Category Archive for ‘Technology’ at Walking Amongst Dark Shadows

Archive for the 'Technology' Category

Creative Vs Daniel_K

Published on April 2, 2008 in Links, Rants and Technology. 1 Comment

Silence from Creative after customer revolt

Picture the following scenario. Imagine if you had gone out and purchased a Creative Labs Soundblaster of some kind, there’s loads of them around but the most popular ones would be their Audigy and XFI series cards. Now imagine smiling when you saw that ‘Vista Compatible’ logo on the box, meaning that the card would work on Microsoft Vista. So you purchase it, take it home and install it into your PC. You would then either:

Install the drivers from the included CD
OR simply get and install the latest drivers from the Creative website

You would now have a fully working card right? You should be able to use all its capabilities given that it is ‘Vista Compatible’. What would you do if you found out that it wasn’t really ‘Vista Compatible’ ? This is what thousands of creative soundcard owners have been asking themselves for years now. Creative’s soundcard drivers have always been laughably poor, even back when I used them on my Audigy 2 in Windows XP, but it turns out that their new XFI drivers are just as bad. There are no decent working drivers in Vista at present I am led to believe. Because the Creative ‘Soundblaster’ moniker is such a powerful one - your average joe public just assumes that the product adds high quality sound to your PC, and will then go out and purchase one without knowing all this.

A driver modder known as Daniel_K decided to come up with his own modified drivers that restored functionality to these cards - everyone was happy, well except for Creative. One would think that they’d embrace his skills and maybe hire him, but instead they decided to do him for copyright issues! Daniel_K was warned on the Creative forums to cease activity, and what then followed was a backlash that I have never seen before. The forums were filled with thousands of unhappy gamers/soundblaster owners ranting and mocking Creative for ignorance. For a corporate company as big as Creative, they should be able to afford driver engineers to develop the best drivers possible but no. Instead they just rehash and rebox card after card to make even more money - and it works.

Since Windows Vista arrived on the scene, driver vendors have struggled to come up with decent functionality with their drivers as they have to work with new API’s they aren’t used to. As I have stated in the past, Creative were one of those companies that ended up admitting that their Audigy 2 and XFI drivers were poor in the first place. Nebula Electronics who made the once extremely popular Nebula TV Tuners have all but gone silent on customers with regards to their Vista drivers since the release of the operating system in 2007. Despite it having the best TV software around, I have stopped using mine, and so has PR because they are just incomplete and flaky in Vista for well over a year now. Even their forums have dried up with no Nebula feedback.

Back to Creative though. I am a huge admirer of them and their products, well mainly their portable music and peripherals rather than their soundcards, which I have stated have always been top notch build and spec wise, but useless driver wise. They started the whole thing off, they brought music to the very early PC’s, just simple beeps from a soundchip embedded on a bit of PCB back in early 1987. It all went pear shaped as they branched out and kept rehashing soundcards to keep a foothold on the market. However the tide has changed, and they are suffering.

Built in sound capabilities on PC motherboards have already reached the point where they require little system resources and sound superb. Other soundcard manufacturers have been rising over the past year and are building far superior products. Auzentech, Asus, Razer to name a few, and they all work fine in Vista. There is no doubt that Creative are about to feel a backlash that they’re not used to. Lately they have failed to deliver a good sucessor to the Creative Zen Vision:M - their once flagship audio player. They have now seemingly focused on developing peripherals for the Apple iPod - their very own competitors. If this wasn’t enough to be concerned about, I would also be concerned about this, not that it means much to the company as a whole.

Yesterday, Creative via one of their forum moderators stated that they have listened to the feedback (feedback? you sure?) and decided to work with Daniel_K in supporting their driver development programme. Is this a case of way too little, too late? To be truthful, I hope he tells them to shove it. I truly respect, and admire what you’ve done Mr.K. I gave up on Creative cards a long time ago and have never had an XFI so I have no idea how bad it’s drivers were, but poor Creative drivers was why I went out and bought an Auzentech Meridian, a truly awesome bit of kit. Good luck with Creative.

You can read Daniel_K’s full story Here.
Full Creative/Daniel_K story Here.

Dell XPS M1530 Notebook Review

Published on January 13, 2008 in Technology. 13 Comments

Does it impress?

Oh yes! After almost blowing £1,100 on a better specification XPS laptop, which was sadly from the older XPS range I ended up being talked in to buying the M1530, the bigger brother of one of the best laptops from 2007, the M1330. Despite having a 2-3 week delivery delay on their laptops they managed to get it to be extremely fast. I ordered the thing online on the 3rd January, and it arrived on the 7th of January.

I have spent the past few days jotting down notes and have come up with my first review of 2008! Top dogs!

Vista x32 to x64

Published on December 23, 2007 in Technology. 5 Comments

Got Device Drivers?

I have been wanting to upgrade to Windows Vista 64 from (Vista 32) bit for quite some time now, but just haven’t found the time to do it, until now. The Christmas Holidays are upon us and come Friday evening, I decided to take the jump.

I backed up any crucial data to my raft of external hard drives and threw the Vista 64 DVD in to the PC. I planned to format C:\ and install the OS there. Since I have my programs stored there, I would be required to reinstall those too. Vista x64 doesn’t run 16bit code at all, so my existing 16bit programs would have to run on XP via Virtual PC 2007. Virtualization ftw!

The OS installed fine and actually felt a lot smoother than x32. Browsing was much noticeably faster and scrolling through CoverFlow on iTunes was extremely fast and smooth, rather than sluggish. Things were going along perfectly - until I switched on my five external hard drives. They all powered up and worked perfectly but then two of them, both Western Digital MyBook’s (connected via Firewire) would randomly switch off and the only way to get them to power back up was to reboot Vista. It was like there was a power saving feature in effect, but I’d already disabled that. Then my three other external hard disks began behaving erratically. Sometimes I could access them, and on other occasions I couldn’t, which made Explorer lock up horribly bringing the entire OS down - something that I couldn’t even manage to do in Vista x32.

My last issue was not with Vista, but with Canon. I have two Canon printers, and didn’t even check their website for 64bit drivers before deciding to move to x64. They are so good with driver releases that I naturally expected them to have them already out. They weren’t…. Given that Vista x64 has been out for the same length of time as x32 I had been hoping that driver manufacturers had got their act together with regards to releasing 32 and 64bit drivers however it is just too slow.

I did some reading up on various forums and quite a lot of users have got no problem with x64, which is good news. However it still remains that Vista x64 needs more pace on the device driver front. If Canon don’t release 64bit drivers then I’ve got no choice but to avoid their printers in future - something that I won’t enjoy as I’ve always used Canon printers.

Other than the two issues I have, Vista x64 was really good. I noticed some speed improvements and smoother Aero interface use. However when I can’t use my printers in the OS, the whole point of upgrading from x32 becomes irrelevant. I will wait for Service Pack 1, due in early 2008 before trying out the OS again but I seriously hope Canon get some x64 drivers out because that is what the OS really needs - better 64bit device drivers and fast.

SATA HDD Stage Rack

Published on October 26, 2007 in Technology. 2 Comments

How neat is this? The pictures tell the whole story anyway.

This is the SATA HDD Stage Rack, which is a Mac and PC compatible device that connects via USB 2.0. Simply plugging in a hard drive ala Atari 2600 Cart style will allow the drive to show up on your computer. There are two versions - the 2.5" for notebook drives and 3.5" versions for standard desktop hard drives. The stage rack sadly does require an external power connection, however I know little else right now. It also has a glowing bl00 light - these things are important in any device! I can only find this device on Amazon US so far, but I want one!

My ‘Junk Cupboard’ is packed with old hard drives, mostly of the IDE variety sadly so I’m hoping that an IDE version gets released in future. The button at the front looks like an eject button to ‘pop’ release the drive safely too. Hopefully these devices won’t be too costly.

iPod Touch Review

Published on October 14, 2007 in Technology. 8 Comments

Yes I know that one isn’t real!

Well up goes a review that I have struggled to even complete. It is a good couple of days late mainly because my life has been taken over by a combination of Team Fortress 2, Work (no change there then), a nagging girlfriend who wants to go shopping, and a France Booze Cruise in two weeks time. All of this isn’t helped by the fact that there are a whopping three birthday parties I have to attend, a wedding (hate these) and two PC’s I have to set-up for two clients all in October! Happy days eh?

Anyway, you can read how I feel about this spiffy new device in the reviews section or just click Here. Want a more detailed review? Well me good mate PR has been blithering on about his one, so you can find his review on his blog.

Creative - Where do they go from here?

Published on September 23, 2007 in Technology. 4 Comments

Good things come to those who wait

I have had quite a few emails over the past week mostly asking where Creative’s answer to the new iPod’s are. Truth be told, there isn’t one - yet.

On August 30th 2007, Creative leaked out images of their next generation replacement for their flagship MP3/Video player - the Zen Vision:M. The new Creative Zen was a flash based player coming in three capacities of 4, 8 and 16GB. The player was almost identical to the ZVM, aside from having SD storage expansion, a superior screen and er, well that’s all sadly. For most users it was a downgrade because Creative, like most MP3 manufacturer’s seemed to be following the trend in moving away from hard disk based players onto Flash based players, which are cheaper to manufacture and more reliable.

The ZVM was one of the best DAP’s (Digial Audio Players) to come out of the portable music industry. In terms of sales it never could match the iPod, but specification wise it was a lot superior and for those owners who had one, they knew how powerful it was within minutes of using the player. It offered heaps of features, was solid and robust albeit a bit of a fatty. It could play almost any video format you could throw at it and it’s screen was far superior over the iPod and the rest of the competition.

September 5th 20076 saw Apple release their ‘new’ iPod range, with the main focus being on the lovely, sleek flash based iPod Touch. This device, whilst inferior to the ZVM feature wise, was enough to even grab my attention and I have one pre-ordered to arrive early October 2007, look out for a review. Creative have no answer to the iPod range, and at the IFA convention where all the Creative fans were hoping to see a new next generation player were left unimpressed by the Zen - hardly an impressive upgrade over the ZVM. Zen fans began to look elsewhere for a next generation player, as did I.

The industry is moving away from hard disk based players, and sales wise it has been clearly shown that flash players are selling much faster. The iPod Nano outsells it’s bigger iPod brothers, whilst Creative’s range of flash players are more popular than their hard disk based models. Apple customers have a good range of models at their disposal, while Creative have let their fans down by offering nothing but a smaller capacity ZVM. From a sales point of view you can’t blame Creative for ditching their support for hard disk based players. Apple can afford to take that risk because their products sell themselves through hype and advertising, the latter of which Creative have been rather slack on.

Where to now?

So Creative’s showing at the IFA was a disappointment and they’ve let down their fans somewhat. Most including yours truly were expecting an X-FI based player but instead we ended up losing our larger hard disk capacity to a flash based product.

The chaps at Tech.co.uk spoke to Alan Devine, Creative’s brand specialist after the IFA convention and he had this to say about Creative’s future. "We’re here today to talk specifically about the newly-announced Creative Zen," he said. "But yes we do have some spectacular new products in the early stages of development in Singapore. The Creative Zen will be our flagship player for the next couple of months at least."

On Creative adding XFI technology to their players, he had this to say. "It’s something we’re actively working on," he said. "The trouble is that the technology is so good that it’s quite battery-intensive, so wouldn’t currently work well in a portable device. There’s nothing arriving in the short term but we are working hard to try and get X-Fi into a player."

As to weather we can expect any more products from them in future, he had this to say. "We have a range of products coming out over the next year. We’ve done well in the entry level with the Zen Stone; the Creative Zen fits nicely mid-market. That leaves a pretty obvious area of the market for us to fill, and I can’t say more than that."

This is certainly good news indeed and proves that Creative haven’t given up on the DAP market yet, they’re branching out making different products, which includes third party devices for the Ipod range as well as their own. They have so far replaced the ZVM with the new Zen, but have yet to see a replacement for their Zen Vision:W - the widescreen version of their ZVM. So Creative will be announcing new players in future, but will they have the storage music enthusiasts really require? We haven’t seen the last of Creative that’s for sure.

Bioshock, Pizza’s, and iTunes

Published on September 9, 2007 in Babble, Technology and Xbox 360. 9 Comments

Would you kindly bend over…

It’s been a hectic weekend! I wasted money, and then some. Oh, there’s a Bioshock review that has been added to the reviews section. Not the best I might add, but I had to let loose my opinions on such a heavily rated game, especially after seeing it’s rating on Metacritic.com.

After finishing work on Friday, I was in a spending mood. I had about £350 saved up to blow on either clothes, pc/console bits, a low end DSLR Camera or a new MP3 player. The past week saw the release of the next generation of MP3/Video devices from the likes of Creative, Apple, Cowon, Microsoft, Archos and a few other manufacturers. I was already looking for a replacement for my Vision:M despite it being regarded as the best MP3 player on the market. I’ve had the thing for ages now and would like something a bit thinner - an excuse I recently used for buying a new mobile phone, the Sony Ericsson w880i.

Some things not to admit to on Irc…

Published on September 5, 2007 in Music/TV/Films, Technology and WTF?. 7 Comments

What are your worst tunes on your MP3 player?

Today was the launch of the new Apple iPod range over in the states. Needless to say there were good and bad products shown here, the highlight being the iPod Touch thing, which I’m sure people will quickly snap up only to realise that touchscreen’s aren’t too COOL in use. The iPod Touch doesn’t have that much storage space either, well for some people anyway. For those who require over 16GB of space for their albums, they’ll have to carefully manage what goes onto their new iPod. Anyway, over on our quakenet channel where most of us old-school gamers chat and complain about life in general, PR was getting rather amped up about the new iPod despite stating he wasn’t wanting one.

An hour later after the Apple announcement ended, he’s started pruning away at his iPod music collection… So what follows are various snippets cut out of the channel, because some of the tracks PR has puts my collection to shame!. Let the shaming begin!

[21:26] * PR|PC prunes music collection
[21:28] <PR|PC> Call of Duty 1 soundtrack
[21:28] <Kainz> lol
[21:28] <PR|PC> keeping that
[21:28] <PR|PC> back in the day when they had real orchestras playing real music
[21:31] <PR|PC> 2 Faced by Louise (pre redknapp)
[21:32] <Kainz> LOL
[21:33] <PR|PC> shup!
[21:34] <Kainz> Louise lol
[21:34] <PR|PC> Lighthouse family!
[21:35] <Kainz> Better then Louise!
[21:35] <PR|PC> She’s hot!
[21:35] <Kainz> and now married!
[21:35] <Kainz> Ya got J-LO!?
[21:38] <PR|PC> Fahrenheit Soundtrack
[21:39] <PR|PC> Hang it Up!
[21:39] <Kainz> Teh what
[21:39] <PR|PC> When you play basketball with the cop!
[21:39] <Kainz> lol
[21:49] <PR|PC> Samantha Mumba!
[21:49] <Kainz> lmao
[21:49] <Kainz> and you have the balls to take the piss out of me for my taste!
[21:50] <Kainz> So what iplod bloat are you buying?
[21:50] <PR|PC> Who said I’m buying it?!
[21:50] <PR|PC> Tempted I must say
[21:50] <Kainz> You’re pruning e.g prepping your music collection!
[21:51] <PR|PC> Deleting Sam Mumba is hardly pruning!
[21:51] <Kainz> What about louise!
[21:51] <PR|PC> Gone

The New Creative Zen! [Update]

Published on August 30, 2007 in Technology. 10 Comments

iWant!!

This is the replacement for the Creative Vision:M, considered as the best MP3 player on the market. Recently Creative have stated that the Vision:M is an EoL (End of the line) product so a replacement for their top of the range player is more or less due and boy have they surprised Zen fans with their latest effort.

Yesterday, Creative leaked out photo’s of their new Zen, a super-slim flash based player, which arrives in 4, 8, and 16GB capacities, as well as having a high quality 2.6" display and an SD card expansion slot. If memory serves me correctly it is the first 16GB flash player to hit the market too. People could say that 16GB isn’t enough and a hard disk, which the Vision:M has is a better feature. While I’d agree with that, you have to admit that RAM prices are falling through the floor and if 16GB isn’t enough, then a simple SD card upgrade should suffice. At the end of the day, flash ram is always the best solution, even though it has been expensive in the past. For that reason alone I will be after it and doing an in-depth review!
Continue reading ‘The New Creative Zen! [Update]’

A look at the Toshiba HD-E1 HD DVD Player

Published on August 19, 2007 in Technology. 10 Comments

Red ring ‘o’ death…as if Xbox 360’s weren’t bad enough

It’s no secret that I truly love the startling detail and features that the next generation optical formats give us. It’s also no secret that I have opted for the HD-DVD format rather then Sony’s Blu-Ray. I have done this mainly because all the classics that I truly love are all on HD-DVD, whilst the action popcorn flicks tend to be on Blu-Ray. I also like the fact that the standalone HD-DVD players are coming down price wise at a startling rate, whilst Blu-Ray players remain at a slightly more expensive price.

Given that I already own the Xbox 360’s HD-DVD player, I always wanted a standalone player the moment prices became affordable. Lately the price of the second generation Toshiba HD-E1 player has crashed, most probably due to Toshiba’s recent announcement that their third generation players are on the way. This morning I took delivery of the player, and will detail my experiences with it for the next two days. You can check out my review here.

Walking Amongst Dark Shadows

Archive for the 'Technology' Category

Creative Vs Daniel_K

Silence from Creative after customer revolt

Dell XPS M1530 Notebook Review

Does it impress?

Vista x32 to x64

Got Device Drivers?

SATA HDD Stage Rack

iPod Touch Review

Yes I know that one isn’t real!

Creative - Where do they go from here?

Good things come to those who wait

Bioshock, Pizza’s, and iTunes

Would you kindly bend over…

Some things not to admit to on Irc…

What are your worst tunes on your MP3 player?

The New Creative Zen! [Update]

iWant!!

A look at the Toshiba HD-E1 HD DVD Player

Red ring ‘o’ death…as if Xbox 360’s weren’t bad enough

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