Feature: Book a better holiday online

If you're already thinking of next year's holidays, check out this feature I wrote for the Computeractive print edition. It's a basic guide to all aspects of online travel.

Free Windows 7 Theme Pack: Wonder Winterland

I'm feeling generous (and cold) today, so here's a free seasonal Windows 7 theme pack. It's a collection of eight photos taken at Runnymede in Surrey (where Magna Carta was signed) from last winter, when there was an exceptionally beautiful hoar frost on the 23rd December. Enjoy, and feel free to share the link (it's a 14MB download). All the photos were taken by me on my trusty little Fujifilm Finepix S5700.

To install the Theme Pack, just double-click on the downloaded file (Wonder Winterland.themepack).

Review: Y-Cam Bullet

My review of the Y-Cam Bullet, a weatherproof IP camera, has just been published by IT Reviews. It works very well, and supports Power over Ethernet (PoE), but it is quite expensive.

Find it on Amazon:

3M launches new range of pocket projectors

3M recently announced the MP180 and MP160 pocket projectors, which boast a brightness of 30 lumens. I've covered the story over on ZDNet's First Take blog.

MP160 is a basic passthrough model

The Mp180 has a touch screen, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Review: Roxio Creator 2011 Standard

Roxio's latest update to its multimedia suite adds 3D support and media streaming, and very good it is too. Read my full review on IT Reviews.

Fixing Windows 7 jump lists

The other day I was puzzled when some of the Windows 7 jump lists stopped working properly. Right clicking on the Google Chrome icon in the taskbar, for instance, brought up the jump list, but left clicking on an item in the list did nothing. This behaviour also happened to some pinned programs in the Start menu.

I tried re-installing Chrome, but that did nothing. A web search suggested changing the settings in the Customize Start Menu dialogue, but this had no effect. Then I found a site that mentioned a shell extensions as a cause - not an extension I had installed, but it got me thinking.

The only thing I had installed recently was a Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 4 that I'm reviewing. This comes with a backup tool from Memeo, which installs a shell extension; it adds a context menu (right-click) entry for easily selecting items for backup.

I tried uninstalling this (luckily it installed as a separate program item) and the problem was immediately fixed. So if you're having similar problems with jump lists, check what third-party tools have been added to the Explorer context menu and try removing them.

Shell extensions can sometimes play havoc with Windows 7's jump lists

Review: Belkin Play Max router

I've reviewed this new top-of-the-range consumer dual-radio Wi-Fi router from Belkin for IT Reviews and The Inquirer, and both reviews are now available online.

Acer launches new Aspire EasyStore H341 home server

Acer has launched an updated version of the current H340 Windows Home Server box. The new model uses a D410 Atom single-core CPU with Hyperthreading, but otherwise it's pretty much identical. I've written a brief summary over on ZDNet's First Take blog.

Update : Although I requested a review unit of this product, I have now been informed by the PR company that this product will not be launched in the UK. 

Review: Solwise 1000Mbps Mediaxtream / Homeplug AV adapters

My review of these new high-speed powerline adapters from East Yorkshire-based Solwise has just been published on The Inquirer. They are powered by a Gigle Networks GGL541 chip, the same one used in Belkin's Powerline HD product. I've also done a news summary comparing these with Netgear's new 500Mbps Powerline AV 500 models for ZDnet UK.

UPDATE 18/9/2010: Solwise has informed me that a problem was discovered with the power supplies in the original batch of these adapters, causing them to reboot spontaneously under noisy mains conditions. Solwise has rectified the fault and free replacements have been shipped to all existing customers. I'll be looking at a pair of the new ones over the next couple of weeks to see if there's any change in performance.

UPDATE 16/2/11: I finally got round to testing the updated version of this adapter, and the results were very interesting, leading me to believe that perhaps there was more to the problem in the firmware than just random rebooting.

Recreating as far as possible the conditions in the original test, I installed a pair of the adapters on a single 4-way extension lead with no other devices plugged in. Using Passmark's Advanced Network test, the average transfer rate between the two shot up to a staggering 130Mbps/sec (in my original tests, they managed just 94Mbps). As you can see from the graph below, this average was reduced by the early negotiation phase, and after this they were sustaining around 136Mbps. Even when putting the adapters on two widely separated extension leads containing lots of other devices, the rate only dropped to around 95-100Mbps. 

A very positive result for Solwise, and it makes these adapters the fastest I've seen. And at just £86 for a pair, they're pretty good value too. At the moment, I'm testing the Netgear XAV5001 500Mbps devices, and I'll post a link to my reviews when they're done. But I can say that they do work with the Solwise adapters.