Y-Cam Bullet

I've written a product news piece about Y-Cam's new weatherproof IP camera, the Bullet, for ZDnet UK's First Take blog, and I'm currently in the process of reviewing it for IT Reviews.

Windows Home Server 'Vail' preview updated

Yesterday Microsoft refreshed the existing Public Preview release of the next version of Windows Home Server (code name Vail). There seem to be quite a lot of changes, including some major changes to the storage subsystem - there's a brief overview on the MS Windows Home Server Team blog. I haven't had chanced to install it yet, but as soon as I do I'll try and post some updates and screens if there are any big changes.

The release is available on the Microsoft Connect website.

Review: Resolver One

Computeractive has just published my review of the Resolver One programmable spreadsheet application. If you're fed up with fighting Excel's functions, take a look.

Review: Dell S300wi interactive 3D projector

My review of this ultra-short throw DLP projector is now available on V3.co.uk. It's an interesting product, aimed mainly at educational users as a replacement for electronic whiteboards.

Colour touchscreen ebook readers to appear by end of 2010?

Digitimes is reporting that E-Ink is now sampling colour and capacitative touch-screen electronic paper displays (EPD) to its partners. It suggests that models may start rolling out by the end of 2010 or early 2011. Manufacturer Hanvon, which makes the WISEreader, is mentioned  as planning to roll out a colour model in Q4.

In my opinion, colour is crucial to the success of the e-book market, much more so than touch or video capabilities, as it makes buying illustrated non-fiction and reference books in digital form more attractive. Current readers only have greyscale capabilities. It remains to be seen what, if any, effects the addition of colour will have on battery life.

Review: Iriver Wi-Fi Story ebook reader

My reviews of the new Iriver Wi-Fi Story ebook reader have been published by V3.co.uk, Computeractive, IT Reviews and The Inquirer. This offers a Kindle-like service that links direct to a dedicated WH Smith ebook store. Note that Iriver has now dropped the price to £200, which is still twice that of the Wifi-only Kindle.

The Wi-Fi Story has an improved 16-greyscale E-ink screen

Get £20 off Linksys wireless routers at PC World

Linksys is offering £20 cashback for your old router if you buy a new Linksys model at PC World. The promotion runs until 27 August and applies to the following 802.11n models:

• WRT610N £109.98
• WRT320N £67.99 
• WRT160N £69.99
• WRT120N £33.98 
• WAG320N £89.99 
• WAG160N £69.99
• WAG120N £48.43

So it might be time to dig out that ancient 11b router from the garage and make some money out of it - certainly better value than offloading it at a car boot sale! It needs to be in working order and have all cable and accessories, however. Cisco will reimburse postage up to £5 for the old router - full T&Cs are available here.

Major WHS update planned for September

I received an email this morning from the MS Security Essentials (MSSE) Beta team, which had an interesting postscript aimed at Windows Home Server users. It stated that testers wanting to try out MSSE on WHS should wait until after the next WHS rollup update, planned for 'on or about 1st September'. Checking out Philip Churchill's blog, I found that he has more details gleaned from We Got Served.

The update details are posted on the MS Support site (although it states 24th August there). One of the most interesting parts of the update is the addition of automatic partition creation to the client restore app. This has long been a pain in the neck, requiring you to manually create partitions before restoring to a new hard disk. I noticed when reviewing the Vail beta earlier this year that the restore app automatically creates partitions, so this is a welcome improvement.