Archive for the ‘Software’ Category
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
A lot of the time, when people but a new PC/laptop, they just don’t know what software to install on it. There are a few key bits of software that everyone should have, that tend to make life a lot easier – in fact, many seasoned PC users won’t have even come across these, but I’m going to share some of the best bits and pieces with you today. I’d say that a decent amount of the best desktop applications available today are ‘open source’, meaning that instead of being developed entirely by one self-contained company, the software is open and available for anyone to work on and contribute to. It’s both a cool philosophy, and conducive to the production of very user-friendly and user-orientated software. So here are a few of my favourites:
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Tags: CCleaner, chrome, firefox, free, Google, IZArc, Open Office, open-source, opera, Software, VLC
Posted in Reviews, Software, Tutorials | 5 Comments »
Friday, March 5th, 2010
Anyone who uses multiple monitors has tried to have a video running in one full screen whilst working in the other. Needless to say it doesn’t work, which made me sad. Fortunately help is at hand in the shape of FlashHacker. It’s all very simple, download, close all of your browser windows, run, then click on Hack My Flash. That’s it, you should now be able to watch video on a monitor in full screen whilst working in the other – simples!
(For whatever reason I had to hack, unhack then re-hack my Flash to get this working… No idea why but if it’s not working certainly something to try… copy blindly! (I apologise, that’s a bit of an ‘in’ joke). Anyway, just a little something for my fellow multiple monitor users out there, hope it’s useful.)
Via – Lifehacker (A fantastic site – if you haven’t it’s well worth a read!)
Tags: dual screen, Flash, full screen, multiple monitors, second, use, video, work
Posted in Reviews, Software | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Mention the iPhone and people can’t help but talk about ‘apps’. What many people don’t seem to realise is that similar applications have been available on Nokia’s smartphone OS – Symbian (s60) – for years. The problem is they’ve never really had an App Store equivalent, even the recently created Ovi Store doesn’t do much mustard cutting.
This doesn’t mean there aren’t great applications out there for Nokia phone owners in 2010, they’re just harder to find. Once you’ve found them though, you’ll be pleased to know that s60 supports multitasking (so you can laugh at iPhone users who have to quit one application if they want to check something in another 
). I’ve included a list of applications I feel everyone should use (all of which are free), and if you’re the proud owner of a new phone which runs s60 you really should check them out. All the applications I suggest work for the E71, I’m sure they’ll be fine on the majority of others as well but I don’t own the phones to check!
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Tags: 2010, applications, apps, e71, e72, n95, nokia, s60, smartphone, symbian
Posted in Reviews, Software, Tech | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
So Microsoft has finally got around to releasing a Facebook app for the Zune HD, something I think all owners have been clamouring for since its release. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work, well at least not yet. At the moment all I can access through it are my notifications, the albums I’ve uploaded and my basic info. Microsoft are certainly aware of the problem as you can see from Zune’s twitter feed, so fingers crossed it shouldn’t be that long until it’s fully functional.
I’ll do a proper review once the app’s up and running in a way that’s actually works but initial impressions are good. The UI is nice and clean, as you come to expect when using the Zune, and as far as I can tell includes all the functionality you’d want from an app like this.
Now come on Microsoft, as far as I understand it the reason you’ve not opened up third party app support is so you can control the quality of the apps. I imagine someone’s getting a fair old face-slapping somewhere right about now!
P.S. To all you iPhone/iPod Touch owners, I know you’ve had a Facebook app since time began, forgive me for getting excited about something so mundane!
Tags: app, application, broken, Facebook, Zune Hd
Posted in Reviews, Software, Tech | 1 Comment »
Saturday, February 27th, 2010
Hello interweb, my old friend… I’ve come to speak to you again. So it’s been a while, huh? My apologies! Cyber-slapping in retribution aside, today I’ll be talking about one of the more useful iPhone apps – Facebook – and more specifically an interesting update it has recently had.
So as I mentioned, the Facebook app had a major update, around a month ago (I know, I’m behind the times…. shocking effort…) which included the ability to receive ‘push‘ updates & synchronisation of the important bits of your Facebook contacts with your iPhone. In case you don’t already know, a ‘Push’ update is one that doesn’t require you to connect to anything to get it, i.e you can have your iPhone in your pocket and as soon as you get a wall post/ comment etc, it will instantly notify your iPhone and pop up a little notification – not unlike a text, for example. I wrote an article a little while back explaining push and so-forth for GMail on your iPhone, you can find it here.
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Tags: app, contacts, Facebook, iPhone, push, Sync
Posted in Internet, Reviews, Software, Tutorials | 2 Comments »
Saturday, February 20th, 2010
Dropbox is the ultimate solution for anyone wishing to backup their files, share them across a range of computers or access them anywhere via the web – and the best part is that it’s free! I know I’m late to the game (I’ve been using Windows Home Server to share files over the web) but this solution is so much more elegant. I just started using it a couple of days ago so thought I’d write a review to share my experiences.
Supported on Windows, Linux and Mac, it basically creates a folder on your computer, automatically syncing anything in it to a secure location on the web, updating files as soon as they change. These files are easily accessed via the website and will immediately update on any computer you’ve installed Dropbox on. It really is as good as it sounds, bet you’ve wanted something like this for ages yes?
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Tags: access files over the internet, back up, Dropbox, free, secure, share files
Posted in Internet, Reviews, Software | No Comments »
Monday, February 15th, 2010
Recently, many of my friends have been asking me for an explanation of HTML5, mainly what it is/does. To be honest it came as quite a surprise to me how many people were in the dark, so I thought I’d throw up a quick post, nothing in depth – just enough so that you can show off to your Gran!
In case you don’t already know HTML is a language used for the foundation for a web page, governing class and in the old days positioning of content. Currently still in development – apart from the standard incremental updates – HTML5’s main aim is to try and reduce the need for media-based plug-ins such as Flash or Silverlight by building their functionality in to the language.
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Tags: Flash, HTML, HTML5, Silverlight
Posted in Internet, Software | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
A couple of weeks ago the Zune software was updated to include support for a vast array of new video formats. I for one completely missed it, so I figured it was worthwhile pointing it out.
Don’t get too excited quite yet, it’s not the Zune HD’s hardware itself which is supporting the files – just the software. When you add your video library folders to the software, all the files show up, and if you then choose to sync one it converts it on the fly. There are also rumours of a purported update for the Zune HD itself, later this spring to natively support these files… we can only hope!
The conversion speed itself is about as fast as the methods I’ve used before the update and the quality is at least as good. Obviously this solution is much nicer than converting the files yourself, eliminating the need to have two versions of everything on your computer. That, and the fact that simply clicking ’sync’ is a lot easier than messing around with format changers.
Personally I think this is a fantastic update, only made better if the Zune HD does indeed start supporting these files natively, eliminating time wasting conversion completely. It certainly adds a plus point for Microsoft’s player when trying to decide whether to get a Zune or an iPod.
What do you think? Impressed like I am, or do you think it’s not actually all that fantastic? Let us know in the comments below.
Tags: conversion, microsoft, update, video, Zune, Zune Hd
Posted in Reviews, Software, Tech | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
For the past couple of months Google have been heavily marketing their new web browser Google Chrome. I can’t speak for the rest of the world but here in the UK I’ve seen it on the cover of the Metro, on huge billboards around Edinburgh and on posters in my gym… just naming a few. The question, “Is it any good?”.
Yes…
Well I suppose I should actually give you some reasons! I’ve been using Chrome on and off for a long time now, I can’t put a month on it but certainly well before it came out of beta. I’ve also used all other major browsers throughout that period including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari. One of the cons of being a web designer is you spend a lot of time hopping in and out of browsers to check things are working. Not everyone’s heard of Chrome so I thought I was in a good position to weigh up its pros and cons.
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Tags: chrome, Google, Internet, internet explorer, web browser
Posted in Internet, Reviews, Software | No Comments »
Monday, February 8th, 2010
An operating system that’s able to be run from a pen drive? Yes, please! Ok, so right out of the gate it already sounds like I’m trying to ’sell’ the idea of Linux to you. Scratch that. I do, however, think it is a very interesting concept, and the Operating Systems that are developed using the open-source Linux kernel are in themselves very intriguing, and altogether worthwhile.
Now then, to give you a brief overview, we have to go back to the 80’s. Its not been long since the founders of Apple Inc. and Microsoft went their separate ways, and home computing is still in its infancy. In 1983, Richard Stallman creates the GNU Project, with the vision of creating a free, open-source, UNIX-like operating system. However, even after years of development and an almost-complete operating system, the GNU kernel failed to get the required attention from developers to be completed. Enter Linus Torvalds (c1991). Linus took what was previously done under the GNU Project and created another project, that eventually became the Linux kernel. It’s that kernel that is still under development and iteration today, and that all Linux ‘flavours‘ must build upon.
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Tags: Linux, open-source, Operating System, Unix
Posted in Reviews, Software, Tech, Tutorials | 2 Comments »
