COMPUTER REPAIRS BOURNEMOUTH

No colour reader, though

The E Ink display in Amazon's Kindles may be great for reading in bright sunshine, but it's pants on gloomy days and totally useless in the dark. But that may soon change: Amazon is said to be preparing a front-lit version of the popular e-book reader.?

Fondleslabs now link to 'fast mobile data networks'

Apple has stopped using the term ?4G? to describe the new iPad in the UK and Australia, after regulators took it to task for doing so because the device would not work with what carriers call 4G in both nations.?

Biggest launch in nearly a decade

Intel is planning its biggest marketing campaign since the launch of Centrino in 2003 in an attempt to make Ultrabook laptops and tablet-hybrids more attractive to buyers.?

Shiny slab of laptop lusciousness

Review  The test unit I reviewed was forwarded on to me from the Harrods press office. That alone should tell you a lot about the HP Envy 14 Spectre. For you, Harrods may conjure images of oil sheiks browsing bling, affectatious middle classes buying ham and feeble-minded tourists ogling Saint Diana's soiled crockery, but Harrods makes a point of not selling crap.?

Edges out Netgear in 802.11ac race

If you've been jonesing for faster Wi-Fi performance ? not that you have any client devices that can yet take advantage of next-generation wireless networking technology ? your wait is over: Buffalo has begun shipping the industry's first 802.11ac router and bridge.?

Street-clutter clutters streets with punters

Spectrum Interactive is opening up its phone-box-based hotspots around London, offering free access to anyone prepared to share their contact details and download a coupon or two.?

Inside Core i's third generation

14- and 15-inchers

Dell's Singapore operation has outed a "special edition" Inspiron 15R equipped with an Ivy Bridge processor.?

Rounding error?

Taiwanese contract manufacturer Pegatron, which already makes iPhones and iPads, has landed orders for the iPhone 5 and a ten-inch iPad, it has been claimed.?

Budget Vaios outed too

Two laptop lines were refreshed by Sony this morning: the Vaio E and S.?

'I must not say my broadband is the fastest in the UK.' Whack. 'I must not...'

Virgin Media must not claim it delivers "the UK's fastest broadband", the nation's advertising watchdog has judged.?

How The Pirate Bay ban was hijacked by the anti-smut brigade

Something for the Weekend, Sir?  I note with dismay that the recent High Court ruling to force some ISPs to ban access to The Pirate Bay has been hijacked by lobbyists who are confused about what the interweb does. A classic example was heard on Radio 4's Today on Tuesday, which devoted eight minutes to John Humphrys inexpertly tying himself into a mesh of cross-purposes while his guests patiently try to untangle him.?

Make public hotspots easier to use, bake DRM into kit

The WiFi Alliance?s Passpoint program is finally set to arrive in devices, with the organization announcing that the first kit certified to use Passpoint will start shipping next month.?

The generation game

Not its first slimline laptop

Say hello to Sony's first Ultrabook - though it's not the Japanese giant's first oh-so-skinny compact laptop. Remember: Ultrabook is not a category, just an Intel brandname.?

Fast file store

Geek Treat of the Week  The My Book Thunderbolt Duo contains two Western Digital 2TB or 3TB Caviar Green drives in its now familiar hardback-style silver chassis.?

Security airdrop saves legacy fanbois from nasties

Apple has released patches that defend users of its older Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system against security threats.?

Apple defies gravity as Kindle burns low

Apple extended its lead in the tablet market during the first three months of the year, as much because of a slump in sales of rival product as the arrival of the iPad 3.?

Fondleslabs more popular than notebooks by 2016

Apple took a greater share of the tablet market during Q1 and, in a remarkable turnaround, will continue to do so through 2013, market watcher NPD DisplaySearch believes.?

Keep an eye on your servers as 'Chimp challenge' hits Folding@home

Overclocking enthusiasts around the world spent the weekend topping up their coolant tanks and tuning their rigs with unusual fervour, as they prepared to go into battle in the annual Chimp Challenge.?

Something for nothing

E-book reader, not Fire

Colour Kindle, anyone? Yes, we thought that would mean the arrival of the Kindle Fire over here, but the inevitable Taiwanese contract-manufacturer moles say, no, it's a colour e-ink device with a multi-touch sensor overlaying the display.?

Like the iPad 3, just smaller

The 7.85in iPad will sport a "retina" display after all, it has been claimed, but will still come in at $200-250 retail.?

Netflix and licensing killed the video star

Digital media playback in Windows 8 has fallen casualty to the savage economics of the PC industry and changing tastes in consumer viewing.?

All-in-one with finger fun

Drivers engaged, set course for Planet Github

Dell is building a laptop loaded with open-source software ideal for developers.?

Padded sell

Accessory of the Week  Apple?s magnetic Smart Cover is very clever, but it?s far from perfect. For one thing, it doesn't protect the back of the iPad. And if you?re anything like me and habitually leave your iPad on a kitchen counter or table, you?ll have found that its not as immune from scratching as you might have thought.?

Apple pondering 25 per cent price cut, apparently

Apple's cheapest MacBook Air will currently set you back $999 or£849, depending on where you buy it. Wait until August, and it could cost you just $799/£640.?

Multi-function masters

Product Roundup  The mono laser all-in-one has taken the place of the friendly photocopier in many an offices, at home or at work. In some cases, it has incorporated the fax machine, too. Although in essence it?s a laser printer with a scanner stuck on top, it?s more than the sum of its parts.?

Big battery life boost for mystery machine

Apple has quietly begun shipping a revamped version of the iPad 2 that delivers better battery life than its predecessor, thanks to the use of 32nm chippery in place of a 45nm part.?

First major telco to implement court order

Virgin Media has become the first major telco in Blighty to implement a court order blocking access to notorious BitTorrent search website The Pirate Bay.?

No more support for Linux gadget

O2 is severing support for its 7in Linux-based tablet, the Joggler, at the end of the month.?

Reserves Ivy Bridge chippery for new Envy Spectre

Not happy with the Ultrabook brand, or the notebook moniker? HP has a third: Sleekbook.?

Sound thinking

Microsoft Research took motion detection to new levels this week when it unveiled a new gesture recognition system for laptops.?

New shoots from an old acorn

But viewing figures down

Folks, you're as likely to watch video content on your computer as your TV, if stats collated by asking tens of thousands of web-surfing consumers around the world is anything to go by.?

Security fixes include new Safari that executes old plugins

Apple has pushed out a slew of security updates for Macs running Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) and Lion (OS X 10.7).?

DIY DVR

Geek Treat of the Week  Freecom?s Hard Drive Sq is a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 hard drive which is clearly pitched at the growing number of us who have smart TVs and want to be able to record programmes without investing in a Freeview or Freesat DVR.?

Catch: they're last year's model

Carphone Warehouse still has plenty of iPad 2s in its stock cupboard and has just knocked up to £50 off the price to shift them.?

Won't Costa penny, arf, arf

O2 is to equip the Costa chain of coffee shops with free Wi-Fi.?

Light, fantastic

Desktop replacements

Two new 15.6in laptops are inbound from Samsung, each bearing an unannounced Intel Ivy Bridge processor, a third-gen Core i7 quad-core to be (a little) more precise.?

But Brits buying fewer books

Brits are buying more e-books than ever before. Sales of digital tomes in 2011 leapt 366 per cent over 2010's total, the Publishers Association said today.?

Vaio Z revamped

More updated Vaio laptops from Sony, this time the Z series - the latter the original Ultrabook, introduced before the MacBook Air and long before Intel coined the term.?

Dozens of other black laptops launched too

It's ThinkPads a-go-go at Lenovo, with dozens of the black-clad laptops announced today in four families: the T, X, L and W series.?

Part Two: the accidental chip

Unsung Heroes of Tech  The Story so Far At Acorn, Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber have designed the BBC Micro, basing the machine on the ageing MOS 6502 processor. Their next challenge: to choose the CPU for the popular micro's successor. Now read on...?

Distie says Arduino sales 'overtaken in an instant'

RS Components, one of two distributors for the Raspberry Pi, says the 75,000 of the tiny computers are burbling through the manufacturing supply chain and will be ready for release ?in July to August?.?

Don't upgrade your iDevice over iTunes

Apple has released an update to its iOS mobile operating system, version 5.1.1, which it claims remove some bugs and improves reliability of some options, but which does not address the wireless connectivity problems ? well, at least not overtly ? that have had some fanbois fuming.?

Ivy Bridge chips, retina screens, USB 3.0 all a-board

Faster MacBook Pros have surfaced on the Geekbench benchmark collation site promising, if genuine, performance 17 per cent up on its predecessor.?

(and not pay extra)

Everything Everywhere is offering T-Mobile customers Orange home broadband for the same price as its ruddy-hued subscribers pay for it.?