What's Next

Format USB to NTFS Format

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:08:00 +0000

First, connect your USB device to your computer. Then right-click on My Computer from the desktop and choose Manage or directly use Device Manager

Next click on Device Manager and then expand out Disk Drives. You should see your USB drive listed.

Now right-click on the USB drive under Disk Drives and choose Properties. Then go to the Policies tab.

Now you will see two options, the “Optimize for quick removal” selected by default. Go ahead and change that by selecting the “Optimize for performance” option. This enables writing caching on the drive and therefore allows you to format it as NTFS! Sweet.

That’s it. Now click OK and then go to My Computer. Right click on the drive in My Computer and choose Format. In the File System drop down you will now see the option for NTFS!

ENJOY!

The Chrome is out Today!

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:36:00 +0000

Google's Browser Chrome Out Today

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:10:00 +0000

Its been a buzz word, today the Chrome Google's Browser is out.. Today I downloaded it and tried my hands on it.. But found its to be a mixture of all current browsers(Internet Explorer, FireFox3, Opera and Safari). Well I was satisfied even if it was a stripped verison of FireFox and all other Browsers.

The Fact is it takes less memory usage than any other, you get properties of all other browsers in the slowly shining Chrome.

DOWNLOAD CHROME

So guys whats your take on this.. would love to get any suggestions or comments..

image courtesy : http://www.google.com/chrome

A Review Microsoft PopFly

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:08:00 +0000

Microsoft has come up Popfly™ , its a fun, easy way to build and share mashups, gadgets, games, Web pages, and applications.

I tried creating some games and webpages.. and yeah it still need to develop more. The resources are too low there

Create Games. Popfly is a simple way to create and share games with your friends. Choose from a variety of built-in templates or start from scratch to create a side scrolling game, a 2D shoot-em-up, or a host of others. And best of all, you can get started without writing a line of code.

Build Mashups. Mashups are a kind of application that take information from many places and mix it together. With Popfly's mashup creator you'll be able to take photos, RSS feeds, and many other kinds of information and combine them to create your own personalized view of the web.

Design a Web Page. Always wanted to create a web page but thought it was too hard? Popfly makes it easy with its simple web page creator.

...and Much More. Popfly makes it easy to place your creations into your blog, your Facebook page, or even make them into Windows Vista sidebar gadgets. And it's fully integrated with Visual Studio™ so as you gain experience you can upgrade to professional-quality tools.

Make your own game. If you have an idea for a game but don't want to learn to program, Popfly is an easy way to get started making it real. No coding is required, and Popfly supplies a large library of actors, images, and sounds so you can get started quickly.

Try recreating one of the classics, like creating a personal version of Space Invaders™ in just a couple of minutes. And if you ever feel you're running out of power, Popfly makes it easy to step into the source code and take full control.

Display your images, your way. If you have photos on a web site like Flickr™ or Windows® Live™ Spaces, Popfly can quickly convert them into a variety of attractive display formats and embed them into any blog, Facebook page, or even turn them into a Windows Vista® sidebar gadget with the click of a button.

Map information with Popfly. Whether it's your Twitter friends, photos, or something like earthquake activity, Popfly makes it simple to put information onto a map so you can see it and share it with your friends.

Do you use Facebook? Do you want a more custom experience? All Popfly creations can be embedded in your Facebook page to make it truly yours. And Popfly even comes with full Facebook support for games like Halo 3™ and World of Warcraft™.

SOURCE

HTC Touch Cruise Now in India

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:40:00 +0000

HTC has launched the HTC Touch Cruise, the third member of the 'HTC Touch' product family in the country. It is claimed to be the first HTC device to feature built-in GPS system, and also includes HSDPA wireless connectivity.

The HTC Touch Cruise sports a 2.8-inches display with HTC TouchFlo technology that enables finger-touch scrolling and browsing of Web pages, documents, messages, and contact lists by simply sweeping a finger across the display screen. Users can view photos and photo slide-shows using on-screen controls, as well as zoom and rotate images with one hand.
The HTC home screen offers one-touch access to emails, text messages, calendar appointments, contacts and weather forecasts. Moreover, sweeping the finger up the display yields an animated, 3D interface comprising three screens: contacts, media, and applications; the same can be spun by swiping the finger left or right across the display.

For connectivity, users have HSDPA, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. The device runs on Windows Mobile 6 Professional, and packs a built-in Windows media player. Other key features include a 3 mega pixels auto-focus camera, FM radio, and micro-SD memory slot for adding to the 256MB ROM and 128MB RAM.

The HTC Touch Cruise comes in Black Sapphire color and is priced at Rs 32,990.

G4F Verdict : Amazing features but bit heavy on pockets. I would personally wait for iPhone to arrive

CONTEST : Win a Laptop worth $3000

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:10:00 +0000

Yes you read the Title Right!! you could actually win a Laptop worth $3000 or 1,20,000(Indian National Rupee)

Here's how you can win it:-

TheTechDon has organised a contest. And the prize lineup is breathtaking. You could win one of our 3 fantastic laptops:-

To do that first click on the link Click Here and follow the instruction there..

Simple Isn't it ??

.....

First SPY SHOT of NOKIA TUBE

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 01:53:00 +0000

A Exclusive from www.symbianfreak.com
A smartphone blog claims to have the scoop on Nokia's mysterious, touch-screen "Tube," and coughs up some spy shots to boot. The good news (allegedly, at least): It's packed with features, including GPS and Wi-Fi. The bad news: We won't see it until next year.According to Symbian Freak, the Tube (a code name only) will arrive with a 3- to 3.5-inch touch screen, quad-band GSM calling, HSDPA data access, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, built-in GPS (plus the ability to geotag photos), and an auto-focus camera that's "not as good as [those] on the latest Nseries devices" but "way better than the one...on an iPhone."

The bloggers also claim that the touch screen doesn't support multi-touch (so no "pinching" or multi-finger gestures), but note that it will come enabled with haptic feedback (meaning the phone will vibrate with each screen tap). There's also a stylus revealed in one of the spy shots.

Symbian Freak says the Tube (or whatever Nokia ends up naming it) should arrive in the first quarter of 2009—almost a full year from now—and that a more powerful version of the phone will follow shortly thereafter.

Anyway, that's the story—all unverified, of course, so take it with a grain of salt. Hopefully, we'll be getting some official details from Nokia in the near future.

PIC - CREDIT www.symbianfreak.com

Send SMS through Outlook 2007

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:32:00 +0000

Yes you heard it right my friends.
>> MS Outlook 2007 has a built-in feature which allows users to send SMS messages from their Outlook application. SMSOfficer service provides the connection.

>>SMSOfficer service is based on the new OMS interface (Outlook Mobile Service) provided by Microsoft.
>>SMSOfficer leverages the internet connectivity to send SMS messages via the SMSOfficer server and by this to offer very attractive SMS bulk pricing.

To sign in for this service log on to www.smsofficer.com
note : This service is compatible with Outlook 2007 only. It also works in INDIA

UnHackMe Root Killer and Trojan Finder

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:17:00 +0000

What is UnHackMe?

It allows you to detect and remove HackerDefender Trojans and its clonesUnHackMe allows you to detect and remove a new generation of Trojan programs - invisible Trojans!!. UnHackMe is a very useful security utility for your operating system.They are called "rootkit" A rootkit is a collection of programs that a hacker uses to mask intrusion and obtain administrator-level access to a computer or computer network. The intruder installs a rootkit on a computer using a user action or by exploiting a known
vulnerability or cracking a password. The rootkit installs a backdoor giving the hacker a full control of the computer. It hides their files, registry keys, and process names, and network connections from your eyes. Your antivirus could not detect such programs because they use compression and encryption of its files. The sample software is Hacker Defender rootkit. You need use UnHackMe to detect and remove Hacker Defender or its clone.

Download Here

G4F Verdict: The fact it works and finds and also removes trojan and root killer

The Bad : It is trial copy of 30 days.. But You wont think much when ur PC is infected isn't it ?

BEST IE-7 Add-Ons

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 06:36:00 +0000

No web browser is perfect, and no web browser does everything just the way everyone wants it to. So I thought of finding some good add-ons for IE-7.. And I did found some of the below..

Enter add-ons. Also called extensions or plug-ins, add-ons let third-party companies and users with programming skills extend the browser's functionality in different ways. They are your ticket to a customized web.

Mozilla Firefox is known as the world's most extensible web browser, which is a big reason for its appeal among web geeks. But users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7, Windows Vista's native browser, need not be left out in the cold when it comes to add-ons.

Here's our roundup of the best ways to trick out IE7. You can find even more extensions at the Windows Marketplace.

1. ieSpell
It's a shame a spell-checker wasn't built into IE7, but ieSpell corrects that oversight. Once installed, ieSpell does a nice job of staying out of the way until you need it. There are three ways to activate the spell-checker: from the tools menu, from its own top-level menu and from the contextual (right-click) menu. If you happen to use a branded version of IE7 such as those from MSN or AOL, ieSpell will only be accessible from the right-click menu. IeSpell is also available for Internet Explorer 6.

2. Inline Search
Supercharging Internet Explorer's searching capabilities, Inline Search provides find-as-you-type functionality on the web page you're currently visiting. A quick keyboard shortcut (Ctrl-F) will bring up a toolbar at the base of your browser window, a behavior that closely mimics Firefox's built-in search functionality. Inline Search lets you find as you type, highlight all instances of your search terms on the page or make your search case-sensitive. Regrettably, the keyboard shortcuts aren't customizable, so you'll want to memorize the following shortcuts: Esc closes the search pane when it's in focus, F3 or Enter will find the next occurrence of your search term and Shift-F3 or Shift-Enter will find the previous occurrence. Inline Search is also available for IE6.

3. Add Search Providers
Let's face it: Microsoft's Windows Live Search is a dog. But don't worry, you can add new search engines to IE7's built-in search field with ease. Head over to the Add Search Providers page and choose your preferred service's pre-built tool. Don't see your favorite site listed? Just follow the instructions for the Add Search Provider page's Create Your Own tool. IE7 does the rest.

4. Trailfire Toolbar
Leave behind virtual sticky notes on web pages for others to view. IE7 users can install the add-on and start sharing "trailmarks" with fellow Trailfire users. These marks are little notes on individual web pages that can be strung together to form your own interpretive trail across the web. Trailfire Toolbar is also available for IE6.

5. StumbleUpon Toolbar
Haven't tried the random web yet? The StumbleUpon Toolbar for IE7 lets you stumble and bumble your way through the web. Keep clicking the Stumble button as you "channel surf" through sites that like-minded users have marked as interesting, helpful or informative. For background on StumbleUpon, see our review of social bookmarking sites. Caution: It's highly addictive. StumbleUpon also makes an add-on for IE6.

7. GooglePreviewIE
Want to see a preview of a web page before you visit? The GooglePreviewIE toolbar provides customized search-results pages with thumbnail previews for popular sites like Google, Yahoo and Amazon. GooglePreviewIE's thumbnail images are only visible when searching through the toolbar -- a normal web search will still give you default results. It's extra handy for image and product searches. GooglePreviewIE is also available for IE6.

6. Add Search Providers

With this extension you can add new search engines to IE7’s built-in search field with ease. Check out the Add Search Providers page and choose your preferred service’s pre-built tool or add your own.

7. Mouse Gestures for Internet Explorer

Mouse gestures allow the user to execute commonly performed tasks (open/close a window) by drawing a simple symbol on the screen.

8. Wikipedia Toolbar for IE

Wikipedia Toolbar allows you to search and access Wikipedia content from anywhere on the Web. Wikipedia toolbar is easy to install and guaranteed spy-ware free. You can search Google, dictionary, news, images, stocks and weather information right from your toolbar.

9. Star Downloader Free

Star Downloader is a download manager that accelerates your downloads by splitting the files into several parts and downloading them simultaneously. Download speeds are increased further by choosing the fastest mirror sites.

Re-Open Closed Tabs In Internet Explorer

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:49:00 +0000

If there's one thing that annoys me in Internet Explorer more than anything else, it's that there is no way to re-open a tab once you've closed it. It's especially annoying when you've done a lot of browsing so you have to sift through your history to find the link for the page you closed.

Thankfully there's an add-on for IE7 called "IE7 Open Last Closed Tab" which will remember what tabs you've recently closed so that you can quickly re-open them.

After installation, you'll notice that there's nothing different in the UI whatsoever… but there are two new shortcut keys.

Alt+X will restore the last closed tab.
Alt+Q will bring up a screen to let you visually choose from the recently closed tabs.

Note:

You'll notice there's an Amazon ad at the bottom… you can turn that off by clicking the "Disable Product Bar" button on the toolbar, and then you'll get this message:

I'm not entirely sure why they chose Amazon ads to integrate… but either way you can get rid of them. If you really like the software you can always donate some money their way.

Download IE7 Open Last Closed Tab from windowsmarketplace.com

LG's Watch Phone

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:31:00 +0000

It's only a concept for now, but LG's phone-in-a-wristwatch prototype was drawing big crowds at CES on Monday.

Specifications were scarce for the watch phone; indeed, LG reps wouldn't even take it out of its glass case, and from what I understand, the watch on display can't even make calls (although building a GSM or CDMA radio into the wristwatch wouldn't be a problem, I'm told). The cool display isn't a touch screen; instead, a jog dial on the side of the casing lets you scan through the various menus. Bluetooth and SMS messaging would potentially be part of the package, along with voice commands for barking orders, Dick Tracy-style.

Cool concept, right? Although after pondering the reality of a watch phone for a bit, I'm not sure I'd want one; you'd pretty much need a Bluetooth headset for every call, unless you're fine with everyone in earshot hearing both ends of your conversations (assuming the watch has an external speaker, of course, which doesn't seem likely). Still, you can dream.

That said, the LG watch phone looks more like a really cool idea than a shipping product; indeed, the LG reps on hand wouldn't even speculate on pricing or a release date.

SABSEBOLO.com Free conferencing Site!

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:41:00 +0000

Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia has launched SabseBolo.com, a free conferencing facility, a few months after launching Live Documents, an online office application.

"Through SabseBolo.com, we are targeting small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurs. But anyone can use this facility. It is absolutely free," Bhatia said.
People can visit the website and register themselves. Once registered they would get a conference ID and PIN, which could be shared for conferencing.

Revenue would be generated through commercials. "Before the conference begins there would be a five-second commercial. We have not decided the tariff as yet. It could be as low as Re 1 per 5-second commercial," Bhatia said.

The idea to set up a free conferencing facility came to Bhatia when he had to make a conference call to his offices in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi. "The existing facilities are too costly. With Sabsebolo.Com, conferencing is free now,"

G4F Verdict : " Its indeed a welcome sign, as Entrepreneurs would get the most of it.. Thus saving Time"

CES '08 ::MacWorld 2008: Apple Macbook Air Steals the Show!

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:17:00 +0000

The new Macbook Air – 'the world's thinnest notebook' – was clearly the highlight of Apple CEO Steve Jobs' keynote at MacWorld 2008 which has just kicked off in San Francisco. But here's a quick summary of the major announcements from the keynote:

>Macbook Air – a super thin laptop with an 80GB hard drive or a 64 GB SSD but no inbuilt CD/DVD drive.
>Time Capsule – a 1 Terabyte hard disk which also doubles up as a Wi-Fi base station and allows Mac users to wirelessly backup all their data.
>Free software update for the iPhone – version 1.1.3
>Paid software upgrade for the iPod Touch, which includes new apps like Maps, Mail, Weather, Stocks etc.
>iTunes movie rentals, including HD movies.
>New software and lower price for Apple TV.
>Free digital copies of purchases of 20th Century Fox DVDs

The first two in the list above should be available in India in about a month if recent Mac launches' time-to-India are anything to go by. We suspect though, that US demand for the Macbook Air will delay its availability in Asia and therefore India for longer than four weeks.

The iPhone software update will take a while to be cracked so Indians using hacked iPhones will not be able to take advantage of the update immediately. However, once it IS cracked, the much desired "SMS to multiple contacts" feature will be a welcome relief.

The fact that existing iPod Touch users will have to pay ($20 if you have an iTunes account, which itself is not possible with an Indian credit card!) for the software update is a major downer! If the iPhone update is free, why charge for iTouch? New iPod Touches though will come with the new software, so we advise you not to buy the iPod Touch in India till the new ones have hit the shelves in a few weeks.

The iTunes store is not officially accessible in India and neither is Apple TV so the last three don't really matter to Indian readers of Gizmos4Fun but I'm sure many of our tech-savvy international readers are scoffing at the last item. Nearly everyone who legally purchases DVDs has figured out how to create digital copies of their own stuff, but then again, the movie and music industries seem to be in denial. We're surprised that Disney didn't sign up on this as well, since Steve Jobs is the company's largest shareholder.

GIZMOS4FUN(G4F) Verdict: '' Though looks and sounds good, but without an optical drive and ethernet card, any major computer giant can produce a worlds thinnest Laptop''

Quick USB Ejector

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:05:00 +0000

A program that allows you to quickly remove USB devices in Windows. It was originally designed to remove only USB pen drives but will now eject any USB device. It can be run as a non-visual command line program or a normal gui program. Its very useful if you have a USB flash/pen drive, especially if you use a menu such as PStart or the Portable Apps launcher.

The command line options are very flexible, they can be used to:
>Eject the drive that the program is running from.
>Eject a drive by specifying a drive letter.
>Eject a drive by specifying a drive name.
>Eject a drive by specifying a partial drive name.

When run as a ‘normal’ GUI program the tools enables USB devices to be quickly ejected through a mouse click or keyboard press. It’s especially useful when dealing with multiple USB devices and for Vista users who don’t want the ‘now safe to remove this device’ dialog box to appear.

The program has been tested on WindowsXP and Windows Vista but should also work on older versions of Windows.

DOWNLOAD HERE (Current Ver 1.1)

Hands On Review of Moto ROKR E8

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:28:00 +0000

The Unusual Motorola!!
The Motorola ROKR E8 has often been referred to as the "morphing phone," and why shouldn’t it? The keyboard actually changes based on what function of the phone you wish to use.When you’re making a call at the home screen, you’d obviously want the full keyboard there. When you’re about to snap a flick, you get zoom in and out keys, a playback key for viewing recently taken photos, and a video camera key for switching to video mode. In music mode, the keyboard displays next and previous keys, a play / pause key, a shuffle playback key, and a repeat key. The actual device is pretty sharp, too. The entire front is like one smooth surface with a huge touch-sensitive "ROKR" (scroll) wheel in the middle.What’s incredible, is that there is absolutely no tactile feedback on any of the keys when the phone is off. It’s just a flat surface with little dots to help guide your fingers. But when it’s on, haptics lends support when you’re pressing a button, but it actually makes the keys press. Hard to explain, but there is definitely tactile feedback on a key press and not just the normal haptics vibrate. As far as we can tell, the Motorola E8 features a 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth (with various profiles including A2DP), and is a quad-band GSM/EDGE device. You’ll also notice a 3.5mm headset jack at the top of the phone, which is a little awkwardly placed if you ask us. The Motorola E8 runs a newer version of the MOTOMAGX platform, so Motorola RAZR 2 V8 users will have no problem getting used to the new handset. We’re trying to track down a release date now, and we have no word on what carriers here in the U.S. will be jumping aboard to carry it at this point. All in all, it’s not going to take over the world, but with its thin and sleek profile complete with a unique keyboard and excellent call quality, we could see ourselves using this every day.

courtesy:modmymoto.com

Track the Amount of Time You Spend Online in Firefox

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:47:00 +0000

Everybody makes New Year's resolutions, and I wonder how many of you made the resolution to waste less time browsing the internet? If so, here's an easy way to track the amount of time you spend online.

The TimeTracker extension for Firefox gives you a really easy way to track the time you spend directly in front of your browser. The timer only ticks if you are browsing, and you can exclude work-related sites from the timer as well.

Once you install the extension, you'll notice a little timer down in the lower right-hand corner.

If you right-click on the clock, you'll get a menu where you can easily reset the timer or get to the options page.

In the options page, you can choose if you want to track the time per day, or cumulative, and you can change a very important setting… turn off the seconds timer so you won't see the thing change constantly (very annoying).

You'll also want to note the "Do not track filter", where you can put in a space delimited list of sites that won't be tracked. This is useful if you want to include work applications, or productivity sites like one of the many to-do lists out there.
It's amazing how much time I spend online… too much.

Download TimeTracker from Mozilla Add-ons

Speed Up Your Internet Explorer...

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:07:00 +0000

1. Type “Regedit”

2. Goto HKEY_CURRENT_USER >> Software >> Microsoft >> Windows >> CurrentVersion.

3. Click on Internet Settings so you can view its contents.

4.Check Regedit’s right-hand column for the following two lines (values): “MaxConnectionsPerServer” and “MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server”
If these values are present. If not present follow the instructions in bracket.

{{If These values r not present right click on the white region of Regedit’s right-hand column, click “New”, and then click “DWORD Value”.
Enter MaxConnectionsPerServer for the name of the new “DWORD Value” and press Enter. The new value should now appear in Regedit’s right-hand column.
Right-click the new value and click “Modify”.}}

right-click on the first value (MaxConnectionsPerServer),

5. select “Modify” from the drop-down menu, click “Decimal”, and set the Value data field to 6.

6. Close all running I.E. windows and Voila!! test to see your increased speed.

FireFox 3 Beta 2!

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 09:17:00 +0000

Mozilla released beta 2 for download by willing testers and impatient 'fox users. The second beta plugs memory leaks (yippee!) and adds features like a new URL auto-complete display, smart bookmarks folders, and revamped download manager. Get more details about beta 2 goodness after the jump.

Notable beta 2 improvements from the release notes include:

Location bar & auto-complete: type in all or part of the title, tag or address of a page to see a list of matches from your history and bookmarks; a new display makes it easier to scan through the matching results and find that page you're looking for.

Smart Bookmarks Folder: quickly access your recently bookmarked and tagged pages, as well as your more frequently visited pages with the new smart bookmarks folder on your bookmark toolbar.

New Download Manager: the revised download manager makes it much easier to locate downloaded files, and displays where a file came from.

Memory usage: Over 300 individual memory leaks have been plugged, and a new XPCOM cycle collector completely eliminates many more. Developers are continuing to work on optimizing memory use (by releasing cached objects more quickly) and reducing fragmentation. Beta 2 includes over 30 more memory leak fixes, and 11 improvements to our memory footprint.

Of course, this is a beta so you don't want to move over to it full-time—unless you're cool with some instability and incompatible extensions while the kinks get ironed out. The Firefox 3 Beta 2 is a free download for all platforms.

Firefox 3 Beta 2 now available for download

[Mozilla Developer News via Download Squad ]

Automate Power Windows Shutdown

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:24:00 +0000

Automate Shutdown

Smartly schedule system shutdowns with Poweroff, a small free Windows utility. Similar to previously mentioned WinOFF, (but with a few different features), you can set your computer to shut down after a process ends or at a specific time. Additionally, you can shut down or wake on LAN a remote computer with Poweroff, great if you want to get to the home computer while you're away for the holidays but don't want it killing your electric bill the whole time. Poweroff is a free download for Windows XP.

Make simple Audio Edits with Wavosaur

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:28:00 +0000

Make simple Audio Edits:

It's no secret we're a fan of the free, open source, cross-platform audio editor Audacity for most editing needs, but anyone looking for a lighter-weight, portable editor might do well by free application Wavosaur application. Running from one file that's less than 1MB, Wavosaur can perform most basic cuts, effects, and encoding tasks, as well as handle MP3s without requiring a plugin. If you can't fit Audacity and the rest of the Portable Apps Suite onto your thumb drive, Wavosaur could make for a worthwhile tool. Wavosaur is a free download, works on Windows systems only.
Wavosaur [via Download Squad]

Yahoo Messenger for Vista..

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 02:21:00 +0000

Yahoo Vista Messenger sounds interesting isn't it?

Now thats called a perfect combination.. Recently Yahoo has launched its Flag ship messenger, specially designed for Vista.

As the image shows it looks awesome... So why wait Visat users get your copy now..

Source Download

Hands-on Review: Verizon's LG Voyager

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 02:17:00 +0000

THE iPhone Killer??

it's not targeted squarely at the iPhone, I don't know what is. At first glance, the two handsets look a lot alike. You'll find a big (2.8 inches diagonally), touch-sensitive LCD front and center, complete with a "touch here" unlocking mechanism, not unlike the iPhone. A single hardware button is used, again, as a "home" function, though you'll find send and end buttons on the Voyager as well. All the rest of the phone functions are accessed via the touchscreen.

But the Voyager has a secret weapon: It flips open, clamshell style, to reveal a spacious (and excellent) QWERTY keyboard and a landscape display, also 2.8 inches diagonally. The interior keyboard isn't touch-sensitive, but it would be difficult to use it with a fingertip anyway, as it's set back and at an angle, not unlike the AT&T Tilt. You can do anything you want on either screen (a fingertip keypad pops up on the exterior display when you need it), and you can swap between them on the fly

.
What can you do with the Voyager? What can't you do? It's got a fairly good web browser that's plenty fast; unlike the iPhone, the Voyager has a 3G radio inside, so it's as zippy as it gets on a cell phone. No, you don't always get picture-perfect pages like you do with the iPhone, but the rendering is way better, at least, than Mobile IE. There's room for improvement: Scrolling around a busy screen really bogs down the handset, for example.

There's a 2-megapixel webcam and email, of course, but there's also integrated GPS (subscription fees are extra), complete with voice-assisted instructions. Plus, you get all of Verizon's usual VCast music and TV features. Video quality is impressive... and don't miss the cute, retractable antenna! A microSD card slot lets you add as many tunes as you want. iPhone can't touch Voyager on these features.

For a 3G phone, battery life isn't bad: 4 hours, 40 minutes of talk time in my tests. And call quality is outstanding, as good as any cell phone I've tested.
What's missing? The Voyager lacks the absolute stunning looks of the iPhone, but it's still handsome. Imagine LG's prior clamshell phones like the enV but on a diet. There's oddly no Wi-Fi on the Voyager, either, though the faster cell network at least makes up for some of that.
All this will set you back $300, or $100 less than the iPhone, with the same two-year contract (though you can add data or not, your choice). Whether it's all worth it is up to you, but I'll say that if I was shopping for a new Verizon handset today, this is definitely the one I'd snag. No question.

Top 10 Firefox Add-ons

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 01:48:00 +0000

Firefox has been getting a lot of press in the recent years, and for good reasons. The best features of firefox is that it allows its users to increase its functionality with add-ons, like accessing your email faster or auto-filling forms.

Here are G4F’s top 10 Firefox Add-ons:

1. All-in-One Sidebar
Allow’s you to have a sidebar which can open multiple panels. Rather than independently opening your panels like bookmarks, history, and downloads, have them all conveniently stored on your sidebar.

2. Answers
Don’t know what a word means while browsing a website? Want to know more information about a certain topic? The Answers Add-on allows you to alt-click on the word and instantly, you can read more information about that word/topic from answers.com. Very useful, and saves you from opening a new tab and typing the word.

3. Autofill Forms
It gets annoying to having to keep typing the same old information in any sites - name, address, email, zip… Use this Add-on to let firefox automatically input this in for you.

4.Download Statusbar
Don’t like the clutter that the download sidebar brings? Get this Add-on. It conveniently shows any files being dowloaded in firefox above the statusbar.

5. Distrust
Hide any trace of browsing when distrust is enabled. Do you go on a secret website that no one should know about? Enable distrust while you surf it, and it will erase any trace of the website.

6.Greasemonkey
By far, one of the most useful add-ons, if you know how to use it. You can get an infinite amount of greasemonkey scripts which allow you to customize any webpage. Go on user Userscripts.org to search for scripts for your favorite website.

7. IE Tab
Some websites still don’t fully support Firefox. This add-on makes surfing those sites more conveniently by running them in Internet Explorer mode inside Firefox. You never need to run IE again.

8. Scrapbook
Take notes or save tidbits from web pages easily. Highlight a section from a web site, and capture it with scrapbook. It will even save the web page automatically.
Note: You can even add this to the All-in-one sidebar for easy access.

9. Tiny Menu
Replaces the menu bar (file, edit..) with, well… a tiny menu called “Menu”. When clicked, it shows the full menu bar. This declutters the top of your Firefox toolbar so you can add more tools to it.

10.Smart Bookmarks Bar
The perfect addition to tiny menu. This allows you to have bookmarks on the top toolbar. Most importantly, you can set this to only show the web sites icon, without displaying its full name. This gives you room for many bookmarks, and even folders.

Need For Speed: ProStreet

noreply@blogger.com (gizmos4fun) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 02:11:00 +0000

If you’ve been in the gaming circuit long enough, chances are there’s at least one iteration of the Need for Speed franchise that hit the sweet spot for you. For me it was NFS 2 and Most Wanted that worked the magic. I loved the fact that they were built on simple but fundamentally strong mechanics – for instance, NFS 2 had its scenic street racing and strong racing dynamics (at least for its time) while Most Wanted used the Black list and those awesome cop chases as a pivot.

The bad news for me is that they took out all those elements from the equation this time; all that’s left in Need for Speed: ProStreet is a somewhat sturdy, but bland racing experience.

The way I see it, the game’s designers took a simple and superficial concept – car damage – and based all the important elements of the game around it. Since they decided that a car’s damage would affect its performance, they couldn’t possibly accommodate such a device in the semi-arcade racer realm the series resides in, right? So they went ahead and pushed the realism level up a few notches, throwing the game midway between a simulation and an arcade racer. This in turns bought about many changes in the franchise – some of which are good, and the rest crap.
The change I hate the most is with the way the cars control. I don’t remember any of the NFS games requiring me to brake this much! The cars feel extremely sluggish where speed and handling are concerned. I’m sure the cars featured in the game aren’t this bad in real life; it almost feels like the cars are possessed by something that tries really hard to go against your will as your turn. It seems as if they’ve tried to make the game somewhat like Forza Motorsport 2, but not quite achieved that – and in the bargain they’ve killed everything in the series that made me tick.