattached to one side of the cooler and you have the option to go in for a second fan for a push pull setup. The kit includes mounting hardware for all Intel sockets LGA 775 onwards up to the latest LGA 2011 used by the Sandy Bridge E processors. Also supported are AMD socket AM2, AM3+ and FM1.

NZXT PHANTOM 410

The Phantom 410 is more compact and less expensive than the original NZXT but doesn’t ditch any important features. The mid tower cabinet is a lot taller and deeper than most common tower PCs. Our review unit came in all black. The paintwork is as glossy even the insides are painted. There is a small transparent window on the side panel. The top surface has a fan grille as the power and reset buttons. USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports audio jacks and single three position fan speed controller. Two thumbscrews secure each of the side panels in place. Inside you will find enough room for a full sized ATX motherboard and one or two hogh end graphics cards. The power supply mounts at the bottom and there’s space for six 2.5 inch drives as well as three 3.5 inch ones. The middle part of the drive cage is removable freeing up more space for graphics cards and cable routing. You get 120 mm fans on the front rear and top with provisions for mounting more fans and water cooling. The leads to the top panel are neatly routed and labeled free. The phantom 410 is an attractive and feature rich case but it’s still overkill for non gamers or ordinary home users.

ZOTAC GEFORCE GTX 680

It’s been a long agonizing wait for Nvidia’s next generation graphics cards for us gamers and enthusiasts and all we can say is that it has been totally worth it. Zotac was the first to send us their retail sample of the GTX 680 and as always they seem to have one of the best bundles in the market. Currently there’s only one SKU of kepler and Zotac have stuck with the reference design and specifications. The bundle includes two Molex to 6 pin power connectors, DVI to VGA adapter drive disk installation manual and the best bit- Assassin’s creed’s 3 game pack.

The card is built around the same reference design with Zotac’s signature orange color thrown in. it is a handsome card with large GeFore GTX lettering on the side which can be seen if you have a windowed case. The GTX 680 is actually a bit shorter than the GTX 580 measuring just 10 inchs long. The entire card is enclosed so all the hot air escapes through the rear vents. There’s single blower fan in the front which is a lot quieter than their previous offerings.

          Nvidia have added a bunch of new features to the GTX 680 such as GPU boost adaptive V-sync and some new AA models. GPU Boost is similar to Turbo Boost the card will dynamically increase the clock speeds and voltages during gameplay if and only if it does not go beyond the set TDP. Adaptive V-sync can now be found in the Nvidia control panel. It dynamically toggles the V-sync state depending on the frame rate. For instance if you are getting more than 60 fps then V-sync will be on the avoid screen tearing and if it dips below 60 fps then it switches it off to avoid stuttering.

          The core of the Zotac GTX 680runs at 1006 MHz and the boost clock is set to 1058 MHz. it features 1536 shader units or CUDA cores which is three times what the GTX 580 had. The memory is 2 GB GDDR5 running on a 256-bit memory bus. The card supported DX11, DX11.1 open GL 4.2, PCIE 3.0, 3-way SLI support, 3D vision surround and PhysX.

          Our test rig comprised P67A-UD3R motherboard, 8 GB G.SkillRipjaws RAM and Intel SSD 520 240 GB SSD. Nvidia have used a normal aluminium heatsink and copper heat pipes for the cooling in order to keep costs down and it works like a charm. The card is whisper quite on full load as well with the fan speed set to ‘auto’. The card scored 9028 points in 3Dmark 11 defeating the Radeon HD 7970 by a good margin of 1200 points. With AA set to 4x Battlefield 3 ran at 70 fps in full HD while Crysis 2 and Dirt 3 ran at 62 fps and 93 fps respectively. On an average the GTX 680 is around 20 percent faster than the HD 7970.

          If you are in the market for the best single GPU graphics card then Zotac’s GTX 680 is the best bang for buck GTX 680 in the market.

DREAMDOZE.COM

Everyone dreams. At times these dreams can be vague but at times they can be so real and vivid that you actually remember all the details when you wake up in the morning. And of course there can be nightmares. But have you ever wondered what do these dreams mean? There is a school of though that believe that dreams hold meaning. Kind forewarning of things to happen.

          If you are interested to getting your dreams analyzed especially the recurring ones then dreamDoze.com is just the site for you. Started by two friends who are passionate about their dreams the site offers a platform to share your dreams and have them interpreted. While some of the interpreters may be hobbyist they have professional interpreters too. You can sign up on the site and share a dream which you can classify it in the given categories like animal related dreams lucid dreams ordinary dreams people related dreams etc.

          Apart from getting your dreams analyzed you can also benefit from their knowledge base section where you can learn all about analyzing dreams different types of dreams misconception about dreams how to remember dreams causes and importance out of body experiences nightmares etc.

LG OPTIMUS SOL E730

LG’s Optimus Sol E730 is an all plastic lightweight smartphone with a sturdy build but the glossy body is a finger print magnet. Its 3.8 inch 480*800 AMOLED touch screen has scratch proof corning Gorilla Glass. The 4 inch chassis features a 3.8 inch screen unwanted space between screen and touch button illegible and redundant text on the body and a misaligned front camera. It runs on Android 2.3.4 with a layer of the Optimus UI 2.0. the ambient light sensor did not work and the overall UI feels far from fluid. It is powered by 1 GHz scorpion processor and Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon soC. We noticed ghosting and trailing issues at certain brightness levels. It has 1 GB onboard memory and a bundled 2 GB card. The stock music player does a pretty decent job. For connectivity there’s USB 2.0 Wi-Fi direct and DLNA. The stock browser is decent but you might want to get opera mobile. The 5 MP auto camera is feature packed and can record 720p at 30 fps. The frame rate remains solid as long as there is sufficient light. The 1500 mAh battery delivered 8 hours and 40 minutes in video drain tests. 

SONY XPERIA S

The Xperia S feels absolutely lovely to hold and although the chassis is built from plastic it’s really hard to tell. For connectivity we have a plastic flap covered microUSB port and HMDI port on either sides while the 3.5 mm headphone jack on the top. Buttons on the phone include the volume rocker camera shutter and a power sleep button. On the front we have the 1.3 MP front facing camera along with a scratch resistant 4.3 inch screen. There’s even a notification light on the left side. With a resolution of 1280*720 the Xperia S sails past the iphone’s Retina Display with a pixel count of 342 ppi. Coupled with the Sony mobile BRAVIA engine this makes anything and everything on the screen appear super sharp and crisp.

          The bottom has the new translucent strip which holds the labels for capacitive buttons. The sensitivity of the capacitive button is not all that great and there were many instances when it refused to resister any input. Coming to the back of the phone we just have the 12 MP camera LED flash and the speaker. The Xperia S uses a microSIM card and there’s no expandable memory support just 32 GB onboard storage. Also the battery is not user replaceable. While everyone is launching android 4.0 handsets Sony has stuck with Gingerbread for now with a planned ICS update somewhere down the line. Sony have stucr with a same features and functions in Timescape from their previous phones and just tweaked some of the apps. The phone is powered by a dual core Qualcomm MSM8260 processor running at 1.5 GHz. This coupled with 1 GB of RAM ensures that even graphic intensive apps and gems run smoothly. The sound quality is good and the bundled headset provides good noise isolation. The speaker is also loud enough to be enjoyed in a small group.

          The Xperia S handles 1080p videos like a champ without skipping a frame. HD videos look especially good due to the densely packed screen. The stock browser does its job and surfing the net on the Xperia S is a great experience thanks to the rich screen. Even when fully zoomed into text it appears sharp and crisp. One of the biggest selling points for the Xperia S is the 12 PM camera it packs in. the Exmor R camera sensor is supposed to help remove noise in low light conditions. In the outdoors the camera turns into another beast altogether. The camera automatically adds depth of field when the subject is close giving you some pretty crazy picture. You can activate the camera directly by simply holding down the shutter button and up comes the viewfinder. Sony has also added 3D Sweep Panorama similar to the one seen in their digicams. The Xperia S can record video in 1080 with continuous auto focus. The video can viewed directly on an HDTV via the HDMI port.

          The Xperia S comes with a 1750 mAh battery which lasted a little less than a day under heavy usage. It’s expensive but it’s one of the best options out there if a great camera is your top priority.

NOKIA 603

Nokia has always built the phones to last and the 603 follows that same code of conduct. Belle is super quick and lag free to use on this smartphone. It’s matured a lot from the early days to become a customizable and fast OS. The media department has been handled pretty well too. The 603 has 3G support Wi-Fi with hotspot functionality Bluetooth 3.0 GPS, NFC and USB OTG. A few Microsoft apps are featured on the belle phones too including OneNote, Exchange, Lync and sharePoint. The 603 has a 5 MP camera but because it’s fixed focus. It can be used for casual shots at best. The battery life is pretty impressive. The Nokia 603 is priced at Rs 12,900. At this price tag it is got a few older handsets like the Galaxy Ace and the Wildfire S to compete with. Naturally the 603 is more recommended over those two. For Rs 1,500 more you’ll get the live with walkman which definitely has a better app store but a poorer display and smaller screen. We weren’t disappointed with this handset. The only cons include the lack of an LED flash and a limited app store. It these aren’t a problem for you then the Nokia 603 is good buy.

NORTON 360 V6

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he war against Trojans and malware has been one without an end. We have seen a crazy escalation in these unwanted pests in the recent past but there has also been a slew of antivirus products in the market. Norton recently released the new version of their all round security suite Norton 360.

INTERFACE

The first roadblock that distinguishes a good antivirus program from a great one of the interface. Imaging puling your hair out just to find out where the infection is and how exactly to remove it. Yes it should be as simple as a few clicks. With Norton 360 v6 symantec have upped the ante on how simple a security 2012 and installation is quite a breeze. Pop in the CD enter the key and within minutes and we are done. As for the software itself there is a nice choice of colors which gives it a sophisticated look. The main panel gives you an overview of what’s protected and what’s not and all basic scanning and backup functions can be accessed from there itself. The windows 7 widget allows you to access the most important features required on the go. For newbies there is a dedicated help section in the top of right corner so if the setting and the detailed features intimidate you a bit you know where to go. Navigation through the interface is a breeze and there’s adequate detailing and explanation throughout the various sections to keep you well informed of what you are doing.

FEATURES

Norton 360 is your one stop shop for all PC safety related requirements. It covers everything from online identity theft, phising, spyware, spam and virus to even loss of photos, music and other files. The PC Tuneup function allows you to monitor your PC’s speed and take effective measure to get it working at an optimum level. The version we got for review provides protection for three PC’s for upto a year.

The four main tabs are PC security, identity, backup and PC Tuneup. PC security as the name suggests helps you run scan and updates and manage firewell setting. It also lets you Norton insight which monitors applications you install and informs you if they are harmful or unstable. Another fearure is the ability to scan your facebook wall. We have seen a lot of malicious links on facebook in the recent past so this one is a welcome addition.

The identity safe tab lets you security store addresses login details passwords and creit card numbers. It works in tandem with the ‘Norton safe web’ feature which wars you if you happen to land up on a fake website. It has check site option as well.

The backup tab allows you to create sets of data you want to create backups of. These sets can be stored in their secure online storage or anywhere on your hard drive.

The last is the PC tune up section that lets you optimize your disks, clean up files, check startup entries and view a diagnosis report.

PERFORMANCE

At the software uses barely 7 MB of RAM which is pretty good considering Norton internet security 2012 took around 15 MB. CPU utilization was noticeable at good 4 to 5 percent. While scanning CPU usage fluctuated between 20 and 52 percent which is quite high. We tasted it on a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5. Multitasking might be sluggish if you are running a couple of memory intensive applications but if it is just the scan running you are not going to run into problems.

CONCLUSION

Norton 360 v6 is priced at Rs 3,085 for one year of protection for upto three PCs and Rs 1,649 for one year of protection for one PC still you get a lot of more features so if you want one product that does it all, this ia a good buy.