Tag / Microsoft

by Henry Hunt

No matter how hard I try, I can’t stop hating Microsoft

The title of this article is a little misleading, as those of you who read my posts, follow me on Twitter or know me in person will know that I love Microsoft. Windows Phone is my phone platform of choice, I would never consider using anything but a Windows computer, and the thing that I want most in the world right now is a 15.6″ one of these. But even with all the love I bear for the love-child of Ballmer and Gates, there are a large number of things about them which annoy me.

The first and foremost of these annoyances is with Zune. As a Windows Phone user, I am forced to use Zune in order to update, add music and video to and do a large number of other things to, my phone. This is fine, I can add and take away music to and from my phone quickly and easily, and updates will automatically commence if they are available. But when I got my HP Pavilion dv7 with Beats Audio, I began to play music through my laptop, whereas previously I had been using speakers connected to my phone. It soon dawned upon me that Zune, a beautiful piece of software, is one of the buggiest pieces of crap since Windows Media Player. Quite often while playing music, the song will randomly pause, move to a different point or just skip altogether, and on occasion I have closed Zune to find that the song that was playing doesn’t stop playing, much to my teacher’s dismay. When this is Skrillex, chemistry lessons can be quite awkward. What the hell is up with that? A company whom incorporated software into its very name can’t be bothered or is unable to iron out the bugs in their music software. Even iTunes, something which is essentially designed to work on a different operating system and much maligned on Windows, is nowhere near as buggy. This being said, with the Zune name being dumped, and the software being incorporated into the OS, I surely hope that for Windows 8’s sake that at least some of the bigger glitches will be ironed out.

And secondly, what is the point in Windows Media Player any more? The whole thing is utter crap and nobody in their right mind would ever use it. I mean seriously, software that causes computers to blue-screen (I speak through personal experience) through use is not right in any way. And if any person out there does use this utter piece of crap, please explain to me in the comments below why you would put yourself through it. Please.

My final point is the most obvious one. Internet Explorer. This is in every way the single most hated piece of software out there. It is crap, it crashes, freezes and is only there for sane people to download either Firefox or Chrome. And, to make matters worse, you have to have specific permission from Microsoft to be able to uninstall the software. Of course, you can do what both I and Xavier (our EIC) have done and bury it deep within our program files, but it will always be there, taunting you with the possibility that you may one day, have to use it.

So those are the main reasons that Microsoft pisses off even myself, a true Microsoft fanboy. Despite the wonders of things like the Arc Touch Mouse, SkyDrive and Windows Phone, Microsoft isn’t perfect, but by ironing out the bugs and listening to consumers, they could get pretty close.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Microsoft giving away free software in exchange for Windows 8 feedback

Do you want free software and Xbox games? Give Microsoft some feedback about the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 and the free stuff could be on its way to you.

by Henry Hunt

Windows Phone AOTW: GIFStudio

This week’s best Windows Phone app is GIFStudio by Daniel Gary.

This great app allows you to create animated GIFs from the comfort of your own Windows Phone. You use your phone camera to take a number of pictures that the app then stitches together into GIF form. You then can proceed to manipulate the GIF, by changing the speed, adding and removing frames, including those already saved on the phone, or sharing them with your friends. We at Digixav love GIFs and web have had quite a lot of fun with this app. Without GIFs, we would not have lives.

GIF Studio, Windows Phone,  £0.79
Download it from the Marketplace

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

On The Nokia Lumia 900 And How AT&T Is The Phone’s Only Downside

The long-awaited Nokia Lumia 900 launches this weekend on AT&T in the USA, but we are still awaiting a release date for European markets. When it comes, our own Windows Phone fanboy Henry Hunt will get one straight away, and, with the help of my 710 and forthcoming 800 reviews, we can help you find if a Nokia Windows Phone is right for you.

by Henry Hunt

WP7 AOTW: Gerbil Physics

This week’s Windows Phone app of the week is Gerbil Physics by Pencel Games. This great game is one of my favourite games on the Windows Phone platform. It may sound weird, but you play as an apprentice to a gerbil wizard who has to save the other gerbils from the toad king and his army of flying penguins. The toad king has imprisoned the other gerbils inside indestructible blocks and he has made them into monuments to himself. You have to destroy them in order to save your fellow fur balls.

Gerbil Physics

As you can see from the picture above, you do this through a mixture of bombs, explosives and other demolition equipment to get all the gerbils below the magical yellow line. This simple game, with an excellent back-story, comes with 200G of fairly challenging achievements, which is a nice change from games such as Collapse which it took me about 10 mins to get all the achievements.

Gerbil Physics, Windows Phone, £2.29
Download from the Marketplace or visit the website

by Jordan Davis-Bernier

PS3 vs. Xbox 360: The final battle

Now, before you can say that I am biased towards one console I just want to point something out. I have BOTH consoles. I will obviously include my opinion where necessary. The way this will be working is that I will be using a scoring system out of 10 on each category as follows:

  • Controller
  • Game quality
  • Online play
  • Online features
  • Durability
  • Costs
  • Size/power comsumption
  • Units sold
  • Technical problems


Controller

To be honest, you can’t really say which controller is better, as you can easily get used to either one. For example, I had a PlayStation for about 10 years before I got an Xbox, and, within about 2 weeks, I was easily able to pick up the Xbox controller and use it and vice versa. After using the Xbox for 2 years, I went and got a PS3 and I was easily able to switch between the two.

Xbox 8/10
PS3 8/10

Game quality

Without boring you with all the techy stuff (sorry), the Xbox and the PS3 have virtually the same graphics card. The processor on the PS3 is better, but it is extremely hard to make a good game for it (from what I’ve heard) while the Xbox has a slightly worse processor, but it is much easier to program for (again, from what I’ve heard). That would explain the higher game count on Xbox.

Xbox 9/10
PS3 7/10

Online play

Let’s start on a bad point for both consoles. Xbox has this stupidly annoying feature called region lock, which is literally what it says. You can’t play some games hosted in other countries. I have come across countless hackers on the PS3 as in, one in every 20 games will be hacked or modded in some way. Now this thing with the PS3 might just be me getting unlucky, but I truly doubt it. Now on to the good stuff. PSN/SEN is FREE! I love it. I can make countless accounts, go and use the first gun and go and pwn some of what I consider the ‘easier’ opponents or ‘n00bz’. On the Xbox, however, you have to pay, but it is a measly £39.99 per year. For actual connectivity I would say that it is the PS3, but for security I would say that without a doubt the Xbox.

Xbox 7/10
PS3 8/10

Online features

I’m going to make this clear. By online features I actually mean chat and the online store ie. the Xbox Marketplace and the PlayStation Store. Regarding chat, Xbox is definitely the winner. With cross game and single player chat it is superior. When you do get to finally talk to people on PS3, I don’t think it is of as good a quality. That is my own opinion, but don’t say anything unless you have actually experienced both consoles. Now onto the Xbox Marketplace and the PlayStation Store. I find that downloading from Xbox is significantly quicker than PS3. However, trying to find things on the Xbox is a nightmare. Do you want the DLC? No. The demo? No. How about the trailer? NO! Then you will – eventually – find the game. On the PS3, I think that the Store has a significantly better layout, but poorer download speeds.

Xbox 7/10
PS3 7/10

Durability

I know this may sound like a stupid category, but I think it is important. I am not going to give this one a rating however, because the two consoles were designed for a different audience. The Xbox, with its tougher design, means that it is more suited to a family environment. The PS3, with its sleek design, is more designed for the careful gamer. Sounds stupid, but it’s true. I have dropped both my Xbox and PS3 (like a boss) and the Xbox definitely fared better. Anyways, enough of this stupid topic on to the next.

Costs

I’m going to do this in a HDD capacity to Amazon cost ratio. I will take the highest capacity of each that is currently available, and not include the prices of motion controllers ie. Move and Kinect.

Xbox = £160 ÷ 250GB = 64p per GB
PS3 = £229 ÷ 320GB = 71p per GB

As you can see, the PS3 is marginally more expensive per gigabyte, which is probably due to the Blu-ray, but what can you do about it?

Xbox 8/10
PS3 7/10

Size/power Usage.

The PS3 is definitely the bigger model and this is because of the massive power brick that sits outside the Xbox is actually inside the PS3 which essentially makes it sort of portable. Microsoft decided that the Xbox’s power brick outside. This makes the model smaller than its counterpart. All of this said, you may be surprised to hear that the PS3 uses 30W less energy than the Xbox.

Xbox 7/10
PS3 9/10

Units sold

Simply put, the Xbox has sold 65.8 million units and the PS3 has sold 62 million. This may be down to games, or availability.

Xbox 9/10
PS3 8/10

Technical problems

Many people say that the Xbox has the red ring of death, but what they don’t know is that the PS3 has the yellow light of death, which means exactly the same thing on both consoles. They’re screwed. It does have to be said, however, that the PS3 has significantly less reported incidents of the YLOD than the Xbox’s RROD.

Xbox 7/10
PS3 8/10

Conclusion

To conclude, I will count up the points of each console and total them below.

Xbox 62/80
PS3 62/80

Please note: I did not go back and change any of the results, I left them how I thought they should be.

As you can probably see, there really is no clear winner. So you can go and have your petty comment wars, but as Rowan Dinwoodie says:

I don’t give a fuck

by James Hardy

Technophobia: Why Comic Sans should be banned

Technophobia is a column by James Hardy. Views expressed are not necessarily those of Digixav.

Comic Sans MS was deplorably brought to life in 1994, and is probably the worst thing Microsoft has ever given this world – and yes, that includes Internet Explorer.

Gwargh!

Even ironically typing this article in the font in Microsoft Word made me wretch.

I think the problem I have with Comic Sans is that it is actually used. A LOT. Comic Sans should be used on invites to kids parties.

AND NOTHING ELSE.

Normal fonts – Arial, Helvetica, Ubuntu etc. – have an air of slick sophistication about them. Comic Sans just asks you to make it multi-coloured. Please no. Please, please no. There is nothing worse than a sign written in multi-coloured Comic Sans.

Some fonts annoy me. No one uses Times New Roman unless they haven’t worked out how to change the default font. And excessively fancy swirly ones like Jokerman or Curlz MT are written by annoying people. The same people who use every single fucking entrance and exit effect possible in PowerPoint presentations.

But nothing comes close to Comic Sans. It is untouchable in its title of THE WORST FUCKING FONT IN THE WORLD. Thinking about it makes my stomach turn.

And Comic Sans is used in the most inappropriate of situations. I saw a few posters recently written in the font. One was about drug use. The other was highlighting the problem of domestic violence. It has even been used on gravestones. Fail much?

And then there is this one:

I feel that behind every notice written in Comic Sans is built up anger. Behind some innocuous notice like ‘Please dispose of your cups in the bins provided!’ written in the typeface, there is someone pulsating with rage, probably thinking something along the lines of:

Why the fuck are these wankers unable to make use of the bins I have fucking put out for them‽

Yep, Comic Sans says that. With flowers on. Using Comic Sans is like coming to a funeral in a pink bikini. That’s not how the world works!

What really pisses me off are those teachers who insist on writing EVERYTHING in the font. Yes, Mr. Mulae, I’m talking about you.

As for the websites which are entirely in the typeface, they are probably the leading cause of suicides in the country. Fortunately, for Safari users, some genius has made an extension which changes all pages in Comic Sans to a font of your choice. But I can’t afford an Apple, so I’m stuck with sites like Languages Online which try to be really friendly and happy and rainbows and butterflies and IT MAKES ME SO ANGRY!

For more information on how I feel, visit bancomicsans.com and like Ban Comic Sans on Facebook.

So, next time you type something, unless it is a school fair poster, a notice on a parish church, or perhaps a souvenir beach towel from Barcelona, avoid Comic Sans at all costs.

Please, think of the kittens.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Microsoft says Internet Explorer can make a comeback like bird-based communication

We all hate Internet Explorer, and even Microsoft knows that. Their new ad campaign for IE9 has a guy who says that, before he discovered IE9, he did what we all do and uninstalled Internet Explorer after downloading another browser. He then proceeds to declare his love for IE9 and a cat policewoman. Watch the video below, and check out Microsoft’s comeback prospects in some hilarious graphs too.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Microsoft slams Google Apps in new web video

Microsoft today released a video to their YouTube channel promoting their Office suite over Google Apps for Business for productivity. In the video, a soul singer representing Microsoft lists the faults and dangers of using Google Apps, while a ‘Googlighting stranger’ tries to act smooth and win over a potential customer who wants more than Google can provide. Whether this kind of direct attack video will catch on we don’t know, but the video itself is entertaining and can be watched below. Microsoft also set up a companion website with links explaining the differences between the services and of course the productivity advantages of working with Microsoft.