Return of the Jedi (where Jedi = Choice!!!)

Imagine a world where all cars, while looking different from the outside, were interfaced with identically.  A world where regardless of whether you spent £15,000 on a Ford Focus or £50,000 on a BMW 6 series, you had all the same features, faced all the same inherent problems and all that differentiated the two were its shape and outward appearance.

Sounds bizarre doesn't it? And yet this is how the PC industry has been ever since the OEM manufacturers got into bed with Microsoft and led Windows to having a 95% share of the PC market. Don't get me wrong, its good to have standards in that all cars are operated using a circular steering wheel, a gear stick, accelerator and brake pads in the same way that all personal computers are operated using a mouse and keyboard. The problem comes in when one party largely rules a market as they end up deciding what's good and not for everyone at large. Also, when such a party has guaranteed revenue streams, there is very little motivation to innovate or even produce a quality product (Windows ME anyone?).

Fortunately, the situation in the personal computing industry is changing in that one is no longer limited to buying a computer running Windows.

There are a number factors that have led to Windows' slipping hold on the personal computing market but before we look into these, lets see how it got there in the first place. Here is a quick recap:

In the late 70's, Apple Computer came up with and launched the  first personal computer (the Apple I and later the Apple II). Later on, IBM saw the success of this machine and licensed Microsoft DOS to run on what where called IBM personal computers. Other hardware manufactured  soon abandoned their efforts of running custom operating systems (in order to compete with IBM)  and created "IBM-compatible" PCs also running MS DOS. The winner in all this was Microsoft as they found themselves providing the software for soon to be the majority of the industry!

So what has changed? Why is this model no longer working? Lets look at the factors working against Windows' domination of the PC industry.

Security: Windows' large market share has led to it being the target of a lot of malware. This was not helped by Microsoft's poor initial focus on security in its OS that left it with more holes than Swiss cheese. Users have simply gotten tired of having to purchase and run anti-malware software on their PCs.

Internet: In the 80's and most of the 90's, a computing platform was largely defined by what file types could be used on it. Now that the Internet has proven to be bigger and more powerful than any one platform (despite Microsoft's efforts to deter this by having Internet Explorer only technologies such as Active-X or non-compliant CSS and Java), open formats are now prevalent. For example, file types such as MP3, JPEG, MPEG, AVI can be accessed by any computer regardless of OS.

Viable Alternatives: Its all well and good bashing Microsoft for its questionable deeds and shortcomings, but in all honesty, for the average user, there simply were no viable alternatives to Windows in the 90s and early 2000's. Linux was too complicated, Mac OS (Pre OS X) was too old and  unstable and Mac OS X was restricted to the incompatible, and over-priced PowerPC hardware architecture.

Now, the story is different. Mac OS runs on the same hardware base as normal PCs making migration very easy. It's  lower market share and Unix foundation also makes it inherently more secure than Windows. Finally, the fact that Apple makes both the hardware AND the software makes Mac OS less susceptible to performance issues or driver problems.

Linux has also made some progress towards the desktop with easier setups and Live CDs (free CDs that you can use to test Linux on your PC without installing it on the hard disk) especially from the free Ubuntu distribution. You can now order some Dell PCs with Linux pre-installed as well as purchase the excellent Eee PC from Asus for around £200. Other OEM manufacturers are watching these developments carefully and we should see more and more offerings from the Linux camp.

Consumerisation**: I have said it before and I will say it again - the computing industry is now all about the consumer. In the past, computers were for the geek and the nerd to tinker around with. Nowadays, the iPod generation couldn't care less about opening up the case to swap out drives or tweak the registry to improve stability. They need their PC to just work in the same way as their DVD player or washing machine. And this where Windows fails. To run Windows efficiently, you need to know how to keep your anti-virus up to date, defragment the hard disk, clean up the registry, uninstall applications, empty the temp folder etc etc. If you don't, then you will soon start wondering why your fast PC is all of a sudden running like an old pensioner (that's if you don't get infected by a virus first). Again, users are starting to see that there must be a better way. And now there are!

So, in summary, next time you decide to get yourself a new computer, remember that you have now a choice from Windows. If Windows meets all your needs, then by all means buy a machine running it. Just don't blindly purchase without considering all the CHOICES available to you.

**this is a word that I have made up.

Are you ready for the HD?

It is now looking more and more that the time to move to HD (high definition) is upon us. In fact, I know (and envy) quite a few people that recently acquired new HD Ready television sets.  The next step after getting an HD set is to pump some HD content on it - otherwise its like owning a colour TV and only watching black & white content on it. It is a common misconception that hooking up an HD TV will automatically improve everything to high definition. This is simply not true and in fact, some SD (standard definition) content will actually look worse on an HD set due to the image being resized to fit the higher resolution.

So here is my list of where to obtain HD content:

SKY HD: With Sky HD, you can get movies, sports, nature shows and even Eastenders in HD (mostly in 1080i). You however need to fork out for the Sky HD box plus HD subscription on top of your normal Sky subscription (in the US, some companies such as Time Warner Cable offer free upgrades to HD including a free HD cable box...)

High Definition DVD: Now that it looks like Blu-Ray has won the next-gen DVD format wars, it is fairly safe to jump on the high def DVD wagon and never look back. Blu-Ray DVD offers movies in glorious 1080p resolution and also includes loss-less surround sound. It really is the best way to enjoy movies at home! My only issue with this format is that its specification is not complete (currently at 1.2). This means that the player you buy today (with the exception of the PS3) will not be capable of taking advantage of the v2 BD profile (extras that include internet content aka BD-Live) when it comes in October 2008 (?).

Online: There are many sources of HD content online. From movie trailers, free video podcasts to full blown movies. You can use devices such as the Xbox 360, Sony PS3, AppleTV or even your laptop to download and watch HD content on your HD TV. The amount you pay will depend on the service you use and also bare in mind that online HD content is usually of less quality than physical media due to higher compression. It will still look better than ordinary DVDs.

Upscaled DVD Playback: If you are not ready to jump to the next gen DVD format, then why not invest in an upscaling DVD player. Whilst not true HD, this kind of DVD player can improve normal DVD pictures by using a special chipset to upscale the image to look good on HD sets. I recently picked up an upscaling Phillips DVD player for £39!

You: Yes that's right, YOU! Next time you are getting a camcorder, get one that records in HD and enjoy the playback on your TV. Also, most digital still cameras already take pictures in HD resolution so hook it up to your tele and enjoy.

Have I missed any other ways of getting HD content? Be sure to let me know in the comments

Humble Pie

Well ladies and gents, it looks like it is time for me to eat some humble pie. About a year ago, I posted an article where I declared my support for HD-DVD in the HD format war. But now with Times Warner declaring that they will going Blu-Ray DVD exclusive, its looking rather bleak for the HD-DVD camp (there are rumours that Paramount will be following soon).

Whilst I still believe that HD-DVD is the better format, I for one am glad that the HD war might finally be coming to an end and we can all go out and buying players without the fear of ending up with the next "beta-max".

There may be a number of reasons for HD-DVD's failure but it came down to Blu-Ray's better DRM (harder to pirate ) support that lured in the movie studios. Add to that the Sony PS3 improving popularity since the price drop, and the lowering of Blu-Ray DVD players, the deal was all but sealed.

The HD-DVD camp did not do much to help themselves either. They touted how HD-DVD were based on current DVDs and thus cheaper and yet the cost of an HD-DVD disc was virtually identical to a Blu-Ray disc. The cheap Chinese HD-DVD players never materialised in any quantity and also their talks on having a triple layer disc only fuelled speculation that  current HD-DVDs were inferior to Blu-Ray discs.

Well, ladies and gents, I believe its time to get your HD on!