System Tools | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Fri, 13 Oct 2023 08:20:11 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png System Tools | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Stellar Data Recovery Technician (2023) Review https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-reviews/simon-crisp/stellar-data-recovery-technician-2023-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-reviews/simon-crisp/stellar-data-recovery-technician-2023-review/#respond Fri, 13 Oct 2023 08:16:14 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=632932 Today we check out the latest iteration of Stellar's comprehensive Data Recovery Technician software

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Stellar has a wide range of products that offer easy-to-use data recovery for consumer and business users alike. Stellar Data Recovery is a well-featured, powerful software suite with multiple versions to choose from. Today we're analysing the Data Recovery Technician software which adds RAID support to the mix.

Some time ago we had a chance to look at Stellar's Data Recovery Professional software, a powerful set of tools for recovering your lost data. Now we have the latest version (v11.0.0.4) of the next step up the ladder, Stellar Data Recovery Technician, which brings support for RAID array data recovery to the already very well-featured software package.

Data Recovery Technician is a comprehensive package that supports data recovery from SSDs, hard drives and USB drives formatted with NTFS, exFAT and FAT (FAT16/FAT32). It also supports data recovery from a crashed and/or unbootable system as well as recovering files from scratched or partially burned optical media such as CD or DVDs. The Technician version also adds a host of RAID-supporting options to the mix; RAID data recovery from RAID 0, 5, 6, SHR, and Nested RAID 10, 50 and 60 arrays, recovery of RAID Volumes and RAID Reconstruction.

Along with the Technician version, there are five other Windows Stellar Data Recovery options: Free, Standard, Premium, Professional and Toolkit. Each step up the food chain brings extra features and recovery tools. It also comes in four Mac versions; Free, Standard, Professional and Premium.

It supports file recovery from approaching 300 different file types including office documents, PDFs, emails, images, databases, audio, video and archives.

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

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F-Secure launches the USB armory MKII https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/james-dawson/f-secure-launches-the-usb-armory-mkii/ https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/james-dawson/f-secure-launches-the-usb-armory-mkii/#respond Sun, 09 Feb 2020 09:32:13 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=450715 The Team at F-Secure Foundry has released a new version of its USB armory flash drive-sized computer. The latest USB armory USB device is suitable for a range of applications that require the flexibility of an embedded computer without sacrificing security such as cryptocurrency wallets, secure authentication and licensing tokens. USB armory MKII has been …

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The Team at F-Secure Foundry has released a new version of its USB armory flash drive-sized computer. The latest USB armory USB device is suitable for a range of applications that require the flexibility of an embedded computer without sacrificing security such as cryptocurrency wallets, secure authentication and licensing tokens.

USB armory MKII has been designed to deal with security issues that occur when hardware overlaps with firmware. As a result of hours of R&D, F-Secure USB armory MKII provides management of software, hardware and firmware, as well as offering a variety of security features, with a high level of computing power inside a tiny form factor.

“We routinely provide our customers with security reviews and security engineering services, which makes us both breakers and makers of technology. This gives us the ability to provide state-of-the-art security in our consulting practice. The USB armory’s hardware and software implementation clearly demonstrates this,” says F-Secure Head of Hardware Security Andrea Barisani.

F-Secure has equipped the USB armory MKII with security features that include internal and external cryptographic coprocessors, true random number generators, secure boot capabilities and more. All these features combined make the device stronger at withstanding attacks such as physical tampering that could compromise boot protocols. Extra attention has been allocated to these features to make the USB armory MKII ideal for processing information critical to the integrity of a system.

Additionally, the USB armory includes an open-source eco-system to ensure that the platform is able to evolve and grow to support the ever-expanding range of uses. The F-Secure armory MKII is available to purchase now priced at around €140.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you guys think of this new open-source flash drive size computer with innovative personal security features? Can you think of a particular application where it could work for you?

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Microsoft hasn’t fixed Windows 10’s sticky corners in six months https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/operating-systems/jon-martindale/microsoft-hasnt-fixed-windows-10s-sticky-corners-in-six-months/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/operating-systems/jon-martindale/microsoft-hasnt-fixed-windows-10s-sticky-corners-in-six-months/#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2015 09:42:26 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=272318 Although Windows 10 was only released at the end of July and is now in the hands of more than 110 million users around the world, it was nestled into a few million Windows Insider PCs well before that. The purpose of that OS early access was to make it possible to find bugs and …

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Although Windows 10 was only released at the end of July and is now in the hands of more than 110 million users around the world, it was nestled into a few million Windows Insider PCs well before that. The purpose of that OS early access was to make it possible to find bugs and flaws in the system and iron them out before launch, but as you might expect, Microsoft didn't manage to get to all of them. One in particular has a few KitGuru readers irritated: sticky corners.

The issue was first raised by a user on the Microsoft support community at the end of March this year. It said that there was a problem when moving the mouse from the left monitor to the right, when using more than one display. For some reason, the corner of the screen appeared to be catching the mouse somehow, leading to misclicks closing windows and tabs without a need.

While a similar issue was said to be present for some in Windows 10, the user in question was able to fix that with a change to MouseCornerClipLength in the registry, but there is no such entry in Windows 10 or users are unable to access it, so a home fix is out of the question for now.

taskmenu
Taskbar options don't appear to help either

Microsoft did initially acknowledge the problem, stating on the very same day the bug was posted that it was “aware of the issue and it is currently being investigated. Stay tuned and we will update this thread when additional information becomes available.”

Since then though, there has been no update from Microsoft on what's being done, leaving affected users frustrated.

There are however several pages of people complaining about the issue, suggesting there are even more affected users around the world who simply haven't decided to complain about it.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: What do the rest of you think of Windows 10's sticky corners? Is it annoying when moving between monitors?

Thanks to Artem for the tip.

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Facebook’s Siri competitor has real humans behind it https://www.kitguru.net/professional/system-tools/jon-martindale/facebooks-siri-competitor-has-real-humans-behind-it/ https://www.kitguru.net/professional/system-tools/jon-martindale/facebooks-siri-competitor-has-real-humans-behind-it/#comments Thu, 27 Aug 2015 08:05:35 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=265063 Facebook has thrown its hat in the ring of digital, personal assistants with the announcement of its own competitor to the likes of Cortana and Siri, called M. The single lettered software will have something that separates it from the pack of contenders however, in that M will not only have algorithms and AI it …

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Facebook has thrown its hat in the ring of digital, personal assistants with the announcement of its own competitor to the likes of Cortana and Siri, called M. The single lettered software will have something that separates it from the pack of contenders however, in that M will not only have algorithms and AI it can use to answer questions, but when it's stumped, that question may get funnelled through to one of the many people behind the scenes.

M

This team of many individuals that Facebook has hired on are known as “M Trainers,” who can answer questions on the service's behalf if needed. However the idea is that M will learn over time and therefore require their input less and less as it takes on the correct answers and learns to interpret that same question with different wording or in different languages.

Facebook is going further with its assistant system though. While Siri and Cortana are quite passive in that they can answer queries, but are unable to perform any real tasks. Facebook's M on the other hand can buy things from stores, have things delivered to your loved ones, make travel arrangements, book appointments and more.

m2 m3

Not all of that may work perfectly out of the gate, but it should be possible in the future to tell M to buy some flowers and send them to your wife on your anniversary, and it will do so for you without much other input.

Some commenters have already pointed out one potential issue with the service, and that's that M may base its recommendations on companies that have paid Facebook for the privilege, making its ‘thoughts' on subjects biased in certain directions. Could that mean its service won't be as useful as others?

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: I'm quite pumped about the wave of personal assistants starting to hit. We might be a long way off from the philosophical questions posed by “Her,” but if I can ask my computer to do things for me, it would save me so much fannying around. 

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Venture firm invests in UK VR game framework maker https://www.kitguru.net/professional/system-tools/jon-martindale/venture-firm-invests-in-uk-vr-game-framework-maker/ https://www.kitguru.net/professional/system-tools/jon-martindale/venture-firm-invests-in-uk-vr-game-framework-maker/#respond Wed, 25 Mar 2015 12:01:13 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=241762 Andreesen Horowitz, the same venture capital firm that invested in Facebook and Twitter and even jumped on board the Oculus VR train just before its buyout by Facebook, has provided £13 million worth of backing to London based developer, Improbable, which is currently working on a framework for huge VR games. The idea behind it …

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Andreesen Horowitz, the same venture capital firm that invested in Facebook and Twitter and even jumped on board the Oculus VR train just before its buyout by Facebook, has provided £13 million worth of backing to London based developer, Improbable, which is currently working on a framework for huge VR games. The idea behind it is to utilise the power of multiple servers and cloud processing to give players the chance to play MMO scale games, with the same versatility of single player experiences.

Improbable was founded in 2012 by Herman Narula, the son of multi-billionaire construction magnate, Harpinder Singh Narula, along with several friends from Cambridge University. Together they're developing a framework which should allow for the use of distributed computing systems to deliver more in-depth interaction between players on large scale games. A given example is an explosion in one player's game, influencing the structural integrity of another player's world, sending a part of the landscape crashing to the ground.

improbable
For people already working on something cool, staff there look like they are having way too much fun

“Making simulated worlds of this kind involves many technical challenges,” reads the Improbable blog. “One of the hardest ones is distributing a simulation of this scale across thousands of servers in real time.

“You can imagine our approach as a swarm of decentralised, heterogenous workers collaborating together to form a simulation much larger than any single worker can understand. As simulated worlds rapidly evolve, the most efficient distribution of these workers varies, so they need to migrate between physical machines in real time. Additionally, the system must handle potentially huge numbers of users interacting with and updating the simulation simultaneously.”

That sort of cause and effect system is rarely in place in games featuring more than a handful of players, but with the system Improbable is building, Narula believes it will be possible. More than anything though, it could bring down the cost of developing huge scale games, meaning that companies other than industry giants might stand a chance of making headway into the still popular MMO genre.

Although the new funding from Andreesen Horowitz is sizeable and values the relatively young startup at around £67 million (via the Guardian), funding hasn't been much of an issue for the company as of yet. Thanks to Hurula's familial connections, he's been able to self-fund the company so far, hiring on over 50 employees from the likes of Facebook, Google, Lionhead, Ubisoft and Crytek.

KitGuru Says: It's understandable why Andreesen Horowitz is investing in Improbable. If it isn't just working on vaporware, it sounds like it's basically making The Seed from Sword Art Online. 

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Amazon gaff sees small sellers lose thousands https://www.kitguru.net/professional/system-tools/jon-martindale/amazon-gaff-sees-small-sellers-lose-thousands/ https://www.kitguru.net/professional/system-tools/jon-martindale/amazon-gaff-sees-small-sellers-lose-thousands/#comments Mon, 15 Dec 2014 11:06:14 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=226357 A fault with Amazon listing software last week, saw many items sold through the retail giant by smaller businesses listed at just £0.01 each. While it only lasted for about an hour on Friday, bargain hunters on the site ordered tens of copies of expensive items like video games, mobile mobiles and mattresses. Unfortunately for …

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A fault with Amazon listing software last week, saw many items sold through the retail giant by smaller businesses listed at just £0.01 each. While it only lasted for about an hour on Friday, bargain hunters on the site ordered tens of copies of expensive items like video games, mobile mobiles and mattresses. Unfortunately for the affected companies, Amazon's warehouse system has become so self-sufficient, that many orders were shipped out before the error could be spotted, losing the affected businesses tens of thousands of pounds.

While Amazon did say in an email to those affected, that it had managed to cancel the majority of orders, many businesses either didn't notice the problem until all of their stock had been shipped out, or couldn't get in touch with Amazon because its telephone support team had gone home for the day.

reprcier
“Psst, hey. You're going bankrupt in the new year. Sorry about that.”

Now though, they're turning on the company behind the listing software, RepricerExpress, which is designed to make automatic discounts to people's listings in order to keep them competitive during big sale periods around major holidays. Many are now claiming to be talking with solicitors and the Citizen's Advice Bureau about receiving compensation, as a number of businesses now face bankrupcty after selling out tens of thousands of pounds worth of stock for less than £5.

Brendan Doherty, the CEO of RepricerExpress, said in a statement (via The Guardian): “I am truly sorry for the distress this has caused our customers. We understand that you are angry and upset and we will endeavour to work to make good on this issue and to work to restore your confidence in our product and service.”

While the outcome of this particular fallout should be interesting, it may also affect the use of repricing tools on Amazon and other sites in the future. This could have a big knock on effect.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: This is pretty horrible for those businesses affected. Here's hoping they get some sort of resolution before Christmas. 

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Inspur to build servers featuring IBM’s Power processors, software https://www.kitguru.net/professional/server/anton-shilov/inspur-to-build-servers-featuring-ibms-power-processors-software/ https://www.kitguru.net/professional/server/anton-shilov/inspur-to-build-servers-featuring-ibms-power-processors-software/#respond Wed, 27 Aug 2014 03:11:06 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=209079 Inspur, a leading server maker from China, and IBM have agreed to jointly develop servers featuring IBM software and Power microprocessors. In particular, the two companies ported IBM DB2 and IBM WebSphere application server software to operate on Inspur TSK1 mission-critical servers. “Inspur looks forward to teaming with IBM to drive business innovation for local …

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Inspur, a leading server maker from China, and IBM have agreed to jointly develop servers featuring IBM software and Power microprocessors. In particular, the two companies ported IBM DB2 and IBM WebSphere application server software to operate on Inspur TSK1 mission-critical servers.

“Inspur looks forward to teaming with IBM to drive business innovation for local clients using the latest IBM technologies, business expertise and superior client support,” said Sun Pishu, chairman and CEO of Inspur. “Inspur’s growing partnership with IBM and our collaboration in the OpenPower foundation demonstrates our joint commitment to fuel innovation in China.”

Inspur’s TSK1 mission critical server is powered by up to 32 quad-core Intel Itanium 9300-series microprocessors with the Hyper-Threading technology. The server was designed entirely in China and features K-UX fault-tolerant operating system, which enables high performance, reliability, scalability, availability, security and manageability.

inspur_server

IBM’s DB2 with BLU Acceleration is a platform delivering in-memory computing analytics with high performance transaction processing in one database, providing faster answers to today’s business problems. WebSphere Application Server helps customers respond to enterprise and market needs more quickly by enabling rapid development and deployment of web, mobile, social and analytic applications. In general, IBM enabled Inspur to offer technologies that previously were available only from IBM, something the company has not done previously.

IBM’s software development lab in Beijing will optimize the platform for specific partner requirements and to create new analytical applications. Inspur plans to recruit a strategic ecosystem of partners to adopt the DB2 and WebSphere platform. The agreement will help speed time-to-value for Big Data projects, whereas IBM will gain access to the Big Data market in China.

International Data Corp. expects the Big Data technology and services market in China to grow at 38.7 per cent compound annual growth rate from $165.5 million to $850 million by 2017. Quite naturally IBM wants a chunk of that market, which is why it will not only help Inspur with software, but will also likely help with other things as well.

Separately, the two companies reaffirmed Inspur’s plans to build servers based on IBM’s Power 8 microprocessors with the help of the OpenPower foundation. IBM intends to make available its new Power8 processors, support chips, and technical assistance and services to help Inspur design its systems.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The agreement between IBM and Inspur provides IBM much better positions on the market of server software in China and will likely help the company to make business in the country.

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Net Dream Systems creates tech monitoring system https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/matthew-wilson/net-dream-systems-creates-tech-monitoring-system/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/matthew-wilson/net-dream-systems-creates-tech-monitoring-system/#respond Thu, 13 Mar 2014 14:28:53 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=182142 Net Dream Systems, an IT and audio-visual consultant, has created a technology management system that monitors all active technologies on board super yachts in real time and then predicts possible IT problems. Obviously right now, this technology is only relevant to rich super yacht owning individuals but that could change with the rise in automated …

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Net Dream Systems, an IT and audio-visual consultant, has created a technology management system that monitors all active technologies on board super yachts in real time and then predicts possible IT problems. Obviously right now, this technology is only relevant to rich super yacht owning individuals but that could change with the rise in automated in-home devices such as smart thermo-stats, phones and pretty much anything else that can connect to a network. Maybe one day our homes will come pre-installed with monitoring technologies, letting us know how all of our every day devices are performing as explained
in this article
about home security systems.

The monitoring system  has only been installed on five yachts so far and is built to monitor anything connected to the network including: cameras, telephones, network switches, servers, storage devices, touch panels, WiFi access points, entry systems, satellite receivers and more from one single interface.

Superyacht

Nishan de Silva, CEO of Net Dream Systems, said to Yachting Pages: “The management systems provide a graphical representation in real time of your entire infrastructure; green lights indicate that everything is working as it should and yellow lights signify a potential issue. For example we can track the disk space on your servers or the ambient temperature, setting the alerts around agreed parameters. If the server reaches 70% disk usage the graphical representation on the monitoring system will flash yellow, when it reaches 90% it will flash red to indicate a lack of disk space going forward. We audit the IT infrastructure and configure the system to individual needs.  It’s great for engineers and captains, giving crews a cost effective way of sorting out potential problems before the owner returns in two weeks’ time for example.”

Technology is a huge part of the superyacht sector and alongside IT and internet services and entertainment and AV, security is becoming a worldwide concern, investment in alarm systems, cameras, hidden chambers and tracking devices have soared.

KitGuru Says: While right now this technology isn't that relevant to the average consumer, one day systems like this might become the norm as our homes become more connected. 

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Satya Nadella: Microsoft could last for ages, but it needs reinvention https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/operating-systems/anton-shilov/satya-nadella-microsoft-could-last-for-ages-but-it-needs-reinvention/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/operating-systems/anton-shilov/satya-nadella-microsoft-could-last-for-ages-but-it-needs-reinvention/#comments Fri, 21 Feb 2014 23:59:05 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=178533 Satya Nadella, the new chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., claims that the software giant could live on for a hundred of years or even more. To do so, it needs constant transformation to stay relevant. “Longevity in this business is about being able to reinvent yourself or invent the future. In our case, given …

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Satya Nadella, the new chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., claims that the software giant could live on for a hundred of years or even more. To do so, it needs constant transformation to stay relevant.

“Longevity in this business is about being able to reinvent yourself or invent the future. In our case, given 39 years of success, it is more about reinvention,” said Satya Nadella in an interview with the New York Times. “For us to be a 100-year old company where people find deep meaning at work, that’s the quest.”

The high-tech industry knows a lot of respected companies who grew to astonishing sizes in less than ten years. There are numerous companies who have been growing for decades. But there are just a handful of companies, who have a history that spans for a century. Satya Nadella believes that Microsoft could be one of such companies.

microsoft_ceo_satya_nadella_9

Typically, companies last less than a human life because of constant changes in the industries, emergence of new technologies and new approaches to businesses. Nonetheless, there are companies like IBM, Nintendo and Nokia, which, by transforming themselves dramatically over and over again, have managed to live for over a hundred of years. The secret of such longevity is simple: always create products the customers are only going to need, form new markets, enjoy your success and start everything once again.  This means, constant transformation in a big way. The new chief executive of Microsoft seem to understand how this works.

“We have had great successes, but our future is not about our past success,” said Mr. Nadella. “It is going to be about whether we will invent things that are really going to drive our future.”

“The question is: How do you take all of that valuable experience and apply it to the current context and raise standards,” asked Mr. Nadella.

KitGuru Says: In his book “Only Paranoids Survive”, Andy Grove, a co-founder and a former CEO of Intel Corp., wrote that for a long term growth companies need to focus on their core businesses, but always mark small changes that lead to the strategic inflection points. The latter dramatically change the whole business environment and force to change products, technologies and business approaches. Companies that manage to cross those points and survive should live for a long time. Unfortunately, both Intel and Microsoft failed to recognize on time the strategic inflection point at which personal computing took a turn to connected and mobile computing.

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Futuremark preparing PCMark 8 release https://www.kitguru.net/channel/raymond-daily/futuremark-preparing-pcmark-8-release/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/raymond-daily/futuremark-preparing-pcmark-8-release/#respond Mon, 20 May 2013 07:26:02 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=135183 For the first time in the series, PCMark 8 will combine performance testing with battery life measurement. You can estimate battery use from each benchmark test or use Battery Life mode to loop a test until the battery is almost empty for more accurate results. New Adobe and Microsoft application tests PCMark benchmark tests are …

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For the first time in the series, PCMark 8 will combine performance testing with battery life measurement. You can estimate battery use from each benchmark test or use Battery Life mode to loop a test until the battery is almost empty for more accurate results.

New Adobe and Microsoft application tests

PCMark benchmark tests are based on common use scenarios such as browsing the web, photo editing, video chat, writing and gaming. PCMark 8 takes this one step further by including additional benchmark tests based on popular productivity and creativity applications from Adobe and Microsoft.
screenshot98

Developed with industry expertise

PCMark 8 has been developed in partnership with the members of our Benchmark Development Program. PCMark BDP members include Acer, AMD, Condusiv Technologies, Dell, HGST, HP, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Samsung, SanDisk, Seagate and Western Digital.

We believe that this open process of close cooperation with industry experts is the only way to create accurate and impartial benchmarks that measure performance fairly. Having high-level access to the industry's leaders also ensures that our benchmarks are relevant not only for today's hardware, but remain relevant year after year.

The complete benchmark for Windows

Whether you are looking for long battery life, maximum power, for the home or at the office, PCMark 8 will help you find the devices that offer the perfect combination of efficiency and performance for your needs.

PCMark 8 will be available in several editions ranging from a free to download Basic Edition to a fully-featured Professional Edition designed for device manufacturers, businesses and the press. PCMark 8 is compatible with Windows 8 and Windows 7.

PCMark 8 is in the final stages of development with a public release expected towards the end of Q2.

You can read more about the benchmark over here.

Source: Press Release

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Care to test your high end PC against…Catzilla? https://www.kitguru.net/professional/system-tools/jon-martindale/care-to-test-your-high-end-pc-against-catzilla/ https://www.kitguru.net/professional/system-tools/jon-martindale/care-to-test-your-high-end-pc-against-catzilla/#comments Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:28:33 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=122123 Move over 3Dmark, Unigine, Furmark, a new benchmark has rolled into town and it's bigger, badder and fluffier than the lot of them. Catzilla, the PC stress test from AllBenchmark that we talked about in October, it's finally here. How does your system fare against its furry might? If you happen to be away from …

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Move over 3Dmark, Unigine, Furmark, a new benchmark has rolled into town and it's bigger, badder and fluffier than the lot of them. Catzilla, the PC stress test from AllBenchmark that we talked about in October, it's finally here. How does your system fare against its furry might?

If you happen to be away from your gaming system at the moment, say at an office  or something like that – you don't work from home in jogging bottoms all day, every day? – then fortunately there's a nice 720P video available to give you an idea of what your system will be going through when you get home.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrorYxRacTc']

It starts off relatively benign, with some visuals and effects that would expect to see in a lot of contemporary games. However once Catzilla's laser eyes star firing and debris starts flying everywhere, you can begin to appreciate the tough time awaiting your prized gaming rig. There's a lot of fur, fluffing around in the wind and there's certainly a lot of bits shooting all over the screen – something that will give your physics handling chip – be it GPU or CPU, a tough time.

Not everyone will be a fan of the dubstep wub, wubbing away throughout the video, but they'll be pleased to hear that it doesn't feature in the benchmark itself.

So, to give you a rough idea how mean this test can be – settings are grouped into Kitty, Cat, Tiger and Catzilla – here's what my raging gaming PC was able to handle:

CPU: i5 760 @ 4.2GHZ
Motherboard: Asus P7-P55D-E
RAM: 4GB Corsair Dominator
GPU: Sapphire 5850

On the Cat setting (the highest you can go in the free version), I was able to get 6246.

This is currently still in “beta” so there are likely to be changes in the coming weeks. Download it here.

KitGuru Says: So how do your setups fare? Think you have what it takes to be the king of KitGuru's Catzilla slayers? Let us know.

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McAfee on drugs? Customers shafted for Xmas https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/jules/mcafee-on-drugs-customers-shafted-for-xmas/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/jules/mcafee-on-drugs-customers-shafted-for-xmas/#comments Tue, 25 Dec 2012 15:27:50 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=120175 When we see the headline ‘McAfee on drugs', it's natural to assume that it relates to the security company's founder – who seems to have picked up a talent for production in the meth lab now that his creation is well and truly in the clutches of Intel. But we're talking about the company. Following …

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When we see the headline ‘McAfee on drugs', it's natural to assume that it relates to the security company's founder – who seems to have picked up a talent for production in the meth lab now that his creation is well and truly in the clutches of Intel. But we're talking about the company. Following a screen grab from a KitGuru reader at Xmas, we investigated and were duly shocked (by the story – there was no electrical fault).

Buy one of something and you pay a price. It's normally on the shelf or on a label attached to the goods. The product costs £x and you pay £x. Nice and simple. Everyone with us so far?

Good, because it's about to get dark.

Offer to buy (a) more than one of a product or (b) show your loyalty and faith in its creator by repeating your purchase – and you're into the land of ‘special deals and offers'. For the purpose of this expose, we're gonna focus on ‘b'.

One of our readers sent in a screen grab of a special offer that they have just received from McAfee (the security products company – now owned by Intel).

As an existing customer, they would be able to enjoy another whole year of McAfee's ‘full suite of protection software' for just £59.99 – a saving of £5.

But go to McAfee's site ‘fresh' and you will save £27.50 by purchasing the full suite for just £32.49.

The KitGuru team has evaluated McAfee's offer and you can see what we think by clicking on the image below.

As a loyal customer, you get a whopping £5 off the full suite. But new users can tug McAfee's shorts down for just £32.49 - that's a HUGE penalty of 85% for being a loyal customer. Worst offer in customer loyalty history?

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KitGuru says: This is very nasty. The idea that a company can shaft existing customers by playing on their loyalty and trust is very bad. We hope that Intel and McAfee's marketing teams take note and vow never to repeat this unsavoury incident. Without the ‘£5 OFF' incentive for existing customers, it's bad – but WITH the special deal, it's tantamount to outright cheating, because it's designed to make a loyal customer think they're being treated in a special way.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

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Crashplan data backup is free right now https://www.kitguru.net/professional/system-tools/jon-martindale/crashplan-data-backup-is-free-right-now/ https://www.kitguru.net/professional/system-tools/jon-martindale/crashplan-data-backup-is-free-right-now/#comments Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:48:25 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=116526 Update: The discount has now dropped to 98 per cent, so it's still only a couple of dollars. Well worth it. Crashplan data backup has announced a deal on its Twitter for 100 per cent free account creation for two hours only. You'll need to be fast to get in on this one as the …

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Update: The discount has now dropped to 98 per cent, so it's still only a couple of dollars. Well worth it.

Crashplan data backup has announced a deal on its Twitter for 100 per cent free account creation for two hours only. You'll need to be fast to get in on this one as the time is nearly up already, however if you don't, the discounts will continue over the weekend.

Click here to take advantage.

Crashplan
You have 15 minutes as of the time of writing to take advantage

While it's 100 per cent off right now, every two hours the discount will reduce gradually, so if you don't quite get in on the ground floor, there will still be plenty of money to save. The final discount that will end on Monday will be 42 per cent, so hardly a poor one.

But still, if you can get in there now, it's free unlimited data backup for a year for one device or for a whole family of 2-10 computers.

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Valve doesn’t want erotic games on Steam https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/valve-doesnt-want-erotic-games-on-steam/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/valve-doesnt-want-erotic-games-on-steam/#comments Thu, 06 Sep 2012 16:00:05 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=107381 At least that's the message Miriam Bellard of No Reply Games got, when she received a notice that her company's game ‘Seduce Me,' had been kicked off of the Greenlight voting platform for breaking terms and conditions. Considering the only real two T&Cs that could get you removed were for being offensive or infringing copyright, …

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At least that's the message Miriam Bellard of No Reply Games got, when she received a notice that her company's game ‘Seduce Me,' had been kicked off of the Greenlight voting platform for breaking terms and conditions. Considering the only real two T&Cs that could get you removed were for being offensive or infringing copyright, it seems Valve just isn't a fan of sex focused gameplay.

Sex in games has always drawn controversy, whether it's the Hot Coffee mod for GTA: San Andreas, or the fact that you saw some blue side-boob in Mass Effect 2, a lot of people seem to think sex doesn't belong in games – though they have far less hangups about the ultra violence often depicted. Of course that are people that complain about that too, but sex and the discussion about whether it belongs in games, often polarises people. The case for Seduce Me was no different.

Seduce Me
It gets a bit more graphic than this, but it's not that problematic, surely?

Before it was eventually taken down by Valve, the comment section for the title was filled with a mix: supportive “White Knights,” as they were labelled by the detractors, who stood up for the fact that sex is just as worthy of being depicted in games as violence, and another group that demonised the content, saying it had no place on Steam. Some of these people simply believed it should be hosted elsewhere – on adult orientated websites – but others kept making the tired comparison between games and children.

This is one that's been made for years and years and isn't uncommon in many mediums. The “think of the children” mentality has often caused issues with adult activities and entertainment, but perhaps no more so than with gaming. Despite the fact that games with adult content have appropriate age ratings, despite the fact that the average gamer is well into his 30s and despite the fact that you need some form of online purchasing plan to buy Steam games, many people still felt like adult sexual content wasn't appropriate for the digital download platform.

The white knights often responded with links to horrifically violent or scary games, making a very valid point.

KitGuru Says: While no-one is asking for more games like Rapelay, why don't we have more sexual games?

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WordPress proxies under threat https://www.kitguru.net/professional/system-tools/jon-martindale/wordpress-proxies-under-threat/ https://www.kitguru.net/professional/system-tools/jon-martindale/wordpress-proxies-under-threat/#respond Mon, 09 Jul 2012 19:00:23 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=99238 Greenhost, a webhost in the Netherlands has been issued a court order to take down its Pirate Bay proxy, a service that showcased the abilities of the company's plugin ‘Repress'. Repress was designed as an anti-censorship tool and turns any WordPress blog that uses it into a fully working proxy. It means that for every …

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Greenhost, a webhost in the Netherlands has been issued a court order to take down its Pirate Bay proxy, a service that showcased the abilities of the company's plugin ‘Repress'.

Repress was designed as an anti-censorship tool and turns any WordPress blog that uses it into a fully working proxy. It means that for every one that gets shut down by a totalitarian government – or Dutch copyright lobbyist group like BRIEN – many, many others will follow.

Fortunately the plugin is available and though still in an alpha state works well. As of yet BRIEN has not gone after the plugin in and of itself.

Green Host WordPress
At least you can still get your own WordPress proxy from Greenhost

However GreenHost is now presented with a quandary: how to respond. Initially it refused the copyright lobby group's demands to remove the proxy, saying it would only do so if a court order was issued. When that happened and the company was threatened with a 1,000 euro a day fine if it did not comply, understandably it removed the proxy capabilities from its servers. Now it can choose whether to fight the removal order or not. As TorrentFreak reports, the Dutch Pirate Party attempted something similar not too long ago and failed; making its case look weaker in the process.

At the very least, the CEO of Greenhost Sacha van Geffen believes that his company should have been contacted as part of the court's decision on whether to issue the takedown order.

Kitguru Says: Court orders that don't even involve questioning those being issued, are tantamount to sentencing someone before they've even been arrested. It's exactly the sort of thing that ACTA and other treaties wanted to implement. Hopefully it isn't the case that the worst parts of those bills are possible with or without them.

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Love WinZip? Got an iOS device? It’s your lucky day https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/apple/stephen-dougherty/love-winzip-got-an-ios-device-its-your-lucky-day/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/apple/stephen-dougherty/love-winzip-got-an-ios-device-its-your-lucky-day/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:32:34 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=79380 Remember back to the days when you couldn't survive without WinZip on your PC? Ever since the early nineties this has been the file compression software of choice for the majority of folks, at least until those pesky registration popups pushed many across to alternative nag-free solutions as they came about in more recent years. …

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Remember back to the days when you couldn't survive without WinZip on your PC? Ever since the early nineties this has been the file compression software of choice for the majority of folks, at least until those pesky registration popups pushed many across to alternative nag-free solutions as they came about in more recent years.

Nonetheless, if you're an avid WinZip lover and have an iOS device you'll be giving a big thumbs up to this – WinZip for iOS has just become available on the app store and even better yet, it's completely free! With it you'll be able to open zip attachments from emails as well as browse compressed files and extract from encrypted archives.

One thing it does not let you do is create new zip files from local documents or photos etc. on your iOS device. At least that is a limitation in this first iteration.

KitGuru says: Let's hope this is a pattern emerging in a string of classic apps ported to iOS that we all know and love from years past. Would you like to have software programs like Lotus 123, WordPerfect, Microsoft FrontPage etc. on your iOS device?

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Symantec warn users, “Anonymous have our source code” https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/stephen-dougherty/symantec-warn-users-anonymous-have-our-source-code/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/stephen-dougherty/symantec-warn-users-anonymous-have-our-source-code/#respond Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:10:24 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=75891 Those dastardly folks of Anonymous undoubtedly have more history surrounding their hacking antics than we will probably ever know. It has only just come to light for Symantec that hackers related to the team stole source code from the 2006 versions of Symantec's Norton products, including Antivirus Corporate Edition, Internet Security and SystemWorks. What's more …

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Those dastardly folks of Anonymous undoubtedly have more history surrounding their hacking antics than we will probably ever know. It has only just come to light for Symantec that hackers related to the team stole source code from the 2006 versions of Symantec's Norton products, including Antivirus Corporate Edition, Internet Security and SystemWorks.

What's more alarming is that the theft was said to have occured in 2006. It wasn't until the hackers mentioned having it this month in which they also expressed intent to release it publicly that Symantec went into red alert mode. As a result the company has quickly sent out a strong alert for all users of PCAnywhere in particular (including versions 12.0, 12.1 and 12.5), stating that there is a problem that might lead to remote code execution.

Symantec was informed of remote code execution and local file tampering elevation of privilege issues impacting Symantec pcAnywhere. The remote code execution is the result of not properly validating/filtering external data input during login and authentication with Symantec pcAnywhere host services on 5631/TCP.”

Under normal installation and configuration in a network environment, access to this port should only be available to authorized network users. Successful exploitation would require either gaining unauthorized network access or enticing an authorized network user to run malicious code against a targeted system. Results could be a crash of the application or possibly successful arbitrary code execution in the context of the application on the targeted system.

Needless to say, if you are using PCAnywhere you should jump on this hotfix ASAP.

More info specific to Anonymous' involvement can be read over at this page on Symantec's website.

Kitguru says: And I'm sure this is only child's play compared to what these guys still have on the cards.

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Futuremark determined to know how long a battery will last https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/laptops/jules/futuremark-determined-to-know-how-long-a-battery-will-last/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/laptops/jules/futuremark-determined-to-know-how-long-a-battery-will-last/#respond Sat, 17 Dec 2011 15:23:43 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=70919 Following the announcement from Futuremark on 13th December, it seems that PowerMark is destined to become one of the most widely used benchmarks for determining battery life on Windows 7 devices. Not satisfied with re-running the release, KitGuru managed to send a spy to intercept President Oliver Baltuch.  Will we managed to complete the write-up …

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Following the announcement from Futuremark on 13th December, it seems that PowerMark is destined to become one of the most widely used benchmarks for determining battery life on Windows 7 devices.

Not satisfied with re-running the release, KitGuru managed to send a spy to intercept President Oliver Baltuch.  Will we managed to complete the write-up before our batteries die?

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Jukka Mäkinen, CEO of Futuremark was recently quoted as saying, “Battery life is critical to delivering a positive user experience”.

Given that the user experience dies off pretty quickly when the battery stops delivering juice, KitGuru is inclined to agree.

With most of the work that Futuremark does, it is a very open forum. Companies that want to join in the development of Futuremark's graphics tests, can engage with the company at every level. There are  no secrets about how the tests will work, just a system of checks and balances that the Finnish development team use to make sure your 3DMark scores are as fair as possible.

From our most recent discussions with the Futuremark hierarchy, it seems that the approach for PowerMark was radically different. They wanted to develop a mobile device power test from ‘first principals' – and not to get involved with the hardware manufacturers until after the test had been released.

It seems that the existing tests include a lot of antiquated methodologies, which don't really make sense in the modern world.

From what we've been told, PowerMark is a professional grade benchmark designed for industrial testing of battery powered Windows 7 devices by OEMs, corporations and governments. So, basically, anyone with a vested interest in knowing how long thousands and thousands of laptops will last. Good to know.

It also includes a convenient set of standard tests based on productivity and entertainment use-case scenarios, as well as allowing custom settings for bespoke testing requirements. Which means that you can choose to test as a gamer, normal user, film watcher etc. Smart stuff. It will however cost you, around $200 per 10 activations. No freebie download here.

You can find out more about this new Windows 7 mobile benchmark for battery life over here.

Will this new software help you test the power of Futuremark's very own silverback, Oliver Baltuch?

KitGuru says: We love the fact that Oliver knows exactly how his organisation is viewed by the world, “It's like a referee in a major sports event. The team that loses is always sure that they have been hurt by bad refereeing decisions, while the winning team think that they should have won by more and the referee held them back”. Well said Oliver. Well said.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

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IDC reveals money-saving back-up secrets https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/faith/idc-reveals-money-saving-back-up-secrets/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/faith/idc-reveals-money-saving-back-up-secrets/#comments Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:30:04 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=43060 Major corporations are sitting up and paying attention to IDC. Having completed a major study of the back-up patterns of large corporates, the research giant has hit on a simple way to create massive savings. Can these techniques be useful for KitGuru readers as well? First, let's just be clear about something. All things being …

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Major corporations are sitting up and paying attention to IDC. Having completed a major study of the back-up patterns of large corporates, the research giant has hit on a simple way to create massive savings. Can these techniques be useful for KitGuru readers as well?

First, let's just be clear about something. All things being equal, the more you back-up, the more it costs. Let's all assume that statement is true, it will make everything else so much easier.

KitGuru has been sent an evaluation copy of a tool called System Mechanic from Julia Zamorska and the SM loving people from Iolo in California. We'll take the product apart next month, but – for now – it has a useful feature that will allow us to evaluate IDC's claims. That feature is called ‘Find Duplicate Files' and it does exactly what it says on the tin.

We clicked ‘Go' anyway and left the programme alone for 6 minutes to do its business.

Home and results pages. Over 18,000 dupes in a matter of months. Click to view large.

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If we had set a back-up off and running, then it would take more space, which could require bigger media. It would also take longer, which uses more resources like (a) our time checking it and (b) the electricity to make everything work.

As you might expect, the IDC analysis was completed on a much bigger scale. Here are some of the more interesting facts that Richard Villars and Eric Hatcher found when they began this EMC-sponsored research.

  • People are using more and more computers to store more and more information [no sh*t Sherlock – Ed]
  • Often, bigger files are considered more important. As a result they are backed up more frequently, under a range of slightly different names and over a longer period of time. CAD files were used as an example
  • Overall, major corporations saved $1m each, per annum, by having a significantly more intelligent back-up and recovery solution
  • While a significant reduction in back-up time was the most important cost-saving item (de-duplication wonderland starts here), there were also major cost benefits from simpler management, less auditing and faster restores

The conclusion is clear. No matter how big or small your operation, having disk-based data deduplication and replication can have a dramatic impact on the costs and problems associated with backup/recovery.

Having files more than once is fine, but – for maximum efficiency – it should be a single copy and part of a structured back-up.

If you want to have a look at how much duplication you have yourself, then grab a copy of System Mechanic from here and try the ‘Find Duplicates' option. We're not going to say if the rest of the package is good just yet (no matter how much Julia Zamorska recommends SM), but this option is certainly interesting.

You can get a copy of the free IDC report from here. The data giant also has a range of other reports that might interest you over here.

IDC wise man, Richard Villars, comes up with reports like this. Didn't he used to play for Spurs?

KitGuru says: The real kicker here is not the back-up itself, but the restore. If you encounter a problem and need to recover your system – then having 30% less files will mean you are back up and running much quicker. Surely that's the biggest benefit of all?

Comment below or in the KitGuru forum.

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