Sometimes nostalgia takes over as you install a new version of an old favourite application. This happened recently while installing the latest version of VCOM's Fix-It Utilities 6 Professional. I seem to remember that installing a product was far easier a few years ago despite the advancements in the so-called ease-of-use department - maybe I should get rid of these rose-tinted spectacles.

If you thought just protecting yourself from virus attacks made you safe then think again. Other forms of insidious threats are just waiting to pounce on the unwary. According to recent research in America, computers are under constant threat from various sources.  This research revealed that between 500,000 and 700,000 people have been the victim of identity theft. Of these, 13% reported that remedying this situation left them significantly out-of-pocket.

While new computer systems, whether of the desktop or notebook variety, generally arrive with a CD/DVD burner as standard, the drive will probably not support all the various formats available. With a choice of DVD+R, DVD-R and DVD-RAM, it is more than likely that the drive in residence will only be able to read / write two of the three formats. However there are drives available, normally referred to as a multi-drive, which can handle all three formats.

A question that I have often asked of various speaker manufacturers is "When are we going to see products that make use of wireless technology?" Generally the initial response is a grin followed by silence. I then go on to complain about the difficulty of having wires cluttering up the place, adding to the possibility of causing an accident.

Entertainment on the move is gaining popularity at a pace.  We have MP3 players; notebooks with a DVD player as standard; and an ever-increasing number of hand-held devices that can provide video playback capabilities.  Where ever we go, music and video is on hand to keep us entertainment.  However this mobile entertainment does require that we are considerate towards others who might be in earshot range.

Following the pattern of the last few years, the end of summer is marked by the arrival of several new offerings from Microsoft's consumer division.  This year, as in previous years, hardware is well represented in the form of mice and keyboards.  Microsoft has even come up with a new category of devices with its Comfort family which includes the Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000.

iPlayer is a digital set-top box that provides access to the various Freeview channels.  Add a "+" sign to the product's title and you get several additional features to boost the appeal and functionality of this set-top box. As is fairly standard, this piece of kit consists of the base unit, remote control, SCART cable, aerial lead and power cable. You also get a phone extension cable that has a splitter connection at one end.

With the growing demand for ever-increasing amounts of hard disk storage space for digital photographs, so more and more printers arrive offering to turn these memories into tangible hard copy. It doesn't seem to matter that we can share these images via CDs or web-based albums, the ability to touch and feel a physical photograph remains a strong inducement to many.