Tech Junky

A note for all the Apple TV users: An update for your Apple TV is now available. Check out the Software Update from the Settings menu on your Apple TV, The update will be available for you to download and install.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs had discussed about “Apple TV Take Two” at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco last month in January. The recent major upgrade to the software that takes care of Apple’s TV convergence device offers a wide array of new and exciting features, like the ability to buy and download music and videos directly from the iTunes store instead of having to access a Mac or PC first.

A new feature in the Apple TV now is that it supports movie rentals through the iTunes Store. This new service was even put forward last month. It permits iTunes users to download movies and watch them for $2.99 – $4.99 depending on the video quality and how fresh the movie release was.

Another new thing that this release brings with it is access to photostreams hosted on the leading photo sharing service Flickr, as well as photostreams hosted as .Mac Web Galleries.

The new features are available to the existing Apple TV users as a free upgrade. The new Apple TV units are coming with these updates already installed and are even being sold for $70 less than they were a few weeks ago. The price tag on the 40GB model is $229 and that on the 160GB version is $329.

This software update finishes the confusion regarding it’s release. Apple CEO told that the update would be available in February. An announcement by Apple later on 30th January made it clear that it would be “another week or two” for Apple TV’s new software.

Seeing your system scores in Windows Vista might be a bit shameful for many. Until and unless you possess the top notch hardware, Vista won’t pity on you. You might want to get rid of those dreadful scores and have something better for yourself. If you are going through a similar problem, then you are no different from the many people running the OS.

You can get to know about your scores from the Windows Experience Index (WEI). Basically, what Vista does to calculate the WEI is that it takes the lowest of the five scores that relate to your processor, RAM etc. Maybe that’s the ultimate aim of the WEI — to embarrass or anger us into spending more money on upgrading our PC’s.

You can acquire higher scores by a couple of ways. The first one would be to run the test again. A re-test might boost your score and take you over the three mark. To increase your system performance, you can even disable the Aero glass interface.

The second way is a sort of a hack. We’ll be directly displaying the scores of our own choice by straight away editing the .XML file which stores the results. It’s pretty easy this way and you won’t have to perform any hardcore hacks.

The Windows System Assessment Tool (WinSAT), the tool that calculates the WEI, stores it’s outputs in the %systemroot%\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore. Each time you open the WinSAT, it automatically creates a new XML file and stores it in this folder with the date of assessment at the beginning of the file name.

To edit your ratings, open this file using Wordpad and change the top five scores to any number that you would like to be displayed when you open the WEI. After saving the file, check out the WEI settings again. Magic! Your desired scores are in front of you.

If you want to revert these scores to the ones you originally had, then just run the Performance test one more time.

Finally, you just got rid of those ugly figures and got yourself a new set. So what are you waiting for now? It’s time to flaunt these in front of your friends. Tell them about your new hardware. LOL!

If you want to see it before you try, then give this snap a look.

Hi!

Welcome to Tech Junky, my new blog. Starting to blog from an entirely new end is fun. Building your website from scratch can even be considered as a bit frustrating but for now it’s something of real interest to me.

In the time to come, I’ll be updating this blog with the latest tech-checks, gadgets & gizmos and much more. So, just keep your eye on this blog as it’s gonna be really good.