BTSnz - The Digital Lifestyle

Prepay Broadband in a box from Vodafone NZ

2009-12-25T00:19:00.000-08:00

Prepay Broadband in a box from Vodafone NZ

Price: $99

Ongoing Costs: Your choice. Between $10 - $60 a month.

What is it?

Most people by now have come across Vodafone/Telecom Data cards, and more recently the USB varieties, Vodem from Vodafone and T-Stick from Telecom witch all allow wireless broadband access anywhere you can get cell phone reception – with no phone line required. The down side of these services is the expensive 2 year contacts. It was time for change!

Prepay Broadband in a box is Vodafone’s answer to our cries. What if you didn’t want to sign up for two years at $40 - $80 a month? You didn’t get wireless broadband, simple as that!

Just like a prepay cell phone, you load this device up with credit, and then use it. Being a Vodafone product you can top this device up from anywhere that sells top-ups, which is everywhere these days.

What does it cost?

Being prepay, if you don’t use it – it costs you nothing (unlike its on-contact counterparts) which makes it ideal to have ‘incase’ or for going away ‘sometimes’. However it isn’t limited to only these uses. Someone only doing small amounts of internet browsing and email could use it as their primary internet connection.

Here are the cost options:

BBLite $10 for 100mb (when this is used up, you can add another 100mb for another $10)

BBSURFER $30 for 512mb (when this is used up, you can add another 512mb for another $30)

$1 for 10mb each day (only on the days you use it)

So what’s the best option? It really, like anything, depends on its user. Here are my thoughts:

BBLite is best suited to people such as myself, internet connection at home, and at work. I use this stick mostly for going away and the odd café/airport internet session. With 100/200mb a month you will really only be able to get your emails and surf normal news/Google type websites.

BBSURFER is more aimed at people who may use this as their main internet connection at home. 512/1024mb really is enough for anyone during a normal month with emails, internet and the odd bit of Youtube/videos.

$1 a day is a great deal, this would be perfect for someone who either does not use their computer for internet every day, or would only use this Vodafone USB stick to check emails occasionally. As an idea, 10mb would be enough for most people on any given day, as long as it was normal lite surfing and NOT downloading programs or computer updates, or sending/receiving photos.

So it really depends on how you might use this product as to how much it might cost you each month. However the beauty of this product being on Prepay, is that at the end of your ‘data-month’ you can change to any of the other data options. It really does all happen on a month by month basis, which is perfect as your needs change and you find out how much data you *really* use a month.

The software that comes with this stick also tells you how much of your data you have used, and you can set limits so you don’t go crazy. Vodafone will also alert you as you come near your monthly limit.

Internet Speed

Wireless Broadband has come a long way in the last couple of years, but now 3G is most everywhere (including up Mount Ruapehu as I found out the other day) you will get pretty good speeds in most places. If you have a good fixed line Broadband connection you may find this slightly slower, however it is comparable to a normal fixed line Broadband connection which is great for things that most people want to do.

Final Thoughts

This product is great at doing the job it is meant to do. If you’re a big internet user, it’s not going to replace your fixed line broadband, but at this price, it’s a great add on to keep with your laptop.

Samsung 55” LED LCD Series 8

2009-12-25T00:11:00.000-08:00

Samsung 55” LED LCD Series 8

$10,000 can buy you a lot, or a little – depending on what you’re buying. But when it comes to TV’s, $10,000 is most definitely a lot in most people’s book.

The other day I got the opportunity to watch FreeviewHD, HD Sky and a Blueray movie on the new Samsung 55” LED LCD Series 8. With the price tag of this model you would expect it to be an all round amazing TV, on which is does not fail. The question I really found myself asking, was just HOW amazing is it, and if it is worth forking out probably double compared to a similar sized non LED backlit screen?

High Definition / Resolution

This High-Def TV has everything you would have come to expect of any decent large screen TV of late, sporting the HD Standard 1080p/i and of course the lesser but still impressive 720p. What does this mean for you? 1080/720 is the max amount of lines that the given display can show, vertically. The general rule of thumb is: 42” screen size and below, 720p is fine for most people – however above 42” you would most definitely want the 1080p resolution. Below 42”, the average person is going to find it extremely hard to tell the difference between the two definitions, not to say that put side by side you couldn’t, but the difference at that size is minimal.

Picture

Samsung work to the concept of the 3 C’s of picture: contrast, colour and clarity. Being a backlit LED LCD, colour and contrast are superb, and clarity comes through a mixture of the definition mentioned above, and Samsungs own 200Hz Motion Plus claims to eliminate edge blur – jargon and numbers aside, the end result creates a vibrant, clear and beautiful image throughout FreeviewHD, Sky and Blueray’s.

The TV itself

The enclosure of this TV is breathtaking in itself. At the time of writing the Samsung 55” LED LCD Series 8 is the thinnest LED screen in the world with a FreeviewHD tuner built in. Measuring in at only 30mm thick, it makes my so called flat screen at home look as chunky as CRT TV’s did when LCD came out. A glowing blue light at the front bottom of the screen indicates when your remote commands are being received –even this simple task is made beautiful.

Power

Power saving – new LED LCD screens are up to 40% more energy efficient over similar sized LCD screens. Frankly if you can afford to buy this TV, I imagine the only advantage you will see in this is saving the environment that little bit more, over cutting down on your power bill!

Internet @TV

This screen now features direct internet access. Having only limited time I did not explore this area too much – however as expected, what I did see was well done. Youtube was easy to access and videos played nicely. Having this sort of access to Youtube, regular internet could come in handy; however I can’t see it replacing internet access from a normal computer any time soon.

Final Thoughts

If you feel you deserve a top of the line TV, and have the money to spare – this is the TV for you. However if you’re asking yourself if you can really afford it, you would be far better off spending half the price and still getting an amazing HD TV – of the same size. Don’t get me wrong, this is an amazing TV and I would love to have one in my lounge any day - but if money isn’t unlimited, then having a TV half the price sitting in your lounge is going to seem near on as good.

There is no doubt LED will slowly creep into the everyday market, and with that the prices will drop, just the same as the prices slowly but surely crept down on LCD TV’s. So if money is an object (and lets face it, for 99% of people it is) then waiting, or going for something not quite as big, or non LED will still look great – this Samsung 55” LED LCD Series 8 is just that little bit better than great.

8/10

This would be 10/10 if it wasn’t for its price point; however this is just a matter of time.

Buying Computer Monitors

2009-12-11T18:28:00.000-08:00

A useful article from stuff.co.nz about buying a new computer monitor - and what all the numbers mean!

Just skip through the Paragraphs that you already know, or don't want to know!

PC Buyer's Guide: Monitors

In the buyer's guide this week we are looking at monitors - specifically what features and specifications you should be looking for, and what is available in New Zealand right now.

There are a lot of variables when it comes to monitors such as size, resolution, response time, contrast ratio/brightness, inputs, aspect ratio and panel type to name a few. Let me take you through a few of these main ones before we jump in and see what is out there.
Panel type
Most computer monitors on the market today are LCDs (Liquid Crystal Display), and these come in 3 types - TN, IPS and VA. Each of these come in different variations, however in the interest of keeping you awake I won't go into them now; suffice to say that TN panels are the cheapest and most common, and if the monitor you're looking at doesn't state what type it is, then it's a TN.
Unless you're a professional graphics artist/media designer, or simply extremely anal about colour accuracy and viewing angles, you'll be happy with a TN.
IPS panels will be found in the more expensive LCD panels (they're roughly twice as expensive as TN panels), but some of them have much slower response times (discussed below) so aren't ideal for gaming. If you need to use a monitor in portrait mode then you'll be looking for one of these. VA panels are also more expensive with wider colour gamuts but slower response times.
LED monitors are also starting to hit the market here. These are simply LCD monitors that use LED backlighting instead of CFL tubes. This results in much lower power consumption, much much higher dynamic contrast ratios (also discussed below), extremely thin monitor casing and large, bold "LED!" stickers encasing the packaging and product brochures as if it were the best thing since optical mice. Expect to pay at least 50% more for these benefits.
Contrast ratio/brightness
Contrast ratio is the difference in brightness between the darkest black and the brightest white that a screen can produce. The higher this ratio then, by and large, the better the image looks (ever wonder why photograhers frame dark photos with light borders and vice versa?).
A contrast ratio of 1,000:1 for instance would mean that the brightest white a screen can produce is one thousand times brighter than the darkest black, which is pretty good.
There are two ways of measuring this figure - one is a "real" contrast ratio (which most of the time is around 1,000:1 which is good enough almost any use), this tells you the contrast ratio that the screen can produce in one single frame (i.e. producing the darkest black and brightest white at the same time, with the same level of light coming from the backlight).
The other way is to measure the "dynamic" contrast ratio (which can be up to and over 1,000,000:1), which is achieved by the screen being able to turn its backlight down, measuring the darkest black, then cranking the backlight right up and measuring the brightest white.

You're very unlikely to get any advantage from this in the real world, so if a salesperson ever proudly beams an impressive dynamic contrast ratio figure to you, I encourage you to raise one eyebrow at them until they concede that that number doesn't really mean crap.
Brightness on the other hand is a much safer figure. It is measured in candela per square metre (cd/m2), or "nits" (from latin nitere = "to shine"). The brighter a screen is, the easier it is to view in bright surroundings (bright screens typically look a little more vivid too).
Anything below 250cd/m2 is poor, above 350cd/m2 is excellent, and anywhere in between is just fine.

Resolution
This is quite a simple figure - it is literally the amount of dots (aka pixels) that the panel physically possesses. This is usually expressed in a width vs. height format, e.g. 1920x1080 meaning that the screen would be 1920 pixels wide by 1080 high, or just over 2 million in total (aka ~2 megapixels if you're conversant with digital cameras).
Generally speaking, a higher resolution will give you a finer, more detailed picture, and will allow you to view a wider area of web pages and documents.
Remember, however, that if your monitor is for gaming then more pixels require more graphics processing power, so if you've got a low-end graphics card then a high resolution monitor is just going to make things worse whilst gaming.
"Low" resolution these days is considered 1600x900 or lower, whilst 1680x1050, 1920x1080 and 1920x1200 are the most common medium/high resolutions, then from there you jump up to the insane-o-max 2560x1600 ultra high resolution of the big 30" screens.
Size
Also quite self-explanatory - the size of a monitor is measured in inches diagonally from corner to corner of the viewable area of the screen. Bigger screens tend to have higher resolutions as well but the two don't go hand in hand so don't go making any assumptions about the resolution of a screen based on its size.
When deciding on screen size, my main recommendation would be not to go too big, particularly if you sit quite close to your monitor. I recently upgraded from a 20" LCD to a 24" LCD and I found that viewing the bigger monitor at the same short distance as the smaller monitor was rather uncomfortable, so I ended up sitting the new screen on top of a box situated behind my computer desk just to give me some extra viewing distance.
In all honesty, if they made 1920x1200 LCDs in any size smaller than 24" I would happily opt for that instead.
Response time
People make a big fuss over this number but personally I don't think it's a big deal. "Response time" is the amount of time it takes a pixel on the screen to respond to changes in brightness levels, measured in milliseconds.
A slow response time would result in blurry and smeared motion on screen - anyone who has used a laptop from the nineties or earlier will know what this looks like.
Most screens advertise their "Grey-to-Grey" (aka GtG or G2G) response time, which is the time it takes a pixel to cycle through all halftone brightnesses, starting and ending at grey. The large majority of modern LCDs state a GtG time of 2ms or 5ms, with a slim few being 6ms.
All of these would be suitable for gaming. If anyone could spot the difference between a 2ms panel and a 5ms panel in a blind test, I would be seriously, seriously impressed.
Don't confuse response time with refresh rate. Refresh rate is how many screen updates the panel will accept per second. Most screens will take 60Hz, some do up to 75Hz and one or two even do 120Hz - this is insanely high and looks insanely smooth, or it can be used for 3D gaming in dual-60Hz mode.
Aspect ratio
This is basically the 'shape' of a screen, measured by the ratio of the amount of columns versus rows of pixels on a screen. For example, 1600x900 and 1920x1080 resolution screens have a "16:9" aspect ratio.
This also happens to be the aspect ratio that High Definition video (e.g. BluRay movies) are displayed in and is also supported by the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 consoles so has become a popular widescreen format for people who wish to use their PC monitors for these purposes as well.
The other widescreen format which seems to be slowly being phased out is 16:10, which covers virtually all other modern screen resolutions: 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1920x1200 and 2560x1600.
All PC games support these resolutions but you'll probably experience some scaling, distortion, image loss or black bars surrounding your image if you use these monitors with the other HD material mentioned above.
Inputs
The amount and type of inputs on monitors these days varies quite a bit, so make sure the screen you're looking at buying will suit your requirements both now and in the future.
DVI and VGA connections come standard on all but the cheapest of screens, but for maximum usability you want one with at least one HDMI connection as that seems to be the ubiquitous standard on electronics these days (it carries the same digital video signal that DVI does but also delivers audio and HDCP encryption for protected HD content).
Displayport is also becoming more common, and is a must if you want a 3-monitor setup using ATI's latest "Eyefinity" technology. Lastly, some monitors also feature more conventional inputs like composite, SVHS and component video (YPbPr) inputs for hooking up DVD players and that sort of thing.
These will obviously only benefit you if you intend on actually using them.

Windows 7

2009-11-27T01:17:00.000-08:00

We take a look at whats new with Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 7.

Like all new things, its not for everyone - if you have a new computer it is probably worth having, however if you have an older computer your best to stick with Windows XP.

Have Windows Vista? Then you should definitely upgrade to the new Windows 7. At the end of the day, Windows 7 is a re-release of Windows Vista with all the issues sorted out - a Version 2.0 if you like. Which is good news for new Windows 7 users. The people who used Windows Vista have had the frustrations and issues for you, hopefully leaving a clean running and fast Windows 7.

So lets have a look at what's actually new in Windows 7. Below are some videos highlighting some key new features in Windows 7 which may help you to use your new copy of Windows 7 - or work out if you should get it!

An introduction about Windows 7:

Making life easier by letting us access our information and data in new simple ways:

Gives us control over how and what our children can do on the computer, including time limits and access control:

And lastly, a look the way we watch and listen to media within Windows 7:

So Windows 7 has some interesting and useful new features - and really is as good as Windows Vista SHOULD have been. If you have been thinking of upgrading, now is a perfect time. If you have already upgraded, have fun enjoying some of Windows 7's latest features.

If you would like further information about buying, or using Windows 7, please feel free to contact us here at BTSnz, by visiting www.btsnz.com or by calling 021 060 1742 if within New Zealand.

Welcome!

2009-11-26T18:56:00.001-08:00

Welcome to BTSnz's Blog.

First a bit about BTSnz. Bay Technology Services is a Waihi based Technology Business providing IT solutions to Small & Medium Sized Businesses, and to Schools around the area. Run by Austin Rattray, the company was started in 2008.

Over the coming months, this Blog will be updated with useful information for anyone who uses Technology - to try and make their lives easier.

In the mean time feel free to check out our website www.btsnz.com