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Sydney Australia, 29th of October 2009
By Ho Wong

Alienware and gamers have had a love affair of sorts ever since the computer manufacturer started producing machines with both enough style and enough grunt to keep even the hardest gamers happy. Gamers were up in arms when Dell took over, fearing their beloved company will change but for the most part, things have stayed the same. Alienware's presence in Australia has been reasonably low profile and niche, but there now is a visible push from Dell in order to target not only the gamers but catch some of the public who would never have considered Alienware before. Alienware are releasing five new products - the 15" m15x laptop, a 17" m17x laptop, the Area 51 desktop, the Area 51 ALX desktop and a 21" monitor. We take a brief first look at the offerings.

All the products exude Alienware style with bold lighting, polished metallic surfaces and edgy cases. (All except maybe the AU$399 21" monitor, whose distinguishing feature is not its black rectangular look but its true 1080p). I won't go too much into the specifications of the new laptops and desktops as these are available online but each sports impressive specs that allows the gamer to squeeze some extra frames per seconds.

The new laptops (starting with the m15x from AU$2499) are stylish and are as much a fashion accessory as a piece of hardware. The metallic sheen of the cases and the lights (customisable through the control centre) which border the laptop and light the keyboard would even make Mac owners envious. One warning with the m17x laptop though: factor in a chiropractor's bill as this is one heavy beast. The laptops also can optionally switch between discrete GPU and integrated video, discrete being a must for the portable gamer. The m17x also has SLI GPUs as an option.

With the new desktops (starting with the Alienware Area 51 from AU$3699), Alienware has well and truly incorporated Dell's customisability. The customisation of the desktops include components above and beyond those normally available to other companies, like HP, and this sets Alienware apart. The basic models are beefier than run-of-the-mill desktops. Gamers, though, will have no hesitation upgrading the hard disk in the basic Area 51 (It includes only 500G for a primary drive). On the plus side, the option of a solid state is certainly welcome and is indicative of the type of customisation available. Alienware boast future-proofing and making these kind of options available go a long way towards this ambitious claim.

On price points, Alienware are now able to compete with better known offerings from HP and Sony. Prices used to be only for the extreme gamer, extreme in monetary terms too but these new products don't have this legacy - the prices of the models have dropped. A slight disappointment is the reasonably large discrepancy between the prices for US market and the Australian market which is difficult to explain away by shipping and the usual spiel about living in Australia. For example, the Area 51 is priced from USD$1999 while in Australia, it's priced from $3699. Why do we in Australia put up with paying so much more for things, even though the Aussie dollar is going so strong?

Alienware have a difficult balance to uphold in order to not alienate their extreme gamers niche but for now, there's enough to keep the core gamers happy and introduce Alienware to a new audience.

John Harrison Interview
Symantec Group Product Manager, Endpoint Threat Protection

Your career within Symantec has been wide and diverse, what would you say has been the highlight in your career? The highlight of my career is at Symantec where in the past year we delivered security solutions to the tens of millions of users to protect them against the web based attack. I feel like we are truly helping to protect enterprise and consumer users and leading the charge in terms of online protection.

Where do you see yourself in five years time? I really enjoy product management and security so I will be at either Symantec or some similar exciting company. It is scary and exciting to think about how the threat landscape will have changed by then.

With threats being discovered all across the globe, what are the logistics of managing STAR? We have to be effective with our resources and continue to be proactive and change the game in our threat protection strategies. If we don’t do this we will be in a purely reactive mode fighting threat outbreaks across the world.

What puts Symantec ahead of other companies? From my perspective it is our Security Technology and Response. Any company can make a product and call it “security software” or a “security hardware.” What differentiates us is our approach to providing the core security technologies, the threat intelligence and the threat content that protects our consumer and enterprise customers.

For the average computer user, what are you top tips in managing your security?

1. Keep ALL your software up to date. Including 3rd party multimedia and reader plug-in.
2. Deploy a comprehensive endpoint security product. Traditional signature based antivirus is NOT enough. Use and turn on all features.
3. Keep your security product subscription current. At 20,000 signatures a day, even 1 day can put you at risk.
4. Be cautious and suspicious. Download software updates directly from vendors websites.
5. Adopt a good password policy. Different and strong passwords.
6. Prevention is the best cure - use proactive technology.

What are your thoughts on the future of internet security? Security isn’t going away – with financially motivated cybercriminals, they will continue to try new things to infect and take advantage of users.

What has been your most challenging “internet threat”? The malicious advertisements, or malvertisements, since they are so transient and may only appear every 1 out of 1000 times on a page. It makes tracking them difficult.

With the internet now moving towards portable devices, what do you believe will be the next challenges for developers of internet security? Helping to ensure the developers of these new platforms build in security from the beginning.

What is the biggest flaw of internet users? Many users today post too much personal and private information online today without thinking about the repercussions of 5, 10 or 20 years from now. It may impact them when they are applying for a job 10 years from now or having their identity stolen today.

We’ve seen a variety of dangers in the years from viruses to bots and the like, what do you think the next threat will be to users? It is really hard to say since the changes have been occurring so frequently. With the financial motivation there will be new ways to separate users from their money.

In your professional opinion, do you think there will be a day when the operating system will no longer need internet security software? I would like to think so, but realistically I don’t think it is possible again tying back to the financial motivation. As we close one hole, the hackers/cyber criminals look for another.

PC versus Mac versus Linux. Do you believe there is one operating system that is superior to the other? No, especially the way that the browser has essentially become the operating system for today’s web applications.

Your computer at home, PC or Mac and why? I am a Mac guy primarily for my nature and landscape photography (www.jharrisonphoto.com). For me, working on macs with my images just works easier. It really is just a tool to allow me to get creative!

Walking into the realm of science fiction, do you think that a virus or the like actually be beneficial if you could rework it? No, the idea of automatically doing something without the users permission (either for good or bad) isn’t good.

Is there such a thing as the perfect virus? So far we haven’t seen one and let’s hope it stays that way.

With so many different digital threats in the world, how can users or governments catch the perpetrators? I think the primary goal today is to keep them out, not to catch them since it is so difficult. It is a big challenge considering the lack of boundaries the internet has and often the hacker can be so far away from where the actual drive-by download or server is hosting up misleading applications. It is going to take some joint cooperation to catch the perpetrators.

Have you ever had a virus or the like on your personal computer? Only on my test systems in an infection network. I have had a fake antivirus application pop-up, but since I didn’t install it, I was safe.

The theme was Summer and the host was Nintendo as the game giant allowed people to come in and try five new games. Peter Rowsthorne and Maude Garrett from Nickelodeon Australia were the MCs of the night, with Rebecca Gibney as a special guest, but the stars of the show were the games. Nintendo has always been known to have very strong first-party development, making it difficult for third-party developers to compete, but in recent years, they have to in order to participate in the success of all-conquering Wii and DS. From what we saw that night, Nintendo are back to their strengths as can be seen by the games shown and the fun had by all on the night.

New Super Mario Bros Wii

The star of the show no doubt was New Super Mario Bros Wii. Shown on four massive LCDs, this is a game everyone was looking forward to. The game is based on the original Super Mario Bros, employing familiar levels, characters and powerups but with 4 players simultaneously playing. I was quite sceptical about how the four players would work but Nintendo have dissolved those doubts. The players can play competitively or cooperatively and Nintendo have put in a lot of thought to include features that allow for both styles. The game is controlled by the Wii remote and even uses the accelerometer in some cases. An intelligent zooming camera system, similar to Smash Bros allows the 4 players to constantly be on screen. The gameplay and control is simple enough for people to just jump in and play and the difficulty level seems just right, not being too difficult but difficult enough that you need to be alert. Couple this with the four players (and the chaos that ensues), this is going to be one winner. I can envisage Wiis flying off the shelves when this game releases.

Wii Fit Plus

The original Wii-fit has come and is still doing well, but Wii Fit Plus has just been released. Wii Fit Plus comes with even more yoga, strength and balance exercises as with the original but Nintendo seems to have really taken a step back and had a good hard look at the different minigames. They really gone up a notch in terms of quality, variety and fun. For example, Golf swings was something I would not have thought about, but it is included in Wii Fit Plus. Flying as a bird through an obstacle course is another inclusion. Some favourites like the Hula-hoop make a welcome return though. Also, you are now able to create your own program of exercises AND yes, you can weigh your favourite canine. Wii Fit has spent a lot of time at the top of the Australian charts and fortunately for Nintendo, it certainly seems that there's still loads of life left in this franchise.

Professor Layton and Pandora's Box

AMD showcased a new direction for consumers today with the launch of their new branding for laptops and their soon to be released 5800 series of graphic cards. The AMD representatives of the day included Garrath Johnson (Technical Manager, ANZ), Caleb Leung (Country Manager, ANZ), SeeGhee Tan (Marketing Director, South Asia) and Jacky Wong (Technical Marketing Specialist) who were on hand for the media to answer a wide range of questions.

Pictured: Garrath Johnson (Technical Manager, ANZ), Caleb Leung (Country Manager, ANZ), SeeGhee Tan (Marketing Director, South Asia) & Jacky Wong (Technical Marketing Specialist)

The first speaker from AMD was Caleb Leung (Country Manager, ANZ) who introduced a new branding system from AMD, allowing consumers to easily identify which laptop best suits their needs. With a release date to coincide with Microsoft Windows 7, ASUS and HP have already embraced this technology that may revolutionize computing as we know it. With three models entitled "Vision" (Everyday Use), "Vision Premium" (Media Consumer) and "Vision Ultimate" (Content Creation), these laptops are not only powerhouses when it comes to performance but they are easily identifiable by the consumer with their unique branding. Best of all, these laptops will be available in all good computer outlets such as Dick Smith, Harvey Norman, Bing Lee and WOW to name just a few of the stores.

AMD have also targeted the visual capabilities of laptops and according to a Notebook Tracking Study in 2008, "66% of consumers say they want a PC that will deliver the best visual experience available", SOURCE AMD. With that in mind, AMD have created a true multimedia experience through their motto of "See, share & create", ensuring that these laptops can perform a wide range of functions. With Windows 7 available on these laptops, consumers can experience a new way to work and play, thanks to the various facets of Vision Technology.

A key point by AMD was Messaging Alignment which focuses on the visual experience with Windows 7 and Vision Technologies, ensuring for high definition playback of movies, TV and games. Further to this was Retail Alignment that is designed to make the purchases of laptops easier for consumers and finally Technology Alignment which has all AMD CPU's featuring AMD Virtualization Technology for Virtual PC Mode support.

Best of all, these ultra thin laptops support HDTV and are quite affordably priced with a HP model available for around $1000AUD. As a variety of developers have taken this technology onboard, users can expect to see a variety of different laptops, each with a particular purpose with different screen sizes and true multicore performance which once again highlights the HD entertainment experience for users and high end gaming.

Another innovative move by AMD is the AMD Fusion Utility for Mobility which allows for a wide range of modes from airplane, web, max battery and custom modes for example. Apart from an easy to use interface for this program, it supports a simple one click power optimization interface, based on what the user needs plus advanced profiles if needed.

With AMD continuing to be a leader in the development of CPU's and GPU's, this new branch into laptops is truly an exciting time for the end consumer that offers better software speeds, compression rates, rendering, clear images of up to 1 billion colours, smooth life-like gaming experience, high definition videos, 7.1 Audio and even HDMI to HDTV connection with a one cable solution.

Definitely exciting times to consumers and businesses alike.

For more information on Vision Technology, please visit http://www.amd.com/vision

5800 Series

Following on from AMD's presentation of their exciting new range of laptops entitled Vision Technology, AMD showcased their latest and greatest graphic cards plus the future direction of their company. Before going into specifications and statistics of their cards, SeeGhee Tan (Marketing Director, South Asia) played a snippet of the upcoming game by SEGA, Aliens vs Predator which featured state of the art graphics that was quite reminiscent of the movies with impressive special effects and realistic lighting. This was a glimpse of things to come and with that ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to the 5800 Series of Graphics card from AMD.

As AMD continue to be a innovator in the field of graphic cards, it should be noted that AMD was the world's first company to have a TeraFLOP FPU, the world's first company to use GDDR5 and once again, the world's first company to go beyond 1GHz. Their latest 5800 series move on the 4800 series that boasts 40nm technology, more energy efficient, faster, more powerful and yet again, the world's first and only card that supports DirectX 11 for the GPU to ensure maximum graphical capabilities and features.

AMD highlighted the three new technologies of their cards that include ATI EyeFinity, DirectX 11 and ATI Stream to give the user one of the most powerful and visually compelling experiences that has not been seen in the PC world for quite some time. For those users old enough, consider it the move from EGA (16 colours) to VGA (256 colours), however this is the move to high definition movies and graphics.

As this new series of cards support DirectX 11, this means better performance for the gamer and with the inclusion of Tessellation, it allows for a higher count of polygons, more detailed characters, realistic textures and highly detailed terrains. Add in some other "cool" and "geeky" technologies such as OIT, Post-processing Shadows and HDR compression to name a few and the new range of AMD cards once again moves the goals for its competitors.

Another highlight was DirectX Compute which allows for better physics and even artificial intelligence in gaming. As the old analogy of the "proof is in the pudding", AMD showed a tech demonstration of a real-time demo which showed more tessellation that was visually impressive and extremely smooth in terms of frames per second.

Other capabilities of the new cards include depth of field, motion blurring, tone mapping, edge detection, smoothing and sharpening for example and to showcase this, a movie was shown of a lady beetle that was like a Digital-SLR camera zooming onto the insect with the insect crystal clear and the background blurry. Technologies like this will eventually transfer to gaming for some truly spectacular effects. For a more hands on experience, I suggest you check you Aliens vs Predator, Stalker and Colin McRae DiRT 2.

Of course the bells and whistles don't just stop there and ATI EyeFinity Technology goes beyond just gaming and joins gaming with productivity and entertainment. For the end user, this means better games, the ability to add more screens to your computer besides "2" and of course high definition gaming and workspace.

Whether it's connecting 3 screens, 6 or even 12, this will redefine gaming and productivity that will also have repercussions in the business world, even medical and engineering. For gamers, this allows for increased visuals of the gaming environment and for racing games, it shows more of the 3D landscape, rids you of blind spots and gives you a definite edge over the competition that in essence gives more visual cues to the user.

Tom Clancy's HAWX was shown to the media which had 6 screens connected to the game, truly allowing for a visceral flight simulation experience. The only downside to connection so many screens beside the cost is the bezel size or borders of the monitors which does distract a little, however designers such as Samsung are creating new screens to support this technology.

What does this mean to the user? Basically, extreme entertainment! Imagine playing a game on one screen, watching TV on another, surfing the net on another and video conferencing on another screen and things that were once the realm of science fiction are now readily available to the consumer and best of all, LCD screens for PC's have considerably dropped in price over the last few years.

This also enhances productivity for office personnel and designers with increased workspaces. The configurations of these screen are quite diverse from 3x1 monitors used to display landscape, 3x2 to display portrait and for something even more outrageous, 1 PC with 4 Cards powering 24 monitors. And yes, the PC with 24 screens was used to showcase a LINUX flight simulator. Needless to say, it has some impressive configuration options.

The next highlight is ATI Stream Technology that offers end-users the following benefits;

Performance - ATI Radeon HD series unrivalled GPU compute power
Standards - Driving innovation with OpenCL & DirectCompute 11
Solutions - Accelerate Games, Video and Productivity apps

As AMD is the only company in the world that does both CPU and GPU, this has allowed them to truly harness the power of both for combined processing with Windows 7. Apart from gaming, this power can also be used for non-gaming applications such as Cyberlink Media Show 5, PowerDirector 8, ArcSoft SimHD plug-in for TotalMedia Theatre and Roxio Creator 2010. Needless to say, this will definitely give AMD a huge competitive edge over Intel. To prove the power of this combination, a demonstration of a StudioGPU was shown that displayed some powerful real-time rendering.

In the next six months, AMD are releasing a bevy of processors that include the Cypress (mid range gaming), Hemlock (high end gaming) and the Juniper, entry level gaming which will have a cost between $100 to $200USD. Lastly, there is the Redwood/Cedar in the first quarter of 2010 that will once again offer users some impressive performance for both gaming and application use. In essence, AMD have taken 177 Deep Blue Super computers which were launched in 1996 and have combined this power into one very impressive card.

Offering the latest technological and software advances such as DirectX11 Support, 40nm technology and GDDR5 memory, these cards are more efficient in terms of GLOPS and less watts but offer twice the horsepower. Best of all, current games will also benefit from this technology and once again, AMD outshone its competition with the latest 5800 series of cards. With DirectX 11 and DirectCompute support, these cards offered 20% improvement from Windows Vista to Windows 7 and with two cards (Crossfire), the performance was up to 70% in terms of improved performance. This is perfect for users who multitask or high end gamers.

At the end of the day, it's a good day to be someone involved in productivity or gaming and AMD have once again proven why they are the number one developers of graphic cards. ATI are also releasing a HD5870 EyeFinity6 Edition which will allow more monitors to be connected and finally the card codenamed "Hemlock" which will be released sometime next year that will burst a few more bubbles. With Windows 7 just around the corner, it's a good time to be a PC owner.

Expand.. accelerate... dominate, AMD has definitely delivered!

Check out all the latest games being released and discover what's on in the world of video games. Whether you're interested in challenging the best Guitar Hero player, racing cars in realistic simulators or playing games that won't be released until next year, there is a heap to do and see at the eGames Expo!

Symantec Media Discussion on Security Technology and Response (STAR) & Symantec Endpoint Protection – Small Business Edition

Symantec’s John Harrison (Group Product Manager, Endpoint Threat Protection) highlighted to the media the changing face of the Threat Landscape which affects all users of the internet from single-users to corporate enterprises. At the workshop, Harrison went into detail of the various threa6ts over time which began in 1986 with the Brain Virus, the first MS-DOS virus ever detected. Ironically “this” virus was created for fame, rather malicious intent. Unfortunately this was the catalyst of things to come.

As the Threat Landscape changed, Symantec changed its structure to combat the various threats which users now faced. Whether it was viruses, Trojans, spam or drive by downloads, Symantec continued to support users across the globe which caused them to expand considerably in order to maximize protection.

Symantec was founded in 1982 with 275 employees and now employee over 15,000 people worldwide. Although Symantec continued to provide protection to users and companies, it acquired several companies to assist in this process such as Peter Norton’s, Norton Utilities and other companies who provided backup and anti-spam software technologies.

To showcase how dynamic the Threat Landscape is, Harrison pointed out that originally virus definitions came on floppy discs for Enterprises, however as the internet became more popular and speeds increased, Symantec created the Live Update function which allowed automatic updates be readily available for the consumer. This lead to the creation of the Security Technology and Response (STAR) organisation which operates at 11 sites worldwide, 365 days per year and 24x7.

Unlike in the infancy of the internet and popular bulletin board systems, users were no longer sending in floppy discs or even infected hard drives to Symantec to inform them of new threats, rather, the technology had moved to scan and delivery. Of course, criminal elements of the internet moved away from traditional forms of attacks. For instance, businesses proved too difficult to target and once again the landscape changed with individual users being targeted through Spam, key loggers and drive by downloads. This proved a much more profitable endeavor to criminals.

To demonstrate the move away from traditional viral infections, Harrison showcased a variety of authentic Australian websites which have been affected by drive by downloads. Without the appropriate internet security on your system, your operating system automatically downloads this malicious code and you are infected. It was quite eerie seeing these sites automatically infect unsecured PC’s without any alerts to the user. This brings forth some grave concerns as to how many people are really protected? Although originally it was the seedy and nefarious sites that led to infections, it is now possible that even mainstream sites could be infected unless they have the correct measures in place.

With that said, Malware was no longer static software but rather it had evolved into server side polymorphism which had the ability of creating different versions of the same Malware in order to elude detection. This lead to Malvertisement, third party advertisements that have been breached and make it difficult for traditional antivirus packages to discover.

Thankfully this has been a key aspect of Symantec’s security software as it has the ability to detect these “unknown” threats. Although this software can protect against the traditional attacks, the software has the ability to detect even new attacks which have not been reported thanks to its clever programming. Harris highlighted an interesting fact with Bots (programs covertly installed to attack communication channels or perform other activities) that there were 1,000,000 people in the world using the Seti @ Home software to find extraterrestrial life, however at its peak, the Conficker bot infected over 4,600,000 users.

Another highlight of Harrison was “What’s Old is New Again” and cyber criminals generally target the easiest and weakest flaws of computer systems. For example, floppy discs were once used to spread viruses and now USB memory sticks have taken over. As cyber crime once started as “fame” for the creators, it has been embraced by the criminal underworld and “fortune” is now the goal. It is easier for criminals to target these individuals, whether it’s stealing identities and credit card details or duping customers into purchasing “fake” antivirus software by spending $49.95, it’s truly a diverse and dangerous landscape.

Although some might think that by having their antivirus software or internet security software up to date is the key to remaining safe, this is only just one aspect of security. Criminals and cyber hackers have targeted vulnerabilities in other software package such as iTunes, Adobe Acrobat, not just your operating system. Whether it’s a known flaw or masking a download as an official product, users need to be quite vigilant when on the internet. Legitimate sites with third party advertising may also prove dangerous to the user as it is very difficult to monitor this content, especially with rotating advertising.

In order for you, your computer and your business to be safe as possible, Harrison recommended that users always update their software to the latest versions which does not include just the operating system but all installed software. Whether it’s WinZip, iTunes, Windows Media Player or the like, updated software generally provides the best possible security. Enterprises should also check their software, following similar protocols to single users and ensure that they have viable security software installed such as Symantec Endpoint Protection. Lastly, Harrison noted that “prevention” is always the best possible protection and users should always be “cautious” while accessing the internet.

Following John Harris, Rob Pregnell (Regional Product Manager, Security Business Unit, Symantec, Pacific) gave the media an interactive demo of Symantec Endpoint Protection – Small Business Edition which targets small businesses of 10 to 99 users. Unlike traditional security suites for small business, Pregnell highlighted that Symantec was the leader of the pack in terms of innovation and protection that was also mirrored by independent testing.

At its core, Symantec Endpoint Protection – Small Business Edition offers small businesses enterprise level protection, however with optimized performance, ensuring a streamlined management user interface at an affordable cost. By utilizing the world’s largest security infrastructure, it offers 24x7 protection with the backing of one of the world’s leading internet security companies.

Pregnell also performed some real-time testing of the product and the installation on average takes around 8 minutes to successfully install. Best of all, the software requires relatively low system specifications, ensuring that it can be run on a wide range of different computer configurations.

Once installed on a system, it has a relatively small impact on the system which includes boot-times, running speeds and minimal impacts on software such as using Office Products or copying files. Even though Pregnell was installing this on a low end system with VMWare, the installation was extremely quick that required little user input.

In relation to user input, the interface of Symantec Endpoint Protection – Small Business Edition is quite basic, ensuring that it can be used by a wide variety of users. The simplicity of the installation and interface also mirrored installing the software on remote computers. However with that said, the program does not skimp on features and there are a variety of administrator settings that include reports and even primary e-mail addresses which can be used for resellers. Setting up new administer accounts with different privileges is as simple as 1-2-3.

Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition features best of class endpoint security technology:

To round it up, Symantec Endpoint Protection – Small Business Edition offers multilevel protection and accessibility to a wide range of users, from novice to professional administer. With in-depth functionality not yet offered by its competitors, Symantec Endpoint Protection – Small Business Edition is definitely a software package that should be investigated by all businesses.

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