Posts for 'Software' Category

Opera developers recently revamped their browser offering to compete with the well-received Google Chrome. The new version of Opera is 9.6 and a look at the two browsers side-by-side proves that each will give one another some pretty good competition. However, testing and feature comparison shows that Opera just may be the superior browser.

Both browsers were loaded for testing on an IBM (NYSE:IBM) ThinkPad running XP Professional with 2 GB of memory. The graphics-heavy site, papervision3d.org, was loaded onto both. Opera loaded the 3D site in 20 seconds, Chrome in 30. Acid 3 test results were as follows: Chrome 77/100, Opera 85/100.

For tech -savvy users, Opera is a better browser experience than Chrome. Version 9.6 is highly customizable. For instance, a native RSS feed reader lets a user organize feeds and even give them labels such as "Valuable" or "Funny." Chrome does not have a native RSS manager, when adding a feed through Chrome, a user is prompted to download a reader like FeedDemon or RSSOwl.

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Matthew Paul Thomas has an entry on his blog called Why Free Software Has Poor Usability, And How To Improve It. While this advice is helpful and may indeed lead to improvements in many open source programs, the guidelines may be much more difficult for smaller projects.

 From the entry, 'Free Software has a long and healthy tradition of "show me the code." But when someone points out a usability issue, this tradition turns into "patches welcome," which is unhelpful since most designers aren't programmers. And it's not obvious how else usability specialists should help out.'"

 Thomas has been developing the ideas in this essay for years. The critique is comprehensive, listing 15 challenges in the way software projects, and in particular free software projects, are structured, with suggestions for improving each one.

It's been more than 16 months since Windows Vista was first sold to consumers. Since then, Vista has developed a reputation that's been, um, less than stellar.

Whether Vista is a success or a failure depends on who's making the assessment. Microsoft says it's sold more than 140 million copies most of them preinstalled on new PCs and that it's starting to gain a foothold in the traditionally conservative business market.

Many tech bloggers and pundits will tell you it's a disaster, with users suffering through nasty bugs and poorly thought-out features. Some even blame Vista for the steady rise of Apple's Macintosh market share.

Most users I talk to give mixed reports. Some have no problem with Vista, and many even gasp! like it. Others hate it and ask me whether they can fall back to Windows XP on the new PC they just bought.

The fact is that Windows Vista, installed properly on a machine with hardware powerful enough to support it, works quite well. Many of the problems people have with it come from either a) buggy hardware drivers that haven't been updated, or b) the junkware that most mainstream PC makers put on computers sold at retail or online, or c) attempts to make it work with outdated peripherals and software.

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The growing use of encryption software like Microsoft's own BitLocker by cyber criminals has led Microsoft to develop a set of tools that law enforcement agents can use to get around the software, executives at the company said.

Microsoft first released the toolset, called the Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE), to law enforcement last June and it's now being used by about 2,000 agents around the world, said Anthony Fung, senior regional manager for Asia Pacific in Microsoft's Internet Safety and Anti-Counterfeiting group. Microsoft gives the software to agents for free.

While Microsoft can point to wide usage of COFEE, some experts are skeptical about using that type of tool to recover data, and even the developer of the product at Microsoft acknowledges that it's not accepted by some users.

Fung, who initiated the creation of COFEE, spent 12 years as a police officer in Hong Kong, with the final seven dedicated to fighting cybercrime. When he joined Microsoft, he sought to devise a way that agents could do better at finding valuable information on computers used by cyber criminals.

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(BUSINESS WIRE) ClearOne (NASDAQ: CLRO), the leading provider of high performance audio conferencing solutions, today announced the release of a new version of software for its CHAT™ family of audio conferencing products. The new software upgrade includes full support for all versions of the Microsoft Vista operating system, as well as enhancements to the user interface. This software upgrade applies to all models of the CHAT 50 Personal Speaker Phone and CHAT 150 Group Speaker Phone.

“Windows users have always been able to plug a CHAT 50 or CHAT 150 into a PC running Vista and the products have worked well,” said Mark Child, Director of Product Marketing at ClearOne. “This new release now gives the CHAT software complete Vista compatibility. This means that users can install and run the CHAT software on Vista machines making it easy to fine-tune the CHAT’s audio settings and create their own database of defaults for different applications. The software interface has also been improved with simplified menu selections and a broader range of supported products.”

The recipient of PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award, the CHAT 50 is used by traveling and home-based office professionals who want crystal-clear audio in a hands-free speaker phone. The CHAT 50 connects to a PC or laptop via the included USB cable to provide high-quality audio for phone calls using Skype or other VoIP softphone clients. About the size of a deck of cards, the CHAT 50 can also connect to certain cell phones and business or home phones. Portable Computing Magazine also awarded the CHAT 50 its Best for Business Award for 2007.

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If you're buying an Eee PC in 2010, don't be surprised if it comes with Windows XP Home preinstalled.
If you're one of the many people dreading the removal of Windows XP from sale in the next few months, then you'll be pleased to hear that Microsoft has given the last-generation OS a reprieve – and it's pretty much entirely due to the Asus Eee PC.

Windows XP was due to reach its end-of-life stage in January this year, but Microsoft relented to pressure from customers not ready to make the switch to Vista and moved that date to the 30th of June. That was as far as the company was willing to go, however: they've spent far too much on Vista for everyone to keep buying XP.

But then along game the Asus Eee PC, and a raft of similar devices: small, lightweight machines that are underpowered when compared to their full-size brethren. With the massive success of these miniature marvels, Microsoft has been faced with a tough choice: as the devices aren't physically capable of running even the lightest version of Vista, does the company continue with its plan to kill off Windows XP and allow Linux the chance to flourish on these popular devices, or does it suck up its pride and offer a reprieve for the OS that wouldn't die?

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With Sony’s irritating dependence on proprietary software resolutions numerous camcorder consumers have complained that such formats like AVCHD are approximately unfeasible to edit with their accessible software. This has encouraged a battle to create plugins to handle the Sony format and it seems that Ulead has broken the tape with Ulead VideoStudio 11. Other features of VideoStudio include Vista support, HD DVD authoring and Dolby® Digital 5.1 surround sound. New users can rely on VideoStudio’s Movie Wizard which helps to select from various themes and can also “auto-edit” a professional looking opening sequence. In addition, it can also perform the famous Ken Burns effect of Panning & Zooming on still photos for photo montages and slide shows.
Special filters include color correcting and tone filters, an auto-correct feature for adjusting video recorded in poor light conditions, and even the ability to clean up digital noise or blocky compression artifacts from poor encoding mishaps. The MPEG Optimizer analyzes the bitrates of all clips on the timeline, and can re-render them for the best quality and speed.

Customer Manager Buddy 2.1 Lets you manage customers and leads to increase sales and profits. It a complete system that is the application to track customer information such as contacts and customer notes. Track who owes you money and what each customer needs. The lead tracker is a great way to keep track of and follow up on leads as needed. 

The software can be used by a group of people over a network or by a signal person on one computer. Customer Manager  will automatically save data as you type it so you do not have to lose data when u loose power or forget to save data.  

Copy and save text and graphics from the Clipboard. Scrolling through clipboard buffer using hot keys F6 and F7 or Ctrl-Alt Left Arrow and Ctrl-Alt Right Arrow. Run Applications, Send Strings of Text, and Send Key Strokes using Hot Keys.
 
Enables user to access the last 10 Copies/Cuts using Hot Keys of Ctrl 0 - 9. (Simply hit Ctrl - 3 and retrieve the third last item in Your Clipboard)
 
Customer Manager has a Clipboard Viewer that lets you see the last 1000 Cuts and Copies of Text or Graphics. Auto Trim is an option that can be set to automatically trim space and font properties from clipboard text. Its great when do want to copy font size or extra data like in excel or web pages.
 

Clipboard Genie 4.1 is a very useful software utility. Everything that is copied into Windows Clipboard is saved into Clipboard Genie. Text and Graphics. To retrieve it, simply click on the text or graphic in the list box. It is copied to the Windows Clipboard  where you can paste it into other windows applications.

There is also a scrolling method that enables you to scroll through the Clipboard buffer using hot keys F7 and F8. There is also a hot key function, this feature will send text to other windows applications simply by  hitting one key. It can also be used to run applications. Text from your Clipboard can also  be sent over the network to another PC running Clipboard Genie 4.1.   
  
You can Copy and save text and graphics from the Clipboard, scrolling through clipboard buffer using hot keys F7 and F8 or Ctrl-Alt Left Arrow and Ctrl-Alt Right Arrow. By hitting F7 or  F8 you will see a last things you copied/cut in a box at the top right of your screen. The option you scroll to is  automatically copied into your clipboard. From there it can be pasted. Run Applications, Send Strings of Text, and Send Key Strokes using Hot Keys.
  
Holds the last 1000 Copies/Cuts of text or Graphics into the Clipboard. Just click on the item you would like to  retrieve from the list box and it is automatically copied into your clipboard. Enables user to access the last 10 Copies/Cuts using Hot Keys of Ctrl 0 - 9. Simply hit Ctrl - 3 and retrieve the third last item in Your Clipboard.
  
Clipboard Genie has a Windows Clipboard Viewer that lets you see the last 1000 Cuts and Copies of Text or Graphics. Auto Trim is an option that can be set to automatically trim space and font properties from clipboard text.  Its great when do want to copy font size or extra data like in excel or web pages.
 
Network Clipboard Copies clipboard data to another PC On the LAN running Network Clipboard Genie Click on Network from the Menu. There you can turn on Network Functionality. Then you can copy data from a clipboard on another PC. The  PC's must be connect on a LAN running TCP/IP for this feature to work properly. 

Acute Softwares Timer-PRO allows you to schedule multiple timers to perform complex tasks. The professional version of Acute Softwares Timer gives you all the benefits of the standard Timer.

You can launch any saved Timer from the command line. Any Timer or Alarm clock can launch another Timer these can be linked to form complex sequences. Wizard to built 2 standard sequences to get you started.

Up to 32 Timers, Alarms and Stopwatches can be running at once with unlimited number of saved Timers. Any timer can launch a program or play a WAV file when it is finished. Lots of control over the options - you decide how you want timers to behave they can be hidden, automatically minimised too numerous to list all the options.

Even though the Timer is very easy to use, there are many advanced features to turn this into a powerful timer management tool. Any timer can be saved into the Favourites menu to be reused at any time, and you can even set it to automatically reload all previously running timers when the program starts. This is great for timing long term tasks.