AVG Anti Virus

I love AVG. I really do. Even though they absentmindedly borked the web when they released version 8, I still liked them (once I was able to fix the problem anyway). What I don't like is the "Invalid update control CTF file" problem I've been having lately. Luckily, there is an easy fix. Just delete the two .ctf files in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Avg8\update\download and all will be well.

This guy even wrote a VBscript for all you lazy suckers out there.

Oh, and that free 10 year subscription that's being doing the rounds on bargain sites? It is warez, made using the EMBRACED keymaker. Avoid. If not because it is the right thing to do, then because it will eventually fail when AVG block new updates to it.

Would a 28" monitor fit on your desk?

Please note: the motorbike is not included.

This is in fact a rare and strange beast, a 28" monitor with full 1080p HD capabilities. No TV tuner, just HDMI and VGA to get the signal in.

So without further ado:

28" Hanns-G HG281DP Widescreen Monitor

• 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA) Optimum Resolution
• 16.7 Million Colours
• 800:1 Contrast Ratio
• 3ms Response Time
• 500 cd/m2 Brightness
• Viewing Angle (H/V): 170°/ 170°
• One HDMI Input (Comes with a HDMI to DVI lead)
• One Analogue Input
• 2 Integrated 2.5W Speakers
• 3 Year Manufacturer Warranty

28" is an unusual size for a monitor. 23" and 26" are popular for televisions but 22" and 24" are normally where the action is on the PC scene. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just... odd. And it seems to be astonishingly good value.

Aria PC: £267.84 + £40.75 (!!!)

Overclockers UK: £258.49 (time-limited offer) + £22.00

PC World Business: €424 (ex VAT)

So for the price of a 24" you could have a 28", not too shabby. Reviews seem generally positive too. Will this be the first of a long line of 28's, or just another mad venture by HannsG/Hannspree? Only time will tell...

Free upgrades for broadband users

If you have UPC broadband at home you may have noticed the blisteringly fast new speeds you can reach. 20Mb on the top package puts it on a par with Dungarvans famous offering. If you haven't been moved to a faster package automatically you will need to fill in this form. You can upgrade from from 1Mb to 3Mb, 3Mb to 10Mb or 6Mb to 20Mb for free, but will need to sign up to a new 12-month contract.

It's not all doom and gloom for the 99% of DSL users on Eircoms resold Bitstream product (which powers almost every other ISP) as there are free upgrades coming to you "in the next four weeks". They won't be quite as dramatic though, with the top residential package moving to a mere 7.6Mbps. How awful.

No word of reactions from Smart, Digiweb or Irish Broadband at this time.

Don't expect any movement from the 3G crowd, they're fighting their own battles.

PS. What the hell happened to Wimax? Too expensive? Not enough available spectrum? Name not catchy enough?

Cheap and cheerful projector

Taking a break from the high end 1080p beamers this time, what we have here is the InFocus IN1 gaming projector. Ideally suited for PS2 gaming in the kids room (ahem) this is a basic projector that will display medium quality graphics from medium quality sources. In other words, don't expect to have this at the centre of your home cinema. But for a wall full of gaming goodness, you won't get better value than this!

General
Device Type	DLP Projector
Built-in Devices	Stereo speakers
Width	33.9 cm
Depth	26.4 cm
Height	21.6 cm
Weight	4.5 kg
Projector / Panel
Image Brightness	500 ANSI lumens
Image Contrast Ratio	1500:1
Image Size	1.01 m - 5.33 m
Projection Distance	1.5 m - 8 m
Throw Ratio	1.8:1
Resolution	640 x 480
Native Aspect Ratio	4:3
Max Sync Rate (V x H)	130 Hz x 69 kHz
Bulb type	UHP 132 Watt
Bulb life cycle	1000 hour(s)
Controls / Adjustments	Volume, brightness, input select, focus
Video Input
Analogue Video Format	NTSC, SECAM, PAL
Analogue video Signal	S-Video, composite video, component video
Digital Television Video Formats	480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, 480i, 576i, 576p
Audio Output
Type	Speaker(s) - integrated
Sound Output Mode	Stereo
Output Power / Channel	7 Watt
Speaker(s)	2 x right / left channel
Expansion / Connectivity
Interfaces	1 x component video input - RCA x 3 1 x S-video input - 7 PIN mini-DIN 1 x composite video input - RCA 1 x headphones - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm
Miscellaneous
Compliant Standards	FCC Class B certified, CE, UL, TUV GS, C-Tick, GOST, cUL, NOM, EN55022 Class B, ICES-003 Class B, CCC, MIC, EK, IRAM, RoHS, IEC 60950-1, EN 60950-1, WEEE
Power
Power Device	Power supply - internal
Voltage Required	AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz )
Power Consumption Operational	260 Watt
Manufacturer Warranty
Service & Support	90 days warranty
Service & Support Details	Limited warranty - parts and labour - 90 days Limited warranty - lamp - 90 days
Environmental Parameters
Min Operating Temperature	10 °C
Max Operating Temperature	40 °C

Blurb shamelessly lifted from elara.ie

Komplett Weekly Offers 07/07/2008

More monday offers from Komplett.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA216MB 7200RPM

€ 53.00

-16%

My €0.02
320GB isn't much these days. I guess the price is about right but why bother? They could have priced these lower to clear.

Creative Zen 8GB, SD/SDHC slot, MP3/AAC,2,5" LCD screen, DivX/XviD/WMV

€ 102.00

-9%

My €0.02
Again, €100 + shipping seems normal.
http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?quicklinx=4PBN
http://www.gspot.ie/store/product_info.php?products_id=340&gclid=CNOl3bGKsJQCFQyD1Qodr3fbtA
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Zen-8GB-Player-Playback/dp/B000LXXGZW (won't ship to Ireland)
http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/3471519/Creative-Zen-8GB-MP3-Video-Player/Product.html (won't ship to Ireland)

Western Digital My Book StudioEdition 500GB, USB 2.0, eSata, Firewire

€ 113.99

-12%

My €0.02
I think I've been pretty clear on my opinion of 500GB external drives.

Canon PowerShot A590 IS, 8.0MP 4x opt.zoom

€ 144.00

-6%

My €0.02
I'm seeing a lot of 8/10's in reviews online. 4x optical zoom is nice. Expansys want €190. I want to know who buys from them at that price. A.J. Purdy are doing a deal on Canon's, the A590 is £104 with a 2GB memory card and football thrown in. You'll have to ring them to find out the shipping charges though, so I think Komplett win this time.

New look

Hope you prefer the new style, the old one was getting on my nerves a bit. There's a new subscription link at the side so you can get the latest news directly into your RSS application or online reader if you're not doing so already. Now, onto business!

If you can manage a trip up North, and there are many reasons for doing so, you can grab a 40" Samsung TV for ~€700 in Currys. Beats the hell out of their recent Irish pricing.

Argos are doing a DVD recorder for ~€55, which is as cheap as I have seen.

Note: Currys.ie is down at the moment (Sun 16th Jul, 6pm).

02 3G broadband price drop

And it's a significant one: it is now arguably the best value package at €19.99 per month. The basic E220 modem is now €29, and the E270 (with 2Mbps max upload) is €49. 3 have matched the fair usage policy, but now O2 are ahead in my opinion because they offer GPRS and EDGE in areas without 3G signal. It is more useful because more Irish people can't get broadband at home than need it in a select number of locations abroad.

As always, try before you buy.

Reusing old SATA drives

So I was thinking about yesterdays media case and how you can upgrade the internal drive with a larger model. I was wondering what you do with the old hard drive when you upgrade when it occurred to me that I saw a very cool solution about a year ago. Working out at about €50 shipped, the Geekstuff4U HDD Stage Rack allows you to turn your old bare drives into high speed removable media.


As a bonus, it has a slot for 2.5" notebook drives too. Great for all you PS3 owners out there!

Good news! Well, less terrible news anyway

El Reg are reporting that the previously mentioned second coming of Christ (in phone form) will be retailing, Pay As You Go, for the still outrageous but not completely unattainable $599 (8GB) and $699 (16GB). So, a glimmer of hope there. Though I sometimes find myself more in agreement with this guy on the features front.

Komplett Weekly Offers 30/06/2008

Ah, my favourite day of the week. Well, not really. But I do like looking through Komplett's deals!

Sony HDR-SR10E, 40 GB HDD recorder

€ 706.00
-4%

My €0.02
Don't know much about this except that it costs £500 on amazon and €584 on purelygadgets.co.uk which are both, by my calculations, less than €700.

Garmin Nuvi 255T Europe GPS

€ 199.00
-10%

My €0.02
€178 from pixmania so much of a muchness. Not an impulse buy by any means.

Nintendo DS Lite, Turquoise Edition

€ 154.00
-9%

My €0.02
Didn't I see a new range of colours released for about €135 recently? I think I did.

Philips Aurea 42" LCD-TV 42PFL9900D-- Now with free Acer notebook!! --

€ 3,511.01
-11%

My €0.02
...what?? Oh, it's an Ambilight model. Now that ludicrous price makes sense.

HD-DVD, picking the corpse clean

HD-DVD gets a bad rap. It was unable to beat blu-ray, blu-ray's much maligned copy protection, the PS3, the Xbox didn't want it, Microsoft were closely associated with it... the list goes on. And now it's on the way out, a fate it richly deserves. But hold on, as evidenced by the budget price of the Xbox HD-DVD add-on, there are a few bargains to be had. It is still a HD format with all the fancy bells and whistles that go with it, and now the prices are on a par with regular DVD! So for a modest investment in a player you can pick up HD titles at rock bottom prices from the following:

• Asda Entertainment from GBP £4.93 (free shipping)
• Play.com from GBP £4.99 (free shipping)
• Ezydvd from GBP £4.39
• DVD Crave from GBP £4.39

XE.com Universal Currency Converter

Replacing your internet connection with 3G

Many of the mobile network operators in Ireland provide high-speed internet over 3G. It's popularity stems from the fact that not everyone can get broadband through phoneline, cable or fixed wireless. With the offerings from Vodafone, O2 and 3 you can get reasonably fast internet at a flat rate price in a form that is as mobile your, well, mobile. As well as being more widely available, it has the added benefit of not requiring line rental. In fact, 3's offering is less than eircom's line rental alone. They all use the same HSDPA technology and the only differentiating factor is the network. Here's a quick guide:

3
Price: €19.99 pm
Setup: €49.99
Cap: 10GB
Contract: 12 month

O2
Price: €30 pm (€15 for first 3 months)
Setup: €39
Cap: 10GB
Contract: 12 month

Vodafone
Price: €29.99 pm (€14.99 for first 3 months)
Setup: €39
Cap: 10GB
Contract: 12 month

All contracts are for monthly bill pay. There are Pay As You Go variants available, but they are more expensive.

These bundles will get you the most basic USB modem available from each network. This is fine if you are only using a single PC. But what if you want to share the connection? Like with a game console, other PC's or internet radio? The hackers among us could build their own wireless linux router from an old PC and free software. But for sheer convenience, a 3G wireless router cannot be beaten.

O2 sell a router as part of a business product. For what it is, the price is insane.

Linksys make a router that works with the apparently defunct Vodafone PCMICIA card. Pricey and limited.

There are more on the market, but my favourite is the Dovado UMR.

At €85 excluding VAT plus €25 in flat rate shipping, this is a great little router that works with lots of different USB modems for less than €135. It comes with the correct settings for each network, so setup is a breeze.

So even if you are stuck in a broadband black hole, don't despair. A cost effective solution is within reach, and while it may not be as smooth an experience as it's pricier cousin DSL, it is certainly nothing to be sniffed at.

37. What a number!

Err... it just is right? Three and seven, that's as lucky as they get.

Actually I'm referring to the minimum recommended size in ye olde inches for a Full-HD TV. Yes, you just won't see the difference in a smaller telly, mostly because they are rare but also because you would need to sit about a foot away to notice the extra detail. Anyway! Let's have a look at what we can get:

Komplett.ie
Estimated shipping: €120
Samsung LE37M86BD €811.00
Samsung LE37A552 €911.01
Toshiba REGZA 37" LCD-TV 37XV505D €911.01
Philips 37PFL5603D/10 €991.00

Powercity.ie
Estimated shipping: ???
LG 37LF65 €735.95

Pixmania.ie
Estimated shipping: €43
LG 37LF65 €807.00
Toshiba37XV503DG €864.00
Samsung LE37A556 €879.00
Toshiba REGZA 2XV505DG €948.00
Samsung LE37A558 €954.00

Nothing special on luzerntech.com or technikdirekt.de at the moment. Just remember, prices are always coming down.

Quick on the draw

Being a smart consumer requires more than the ability to hold on to your wallet quite tightly. Obviously you want stuff, and have no qualms paying for good stuff, but don't want to ripped off by some obnoxious salesman who is fawning and sweating right in your face.

So let's take a look at iBood again. iBood do some great deals (and some no-so-great ones) but quite often the good deals are gone by the time you check the page, no matter how early you wake up. If you check the website you will see the time new items are posted at is midnight. What they don't tell you is that it is midnight in the Netherlands, i.e. eleven o'clock here. So as it is almost eleven now, let's see what they have:

Princess Crystal Line Hair Care Set with Swarovski-crystals

More Information »

Discuss this product »

€ 59,95

€ 19,95

Hmm. I'll pass on that. It's now 10:56pm so let's wait a few minutes.

...

So, who do you fancy? My money's on Spain.

Ok, it's 11:00pm. Let's see what's in:

New in Europe - iriver 8GB MP4 Player U15-L

More Information »

Discuss this product »

€ 169,95

€ 99,95

Ah! Much better. Not an iTouch for €150, but not bad either.

eBay 103: Making your first bid

Part three already? How time flies... Let's see what you've learned.

You have:

• An ebay account
• A paypal account
• Money (hopefully)
  

You know how to:

• Find items you want
• Avoid scammers

You're all set to start bidding! The first step is to find the item you want to buy. Take your time. Read the description. Check out the seller. Is their score near or at 100%? How do they treat other customers? Look at their shipping rates. Check out what policies they have regarding insurance, returns and payments. Got any questions? Send them a friendly, polite message. Make sure you agree to all their terms.

And then you can click on one of the following, as available:

• Place Bid
• Buy it Now
• Make Offer

Which should be fairly self-explanatory. Just don't forget to factor in the shipping if you are making a bid!

Early adopters burned again: Jesus Phone MK2

Ow... sore head. But what a great weekend! Hope you guys had as much fun as I did!

Had to have an iPhone on launch day? Or thought you were getting a bargain when the price tumbled before Christmas? Well, somewhat surprisingly, Apple are going to sell the new iPhone 3G for pretty much what it costs to make. $199 for the 8GB model or the slightly more extravagant $299 for the 16GB model ($100 for 8GB of memory? Please. We know better). Considering that it has wifi, gps and hsdpa built in, that makes this a steal. And because this is a blog for smart consumers, I'm sure you won't have any trouble figuring out how to unlock it when the time comes.

Chances are you will need to import. Even though they say it will be available worldwide at the same price, they neglect to say whether it can be bought outside the US sans contract. Still this is your chance to visit that stupid Apple cube in New York. Yay.

And that is probably the last time you will see an Apple product mentioned in this blog. But who knows? Maybe they've turned over a new leaf, as it were.

Release date is July 11.
Make a note.

eBay 102: The good, the bad and the damn fugly

Following on from eBay 101, we're going to look at some of the things you might see on your travels to find that widget/gizmo/electric thingymajig of your dreams. Beautiful things. Things that can trip you up. Things that make you go "hmmm". Use the following lists to know what to look for and what to look out for.

The good

• Low price
• Well written product description
• Clearly stated shipping to Ireland policy
• Clearly stated returns policy
• Clearly stated insurance cost
• High feedback score
• High percentage of positive feedback (99%+)
• Selling in Euro
• Offer Credit Card sales (safer than PayPal but about to be blocked by eBay)
  
• Offer PayPal
  

The bad

• Description copy/pasted from manufacturers website
• Omits important details
• Poor English
• Does not respond to "Ask seller a question"
• Uses name like "honest123" or "safetrader89" (not real names... I think)
• Located in Hong Kong

The OMG STAY AWAY!!!

• Suspiciously low price for new item
• Low price but high shipping
• Says will ship to anywhere but no quote given
• Located in any African nation, Russia or China (unless reputable, but not many)
• Wants to use escrow service
• Wants to use bank transfer/Western Union/unfamiliar service
  

So when you find the right product, at the right price, from the right seller, you're set! If you are not sure, DO NOT BID. Always ask first, and even if you think a bargain is going to get away, let it. Better safe than sorry and there'll always be another one.

[Special Offer] A blast from the past (well, 2005)

I see expansys are doing some deals on portable PCs and "appliances". Some ok deals here, less popular PDAs and windows smartphones are marked down a bit, those awful OQOs and their diseased brethren are being wheeled out and... what's this? The Nokia 770? Wow, that takes me back. I didn't think these guys were still available! For those of you who don't know, the 770 was Nokia's first experiment into non-phones. Marketed as an "Internet Tablet", it was a linux powered, wifi connecting, touchscreen-ed, hackable and unfortunately slightly slow rectangular bundle of fun. It has since been succeeded by 3 better featured models, but for less than €80 this is one ace little toy! Great for weekend hackers and convergence freaks alike.

Watch satellite and terrestrial TV on your computer

Normally when you see a title like that, it is some sort of scam. Wait, come back! This is not a scam! What I'm talking about is hardware that adds a TV tuner to your home PC. Personally, I use an old co-ax tuner to watch and record both the standard terrestrial broadcasts (RTE1,RTE2,TV3,TG4) and satellite as fed from a skybox through a composite input (the yellow video wire). You could do away with the skybox completely by getting a 2 in 1 satellite/analogue tuner. At €79 it works out at the same price as a bottom-of-the-range Free To Air satellite box, but with the added benefits of picking up the Irish channels, being able to record and getting (and recording) HD broadcasts for free. In the future there is also the possibility of someone adding support for the Freesat EPG so you can't really lose especially if you have a PC pretty enough to sit under your TV.

Games Consoles

So you've got a HD TV or projector, now what can you do to make the most of it? Modern consoles are more than just games playing machines. They can play music, videos, HD videos, photo slideshows, browse the internet, organise your life etcetera, etcetera. Games are of course a great way of showing it off, but you might also use it for watching near-cinema quality films with the added bonus of no chewing-gum riddled, spring loaded, popcorn-salt covered, tatty velour seats. Here is what is on offer:

Wii
Nintendo
Typical price: €270, comes with bundled Wii Sports game

The market leader. Does not play High Definition discs, or any other kind of disc. Does not output resolutions higher than 480p. No internal hard drive. Has wifi. Does play video from SD card. Backwards compatible with Gamecube games and controllers. Downloadable games and retro games. Popular with all ages despite non-HD graphics.

Xbox360
Microsoft
Typical price: €200 for Arcade model, €350 for Elite model

The number 2 console. Play High Definition discs, however only in the soon to be defunct HD-DVD format. Plays and upscales DVDs. Output resolutions up to 1080p. No wifi or internal hard drive on Arcade model. Has ethernet networking. Backwards compatible with some Xbox games. Downloadable games and videos from Xbox Live!. HD-DVD discs are being sold very cheaply.

Playstation 3
Sony
Typical price: €400 for 40GB model

Last place. Plays High Definition Blu-ray discs. Plays and upscales DVDs. Outputs resolutions up to 1080p. Has wifi and internal hard drive. Has ethernet networking. Backwards compatible with some PS1 games. Built in web browser. Downloadable games from Sony Store.