QEMU Manager

All about virtualisation

Virtualisation is one of the most exciting projects to come out of the modern-day computing world. As most of us have a PC, we can successfully run a variety of different operating systems from within the comfort of our favourite desktop. Whether it’s a Windows host, running the latest Ubuntu or a Slackware host running a copy of Windows 8, the possibilities are almost endless.

However, for most OS emulators and virtual machines, we're stuck with using the same x86 combinations within the likes of VirtualBox or VMWare (although there are exceptions). To emulate different CPUs and architectures, we need something different, such as QEMU.

Top 5 UK "How To" Google Searches Of 2015

What did we ask the most last year?

1 How To Lose Belly Fat

We're guessing a fair few of these searches came just after major national holidays, like Christmas and Easter, but no doubt how to lose a few pounds is a year-round problem. Micro Mart isn't a health magazine, though, so we're not going to suggest that eating less and moving more might help. And neither are we going to suggest that ice cream and Snickers bars do not a nutritious breakfast make.

Remembering... Atari 7800

David Hayward recalls the once king of the consoles

Following the success of the Atari 2600 and its successor, the Atari 5200, this renowned games company was desperate to get its next-generation console out to an eager market.

But after the 1984 announcement of the new Atari 7800, it took three years before the console itself was on UK shelves, with it being made available the year before in the US. This gap was enough to cause Atari some immense headaches, as the Nintendo Entertainment System had already been realised and was dominating the gaming market that Atari so desperately wanted to claim.

Sengled Pulse

Let there be light... and some music too

With the rise of smart everything these days, it was really only a matter of time before someone married a light bulb and a Bluetooth speaker together.

The Sengled Pulse is the product of this blissful union, in the form of a pair of large 8W 600-lumens bulbs - one designated as the Master, the other as the Satellite. All you need do is download the Sengled app for either your Android or iOS device, enable Bluetooth and connect to the Master bulb.

Once paired, you'll be able to control the light and the built-in JBL wireless speaker from the accompanying app. And if you've placed the bulbs at an appropriate distance from each other, you'll be able to enjoy streamed stereo music from your device and through the bulbs.

Asus Strix 2.0 Headset

What do these headphone offer, other than an usual appearance?

As a technology journalist, one tends to spends more time than the average person trying to make sense of marketing speak. The Strix 2.0 stereo headset is a case in point.

Much is made of the 'thunderous' 60mm neodymium drivers, the travel-friendly design and the cross-platform functionality, but how much of this actually worth mentioning, and how much is little more than hyperbole?

Asus ZenPad C7.0

Anthony finds out how much tablet you can get for less than £80

Finding a cheap tablet is easy. They're everywhere, from e-shops to high-street stores. But they're not without their problems. Buying an unbranded Chinese-made device, for example, is obviously a risky business. And the Kindle Fire, on sale (at time of writing) for just £40, might be from a recognisable name, but's inevitably geared towards selling you Amazon stuff, and it lacks the Google Play store out of the box.

For a while, the Tesco Hudle was the one to beat, but since it's no longer in production, there seems to be a gap for a reliable, low-price tablet with access to Google Play. Can the ZenPad С 7.0 from Asus fill that void?

Corsair Carbide Series 600C Case

The PSU returns to its spiritual home in Corsair's latest case

Case makers have my sympathy, because differentiating their designs is generally undermined by the requirements to support the ATX 2.0 systems we put in them. Many just mess around with the outside, rather than taking on the greater challenge of doing anything radical with the internals.

Corsair's Carbide Series 600C is something of a shock to first behold, because it takes the norms of conventional case wisdom and abruptly turns them on their head.

Asus Travelair N (WHD-A2)

We look at a hard drive that has its own wi-fi hotspot

A good external hard drive can be immensely useful in a number of ways, including for transferring files from computer to another, or to provide a straightforward backup solution. Logically, though, the market for them must have shrunk in recent times, considering how many people these days do most of their computing tasks on a tablet or smartphone.

There are, however, ways to serve mobile devices with external disks, while also bridging the gap between them and tradition personal computers: wireless drives. Yes, you can use a USB hard drive with many smart devices by using an OTG (on the go) converter, but with a wireless disk, you don't even need to do that.

IT Tablets 10" Tablet

Quad core performance, all the way from Leeds

The Best Tablet Company started life a few years ago when Nova Smith, the founder, required a tablet for her work while she was in and out of hospital caring for her newborn son.

The current slew of tablets at the time were a little too expensive for the then-struggling family, but Smith found one of the many Chinese import tablets on Alibaba and was so impressed she started a company selling them on Amazon.

Since then, the company has grown, and it now sells its own brand of tablet, using the name the IT Tablets.