Public Zone

Intel’s Anti-Theft Technology for Laptops on its way

2010-12-16T03:46:00.000-08:00

The Anti-theft technology on the laptops will lock up the system and the hard disk, thus keeping the valuable data and personal information secured from falling into wrong hands. This new technology will be added on Active Management Technology which is a part of the Centrino vPro. This technology is being developed due to the high rise in laptops being stolen, leading to high risk of data theft.Dadi Perlmutter, executive vice president and general manager of Intel’s mobility group said, “The technology focuses on asset recovery, theft management and data protection and will arrive in laptops by year’s end.”At present it’s unclear as to how exactly will the technology lock the data, for which we will have to wait till the fourth quarter of this year. even other companies like Lenovo Groups, MCAfee, Fujitsu Siemens computer and Phoenix Technologies are working hard to get the anti-theft technology on their mobile computers.

AutoBot: Anti-Carnapping Gadget

2010-12-05T04:31:00.001-08:00

Mavizon Technologies from Louisville, Kentucky has introduced their latest technology dubbed as Autobot. This said gadget offers control over your car via a smartphone. It also works with a Bluetooth OBD-II, provided that your car is newer than 1996 model and can “diagnose engine troubles, keep track of maintenance, and locate your car via GPS coordinates”. This latest gadget is very big help to lessen carnapping incidence because Autobot makes it easier to locate your car if it gets stolen, or you simply forgot where you parked your car. The device can also send messages to friends and family after a crash. This gadget also includes locking and unlocking doors, bringing up windows, checking up diagnostics, receiving oil change and tire rotation alerts.

Another good feature of this latest technology it is so easy to install even you can install this gadget there’s no need to look for a professional mechanic just to install this. Autobot costs approximately $300 but the sad thing about this is that there is no appropriate date when it will be out in the market but it is expected to be out by 2012.

Razer Tron-Inspired Gaming Mouse

2010-12-05T04:29:00.001-08:00

Recently we have seen the Tron-inspired LED wrist watch, now we have Tron-inspired gaming mouse from Razer. For only $100 you can get a braided 7-foot USB cable mouse with 5600dpi 3.5g laser sensor for better mouse tracking and precision, Ultrapolling (1000Hz Polling / 1ms Response) and 7 hyperesponse buttons for a new gaming experience. The Razer Tron-Inspired gaming mouse has an ambidextrous design that makes it comfortable for both right and left-handed use and also has lighting and sound effects for added gaming features. As of now we didn’t find any information regarding the release date for this latest gadget .

Acer 4.8-Inch Android Smartphone

2010-12-05T04:27:00.001-08:00

Acer has released some details on its newly launched Android Smartphone which has a huge 4.8 inch display in its latest Global Press Event held in New York City. This monster gadget has a resolution of 1024 x 480 pixels and it seems that this Acer Android device has the highest resolution, and according to Acer the display makes it “100% smartphone, 100% tablet”. Other leaked information regarding this latest technology includes 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 21:9 Aspect Ratio, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, 8 megapixel camera with a built in flash and autofocus, HSDPA support, JavaScript optimization, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 support, HDMI output, Dolby Mobile technology, and some handy mobile apps.

This latest android by Acer is expected in the market by 2011, to be specific in the month of April. Pricing and gadget’s name are still unknown as of now.

Acer AZ5700-U2112 All-in-One Desktop

2010-12-05T04:24:00.001-08:00

Acer has unveiled its latest technology known as the AZ5700-U2112 All-in-One desktop. This all-in-one PC has 23-inch multi-touch-enabled screen, a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5-650 processor, 4 GB RAM, a 1 TB hard drive, high definition audio support, built-in microscope and 5W stereo speakers, wireless mouse and keyboard. The system has also six USB ports all in all, two on the left side and four on the back. This gadget supports Acer’s own Touch Portal software and Windows 7 touch gestures. Aside from these specifications this said desktop has a smooth and clear video playback and offers quality images which makes it very impressive. Another impressive feature of this gadget is that it has space saving design that can integrates a PC and monitor into one, saving much needed space in a small dorm room or apartment. AZ5700-U2112 All-in-One desktop is now out in the market and you can avail it in Amazon for $994.21.

John Phone “World’s Simplest Cell Phone”

2010-12-05T04:22:00.001-08:00

There are many people who are not contented on the phone they are using, once they have seen a new released of their favorite mobile manufacturer they can’t refuse not to buy that handset. On the other hand, some mobile users who are contented already with their unit said “as long as they can call and text with their phone, it’s okay”. That’s why a Dutch ad agency named John Doe has launched “the world’s simplest cell phone” dubbed as John Phone. It’s simple because it has no any connectivity available like internet, GPS, Bluetooth, infrared, nor Wi-Fi. You can’t also install applications or software and most especially you could not text! Only calls are allowed and that’s it.

John Phone was wrapped by white color, and it weighs 95 grams. It only contains numbers and buttons to perform phone calls and its standby time can last three weeks, enough memory to store 10 numbers on speed dial and, crucially, the ability to “make and receive calls anywhere in the world.” John’s Phone can be purchased for only 79.95 Euros, and it’s available in five different colors.

Thanko Silent PC Keyboard Cover

2010-12-05T04:20:00.001-08:00

Thanko announced its latest technology called Silent PC Keyboard cover. It is a new technology that features sound-proofing, thus eliminating the noise produce by keyboard when you’re typing. This is really useful when you’re doing your assignments at night and your room mate is always complaining about the noise. It has a transparent cover where in you can see the keyboard and your hands. It also helps protect the keyboard from dust and some water and it will keep your hands warm as well.

mIRC 6.35

2010-12-05T03:57:00.001-08:00

Internet Relay Chat is not as well-known as ICQ, even though it successfully combines chat and messaging without annoying ads. The IRC network is a virtual meeting place where people from all over the world can meet and talk. With mIRC, you can choose from an unlimited number of existing chat rooms based on personal interests, or you can create your own channels with family and friends. IRC is more advanced than simple messenging, so it may take a while to get started. With a bit of browsing, though, you'll find that the mIRC interface allows easy access to IRC features. It guides you through the initial stages, including selecting from a wide list of servers. You can connect to more than one IRC server at once and chat through proxy. By creating your own channel, you can even set up a virtual meeting with colleagues.

This program suits advanced users keen to expand their chat-client functionalities. For first-time users, mIRC offers the most functionality of any chat program available, which can be overwhelming at first--but if you read the help files you'll be on your way to using all the features mIRC has to offer

RealPlayer SP 1.0.4

2010-12-05T03:55:00.001-08:00

It's social. It's portable. It's the new RealPlayer SP. And it's perfect for playing and sharing video with your friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter. You'll also be happy to know it works easily with your favorite flavors of Blackberry, iPod, iPhone and game systems. Now you can download and organize your favorite videos from YouTube and thousands of other sites. Then watch them anytime, anywhere you want.

VLC Media Player 1.0.3

2010-12-05T03:54:00.001-08:00

VLC Media Player is a long-time open-source favorite, and the latest version is also the first to be out of beta development. It's not the only option for free video playback, but it's one of the best, and the feature updates in version 1 make it well worth the upgrade.

Users can now get frame-by-frame advancement, granular speed controls allowing for on-the-fly slower or faster playback, and live recording of streaming video. The toolbars are fully customizable, so you can have only the buttons you need in the interface, there's AirTunes streaming, and there's better integration in Gtk environments. Along with the improvements, VLC continues to offer robust support for a wide range of video and audio formats, including OGG, MP2, MP3, MP4, DivX, HD codecs like AES3, Raw Dirac, and even support for playing back zipped files.

The default interface is still a stripped down player that belies VLC's functionality and features. Skinning can fix that quickly, but behavior can still be a bit unpredictable depending on the quality of the skin. VLC's open-source foundation and community ensures that it evolves quickly and often, with new features and fixes released frequently. Overall, VLC Media Player is a must-have application for its ability to open just about any type of video file you throw at it

Vuze 4.3.0.4

2010-12-05T03:53:00.001-08:00

Formerly the feature-rich Azureus, Vuze takes Azureus' BitTorrent foundation and builds on top of it a network for video discovery and user-created video publishing tied together by social networking.

From XML torrent options to IP filters, firewall tests to UPnP plug-ins to baked-in social networking, Vuze isn't breaking new ground--the original BitTorrent client has gone this path, too--but it is doing it in an innovative and attractive way. When you install the program, you're faced with an interface that will be instantly familiar to iTunes users. In providing a general overview of their torrents and media playback controls, the new layout emphasizes user-initiated searches

The Advanced tab has been replaced by My Library. The old Azureus is now completely gone, but because of the demands of users, Vuze 4.0 is much closer to the intent of its progenitor than Vuze 3.1 was. A simple, three-step guide that launches when you start Vuze helps you get acclimatized to the new Vuze. There's still work to be done: memory usage is up around 100MB, and although you can set up private trackers, you can't customize the search box. People new to torrenting or only interested in sharing media files might appreciate this visually active approach.

PhotoScape 3.4

2010-12-05T03:51:00.001-08:00

Add another name to the roster of feature-rich freeware image editors: PhotoScape. Although it eats and leaks about as much memory as Firefox, this editor is perfect for those making the jump between JPEG and am-pro dSLR work.

It supports RAW, as well as all other major image formats from JPEG and PNG to animated GIFs. It comes with prebuilt templates for users to create photo collages, fumetti, and Web comics, and has a standard set of red-eye removal, light/shadow, and contrast-editing features. One warning about the RAW processing: although it looks like you can drag and drop, the converter doesn't change RAW to JPEG unless you load the RAW file from within the native file navigator.

It's a minor bug, but one that can lead you to believe that there's no RAW support at all. You can also batch edit images, combine them, and print them out one at a time or several at once.

The program loads fast and possesses an interface completely different from those familiar with Adobe's industry-leading tools. Users are greeted by circular navigator complemented by a tabbed nav on the top of the main screen. Most but not all main features are accessible from either nav. It might take some people time to get used to the unusual layout, but it's only unusual for an image editor; otherwise it's intuitive, fast, and lacks only the most advanced of image editing features.

WinZip 14.0

2010-12-05T03:49:00.001-08:00

With version 14 of this venerable archiving tool, WinZip aims specifically at Windows 7 compliance and enhancements, and adds a few other new features, too. WinZip in Windows 7 gets extensive support for libraries, tools, and recent archives in the jumplist, previews in Windows Explorer for certain file types, and basic touch-screen support. Multitouch support is limited to rotating pictures previewed from WinZip archives.

WinZip 14 also includes minor security enhancements. New automatic wiping keeps confidential data secret by "shredding" the temporary file that WinZip creates by default whenever it opens an archive. The shredding uses U.S. Department of Defense standard DoD 5220.22-M. WinZip 14 now also supports the built-in AES encryption in Intel-based computers, speeding up the time it takes to encrypt an archive. This builds on the encryption overhaul from last year's version, which included customizable password requirements and enhancements for determining how, if at all, encryption would be enforced.

WinZip 14 retains its large feature set, including drag-and-drop support, content-sensitive previews. It has better JPEG compression that can see JPEG-only archives up to 20 percent smaller, Zip from Camera, and deep context menu support enables you to perform most of WinZip's functions on the fly. However, while installing you should keep an eye out for the Google Toolbar and the "WinZip Computing" that collects anonymous usage data; both are opt-out. Still, WinZip is among the best compression programs available, providing all the features necessary to create easy backups, compress e-mail files, and manage downloaded files from the Internet.

BitComet 1.16

2010-12-05T03:47:00.001-08:00

There's a familiar tree of features on the left, including links to torrent-aggregating Web sites and several promotional offers. The top of the app has big buttons with familiar icons, the center window shows the files being downloaded, and the bottom pane has tracker and peer info. The pane on the right rounds out the layout, with a torrent search feature and advertising. Among the usual features, BitComet offers chat capabilities, the ability to bookmark your favorite sites, a toolbar for Internet Explorer 7, and a context menu for Firefox 2.

While the app held its own against better-known competitors in terms of speed and handling multiple torrents, we found the ubiquitous advertisements to be annoying compared to the competition's ad-free environs. Overall, we think BitComet is worth trying and could become a major torrent app in the future.

PrimoPDF 5.0.0.19

2010-12-05T03:46:00.001-08:00

Users can now always save PDFs to the same folder, or opt to choose a new folder for each PDF creation. You can also Append or Overwrite an already existing PDF, and more easily create and edit document properties and PDF security from the main PrimoPDF interface. Publisher NitroPDF also claims that the program starts faster, and we did notice that it launched quicker than before--note that this was an empirical judgment, though. Primo's size has been reduced slightly to 7.38MB, and the new drag-and-drop icon also serves as a program launch icon, making it easier to manage the app.

The four conversion quality settings have been exposed upfront, too, so you can easily toggle quality settings from Screen to eBook to Print to Prepress. There's a Custom setting, as well.

Smart Defrag 1.20

2010-12-05T03:41:00.001-08:00

Other features we like include a scheduler you can set up to defrag whenever you want and some customization features if you want the program to start when Windows loads or right before logging off. You also can set it to shutdown your computer when it's done defragging your hard drives and partitions.

Overall, if you would like a handy defragger with options for scheduling and more, this is a great defragger for both novices and more experienced users.

Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.6.2

2010-12-05T03:40:00.001-08:00

Spybot - Search & Destroy has been in the antispyware game for a long time offering features we've come to expect in the best apps in the category, but bugs and false positives make it difficult to recommend.

The program checks your system against a comprehensive database of adware and other system invaders. It also features several interface improvements, including multiple skins for dressing up its appearance. Scan results now appear arranged by groups in a tree, and a sliding panel lets you instantly view information about a selected item to help you decide whether to kill it or not. The Immunize feature blocks a plethora of uninvited Web-borne flotsam before it reaches your computer.

Other useful tools, including Secure Shredder, complement the program's basic functionality for completely destroying files. Hosts File blocks adware servers from your computer, and System Startup lets you review which apps load when you start your computer.

Unfortunately, the program has the tendency to lock up at times and even during the install process for this review, we encountered several errors. The ambitious feature list and functionality make Spybot a good choice for those in search of a second antispyware program, and recent updates have made it run faster. It still makes errors in flagging spyware that isn't, and overall there are others in the category that do a better job.

Advanced Registry Optimizer 5.1

2010-12-05T03:38:00.001-08:00

Advanced Registry Optimizer(ARO) by Sammsoft is an easy-to-use registry cleaner that can boost your PC's performance by removing errors from your Windows registry. The advanced scanning engine and one-click simplicity make ARO an ideal way to help your computer reach and maintain optimum performance. Both beginners and experienced users will appreciate ARO's customizable scanning environment--which clearly displays and categorizes registry errors from common "file association" problems to more exotic issues involving ActiveX-COM-OLE and DLL errors before whisking them away with the click of a button. Easy-to-use backup and undo functionalities enable you to roll back changes made to your Windows registry, generating more confidence that you will continue to enjoy optimal, stable and worry-free PC performance.

Windows Movie Maker (Windows XP) 2.1

2010-12-05T03:37:00.001-08:00

Windows Movie Maker 2 is an XP-only download that gives you the tools to create, edit, and share home movies. Compile and edit a movie from video clips with drag-and-drop functionality. Add special effects, music, and narration with ease. Share your movie over the Web or master it to DVD media. You can also save your movie back to the DV tape in your camera.

Internet Download Manager 5.18 build 5

2010-12-05T03:36:00.001-08:00

Internet Download Manager is a tool for increasing download speeds by up to 5 times, and for resuming, scheduling, and organizing downloads. The program will resume unfinished downloads due to network problems, or unexpected power outages. The program features a full-fledged site grabber that downloads files that are specified with filters, for example, all pictures from a Web site, different parts of Web sites, or complete Web sites for offline browsing. The program supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and MMS protocols, and has an adaptive download accelerator for MP3 audio, FLV and MPEG video files.The program also features Download Panel for IE, Firefox and other Mozilla based browsers that appears on top of a web-player and can be used to download flash videos from sites like YouTube, MySpaceTV, Google Videos, and others. It integrates into Opera, Mozilla, Internet Explorer, Firefox, MSN, AOL, Google Chrome, and into any application that uses FTP, or HTTP protocols. Internet Download Manager fully supports Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7

ZoneAlarm 8.0.298

2010-12-05T03:34:00.001-08:00

ZoneAlarm is designed to protect your DSL- or cable-connected PC from hackers. This program includes four interlocking security services: a firewall, an application control, an Internet lock, and Zones. The firewall controls the door to your computer and allows only traffic you understand and initiate. The Internet lock blocks Internet traffic while your computer is unattended or while you're not using the Internet, and it can be activated automatically with your computer's screensaver or after a set period of inactivity. Zones monitor all activity on your computer and alert you when a new application attempts to access the Internet.

Flash Player 10.0.32.18

2010-12-05T03:30:00.001-08:00

Flash Player 10 is a lightweight, highly expressive client runtime that delivers powerful and consistent user experiences across major operating systems, browsers, mobile phones, and devices. Adobe Flash Player software is a cross-platform browser plug-in that delivers breakthrough web experiences and is installed on more than 98% of Internet-connected desktops. Flash Player 10 introduces 3D effects, custom filters and effects, advanced text support, and more

CCleaner 2.26.1050

2010-12-05T03:26:00.001-08:00

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner.

UltraISO Premium 9.3.5.2716

2010-12-05T03:24:00.001-08:00

UltraISO can extract, create, edit, and convert CD/DVD image files. It can directly edit an ISO file, make ISO images from CD/DVD-ROMs, create a new ISO from files and folders on your computer, and make bootable CDs and DVDs. In addition, UltraISO can convert nearly all known CD and DVD image formats to ISO, BIN/CUE, Nero (NRG), Alcohol 120% (MDS/MDF), and CloneCD (CCD/IMG/SUB) formats,

as well as burn CD/DVD images directly with built-in burning engine and emulate ISO images with up to 8 virtual CD/DVD drives.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 9.0.704

2010-12-05T03:13:00.001-08:00

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is an anti-virus protection tool available free of charge to home users. Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high level of detection capability.

The new 9.0 edition is faster, safer and easier to use. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition gives you free rock solid protection for your basic security needs. The combined anti-virus/anti-spyware scanner in AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition runs up to 50% faster than earlier versions and doesn't get in your way. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition also delivers new anti-phishing detection techniques, which can quickly and accurately determine whether or not a web page is hosting a phishing attack. Additionally, version 9.0 comes with basic anti-rootkit protection to ensure protection against sophisticated hidden threats.