Technodorm

4 Best Free Antivirus for Home Users

Fahad — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 03:44:13 +0000

One of the most important aspects of securing your computer from hackers, viruses, and spyware is through installing an antivirus. It’s also, perhaps, the most difficult choice as there are many antivirus software out there, including paid software such as Symantec Norton Antivirus or NOD32. Most of the paid antivirus have yearly subscription prices which makes them an unviable option for lite computer users. On numerous occasions I have been asked which is the best free antivirus or which antivirus will not slow down my computer etc and this article seeks to answer these questions.

Any of these 4 free antivirus will be able to protect your computer from viruses and hackers though you should keep in mind that you will need to update your antivirus every couple of days so that it stays effective.

1. Avast

Avast provides both free and paid antivirus solutions. From their feature rich free version, I would think that lite users would be adequately protected. The free version of Avast provides real-time protection which is a must for any antivirus solution though many free antiviruses don’t provide this feature. Avast also has favorable reviews which adds to its reputation of being reliable. It also protects protocols such as P2P, IM, Network and Web Shields. In my opinion, it is the best free antivirus on the market right now. It supports Windows 7, Vista, 2000 and XP (both 32 and 64 bit).

2. Avira AntiVir

Avira AntiVir released version 10 just 2 days ago which adds cloud-based detection meaning it should perform much faster than before. Avira is frequently featured on top of every free antivirus list and that is because it performs to a high degree of standard for home users. Version 10 of this free antivirus adds many new features which puts it on top of AVG Free in this list. It also includes adware and spyware protection. It supports both Windows and UNIX.

3. AVG Free Edition

AVG is a pioneer of free antivirus solutions. AVG offers both paid and free versions of its antivirus and although many people criticize the great amount of features slashed in the free version, it is still undoubtedly one of the best free antivirus right now. I have personally used it for many years and have been very satisfied with its performance. It provides excellent virus detection with real-time capability to block any virus from entering your system. One of the key advantages of AVG is that it is light on resources and has automatic updates. It is also probably the most popular free antivirus solution to date. It also provides spyware protection which is an added benefit. It supports Windows 7, Vista, 2000 and XP.

4. Panda Cloud Antivirus

Panda Cloud Antivirus is a relatively new free antivirus solution and works on cloud-based detection. The prime advantage of it is the short time needed for it to fully scan your computer for viruses. Users have reported scanning time to be as low as 5 minutes. It offers real-time virus protection while not using a lot of system resources. This antivirus would be great for low-powered computer systems. It supports Windows 7, Vista and XP.

Any of the above four antivirus solutions should provide sufficient protection for home users while keeping a check on system resources and providing timely updates to new viruses.

Stop and Resume Any Windows Process

Saad — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:50:50 +0000

Did you come across a situation where you know that a particular program or process on your computer is taking too much memory, and slowing down your computer immensely? Ever wanted to suspend this process for a little bit to increase the efficiency of computer? Well, Now you can.

Polaris Software has come up with an application that lets you suspend any process you want. The beauty of this application is that it does not terminate the process and therefore, does not result in any loss of data. When you need the process running again, you can do so just with a single mouse click. Download “Free Process Freezer” now.

How to Play MKV Files in Windows 7

Fahad — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:26:19 +0000

If you download a lot of video files then you will probably encounter MKV files at sometime. MKV stands for Matroska Video and has been increasing in popularity in recent times. The MKV container format is seen as being a pioneering development of open source in multimedia. Many encoders are beginning to shift to MKV files due to the ongoing development of the MKV format. It is able to support high quality video and audio at low file sizes which saves a considerable amount of money, in terms of bandwidth, for companies all over the world.

To play MKV files, your favorite media player will essentially need to have the required media codec. By default, Windows Media Player does not contain the necessary codec required to play mkv files in Windows 7. Thus, you will not be able to play your downloaded mkv file without installing additional media codecs or a new media player.

How to Play MKV Files in Windows 7

To Play MKV Files in Windows 7, I would suggest using K-Lite Codec which will not only let you play MKV files but many other multimedia formats such as MKV, MP4, MOV, HDMOV, TS, FLV, OGM, MPEG, M2TS, and OGG files. I have been using this codec pack for the last 4 years and being an avid downloader, I have come across many(and I mean many!) multimedia formats but every one of them worked flawlessly. You could also download the Mega Codec Pack(the one I use), which supports RealMedia (rm, rmvb) format as well and includes Media Player Classic.

An MKV file being played in Media Player Classic

To download the K-Lite Codec pack, head over to their website by clicking here. To Play MKV files in Windows 7, you could download any of the codec packs (from Basic to Mega) and be able to play MKV files flawlessly. The K-Lite Codec pack can be used with Windows XP and Windows Vista as well to achieve the same results and be able to play MKV files.

Free Megaupload Premium Direct Download Links

Fahad — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:36:43 +0000

Megaupload is one of the leading file hosting sites on the internet today. If you have had to download from megaupload before you would surely know that there are limitations set in place for free users while premium users get all the juicy benefits! Now you can experience megaupload premium features yourself using a neat little trick I found at Renjus Blog. By applying this trick you can download megaupload files with direct download links for free! This means you wont have to enter any captchas before downloading. You can download without having to wait for the countdown timer to hit zero. You will even get full download speeds and be able to download several megaupload files simultaneously. Keep reading to find out how!

Previously, I have told you how to download megavideo videos and judging from the response of the comments, it seemed like many of you were able to download videos from megavideo successfully. Now you will be able to download files from megaupload as a premium user as well!

How to get Direct Download Links just like a Megaupload Premium user?

All you gotta do is add “mgr_dl.php” (without quotes) before the question mark in a typical megaupload download link with the format “http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EKDABBIK”. If you do not understand then read the following steps carefully and you will surely understand.

To download a file hosted at megaupload, you would have a link like this: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EKDABBIK (as you can see in the image below, click for full sized image)

Now, all you gotta do is add “mgr_dl.php” before the “?” in the megaupload download link. (See the following image for how your link will look like, click for full sized image)

So the megaupload link in the first step will become “http://www.megaupload.com/mgr_dl.php?d=EKDABBIK”
Enjoy downloading from this direct download link, just like a megaupload premium user!

Now, to really add functionality to this trick, you would be applying this to a batch of several megaupload links. A quick way of doing this is to copy only the megaupload download links and past them into notepad. Use the “Replace” function under “Edit->Replace…” and give the “Find what:” as “?d=” and the replace with box with “mgr_dl.php?d=”. Then click the “Replace all” button to change several megaupload links to direct download links at once. You can then use these links in your favorite download manager to download all links like a premium megaupload user! Enjoy!

Check Windows 7 Startup Programs

Fahad — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:57:42 +0000

Here is another great little utility program which allows you to check all the different Windows 7 startup programs. What this means is that you can get a list of all the different processes and programs which are loaded upon Windows 7 Startup. This can be a very useful utility which can help you to identify unneeded programs that are loaded with Windows 7. You will have to remove those Windows 7 startup programs yourself though. You could also uninstall any programs that you do not use anymore but which are still loaded upon startup. You could also identify which program causes an error upon loading by identifying all of your Windows 7 startup programs. There are many uses for this application and I have only pointed out a couple of possible scenarios where this program may be used.

How to Check Windows 7 Startup Programs

Startup Discoverer allows you to easily view all of your windows startup programs.

Download the Startup Discoverer program by clicking here.
Extract and run the application by opening the exe file.
The following image shows you the interface of this program.

You can list all the different startup programs as categorized by the different buttons. You may want to click on the “Show All Runs” button at the bottom left to view all of your Windows 7 startup programs at once.

So thats it. Now you can pinpoint any programs which may be lagging your Windows at startup. You can remove these programs from Windows 7 startup by checking the specific program settings or checking your Windows 7 startup folder on your hard drive.

So download Startup Discoverer now to check Windows 7 startup programs. This application works with all versions of Windows including XP and Vista. The homepage of this useful application can be found at Leelu Soft.

How to Change Windows 7 Owner Name

Fahad — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:12:16 +0000

Wondering how to change Windows 7 Owner Name and Organization? If you bought a new computer with Windows 7 pre-installed or bought a second hand computer with Windows 7, you will surely want to change the original Windows 7 owner name and organization. Maybe you want to change the owner name for your home computer to your businesses name to use at the office? There are many reasons why you would want to change your Windows 7 owner name and information, as I pointed out. Windows 7 does not have any built in functions that allows you to change Windows 7 owner name but with a small freeware utility you can change your Windows 7 owner name and information in a matter of seconds.

How to Change Windows 7 Owner Name and Organization Information

Set Owner 1.0 easily allows you to change Windows 7 Owner name and organization with a click of a button.

Download the Set Owner 1.0 application by clicking here.
Extract the Set Owner executable file from within the downloaded zip file.
Run the application and you will see the application open up. You should see the following window.

Fill in both fields by giving the appropriate Owner name and organization name that you want.
Hit the “Apply” button and your Windows 7 Owner name should be changed! As simple as that.

So download Set Owner now to change Windows 7 owner name and organization information. The homepage of this little useful application can be found at Leelu Soft.

Split Large Files, Videos, Mp3 Files and More in Windows 7

Saad — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:32:42 +0000

At some point or the other, you have probably felt the need to split your large files into smaller ones. You might have wanted to do this for emailing these files or storing them onto your “limited” USB drive.

Now, GSplit has come to the scene and is definitely effectively competing with other similar tools out there. Now, you can split your mp3 files, video files, documents and other formats into smaller files. One of the best things about GSplit is that you can split extremely large files (above 4gb) from any format into small pieces based on a number of attributes like filename, number of lines, or the occurrence of another pattern.

In addition, you don’t have to wait for one file to split before splitting another, as GSplit supports splitting multiple files back-to-back in one time. You can also directly split files from the context menu in Windows Explorer.

GSplit is compatible with all Windows versions, including Windows 7. You can get it today by clicking here.

iPhone Business Applications: Avatron Air Sharing

Saad — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:54:53 +0000

Ever since the emergence of the iPhone, there has undoubtedly been a lot of buzz about Apple in the technology scene all over the globe. However, one of the biggest criticisms of this device has been the lack of useful business applications available to users. In the recent past however, Apple has been desperately trying to remove this stain by launching and encouraging third-party programmers and application developers to focus on Business applications.

Whether you want to track a package, look at your accounting reports or collaborate with your colleagues on documents and spreadsheets, there are iPhone applications that make it possible.

In the upcoming postings, we will be focusing on these applications. Keep an eye out for an application that can make life easy for YOU!

Introducing Avatron Air Sharing

Now, you can use your iPhone as a completely functional wireless drive with your computer (Mac, Windows & Linux supported). Avatron’s Air Sharing lets you connect between your computer and iPhone over Wi-Fi, or through your web-browser. View your documents and images on the go without any hassle.

The application supports many common formats and its greatest asset is its fast access. You can share your files through the Built-In File Server over your local wireless network. Another important characteristic is the security function inherently built into it as you can set a local pass code. This still doesn’t limit you from setting up guest access for easy collaboration.

Check out the details at http://avatron.com/apps/air-sharing/

Spice up your Windows 7 Taskbar with Taskbar Meters

Fahad — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:59:03 +0000

Here is a nice little application that I stumbled across when browsing CodePlex today, Taskbar meters. Taskbar Meters adds two(soon to be three) meters into your Windows7 taskbar that keep you informed of your CPU and memory usage. A third meter for hard drive usage may soon be added as well. The main advantage that I see is that you dont need to open windows task manager or any other 3rd part software to see your system usage data. You can easily identify the usage by glancing over the windows taskbar and visually seeing the level of usage of each CPU and memory.

According to a reply from the applications author, to a suggestion made at the applications message board, we may soon see a third meter for hard drive usage as well. This would be a great addition as whenever you are doing a hard drive intensive task, your cpu and memory wont be used much, but your computer will feel sluggish if you try to multitask. The average user may not know that it is the hard drive which is causing the slowdown. If a user has taskbar meters installed however, they can quickly identify which program, upon being loaded, or upon being used, causes their system to crawl at a snails pace. I find this tool has many uses that may not seem useful right now but can be realized after using this app for some time. Download Taskbar Meters by going to its home page by clicking here.

Apple releases iPhone in China

Fahad — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:13:51 +0000

After two years of being released internationally, the iPhone has finally been released in China. Quite ironic, considering the fact that the iPhone is made in China. One important aspect to note however is that there is no Wifi in these iPhones, a feature that is perhaps used often by many iphone users worldwide. The iPhone in China is being released by Unicom, Apples official network provider. The price for the new iPhone in China, as quoted from Mashable, are between 4,999 yuan($730) and 6,999 yuan($1,025).

You may be wondering why there is no Wifi, considering it is an integral part of how the iPhone runs. Well, as it turns out, Wifi was banned temporarily in China. However, the ban has been lifted and there is widespread speculation that the next batch of iPhones in China will have Wifi. Until that time however, it would be interesting to see how the iPhone sales fare in China.

Automatically delete all empty folders using Folder Vanity Remover

Fahad — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:00:01 +0000

If you use your computer a lot for storing files such as music, shows, personal files, etc, you would have surely found yourself in a situation where you would have lots of empty folders sitting idle on your hard drive. I myself have come across this situation several times and end up wasting precious time in locating and deleting all empty folders. Another source of empty folders is if you install and uninstall lots of applications over a period of time. Some applications, although deleting all the files, fail to delete all the folders associated with their program and hence leave empty folders in the users hard drive. This is where Folder Vanity Remover comes in and automates the job of having to delete all empty folders.

Folder Vanity Remover is able to locate and automatically delete all empty folders within a specified directory or drive of your choice. To test this software, I used it to on a folder that contained 2 empty folders and a third folder containing 2 files. It was able to successfully delete the empty folders and leave the third folder alone. This could be quite a timesaver in certain situations for many people. I know I will end up using it from time to time.

Note: If the selected directory itself does not contain any files then it will be deleted as well.

[Via Blogsdna]

Blackberry Tour 9630 Review

Fahad — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:37:22 +0000

The Blackberry Tour is one of RIM’s latest devices and aims to bring much needed improvements to the popular Smartphone series. That said, it should be noted that this is not a Blackberry Curve replacement. Although they share similar dimensions and design cues, the Tour is a whole different story compared to its brother the venerable Curve 8300.

DESIGN:

If you take a look at the Curve and the Tour it’s clear to see they have an obvious resemblance, but at the same time, admire the differences between the two. The Blackberry Tour would remind you of what would happen if the Curve and Bold made love and out popped a baby phone. The device is sleek and slender measuring just 4.4 inches high by 2.4 inches wide and only 0.6 inches thick. Weight is a mere 4.58 ounces.

The screen is 2.6 inches with 480 x 360 pixels and over 65,000 colors. The phone features a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus and image stabilization, video capture, 2x digital zoom and geo tagging. Also included is a Bluetooth 2.0 chip which accepts hands free, stereo headset and Phone Book Access. A standard 3.5mm jack is also included. The different networks supported are CDMA 800/1900 with support for EVDO. Rev A. a SIM card slot is also included so roaming is supported on the 850/900/1800 and 1900MHz GSM/GPRS and EDGE networks.

Full QWERTY keyboard and a 1400 mAHr removable battery that is rated at 5 hours of talk time and up to 14 hours of standby time are all included.

PERFORMANCE:

Blackberry’s have long been known for the stellar call quality, top of the line messaging support and more recently, great multimedia functionality, all of which have been bundled together in the Blackberry Tour.

The full QWERTY keyboard is beautiful and typing is a pleasure. The keyboard is more in line with that of the Blackberry Bold and keys are not too firm and not too soft. Plus, thanks to a special coating, slipping and sliding on the keys due to sweating fingers is not a problem.

The 3.2 megapixel camera is decent. While it didn’t take the best quality picture we’ve seen on a mobile device is was still comparable to most and colors were accurate. Video recording quality on the other hand was not the best. While not as bad as the Curve, there were still some pixilation and jitters.

Messaging is still the best. Being a Blackberry owner myself, I never knew how much I loved my email until I got one. The Tour brings all the messaging functionality the Blackberry is known for and thanks to Blackberry OS 5.0, support and integration is tighter then before.

Call quality was, as always, great. Voices sounded crisp and clear without a hint of any noise. Speaker phone was also good but still not hitting the mark that the Bold has set. While we’re at it, WiFi is nonexistent on this device thanks to Verizon. That said you will be stuck with either Sprint or Verizon’s high-speed 3G network when data is required.

Speaking of data, we did find that the JAVA based browser wasn’t comparable to that of the iPhone, Pre or Skyfire. While it is a great improvement from Blackberry OS 4.3 it still needs some work as pages don’t always render right and sometimes the CSS is screwed up.

During our battery drain tests we were able to pull a full 6 hours of continuous talk time out of the device.

CONCLUSION:

Out of all the Blackberry’s to come out in recent years, the Tour seems to be one of the best. No, it hasn’t reinvented the wheel, but rather RIM has wisely chosen to refine the features that define the Blackberry. Have they succeeded? Yes!

Windows Mobile 6.5 Review

Fahad — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:58:57 +0000

Microsoft has long been a major player in the Smartphone software industry. In fact they were one of the first (just behind Palm). However, in recent years, they have seen a slew of attacks from other players. Blackberry has become the defector king for those concerned about security and messaging. Android has come out of nowhere to court some of Microsoft’s major partners, whereas Apple has created a Smartphone that even a baby could use. Palm on the other hand has shocked everyone with their Pre, the one device that can truly be called an iPhone killer.

With the new onslaught Microsoft has sought to ramp up production on its Windows Mobile platform. Windows Mobile 6.5 is supposed to be the next step just before Windows Mobile 7 which will finally bring long awaited features such as multi-touch, better browsers, etc, to the fledging platform. So how does it stack up? Is it a worthy upgrade from Windows Mobile 6.1?

Windows Mobile 6.5 is not a radical change from version 6.1. Rather it’s more like what Snow Leopard is to Tiger on the Mac OS (sorry Mac fans). Design wise, it has been reworked and many of the outdated icons and menus have been replaced.

In the latest craze for touch UI’s, Microsoft has updated the UI of Windows Mobile to be more finger friendly. Menu text is bigger, icons are also larger and more spaced and in general the UI seems more on the lines of a design that were thought out sans a stylus.

The “Today Screen” has been reworked and now resembles that of the Zune HD. For those still stuck in 2003, the old “Today Screen” is still there, but we will say the new version is a whole lot better. Speaking of UI, there is also a new addition to the improvements which include a “Honeycomb” Start screen which as it would sound would remind you of a bees hive honeycomb. As we said before, the outdated icons are gone and have been replaced with more moderns ones.

The lock screen has been reworked. Microsoft has implemented a design that allows you to go right to the location you wanted when you unlock your screen. For instance when you get a new text message or email the lock slider changes so that when you unlock you phone it carries you right to your inbox for you to read your message.

One of the bigger additions to Windows Mobile 6.5 has been the revamped Internet Explorer. We will be frank, it’s not up to par with the iPhone web browser but Microsoft deserves credit for reworking their crappy excuse of a browser to include better zoom and pan features as well as full support for HTML and a new JavaScript engine. It would be interesting to see how feature rich the web browser is in Windows Mobile 7.

Windows Mobile 6.5 has gotten a marketplace as well. Windows Marketplace is Microsoft’s version of the App Store, App Catalog or Android Marketplace. The store is available on Windows Mobile 6, 6.1 and 6.5 devices. While not the best designed application store, is does provide a way for Windows Mobile users to get all the apps they want in one place.

Overall the improvements of Windows Mobile are great. Microsoft has really made an effort to speed up the development of Windows Mobile and version 6.5 is a worthy upgrade. It might not carry all the fancy animation as webOS or the iPhone but it is still one of the most mature Smartphone brands and deserves a look.

The only thing you should have a problem with, is deciding which one of the many Windows Mobile 6.5 devices suits your style.

Windows 7 Review: My thoughts after using for 7 months

Fahad — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:13:47 +0000

Things haven’t been going too well in Microsoft’s OS department. The software giant has in recent years faced steep competition from Apple. And although Cupertino has failed to make a serious dent in Microsoft’s market dominance, they have been more then able to tarnish the crown of Redmond.

With the release of Windows 7 later this week, Microsoft hopes to dispel some of the doubts that have been placed on its OS. So how does it stack up? Is Windows 7 a memory hog like Vista, and more importantly can systems older then three years run the 7^th installment of Windows?

DESIGN:

Windows 7 has seen one of Microsoft’s more radical changes to the UI of its operating system. While it’s still easy to tell that this is 100% Windows, things have changed since Windows 3.0 and Microsoft has taken note of that. One of the best examples of this is the redesign of the start menu as well as task bar. In older versions of Windows (even Vista), grouping programs were a lot more complicated. For instance more then 5 windows had to be opened before similar windows were grouped. That has changed in 7. Not only does the taskbar group programs, but programs, documents, videos, music, pictures etc. can be pinned to the taskbar (kind of like the same way on the Mac OS). If you rather the past, this can always be reverted to the regular taskbar setup.

Another change in design has been the omission of the sidebar that was introduced three years ago in Vista. Widgets are back but the sidebar has been removed completely so widgets can be floated anywhere on the desktop.

Other additions to the UI include the ability to “peek” at the desktop by dragging the mouse to the far right of the taskbar. The whole UI has gotten a but more transparent and desktop backgrounds can be changed at user defined time intervals.

Overall the redesign of the UI is not one that is meant to reinvent the wheel but rather refine it. Has Microsoft succeeded at this task? Yes they have.

PERFORMANCE:

This is probably going to be the make or break for many people, especially those interested in upgrading older systems. While I have never had any major problems with Vista, I do have to confess that it was a memory hog and if you wanted anything to run decent, 2GB of RAM was the least that was needed. That said, many of those who upgraded were not aware of the memory or processor requirements and got burned by the “Vista Compatible” sticker.

Using Windows 7 for the past 7 months (ironic I know ), I have had enough time to test it out in many different environments. One of the major flaws of Vista was the fact that graphics rendering was (in simple terms) an overlay and not an entire redesign.

This caused the system to require more processing power (RAM and CPU) in order to deal with the extra graphical elements. Although Windows 7 is even more graphical intense then Vista, Microsoft has re written the code behind the OS to free up more memory. But even more importantly they have also taken note of the netbook crowd and built in a few features so that those in the Intel Atom arena can have a piece of the pie also.

Overall, load times have been decreased and processing power has been increased. Boot time is significantly faster on Windows 7 then Vista. On average I’ve been able to boot to the login screen in just under 15 seconds from a cold restart. More impressive is the fact that the system becomes fully functional in about 30-45 seconds.

Microsoft has also taken out the annoying warning messages that made their first appearances in Vista, namely the dreaded UAC. While the ones in Vista could be shut down at will, Microsoft has taken special attention to only warn users on important changes to their system such as the installation of new programs, downloads or requests to access registry files.

Another big improvement is the search function which, from my firsthand experience, has been greatly improved since Vista. Searching for anything on the computer is a lot faster thanks to better indexing algorithms implemented in Windows 7.

Support for older drivers and software has also been retained. I have been able to get drivers and software well over 5 years old to install without a hitch on Windows 7. Another great feature is that Windows 7 can automatically check for updated drivers to help the device run better on the new OS.

In Windows 7, Internet Explorer has entered version 8. The latest version promises to be the most secure yet, while also promising better support for HTML 5, JavaScript and other web languages (something IE6 was notorious for paying no attention to).

CONCLUSION:

All in all, the changes in Windows 7 have been huge. Yes it might seem like a service pack to many, but playing around with the OS for a few minutes can easily dispel those thoughts, and its clear to see Microsoft has put a large amount of time and resources into the development of this, the latest version of Windows!

When it launches on October 22 to the mass public, it will be available in various versions including Home, Premium, Professional, Ultimate and Starter edition (licensed for netbooks and nettops only).

Is it worth the upgrade? Seeing that Vista has finally become a stable OS, it all depends. If you have the money to spend, there is no reason why you shouldn’t upgrade. You will not regret it. If you have an older system you might want to check before. While I have heard of people being able to run Windows 7 on Pentium 4 and 3 systems, I would not advise you to try it unless you’re prepared for whatever troubles arise later on. If you ask me though, I would recommend an update to Windows 7 if your system is capable of handling it.

Buying a new Windows laptop? It’s a no brainer, Windows 7 is one of the best OS to be released by Redmond and after a few hours with a Windows 7 machine, you’ll see what all the hype is about!

PSP Go Review: A closer look at the new Sony PSP Go

Fahad — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:06:55 +0000

The new PSP Go is a not a replacement to the original PSP (now PSP 3000). Sony classifies it as an alternative, mainly something that is more portable, and we might add a little more expensive. Starting at $250 the PSP Go has taken on the price of the original PSP when it was first released. Sony hopes that through a tight integration with PlayStation Online as well as PS3 they can get more then a few of these consoles off the shelves.

DESIGN:

The PSP Go is a radical change from the original PSP. While it is clear that the PSP Go and the original PSP are siblings there are quite a few differences between both systems. For instance the screen is smaller then the original (although the resolution is the same). The PSP Go has a 3.8 widescreen TFT LCD display (16:9) which boasts 480 x 272 pixels. The PSP 3000 carries a 4.3 widescreen TFT LCD with 480 x 272 pixels.

The controls have been changed also. Instead of being on either side of the screen they now slide out from underneath the screen. However, they are all located in approximate locations except for the analog stick, select and start buttons which are located towards the center. The left bumper and right bumper buttons are still located at the top of the screen. But the volume, WLAN and other controls are located at the top of the device. The device also supports Bluetooth 3.0 meaning that a variety of compatible Bluetooth headsets can be paired.

One of the biggest changes is the addition of a new 16GB internal memory (still expandable though), integrated battery (to prevent hacking) as well as a new proprietary connector meaning PSP 3000 accessories will not work with the Go. Moreover Sony has removed the UMD reader from this version so all games, movies, etc will have to be downloaded.

PERFORMANCE:

Overall the performance of the PSP Go is comparable to that of the PSP 3000. However there are some drawbacks. For those used to the control arrangements of the PSP 3000, the placement of the analog switch on the PSP Go will be very awkward. That said, the right and left bumper buttons are a lot better then that of the PSP 3000.

Although screen resolution is the same, as we said before the size of the screen is smaller. While this is not a big deal for movies the smaller screen real estate might hamper your game experience.

One of the most controversial features of the Go is its lack of a UMD drive. Sony decided to omit this for portability reasons. At first Sony had promised that people who owned UMD versions of a game would be able to get a free download credit for that game on the Go. However, that deal was soon bagged and as such, left many people with large game libraries out in the cold.

But our major gripe is the fact that downloading large games can take quite a long time. Most PSP games range from 1GB to 1.5-2GB and as you can imagine downloading onto the Go can be a pain to say the least.

The processor provides around about the same performance as the PSP 3000 so there shouldn’t be any noticeable difference there.

CONCLUSION:

So the major question will ultimately be is whether the PSP Go is worth it? If you’re used to the PSP 3000 you might want to play with a store demo before you drop your $250 on this. On the other hand if you’re looking for a new gaming system and have your eyes peeled between the DSi and the PSP Go, you should definitely check out the PSP Go. Just be prepared for life without a physical disk or cartridge.

Download Google Chrome Offline Installer

Fahad — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:54:15 +0000

Google Chrome is one of the premier browsers nowadays and is in much demand due to its popular features such as fast browsing, low resource usage, clean/minimal user interface and ofcourse the trustable google brand. Google Chrome has seen immense growth since its launch and has a market share of about 3% right now. The official Google Chrome website lets you download the latest stable version or the beta version. If you decide to download through there, you will download a small file around 500kB which itself is only the google chrome installer and not the actual browser. The installer will then download the browser which should be around 8MB. This is all good and such but you may experience problems when you have to install the browser on several computers, and some of which may not have internet connectivity. The solution is to download the google chrome offline installer.

Steps to Download Google Chrome Offline Installer

Once you click the “Download Google Chrome” button on the chrome website, you are taken to the google chrome terms of service page which will have an “accept and install” button. If you click the button now, you will only be able to download the 500kb google chrome installer file, which is not the file you need.
To download the google chrome offline installer, add “?standalone=1″ (without the quotes) at the end of the url on the address bar so your full url should be http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?standalone=1
Once you have added the above line into your address bar and hit the enter button, you will notice that the page will reload but there wont be any noticeable changes. This time, however, if you click the “accept and install” button, you will be prompted to download a bigger sized file around 8-9MB. This is the Google Chrome Offline Installer!
Download the file and use it at any computer you desire.

Similarly, if you want to download the latest beta version chrome offline installer, just add the “standalone=1″ parameter at the end of the address bar though you will need to add the “&” sign before this parameter to separate it from the beta version parameter. The final url after you have added the above parameter, should be http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?extra=betachannel&standalone=1

Improve Battery Life of your Laptop Battery with BatteryCare

Fahad — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:19:23 +0000

If you frequently use a laptop to manage your work then you will definitely want to increase its mobility performance by optimizing the usage of its battery. One such software that can help you with this task is BatteryCare. BatteryCare can help you to optimize the usage and performance of your laptop battery resulting in an improved battery life. It offers many useful features which you can utilize with the help of a button through its interface. Many laptops on the market come with some sort of a pre-installed software to manage your battery usage but lack one thing or another. With BatteryCare you can choose to pause services or disable the Aero theme altogether, when laptop battery is being used, to maximize the timing of your battery. Another advantage of BatteryCare is that it is updated regularly with more tweaks and performance upgrades to ensure greater improvement for your laptop battery.

Some of the features of BatteryCare are:

Battery’s discharge cycles monitoring: The advanced algorithm within the program accurately calculates when a complete discharge cycle is performed and promptly reminds you when a full discharge is required.

Complete battery information: BatteryCare is able to calculate the statistical remaining time in laptops that do not support the battery time left information and only show the charge percentage remaining. It also shows all the information pertaining to the battery such as wear level, consumption, capacities, manufacturer, etc.

Notification area information: The remaining time and charge level are shown on the notification area when the laptop is in battery mode.
Automatic power plans switching: Pre-defined settings can be automatically initiated depending on the power source of the computer.
Control over Windows Aero and demanding Services: Aero Theme, as well as other demanding services, can be automatically configured to be stopped when the laptop enters battery mode. Once a power source is used, all stopped services are automatically run again. This helps to improve battery life of your laptop computer as well as to provide convinience to you so you dont have to stop/start the services yourself.
Auto-updates: The program updates itself whenever a new version is released.
Lightweight in the system: To help with the effort of battery performance, BatteryCare uses a minute amount of system resources so it does not negatively affect battery time nor does it slow down your pc whatsoever.

Download BatteryCare to improve battery life

ARMA 2 System Requirements

Fahad — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:31:36 +0000

ARMA 2 is a military simulation game for the PC developed by Bohemia Interactive Studio. ARMA 2 features five different armed factions, all with their own vehicles and weapons. ARMA 2 has got good feedback in terms of its realism, graphics, and the sheer scale of the game. On the other hand, as with the original Armed Assault game, ARMA 2 has been criticized for the unfinished and buggy state of release and the poor quality of the AI.

ARMA 2 Minimum System Requirements

Processor: Dual Core CPU for Intel or AMD
Memory/RAM: 1 GB
Video Card: Nvidia Geforce 7800 / ATI Radeon 1800 or faster with Shader Model 3 and 256 MB VRAM
Hard Disk Space: 10 GB
Operating System: Windows XP or Windows Vista

ARMA 2 Recommended System Requirements

Processor: Fast Dual Core CPU or Quad Core
Memory/RAM: 2 GB
Video Card: Nvidia Geforce 8800GT or ATI Radeon 4850 or faster with Shader Model 3 and 512MB or more VRAM
Hard Disk Space: 10 GB
Operating System: Windows XP or Windows Vista

Street Fighter 4 System Requirements

Fahad — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:17:26 +0000

Street Fighter 4 is a fighting game produced by Capcom. What is interesting is that, it is the first numbered Street Fighter game since 1999. The Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game were released in late Feburuary 2009 whereas the PC variant of the game is expected to be released in early July 2009. As of March 31, 2009, Street Fighter 4 had sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide.

Street Fighter 4 Minimum System Requirements

Processor: Pentium 4 2.0Ghz or equivalent AMD processor
Memory/RAM: 1 GB
Video Card: 256 MB nVidia GeForce 6600 or ATI Radeon X1600 or greater
Hard Disk Space: 10 GB
Operating System: Windows XP or Windows Vista

Street Fighter 4 Recommended System Requirements

Processor: Intel Core 2 duo or equivalent AMD processor
Memory/RAM: 2 GB
Video Card: 512 MB nVidia GeForce 8600 or ATI Radeon X1900 or greater
Hard Disk Space: 10 GB
Operating System: Windows XP or Windows Vista

New URL Shortening Service from Stumbleupon, Su.pr

Fahad — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:30:24 +0000

If you have heard of twitter or use it on a regular basis than you would know about the popular URL shortening services like TinyURL or bit.ly or is.gd. Ever since twitter has gained popularity, these url shortening services have been in much demand so that tweets remain within the 140 characters limit imposed by twitter. Not only are shorter URLs used in twitter, but they are used quite frequently on sites like Facebook and Orkut. Having smaller URLs makes the presentation of things much cleaner and nicer.

Just a couple of days ago, Stumbleupon, released a url shortening service of their own at su.pr. Much like other services, users will easily be able to shorten their long urls to just a few characters. Some features of this service include the ability of tracking a certain URL of yours so you can easily view how many times it has been accessed and more. Currently, this service is in closed beta but you can get your invite code by following stumbleupon on twitter. Keep an eye out for invite codes which you can use on that certain day to sign up to the service.