Internet phone company Skype are helping to provide free WiFi access around the world by investing in FON, a software application which turns your router into a secure hotspot.Skype invested a small but unspecified amount in the FON community, which is designed to let people share their internet connection with other FON users.
Once someone registers the free software, and becomes a ‘Fonero’, FON provides maps of where the new hotspot is located. The idea being that once you share your connection you can then use others anywhere in the world.
“What Martin Varsavsky and the people at FON are doing in making it easy for people to access Wi-Fi anywhere is exactly what we had in our minds as a logical next step (to) Skype, so we’re delighted to be a part of the FON revolution.”, Niklas Zennstr_m and Jaanus Kase of Skype wrote on their blog.
At present, FON only supports Linksys WRT54G routers, but the company offers discounts on compatible equipment. FON was first launched three months ago, and before Skype became involved it had already attracted 3,000 Foneros.
Ty Pendlebury
Ferrari Laptops ‘Go Faster’
In collaboration with Ferrari, Acer has announced the Ferrari 4000 notebook which it claims is the world’s first to use a carbon-fibre construction.
The rugged, yet light, carbon-fibre casing conceals the very latest AMD-64 bit technology, and comes in black and Ferrari-red.The Ferrari 4000 includes a lluminous 15.4″ TFT wide display supported by the ATI MOBILITY RADEON X700 graphics chipset, with 128MB DDR memory and PCI Express, and this makes it suitable for gaming.
In addition the notebook includes up to 1GB DDR memory and 100GB HDD, as well as a DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive unit and a 5-in-1 card-reader. This is all managed by the powerful AMD architecture which Acer says guarantees top performance.
The Ferrari 4000 also comes with Acer’s SignalUp wireless technology, which it claims boosts wireless signal strength by 25 per cent compared to wireless notebooks from competitors such as Dell and HP/Compaq.
The notebook will initially come in two flavours – the Ferrari 4000WLMi with an AMD Turion 64 1.6GHz processor and 512MB RAM at $2,999 RRP (available August 1st 2005), and the Ferrari 4005WLMi with an AMD Turion 64 2GHz processor and 1GB RAM at $3,999 RRP (available now)
Raymond Vardanega, Acer Oceanic region marketing director, said the new laptop continues two years of successful collaboration with the car manufacturer: “With the Acer Ferrari 4000, Acer has once again designed a truly innovative and exclusive notebook that expresses our firm intention to stay at the forefront of our field. This is an ambition that has always been a key characteristic of both Formula One and the world of information technology.”
Asus More Play Than Work
The PM17TU is part of Asus’s first foray into displays down under, and on first impressions it’s a very good one.
It’s specified very well with a 4ms response rate, and it looks the part with its gun-barrel black bezel.
Build-wise, it’s excellent, with Asus showing their many strengths in industrial design with its tasteful lines and understated functionality. There’s only one button on the fascia, for power, with the other buttons hidden on the lower right side. And cleverly integrated into the bottom part of the bezel are the speakers. While we’re not huge fans of multimedia monitors at Smarthouse, at least they sound better than laptop speakers. And as they’re not obtrusive, you can choose to ignore them completely if you like.
It’s a well connected monitor too, boasting both DVI and D-SUB inputs, as well as a 3.5mm audio input.
But the screen is what we’re here for, and on first glance it’s a very nice one. It’s certainly bright, with good colour reproduction. Games and DVDs alike showed no ghosting and were pleasurable to watch. It has got a high gloss screen, so in well lit areas looking at your own ugly mug can get distracting.
If there is one problem with this monitor, its one it has in common with many other LCDs – viewing angles. Unless you’re looking at the monitor dead-on – and this means tilting it slightly backwards – a blue tinge begins creeping in at the bottom. This can make vertical off-axis viewing difficult, and also, horizontal off-axis gets that familiar yellow tinge creeping in. This means this isn’t the monitor to choose if movie watching or TV replacement is your aim.
One other issue is price, at $699 it’s one of the most expensive 17″ monitors on the market. Competitors such as Viewsonic offer a 19″, also with a 4ms response time, for the same cash.
This is an excellent looking monitor with a great specification. It will suit well-heeled gamers, and perhaps some office workers, perfectly, but movie watchers and graphics professionals may want to skip over this one.
Asus PM17TU $699 
For: big, bright display; excellent design; clear, readable text
Against: some discolouration off-axis; costly
Verdict: An excellent introduction to Asus’ new range of monitors which would most suit gamers.
Meet The Maxtor OneTouch Family
Maxtor has announced a new addition to its external storage line with the OneTouch III range due in Australia this month.
The range starts at 100MB and goes up to one terabyte (1,000 GB), provide easy-to-use, automated backup and restore capabilities for PC and Mac users.
The drives offer the choice of USB2.0 and Firewire connectivity, and a suite ofsoftware tools, including the ability to synchronise data between computers and a System Rollback feature that can restore damaged PC systems after a viral or spyware attack.
The Maxtor OneTouch III family features improved acoustics, an inner disk drive casing and shock mounts for additional durability and drive protection. The entirely new user interface is simple to navigate for both Mac and PC users, making it easier to set up and manage data backup, file archiving and system settings.
All Maxtor OneTouch external storage and backup systems come with an added data security feature called Maxtor DriveLock, which provides a password protection option to safeguard contents if the drive is ever lost or stolen.
“Digital entertainment and data have become absolutely integral to our everyday lives, for people and businesses, but the vast majority of Australians still don’t protect valuable files by backing them up,” said Edwin Tien, country manager, Australia.
“Our new Maxtor OneTouch III family is designed from the inside out to be the easiest, most trustworthy way to back up and store photos, videos, games, music, business data and personal information”, Tien said.
The recommended retail price (RRP) for the Maxtor OneTouch III drives currently shipping ranges from $229 for the 100GB USB 2.0 only version to $549 for the 500GB dual interface solution. RRP for the 1TB Maxtor OneTouch III, Turbo Edition is $1199.
Maxtor Expands External Range
Maxtor announced its first portable external drive today, the Maxtor OneTouch III, Mini Edition, which features password protection and one-touch backup.
The new drive comes in two different capacities, 60GB ($199) and 100GB ($299), and its DriveLock technology designed to password protect the data – even if the internal drive is removed and plugged into a PC.
Like other drives in the OneTouch range, the drive features a ‘backup’ button which loads EMC’s Retrospect software for straightforward archiving.
“According to IDC research, 60 percent of people are concerned about losing data, but only 15 percent backup weekly. So, we are doing a lot of education in the channel, and a lot of advertising. We’re telling people that if they’re not backed up, they’re in strife. We’re reinforcing the importance of backing up”, said Craig Davis, Maxtor Asia Pacific’s director of branded products group sales.
Davis said there were many factors driving the need for external storage solutions: “In business, and in the home, we record things. But people don’t hit the delete button – we are digital hoarders”.
After mobile storage, Network Attached Storage is the next growth area, according to Davis, due to the uptake of broadband and wireless technology: “In Dick Smiths and Harvey Normans the biggest selling devices are wireless routers, and people will want to share their content by plugging in a NAS and so two or more PCs have access.”
The unit weighs only 200g, is the size of a small paperback book and will fit in a purse or bag easily, and is shipping now.
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