01/05/2008 by swordfish.

“Grand Theft Auto IV”, the gangster-themed computer game that earned both critical claim and strong criticism, broke first day sales records in Britain, according to an industry body’s initial estimates on Thursday.

The Entertainment Retailers Association, which represents 5,000 stores selling games, music and films, said the game sold about 609,000 copies on Tuesday.

That beats the previous record held by an earlier title in the same series, “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas”, which sold 501,000 copies on October 29, 2004.

“The past 24 hours have been like it’s Christmas all over again for our members,” ERA Director Kim Bayley said in a statement. “GTA IV is a phenomenon.”

Its release was one of the most hotly anticipated in the gaming world in years. Fans queued outside shops around the world to be the among the first to get a copy.

The ERA said the 40-pound game had eclipsed big releases in the film and music industry.

Source: Yahoo News

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Posted in Xbox, PC Games, Software | Print | 1 Comment »

30/04/2008 by swordfish.

If your copy of Windows XP is using the NT file system (rather than FAT32) and cannot process all the Input and Output requests as your computer shuts down this may force your PC to restart.

If these restarts become a problem a good tip is to run the Chkdsk tool to repair any problems with your disks volume.

To do this Click START and click RUN and then type cmd in the box. At the command prompt type
chkdsk /R /C (i.e. repair your C Drive) and hit ENTER.

If the following message appears: “Cannot lock current drive. Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts?”

Type Y and hit ENTER

Reboot the PC and Chkdsk will automatically run and check the drive for errors. It will then attempt to repair these.

This will usually fix the shut-down and restarting problems on most Windows XP machines.

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Posted in PC tips, Software, XP | Print | 1 Comment »

29/04/2008 by swordfish.

A new study by European web metrics firm Xiti has found that the Firefox browser is used more frequently at weekends.

The study claims that Firefox has a 29% share of the European browsing market overall. But that figure exceeds 30% at weekends, suggesting that people are using Internet Explorer at work and opting for Firefox on their machines at home.

Many companies don’t allow employees to install software on their work PC’s, of course, and with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer pre-installed on every Windows machine, the company has a natural advantage.

However, while Firefox continues to grow in popularity in Europe and Australasia, its market share has been dented in North America, where it saw a slip of 1% in March.

Firefox is nearly the dominant player in several European countries, with countries such as Finland and Poland giving the open-source browser a market share of 40% or more.

Source: PC Pro

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Posted in Mozilla, Software, Microsoft, Web Browsers | Print | No Comments »

28/04/2008 by swordfish.

Highly-anticipated video game Grand Theft Auto (GTA) IV has received a string of near-perfect reviews ahead of its worldwide release on Tuesday.

The game is expected to break records for the fastest-selling game of all time and many shops are opening their doors at midnight for gamers.

The game has been classified as 18 in the UK and Mature for US gamers.

In the US, regulators have reminded parents that the title is not designed for children under 17 years old.

Source: BBC Technology

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Posted in PC Games, Software | Print | 1 Comment »

22/04/2008 by swordfish.

Microsoft has released the third Service Pack for Windows XP to manufacturing.

Confirming last week’s leaked launch dates, Microsoft will release the Service Pack to the public next week, on 29 April. It will then be rolled out via Microsoft’s Automatic Update system “in early summer”.

Microsoft is desperately trying to play down the benefits of XP SP3, as it attempts to migrate more users to Vista.

The final XP Service Pack arrives just as Microsoft is preparing to withdraw the operating system from sale at the end of June.

Source: PC Pro

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Posted in Software, Microsoft, XP, Vista | Print | No Comments »

16/04/2008 by swordfish.

The third and final service pack for Windows XP will be released on 21 April, according to leaked reports.

Neowin claims to have got hold of an internal Microsoft schedule that shows SP3 will be released to OEMs, MSDN and TechNet subscribers on Monday. Just over a week later on 29 April, the Service Pack will be made available on Microsoft Update, Windows Update and Download Centre.

Finally, the Pack will be issued through Microsoft’s Automatic Update service on 10 June. That’s just days before the company controversially plans to withdraw XP from sale across the world on 30 June.

Source: PC Pro

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Posted in Software, Microsoft, XP | Print | No Comments »