Various outlets are reporting the news that Lenovo has been installing adware on brand new PCs straight off the factory floor – i.e. there’s no one else they can blame this on.

While the practice of bundling software that ‘adds to the user experience’ has been around for a long time, this is something that is hidden and not straightforward to uninstall. Worse, there’s rumour that this adware installs its own self-signing certificate that could be put to nefarious use.

I always wondered about this bundling thing; I would much rather have a clean install that is blazing fast rather than semi-useful bloatware cluttering my machine. The latter annoys me, the former cements the brand in the what-would-I-get-next shortlist.

This might seriously unseat ThinkPads on that list. That is a sad thought.

BB Flashback Express is free and absolutely superb for recording anything on a Windows screen. Ability to export to AVI already puts it ahead of the competition, and being able to highlight the cursor in post-processing is unimaginable for a free product. Cropping/zooming is also available!

I couldn’t find a way to cut bits out of the clip; but that could be because I was in a hurry and didn’t manage to learn the feature.

Very happy with this find!

Something that Windows wins hands down – reinstallation.

OS X ‘safety’ features make it extremely difficult to reinstall if you don’t have the previous owner’s Apple credentials. And there is no more optical media. And making a usb boot drive won’t necessarily work either. There’s even cases where people found themselves completely locked out needing another Mac to reinstall. That is ludicrous if you come from the PC world.

I guess stealing Macs is a bigger problem than stealing PCs.

Apple’s relentless drive to push the boundaries is inspiring. But at some point being so cutting edge has its prices. If this rumour is anything to go by, carrying an USB hub and even swapping for new USB devices are on the way.

The rumour states ‘mid-2015’ for the release date, and the article finishes with this suggestion: “In other words, don’t hold off on buying the existing Air unless you can afford to wait.”

If it was me I would be buying an existing Air just in case this turns out to be true.

For many years IBM had a winning formula for business machines called ThinkPads. Amongst the plethora of innovative advantages was the tradmark ‘red-dot’ on every ThinkPads – the easiest way to operate the mouse pointer in a mobile context (back in those days ‘mobile’ meant a travelling with a laptop).

The feature stayed when Lenovo took over, but the ominous sign came a year ago when the flagship ThinkPad X1 removed the 3 physical buttons that cripples the red-dot TrackPoint; it still moved the mouse pointer, but it didn’t operate the machine anymore.

At CES this year Lenovo released the ThinkPad X1 Carbon with the TrackPoint reverted back to the original design – as well as physical Function buttons (rather than some ‘adaptive’ immitation).

Whilst this change was enough to reignite Ars Technica’s love affair with the ThinkPad – and I so wish it would do the same for me – I have since tasted the smoothness and responsiveness of Apple’s trackpad.

My ThinkPad X220 has passed its 3 year warranty, and one day shall fail in a way that isn’t worth spending money on; but I’m torn as to what will replace it when the time comes.

It surprises me that there are still businesses trying to build digital products around the usage case of ‘publish-and-destruct’ or ‘send-and retract’. How can such services guarantee disappearance/retraction given the analog loophole? How can users buy into this?

The fact that it installed on this ancient machine is a feat in itself. No problems what so ever during the installation. This is Microsoft at its best: compatibility, and backwards too.

I have yet to explore the features. But Youtube videos worked in IE straight from install. Granted, the CPU, memory, and disk all shot up to the 95-99% zone, but we are talking about a Pentium 4 with a gig of RAM!

A shoutout to really clever and enterprising computer experts/enthusiasts. Thanks to them my Optus branded ZTE V9 from a few years ago is now sporting KitKat 4.4.2!

And surprisingly useable as well – on par with 2.3.7 or even a little faster.

But most importantly this allows me to test an app on newer Android iterations without forking out a few hundred dollars for a new device. Yipee!

http://www.modaco.com/topic/367844-devrom-cyanogenmod-110-android-442-for-zte-v9/

Is that Federighi controlling a Keynote using an Apple Watch? Is that MacBook with the Keynote connected to the Apple TV without a wifi router?

That. Is. Awesome. Presentation trifecta!

If Apple develops a Chomecast equivalent – and if it can be battery powered – I’ll get them all tomorrow.

Decided. A desktop rig – most likely Broadwell by then – when Windows 10 comes out. Plus some sort of a low-cost Atom-based Windows tablet for mobility, preferably in the vicinity of 8″ to 10″, and must have HDMI out for presentations.

Unless an iPhone 6 Plus functions as well as the tablet? Oh that’ll be the dream. But too expensive! Yet it’ll be so good. Oh so torn …