The latest release of Internet Explorer is a lot faster, finally follows internet standards, and adds a lot of new features like a smarter address bar, tab grouping, private browsing, and tab crash protection. Check out our previous coverage of the IE Beta for a full walk-through of the new features, or just download it and check them out for yourself.

I mentioned before about the excellent Windows Home Server, that you could download a 120 day trial.

Microsoft have now decided to let you get this through the MSDN and Technet subscriptions, so enjoy 🙂

I have been meaning to post this for a while now.
Around a year ago BT release the BT I-Plate, and I took the plunge and got one. This is really simple to install if you have a modern BT Master Socket, and it has given me a steady, stable extra 1MB of bandwidth.

I have no affiliation with BroadBandBuyer but they seem to be selling it for a pretty good price, so its certainly worth a try for under £10.

What is the BT i-Plate & how does it work?
The i-Plate (iPlate) is a filter for use on ADSL Broadband lines to improve the speed & stability of the connection. Since they’re easy to install yourself, (see YouTube video below) there are no costly engineer visits required. When connected to the master socket, the iPlate filters the ‘bell wire’ which used to be needed to make our old-fashioned analogue telephones ring. However, with today’s touch-tone phones, this bell wire is now redundant and its presence in a master socket actually causes digital interference on the ADSL line.

Please note that with an iPlate, you will still need to use micro filters.

Increased speeds:
Some lines have seen up to 4Mb increases in speed although improvements of 1.5Mb were found to be more typical in a benchmark survey of 36,000 filtered lines. This indicates a potential 10Db extension in reach meaning iPlates can also help with poor performing ‘Long lines’. These benefits were realized on ADSL lines and they’ll be at least as good, if not better, on ADSL2+ lines.

Improved stability:
Since the iPlate also helps to make ADSL connections more stable, there can be Broadband performance benefits even when line speed is not noticeably increased. The same benchmark study of 36,000 lines showed that filtered lines typically had 20% fewer re-trains (denoting lost connections) and a 45% reduction in error rate.

Who can use the iPlate?
7 out of 10 UK homes will benefit to some extent – that’s approximately 9m Broadband lines. You must have a BT NTE5 type Master Socket (does your socket look like the picture below?).

Will I benefit from an iPlate?
A good way to tell if your line is likely to benefit from bell wire filtering is to compare Broadband performance test results when the modem is plugged into the master socket, versus plugging it into an extension socket. If you see an improvement in broadband performance when the master socket is used, this is a good indication that an iPlate will help

Leyio have released a device that uses a new technology called “Ultra Wide Band (UWB)”
This new technology allows your to transfer 1GB in about 40 secs, allowing pictures and mp3’s to be transfered almost instataneously.

Currently the range is about four metres, so its perfect for mobile devices, such as phones, mp3 players and media devices. For now a 16GB Personal Sharing Device from Leyio is available.

I have just read about ToysRUs paying £3.6 Million for www.toys.com. They are obviously keen to have an online presence, and assume it will pay for itself over time. I just wish I had registered the domain name all those years ago 🙂

See the story here.