SOFTWARE AND GAMES REVIEW

Microsoft Office 2010 Home & Business (Disc Version)

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:59:00 +0000

Microsoft released another new product for the generation of office in 2010,
ease of getting this microsoft products such as:

Enjoy Flexibility
Now you can easily post your Office documents online and access, share and edit them with Office Web Apps. It's an ideal way to extend your Office 2010 experience to the Web.
Work Together
Brainstorm ideas, share notes and work on documents with others simultaneously thanks to the new co-authoring tool in Word, PowerPoint and OneNote.
Find It on New Backstage View
Replaces the traditional File menu to give you one go-to spot to conveniently save, open and print documents. Customize the tab commands to fit your individual needs so you can navigate tasks effortlessly.

Programs You Rely On
Microsoft Office 2010 is an industry standard offering our latest, innovative tools to make your documents richer and more informative.

Get the benefits of all the programs you need to be productive including Microsoft Outlook 2010--so you can tackle your busy day efficiently with powerful email, scheduling and social networking tools to keep your life and work in sync. More...

ASP.NET Blogging Software

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 02:13:00 +0000

ASP.NET Blogging Software

Of all of the different kinds of programs on the market
today, many people feel that Microsoft's recently
released ASP.NET blogging software is the most
advanced. In many ways, this particular program is
more adaptable and more versatile than any other
blogging software on the market. Although most of the
people who favor the program are accomplished coders
who are familiar with programming languages like html
and C++, this new program from Microsoft is much
easier to use than a lot of other blog design software
that incorporates hands-on coding. One of the things
that makes ASP.NET stand apart from its competitors is
the fact that it allows designers to use a wide variety of
programming languages when they build a blog. This
means that a larger number of coders can realize their
dreams by programming in the language with which
they are most familiar and in which they are most
accomplished.

A lot of people have welcomed ASP.NET blogging
software with enthusiasm and with open arms.
However, that doesn't mean that the ASP.NET program
is right for everybody. If you are not familiar with
computer languages like javascript or perl, you may
find that the release of ASP.NET does not directly
affect you at all. However, if you are an experienced
web designer, you are likely to find much to celebrate in
this exciting new program. more

Eminem

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:57:00 +0000

new Album from Eminem Recovery

Inkscape v0.46 pre1-1 Beta

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:14:00 +0000

Hai all..i want to share with you about Inkscape. This software is an open source SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) editor with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, Visio, etc.

Inkscape supported SVG features include basic shapes, paths, text, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, node editing, svg-to-png export, grouping, and more.

Inkscape provides the Open Source community with a fully XML, SVG, and CSS2 compliant SVG drawing tool.

Visit Website
Developer Homepage

Download
File Size = 28.73 MB

USAPhotoMaps 2.77

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:13:00 +0000

USAPhotoMaps downloads USGS aerial photo and topo map data from Microsoft´s free TerraServer Web site, saves it on your hard drive, and creates seamless maps from it.

You can:

* Scroll and zoom
* See latitude/longitude
* See USGS Landmarks
* See TIGER/Line streets
* See elevation and contour lines
* Add waypoints, routes, and text
* Go to any map location in the U.S.A.
* Transfer waypoints, tracks, and routes to and from most GPS receivers
* See your GPS location
* And more...

Visit Website
Developer Homepage

Download
File Size = 543 KB

KoffeePhoto v2.5.62

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:10:00 +0000

KoffeePhoto software helps you create and manage photo albums on your computer very easily. Every album you create gets its web page allowing you to browse and share your photos from anywhere. Album hosting and photo sharing is unlimited and free.

KoffeePhoto automatically synchronizes your high resolution pictures across your different computers and with your sharing fellows. In case of data loss KoffeePhoto recovers your whole photo library in one click.

KoffeePhoto provides direct print ordering through partner services while simplifying the process of uploading the pictures.

Visit Website
Developer Homepage

Download
File Size = 2.35 MB
For mac and linux, please visit developer homepage to download

Paint.NET 3.22.2925

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:04:00 +0000

Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.

Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows XP or 2000.

Visit Website
Developer Homepage

Download
File Size = 1.6 MB

PhotoFiltre 6.3.0

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:02:00 +0000

This is the full version which also contains masks, selections and patterns. PhotoFiltre is a complete image retouching program. It allows you to do simple or advanced adjustments to an image and apply a vast range of filters on it. It is simple and intuitive to use, and has an easy learning curve. The toolbar, giving you access to the standard filters with just a few clicks, gives PhotoFiltre a robust look.

Visit Website
Developer Homepage

Download
File Size = 1.60 MB

Digital Image Tool

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:01:00 +0000

Do you take any photographs, own a digital camera or work in multimeda or design?
This user friendly tool was created specifically to batch process images quickly, applying flexible resizing methods, rotation, cropping, scaling, watermarking, renaming and more. As a multimedia designer Digital Image Tool has come in very handy.....we made it originally for use in-house but decided to put a little more effort into the program and release it for free to the public! Whether it is 5 or 5,000 images, this is the tool for people who don't like to waste time!

Visit Website
Developer Homepage

Download
File Size = 2.8 MB

MovieLibrary++ 4.1.0

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:59:00 +0000

The Movie library application is a Java program designed to keep your videos organized or your PC. You can import almost any type of video (using drag and drop) and fill in information about the videos yourself or let the program guess the movie/series from the file name and link to our database, to get the information. You can also convert the videos to many different video types using the preset profiles provided.

For easy installation and stable running it is recommended to use VLC media player or SMPlayer for the video playback and have one of them installed before the installation of this program. Some other video players will work with this software but you will have to browse and select it manually from inside the program on first run of the program.

To convert DVDs to avi (Xvid,H.264) use a tool like DVD Decrypter to rip the appropriate VOB files, do not use any file splitting (This is how to disable it in DVD Decrypter. Click on Tools-->Settings--> IFO Mode-->Options-->File Splitting - None), then import the .vob file into the application and convert as usual.

Visit Website
Developer Homepage

Download
File Size = 22.05 MB

Youtube Batch Downloader 1.4

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:57:00 +0000

1-CLICK Batch Download 100s of YouTube Videos and convert into mp4, wmv, mov. Currently supports User / Channel / Playlist / Group / Favorite Batch Download! If you have 10s or 100s of files you want to download from youtube. You absolutely should try this application.

Visit Website
Developer Homepage

Download
File Size = 2.79 MB

Zoom Player Standard 5.02

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:53:00 +0000

Zoom Player can be compared to a game of chess, it can be learned by a 4-year old in minutes, but it may take a lifetime to explore its feature rich yet unbloated capabilities.

Zoom Player supports every format imaginable (AVI, DIVX, XVID, MPEG, Flac Audio, Monkey Audio, Matroska, Windows Media, OGM, RealMedia, QuickTime, Flash and more), updated on a regular basis (new stable beta releases every few weeks), every feature is fully documented, supports all the latest playback technologies (Multi Monitor, VMR9, P2P Video Preview) and sports one of the most active support forums you can imagine. Designed for use as an every day media player and all the way up to a Home Theater PC control center.

Visit Website
Developer Homepage

Download
File Size = 1.45 MB

XULPlayer v0.2.1.5 Beta

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:51:00 +0000

XULPlayer is an open source media player built on Mozilla XUL and MPlayer. XULPlayer is user-friendly and web-enabled media player with support for playback of most popular audio and video formats.

Feature:

XUL application, customizable user interface implemented with flexible XUL and JavaScript
Based on award-winning MPlayer, with high playback performance and low CPU utilization
Support playback of following audio and video formats:

*Audio: MP3, Vorbis, AAC, AAC+, AAC+v2, WMA, RealAudio, MusePack, Speex, FLAC, WavPack, WAV,
*Video: MPEG 1/2/4, AVI, MP4, MKV, H.264, XviD, DivX, Theora, Flash Video, WMV (Windows Media Video), ASF, RMVB (RealVideo), MOV (QuickTime)
*Image: JPEG, PNG, GIFVideo screenshoting

Support for subtitle and lyric
Dual-Video Mode - play two audio/video files simultaneous with audio cross-fading
Fully standalone and self-contained - no need to install any codecs or splitters.

So, If you are interested in XUL, you can use it for fun and free.

Visit Website
Developer Homepage

Download
File Size = 9.91 MB
RapidShare free file hosting

Autoruns 9.01

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:45:00 +0000

Autoruns shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them.

These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. You can configure Autoruns to show other locations, including Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, and much more. Autoruns goes way beyond the MSConfig utility bundled with Windows Me and XP.

Visit Website
Developer Homepage

Download
File Size = 530 KB

avast! 4 Home Edition 4.7.1044

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:41:00 +0000

avast! 4 Home Edition is a free complete ICSA certified antivirus software for home noncommercial use. avast! obtained VB100% awards in 2002/4 Virus Bulletin comparative reviews under Windows. True incremental updates of size under 100 KB are available at least twice a week and within couple of hours in the case of emergency of new virus. avast! automatically checks for new updates - downloads, installs and loads them without restart or logoff. Program upgrades are available time to time, they are incremental too (about 300 KB).

avast! 4 Home is available in English, French, German, Italian, Japaneese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and other languages - check http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html to download avast! in your language.

Visit Website
Developer Homepage

Download
File Size = 16.60 MB

Spybot v1.5.2.19 RC1

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:39:00 +0000

Spybot - Search & Destroy can detect and remove a multitude of adware files and modules from your computer. Spybot also can clean program and Web-usage tracks from your system, which is especially useful if you share your computer with other users. Modules chosen for removal can be sent directly to the included file shredder, ensuring complete elimination from your system.

For advanced users, it allows you to fix registry inconsistencies related to adware and to malicious program installations. The handy online-update feature ensures that Spybot always has the most current and complete listings of adware, dialers, and other uninvited system residents.

Visit Website
Developer Homepage

Download
File Size = 9.13 MB

RunScanner 1.6.1.0

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:35:00 +0000

RunScanner is a completely free windows system utility which scans your system for all configured running programs. You can use runscanner to detect autostart programs, spyware, adware, homepage hijackers, unverified drivers and other problems.

You can import and export your results and let other people help you to solve your problems.

Visit website
Developer Homepage

Download
File Size = 1.68 MB

Jade Empire 2 in Development for Xbox 360

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 18:07:00 +0000

That's right! A sequel for BioWare’s action/RPG - Jade Empire 2 - is in development as we speak according to this article on Mercury News. Here’s what Mercury’s Dean Takahashi dug up:

…I talked with someone who saw code for Jade Empire 2. It’s coming for the Xbox 360, and it’s real. It’s not much as far as scoops go, but I’m on vacation. What do you expect? Happy New Year.

There’s no word of it going multiplatform though, so for all we know it might be an Xbox 360 exclusive:
It will be interesting to see if Jade Empire 2 will remain an exclusive for the Xbox 360, now that Electronic Arts has agreed to acquire BioWare/Pandemic.

Jumper: Griffin's Story Hands-On

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 18:02:00 +0000

Next week will see the theatrical release of Doug Liman's Jumper, an action movie that stars Hayden Christensen as a regular run-of-the-mill joe who just happens to have the ability to teleport anywhere at any time. Well, not anywhere--that would just be crazy. But he and his fellow jumpers can zip to any place to which they have a line of sight, or anywhere they've been before and can remember via a reminder like a photograph. Unfortunately, a nefarious group called the paladins led by a platinum-coiffed Samuel L. Jackson are after the jumpers for reasons not yet explained. The struggle between these two groups will provide the primary conflict in the movie.

Samual L. suggests you do not mess.

Brash Entertainment is prepping the requisite Jumper tie-in action game for release along with the movie, though it doesn't mirror the events on the movie exactly. As the name implies, Jumper: Griffin's Story will actually place you in the role of Griffin (played by Jamie Bell in the movie), a more experienced jumper-slash-wiseass who serves as a mentor to Christensen's character throughout the film. So the game will be a sort of prequel to the movie, as it will feature some locations seen on the big screen and others conceived uniquely for the game itself. Of course, you can expect the usual movie- and comic-related unlockable content to be available in the game as well.

Griffin's Story looks like a pretty straightforward third-person beat-'em-up, save for a couple of neat tricks. The core combat mechanic ties directly into Griffin's jumping ability; you'll be able to use the four controller face buttons to appear in front of, on either side of, or behind your current opponent. A little red arc will appear on the side (or sides) of your target to indicate which sides they're most likely to block on, and these change very rapidly, so figuring out which side to teleport to on the fly makes the combat feel a little like an action-puzzle sort of thing.

When you've beaten up an opponent enough, you'll sometimes be able to execute what's called a "jump finisher," which involves you grabbing the hapless thug, teleporting to some dangerous place in the world, and leaving them to their often grisly fate. This includes dropping them in a desert right before a nuclear bomb test is detonated; trapping them in the front seat of a car moments before it's crushed in a compactor; letting them float in a tank full of sharks; and simply abandoning them to freeze to death atop the Himalayas. These finishers are presented as full-motion video and thus will probably get tiresome after you've seen them a few times, but they're pretty entertaining (and a little disturbing) at first.

Griffin's Story isn't very impressive graphically, but the combat seems like it could be fairly entertaining if it proves to have enough depth over the long haul. Luckily, you'll be able to unlock some new combos that you can chain together, which may keep things from getting repetitive. Both Jumper and Griffin's Story are due out next week.

-GameSpot

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Updated Impressions - Gameplay, Graphics, Story

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:56:00 +0000

If you need more proof that video games are reaching the same league as movies these days, just take a look at Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the upcoming action game from LucasArts. The Force Unleashed will get almost the same full treatment as a movie, given that it will be supported by a wide variety of ancillary products, including a novel, action figures, a miniatures line, a comic book, and more. However, at the heart of all this is a game that will let you play as Darth Vader's secret apprentice, a budding and powerful young Sith tasked with hunting down the last of the Jedi knights. LucasArts finally unveiled the gameplay to us recently, and this is looking like one of the most exciting--and easily the most beautiful--Star Wars games ever.

The Force Unleashed will fill in a lost chapter in the Star Wars saga: basically, what happens between Episode III and Episode IV? This is a period when the Jedi were scattered and hunted down, the Galactic Empire consolidated its hold on the galaxy, and apparently Darth Vader was secretly grooming an apprentice to help him one day overthrow the Emperor. You'll play as that apprentice and go on missions for Lord Vader, but your existence must be kept a secret, so this will give you an opportunity to battle rebels, Jedis, and any unlucky Imperials who happen to get a glimpse of you. The developers consulted heavily with George Lucas on the story and characters, to the point that what happens in The Force Unleashed is now considered Star Wars canon.

If the goal of The Force Unleashed is to make you feel like an incredibly lethal killing machine, then it looks as if the designers have accomplished that. The first level shown to us has the apprentice running through a TIE Fighter assembly station, which a rogue Jedi has taken over. The apprentice let loose with a variety of powerful Force powers and lightsaber moves to dispatch the enemy. Force push doesn't just knock an enemy back; it can hurl a group of enemies through the air, as if they've been hit by an explosion.

Then there's Force grip, which lets you grab someone or something and dangle it in the air. This is a great demonstration for the game's Euphoria technology, which is available only in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game. Euphoria basically gives all enemies self-preservation instincts, so they'll act and behave as if they want to stay alive. If you dangle someone in the air, they'll try to grab something--anything--for dear life. This isn't a scripted movement, but it's all completely procedural and dynamic. Moving on to more powers, there's good old Force lightning, but instead of simply being able to zap bad guys, you can also infuse your lightsaber with lightning to make it more powerful. Later on in the game, you can use lightning and Force grip to create living bombs. Just pick up an enemy using grip, charge him with lightning, and then hurl him at a target to create an explosion.

You are Darth Vader's secret apprentice. Have fun with that.

One of the ideas in the game is to let you be as creative as possible when it comes to combat. You're not just slashing at enemies and toying with them using your Force powers. There's a fair amount of environmental interaction in the game. Most levels will have a mechanism of some sort that will provide you with a steady supply of objects that you can manipulate. For instance, in the TIE Fighter factory, fresh TIE Fighters come off of the assembly line. You can then use your Force powers to grab them and hurl them in someone's faces; or, even cooler, use grip to hurl someone into the path of an oncoming TIE Fighter. On a junkyard world, magnetic lanes keep a steady supply of junk flying overhead. On that same level, you might need to use lightning to power up engine turbines, which will then fly off and smash into objects. Execute a cool kill and the game will switch to a payoff camera that gives you a cinematic view of the action.

There will also be environmental destruction, thanks to the game's Digital Molecular Materials system. Basically, this means that objects will behave like you'd expect. If you use Force powers to bash in a metal door, the metal bends procedurally. (One neat thing is that you can bash a door open, go through it, and then use Force powers to bash it closed, thus preventing enemies from following you.) If you use those same powers against organic material, such as giant alien mushrooms, they'll bend but won't break, creating a cool swaying motion. Meanwhile, glass will shatter, whereas wood will splinter, and so on.(Gamespot)

No More Delays For Metal Gear Solid 4

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:52:00 +0000

Metal Gear Solid fans all over have been teased by Kojima’s latest production over and over again, since every time we approach the release date, it keeps running away from us. Ripten.com brings news that this isn’t going to happen any more. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

On this weeks Kojima Report Session, Ryan Payton (the game’s Assistant Producer) lets us in on some tidbits on MGS4’s release date. There is no set date for release, since conversations are still continuing between Kojima and marketing, but they are definitely concentrating on Q2 of this year. Yes, you heard it here first; the title is not going to slip.

That’s great news indeed, since most of us are pretty frustrated by the amount of times the game’s been delayed. However I’m pretty certain that the game will be more than worth the wait.

We can’t wait to get our hands on you, old Snake!

LotRO Features DX10 Support

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:48:00 +0000

All of you who thought that Age of Conan or Huxley would be the first MMOs to feature DirectX 10 support, think again! It turns out that Turbine has already implemented support for the same in their game - Lord of the Rings Online: Shadow of Angmar - yesterday, and the visual enhancements (according to them) are really incredible.

I’ll have to see it for myself, which means I’ll have to activate my copy of LotRO; that’s something I’m not really looking forward to. After playing World of Warcraft for a while (I’ve started playing it again after a 2 year break), LotRO just feels like more of the same, and not that great at the same time.

WarCry.com spoke to Jeff Anderson, President & CEO of Turbine; here’s an extract from the interview -

WarCry: With Book 11 coming can you tell us what if any graphical enhancements we will see with Book 11?

Turbine: We are proud to say that with Book 11, Lord of The Rings Online will become the first MMO to support DX10! We have been working very hard on this, and can't wait to see the players' reaction to it. It is really quite amazing, the effects look incredible. For example, if you are standing under a tree right now, you see a standard shadow cast over you. With DX10 you will see the shadow of each leaf as it crosses over you. It is very impressive.

Lego Indiana Jones Q&A

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:38:00 +0000

Given the runaway success of the Lego Star Wars games and Warner Bros.' recent announcement of a Lego-fied (Lego-ized? Lego-ficated?) action game based on the Batman franchise, it's no surprise that LucasArts is readying yet another Lego extravaganza, this one starring everyone's favorite swashbuckling archaeologist, Indiana Jones. Heck, the good Dr. Jones even made a cameo appearance in Lego Star Wars...and there's also that new movie coming that you may have heard about. We spoke to LucasArts producer Shawn Storc to find out what will be crammed into this new game.

GameSpot: Where did the idea to do a Lego version of the Indiana Jones movies come from?

Shawn Storc: Indy is a natural fit for a game like this that encourages exploration, adventure, and cooperative gameplay, as well as a healthy dose of humor.

You are permitted to sing 'dum dah dum-dum!' while viewing these screenshots.

GS: How will the gameplay differ from Lego Star Wars?

SS: The characters in the game are much more in tune with their surroundings and are much more physically active as they encounter puzzles, traps, and enemies. For example, you can pick up objects in-game and use them to battle enemies, solve puzzles, light fires or barrels of gunpowder. On top of that, characters are quite athletic and can now climb ropes and swing on vines, swim, and shimmy hand-over-hand across ledges. All of these open up a variety of gameplay options we were previously unable to offer players.

GS: Is the game using the LSW engine or an all-new one?

SS: The core technology is based on the same engine, but with significant upgrades to allow for the new gameplay elements previously described. That's also not to mention the fact that the game is visually striking and really communicates the unique environments that Indy has the good fortune to visit.

GS: Will there be online co-op?

SS: Nope. Of course, we hope families will continue to enjoy co-operative gameplay in their own homes.

GS: What has the team learned from the LSW games that's benefiting Lego Indy?

Look for all the goofy charm of the Lego Star Wars games to show up here.

SS: We have all learned how to work better together under pressure to deliver on the core experience of the films and really fulfill the fantasy of being able to play these memorable characters as Lego minifigures.

GS: What are the challenges in Lego-izing the Indiana Jones movies?

SS: The main challenge was aligning the movie experience with the actual gameplay environment. In short, we had to figure out how we make these little plastic figures move more like real people, demonstrate athletic ability, and really take the interactions to the next level.

GS: Will there be any content in the game based on the upcoming film?

SS: As much as we would love to use content from the new movie, our focus remains on the first three original adventures of Indiana Jones.

GS: How did you pick what parts of the film to make levels out of? Were there any you wanted to but didn't or couldn't due to time or design choices?

SS: The team used the same approach as was used in the LSW games: look for the pivotal and memorable events in the films and either allow players to relive them through their interactions with the game, or use them to communicate the unique brand of humor that the team at Traveller's Tales does so well.

GS: Will there be the same kind of collectibles?

SS: Absolutely. As an archaeologist, Indy is all about collecting treasures. After all, that is what drives all of his adventures!

You can also expect plenty of unlockables, as in the Star Wars games.

GS: Will there be gold bricks and assorted hidden unlockables?

SS: Of course, but as you can imagine, they will be uniquely tailored to fit seamlessly within the Indy world.

GS: Will there be a hub or store where you can open stuff up?

SS: Yes, the player will be able to move about the game hub, which is inspired by Indy's academic surroundings at Barnett College.

GS: Will there be any LSW cameos, since Indy was in LSWCS?

SS: It wouldn't be fun if I gave always all the secrets now, would it? Players should keep a watchful eye out for a variety of subtle and not-so-subtle references to LSW.

GS: Will the game be different on the portable systems? Will they have added functionality or connectivity to the Wii or PlayStation 3?

SS: The DS experience complements and builds upon that of the console versions. As players saw in LSW TCS on the DS, there will be a variety of interesting touch-screen interactions throughout normal gameplay, as well as a range of unlockable stand-alone minigames designed specifically for the touch screen. Try as we might, interaction with their bigger console siblings just isn't in the cards this time around.(gamespot)

Roundup of MP3 Encoders

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:21:00 +0000

It's the most popular thing to have happened to recorded music in the 90s. Yes, I'm referring to the MP3 format. Audiophiles hate it, but the rest of the world loves it. Musicians may be a dying breed, but who cares? After all, we get speeds in excess of 250K these days...

In 1987, some German dudes (Bernhard Grill, Karl-Heinz Brandenburg, Thomas Sporer, Bernd Kurten, and Ernst Eberlein.) at some German company (Fraunhofer-Gesellshaft) started some random project (EUREKA project EU147, Digital Audio Broadcasting) and finally came up with the MP3 format, which all of you know is a part of MPEG’s standards. MP3 is only for audio, and basically compresses the file size of the original wav by quite a large amount, resulting in loss of audio quality. (That’s why audiophiles hate it.)

The guys who invented it patented their encoder and started enforcing it on every software and player that came out. Pretty soon there came a need for other types of encoders; algorithms made by other programmers e.g LAME. So now we have a few choices out there that all do the same thing of compressing audio, or pirating music, but do so in different ways. I’ve given some links and linfo on each codec that I think is the biggest and best, but suggestions are welcome…

Fraunhofer Codec
Software name: Musicmatch jukebox
DL: 1
The most famous software that uses the Fraunhofer codec is the Musicmatch Jukebox (now Yahoo Jukebox) software. It is one of the most famous MP3 utilities on the net; in fact it’s been around since the time I got my first PC. It has a friendly GUI and the basic version is free, which I think is enough really, as the other features are not of use in the context we are talking about: MP3 encoding.

The drawbacks are that it is a little slow; even the latest Yahoo version doesn’t match up to the swanky and fast alternatives out there. The quality of MP3 encoding is questionable at lower bitrates, though at higher bitrates it is very good. The high frequency components are what you should check mainly when checking an MP3, and this piece of software creates fine ones at the higher end of the bitrate spectrum.

LAME Codec
Software name: CDex
DL: 1
LAME Codec is huge these days, and is available with many software, including Exact Audio Copy, which is already featured in our Download Section. I will name another one which I like; it’s a free ripper and encoder called CDex. This piece of software is light, its simple and mainly its quite fast. The developer of the software, Albert Faber, works on the LAME project itself, so its authentic work. I really like the software, as it has cool features like jitter correction, track name retrieval from CDDB, etc.

MySpace Agrees to New Safety Measures

noreply@blogger.com (romadona) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:55:00 +0000

Under mounting pressure from law enforcement and parents, MySpace has agreed to take steps to protect youngsters from online sexual predators and bullies, including searching for ways to better verify users' ages.

The hugely popular online hangout will create a task force of industry professionals to improve the safety of users, and other social networking sites will be invited to participate. "We must keep telling children that they're not just typing into a computer. They're sharing themselves with the world," said North Carolina Attorney Roy Cooper.

The deal comes as sites such as MySpace and Facebook have grown exponentially in recent years, with teenagers making up a large part of their membership. This has created a new potential venue for sexual predators who lie about their age to lure young victims, and for cyber bullies who send threatening and anonymous messages.

Monday's announcement was short on specifics about how improvements would be carried out. Skeptics doubt MySpace and similar sites can eliminate online predation because age verification technology is difficult to implement and predators are good at circumventing restrictions.

Parry Aftab, executive director of Wiredsafety.org, a children's Internet safety group, said the agreement was a good first step but could have unforeseen consequences.

"There's no system that will work for age verification without putting kids at risk," she said. "Age verification requires that you have a database of kids and if you do, that database is available to hackers and anyone who can get into it."

Aftab estimates that 20 percent of teens who have made contact with people online have followed up with face-to-face meetings, and there are numerous examples of sexual abuse arising from MySpace encounters.

MySpace, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., has more than 110 million active users worldwide, and Facebook claims more than 61 million active users.

Over the last two years, MySpace said it has implemented over 100 safety and security innovations, including using new technology to identify and remove registered six offenders from the site and pushing for tougher laws in this area. The company also said that it hopes other sites follow its lead in pushing for tougher standards.

"We thank the attorneys general for a thoughtful and constructive conversation on Internet safety," said MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam in a statement. "This is an industrywide challenge, and we must all work together to create a safer Internet."

Facebook said it welcomed the increased vigilance. "We are happy to work further with the states to develop and deploy strategies to protect kids online," the company said in a statement.

Under the agreement, profiles for users under age 16 will be set to private so no strangers can get information from their profile, users can block anyone over 18 from contacting them, and people over 18 cannot add anyone under 16 as a friend in their network unless they have their last name or their email address.