Creative Leaving Recession?

Creative’s FY2010 Q1 results were made official just a short while ago. Pretty much good news all around except in one major category: net sales, which were down nearly 50% over Q1 2009. This might typically be cause for alarm, but with a worldwide recession and no real products introduced during the quarter, it’s not entirely unexpected. The bigger news, however, is the net loss: down to $1 million US. Last year at this time, the company lost $40.8 million.  Here’s the rest:

MediaBook- Creative Intros eBook+ For Singapore Market

Creative’s always done a “side project”. Over the company’s history, they’ve done some projects that never fanned out very well: digital video cams, video cards, wireless cards, PC components, and internet telephony devices. This seems like it could be a more successful venture, and it’s the ‘in’ thing for 2009. It appears to be an e-book reader.

But according to epiZENter, it’s far more.

Creative SoundBlaster and X-Fi Windows 7 Compatibility List

Excited about Windows 7 but not sure which Creative sound cards work with the operating system? Fear not, for here is a list of ones that officially work according to Creative. It’s pretty extensive and covers pretty much every sound card made by the company dating back to the Windows 98SE era. The Compatibility Center on Microsoft’s site is a bit out of date- here’s the latest we got from Creative. If it is listed as not compatible, it may still work- just try the Vista drivers on the Creative support site.

Tech in Hiding Netcast- Week One!

We recorded our first netcast this week. On the show: Verizon adds Android phones, McCain wants net neutrality, Dennis recounts his experience in the Microsoft Store, and we talk briefly about the Xbox Live update and Facebook redesign. At the end, we close out with a very long discussion about Windows 7 and Microsoft moving forward. Interestingly, we come to the conclusion that Windows Mobile 7 may be more important than Windows 7.

This week features myself as well as Dennis Scally, who has from time to time contributed in the games section, but this week was resident Windows expert. Below is a list of topics on the show this week. Next week, we’ll be looking forward to adding Lyon to the show. Questions? Commentary? Leave us feedback at podcast@techinhiding.com or below in the comments. Enjoy the show!

[display_podcast]

Windows 7 Review One

This month, there are big things happening in the world of operating systems. Microsoft is releasing its hugely anticipated Windows 7, while Canonical will trot out its latest Ubuntu release, 9.10, or the Karmic Koala as it’s known to its friends.

At this moment in time I have installed on my PC both these shiny new operating systems, Windows 7 Professional (the full, release version, yes thats right, the one that’s not out till Oct. 23rd!) and Ubuntu 9.10 Beta.

My review of Ubuntu 9.10 will follow later, but as it is, I have been running Windows 7 for the past month and would like to share my thoughts.

Installation

Microsoft have received alot of stick from the tech media because of their ridiculous upgrade situation.

That is the official chart to consult for information on how to upgrade your system. Ridiculous. That, Microsoft, is what you get when you start releasing several versions of the same OS.

However, this reviewers experience of upgrading to Windows 7 was very smooth. I, as I usually do, selected to do a clean install over Vista, so naturally, I backed up all of my important files to an external hard drive.

Installation was fairly simple, as my hard drive was already partitioned because of Vista, I just selected the Vista partition and away I went.

The install took a good hour or so before I had access to my PC again. When I booted up, I was very surprised to see that my hard drive, a 200GB partition of a 320GB drive, was almost full!

What the installer does, and without telling you it will do it, is basically copy your entire old Windows installation to a folder on the C drive called Windows.old. Here I found all my files, which I had to manually copy across to their rightful homes in the new Windows 7 structure. Then, when I tried to delete the folder Windows.old, I wasn’t allowed because of some system files present. It was a bit of a mess but I eventually got it sorted.

First Impressions

Windows gives a good first impression. The default desktop looks very nice, and with a little tweaking can look really very pretty. Here’s my current set up,

.

Boot times are improved, despite what some reports have indicated, definitely an improvement over Vista, boot taking around 45 seconds on a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo. It’s nice to see boot times improving with a new Windows release.

Responsiveness is very good, the experience as a whole feels quite snappy. I wouldn’t read too much into it however, as it is a fresh install, and has not yet began to suffer from usual Windows bloat and slow down.

The Aero UI, which debuted in Vista is back, looking more transparent than ever, and looking better, with more tweakability than it’s Vista counterpart.

New Features

So then, what does 7 offer you that Vista doesn’t?

Well, there’s a new taskbar for one thing,

.

You can place icons for regularly used programs here, similar to the dock in OS X, icons get highlighted when the application is running, and clicking the highlighted icon maximizes the program.

The taskbar is much much much better than the old one, dragging up on the icons gives you a contextual menu that is very handy.

I do have one beef about it however, since you can launch programs with one click of its icon, the same way you maximise already open programs, you often launch programs accidentally.

This is fine for programs like Chrome that launch quickly, but as I’m an engineering student, some of my programs take ages to open, taking up processor power and slowing everything down,which is an absolute pain in the arse!

Much has been made of the Aero Peek feature, shown below, it will show you all your windows transparently overlaid on the desktop. I’ll admit though that in a month, I haven’t had cause to use it at all, so I think it’s not really a big deal.

.

As far as it goes with compatibility with applications, I haven’t had any trouble installing anything on the 64-bit version of Windows 7, 32 bit apps install into a seperate folder, Program Files (x86), and all run fine.

Conclusion

Basically, the OS is the OS that Vista should have been, it’s not perfect, there are usability issues, but overall it feels smoother and more polished than Vista did, and I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending it as an upgrade to Vista.

If you are running XP on old hardware, then Windows 7 isn’t for you, and you should stick with XP, but if you have a 2-3 gigs of RAM, dual core processor, then go for it.

There really isn’t a huge amount thats new in the release, but all over, it’s a better OS than Vista. Still, in my opinion, not quite as good as Ubuntu Linux 😉

Android Hitting Zii EGG This Week?

GenerationMP3 is reporting on an Android update this week to the Zii EGG- exciting news!

See the post over at ZiiEGG.com

The Tech in Hiding Netcast Premieres Sunday!

After more than a year of excitement, Tech in Hiding is proud to present its first ever netcast coming this Sunday to an internet near you. It’ll be recording about 3PM Central time, so check back before you go to work or school on Monday and it will be at techinhiding.com/netcast. Currently, we’re planning on discussing FIFA 10’s ascent to the top, Android hitting America’s most closed network, and Drew Carey. Stay tuned to the entire show for the Hot Topic, ten minutes of discussion about one of the most controversial topics in technology. Each show will feature three well-versed writers in a show that will last about an hour. Check back Sunday for the full show!

Inspire S2 Wireless: Bluetooth Hits Your Speakers

Creative’s made wireless speakers before. So why are the Inspire S2 Wireless speakers spiffy? Aside from the fact that they are way cool, they feature Bluetooth technology for the connection, enabling you to stream music from your Bluetooth-enabled audio device directly to the speakers. Most smartphone and music-oriented cell phones have a Bluetooth chip installed on them somewhere, and the technology is becoming more popular on DAPs- the one that springs to mind is the Samsung P3. According to the specs, you’ll be able to get up to 30′ from the unit and still get it to work; but as always your results will vary based on location characteristics. Also sporting Bluetooth is ZiiLABS’ Zii EGG, and while it’s not fully implemented yet, don’t be surprised to see these Bluetooth speakers being demoed using a Zii at CES 2010. If you have no Bluetooth devices, fear not, as the speakers come with a dongle to allow use with your PC, as well as a standard AUX IN jack.

Among the other less intriguing features is the apt-X codec, which Creative licensed a while back, Mac OS support (a new theme for the company), and Energy Star certification. I dunno if they’ll make any sales based on the “Energy Star” rating, but yay environmentalism.

Inspire S2 Wireless on Creative US

[download id=”3″]