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BetaNews.Com (9 non lus)

Thanksgiving day was a record-breaker for Instagram

Publié: novembre 23, 2012, 9:26pm CET par Alan Buckingham

Thanksgiving is now over for those of us in the United States and Black Friday is well under way. While we won't know retail sales figures for the number one shopping day of the year for a few days, we do now have a staggering figure from the holiday itself. Thanksgiving was a big day for photo-sharing service Instagram. In fact, it was the single biggest day in the service's history.

Instagram, which became popular with iPhone users and then expanded to Android before being purchased by Facebook, has grown steadily, but the recent holiday provided a huge boost to the service and I am proud to say that my daughter and I were both contributors to this monumental moment (my humble contribution to the record is posted above).

According to Instagram, "Over 10 million photos that mentioned Thanksgiving-themed words in their captions were shared yesterday. For several hours throughout the day, more than 200 photos about Thanksgiving were posted every second. Overall, the day broke all Instagram records as we saw the number of shared photos more than double from the day before, making it our busiest day so far".

The announcement's accompanying chart shows the rise and fall throughout the day -- with traffic spiking at around 12:40pm PST when the service logged 226 photos per second that included the word "Thanksgiving". That number is simply mind-boggling.

So, what is next for the photo-sharing service? With the infusion of money and support from Facebook and a growing user-base thanks to expansion into Android and the web, it would seem that the sky is the limit. Will the next holiday surpass this one or has it hit its high-water mark? Either way, the service has its fans and seems to be here to stay, at least for now.

Photo Credit: Alan Buckingham
Best Windows 8 apps this week

Publié: novembre 23, 2012, 7:32pm CET par Martin Brinkmann

Fourth in a series. A month has passed since the release of Windows 8 and in that time, Windows Store has grown significantly. Wes Miller, an independent analyst, recently reported that the worldwide app count broke the 20,000 mark, and that about 500 new apps are added to the store each day.

While that is still far from the numbers that Google Play or Apple's Apple Store get, it is an indicator of a healthy store ecosystem. On we go with this week's best apps for Windows 8.

Prime Tube

This is one of the many YouTube players that is now available for the Windows 8 platform. The main page displays a list of popular and trending videos, and options to access your subscriptions, playlists, favorites and uploads if you sign in to YouTube.

The play screen is well designed. It displays the video on the left, with options to switch video quality or go fullscreen, and a big list of related videos on the right. You can use tabs provided on the right of the video to display user comments or more videos from the user who uploaded the video.

Skype

Skype has been available as a Windows Store application for some time now. The latest update introduces three new features, including the option to search for contacts in the contact list, calling messenger contacts from Skype and marking all messages read with a few clicks.

Tile A File

This little application enables you to tile any file to the Windows 8 Start screen, which is something that you can't do using the operating system's native controls. While you can pin executable files with a simple right-click in Windows Explorer and the selection of Pin to Start from the context menu, you can't pin other file types including Microsoft Office or PDF documents.

Using the program, you can pin all files to the start screen to overcome the limitation. Desktop users may prefer to use a program like Pin to 8 instead which offers better usability if you are working with mouse and keyboard and not Windows RT.

Fhotoroom

This is a port from Windows Phone to Windows 8. Fhotoroom is an image editor for Windows 8 that leaves little to be desired in terms of functionality. It is not comparable to professional image editors like Adobe Photoshop but it ticks all the right boxes when it comes to basic photo and image editing.

Basic editing tools include rotating, cropping and resizing images, changing the exposure and colors or applying Instagram-like filters to the selected image. Note that the free version does not support photos larger than 3 megapixels.

Youtube MP3 / Videos Downloader

The application displays two buttons, one to save the YouTube video that is currently playing, the other to only save the music of the video, to the local system.

A click on one of the buttons displays the list of available formats and qualities the music or video can be saved in. The saved files are stored in the Videos or Music folders of the user folder.

Photo Funia

The photo-editing application adds effects to photos that you select. This ranges from adding a portrait to the cover of a magazine or an art gallery, various frames, face modifications that put you in a video game, movie or other settings, or adding filters to a photo to make it look vintage or hand drawn.

Arc Note

This photo note taking application ships with options to correct the skew of photos taken. It basically corrects the angle the objects have been taken in to improve the accessibility of the information.

This can be handy for photos of whiteboards, slides, posters, postcards or presentations.

Mine for Facebook

The dedicated application enables you to access your Facebook feed and timeline right from the application screen. You can comment, like and post updates on Facebook, share links and pictures, view profiles of friends and use customization options to only display information you are interested in.

The filtering options allow you to filter messages of your feed so that only stories that you are interested in are displayed on the screen. You can for instance display only status updates, pictures, videos, or general information on the feed.

Live TV

You can use Live TV to tune into TV channel streams from around the world. The selection is quite good. The application offers for instance streams of BBC One and Two, ITV 1 to 4, Rai 1 to 3 or RTL which seem to be accessible from any location in the world. US TV stations are not offered, but you do get access to a number of high-quality channels. Channels include UFC Ultimate Fighting Championship, the Western Channel, AFL Classic, College Basketball or Football Anytime.

Dev Tracker

The application provides Windows 8 and Windows Phone developers with the means to monitor and manage their applications on the Windows Store and Windows Phone Marketplace.

The application concentrates on the review system. You can access reviews by country to see how popular the app is in a particular country. The latest reviews are displayed here as well, and stats are provided that show review percentages by country and by date. Only one application can be tracked with the free version of the app.
Skip the crowded mall and get these great software deals online

Publié: novembre 23, 2012, 6:45pm CET par Chris Wiles

This time of the year is a great one to pick up some technology bargains and the Downloadcrew Software Store is no exception. In addition to the regular deals, there are some extra-special Black Friday/Cyber Monday offers that run until the end of November.

We open with some great savings from CyberLink. PowerDirector 11 Ultimate, which bundles PowerDirector 11 with 22 NewBlueFX effects, is yours for only $99.99, a saving of 23 percent from MSRP. Better still, you pick up a free bundle worth $59.90 with every order! PowerDirector 11 Ultra is yours for $79.95, a saving of 20 percent from MSRP, also shipping with the free bundle. Media Suite 10 Ultra, which is CyberLink’s 11-in-1 multimedia suite, is yours for $89,95, or 31 percent off MSRP. PowerDVD 12 Ultra, is yours for $50, or 50-percent off MSRP.

In the store you’ll also find the latest 2013 versions of the most popular security tools, including AVG Anti-Virus 2013. This industry-standard antivirus tool is available for the massively discounted price of $9.95, which saves you a colossal 75-percent off the MSRP. For a more complete security solution, take a look at AVG Internet Security 2013, which includes an added firewall, spam filter and more -- all for just $17.99 (or a 67-percent discount). The most complete security package comes in the form of AVG Premium Security 2013 Complete Bundle, which includes four separate applications worth a total of $130 -- but you can buy the collection at a generous 69-percent discount for just $39.95.

Kaspersky produces security software that performs reliably and consistently. Store highlights include the multi-device Kaspersky ONE, which will enable you to support 3 different devices (3 PCs, 2 PCs and a Mac or, perhaps, 2 PCs and 1 Android device). Available for only $24.95, 69-percent off MSRP. Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 starts at $22.95 or 62-percent off MSRP, whilst Kaspersky Security for Mac 2013 is only $39.95, 33-percent off MSRP. More discounted security brands are available -- Avira Internet Security 2013 costs just $25.99, while the 3-PC version features an even better 67-percent saving at just $29.99.

Choosing the right system maintenance tool is essential. We could recommend three tools, the first being TuneUp Utilities 2013. You can save 50 percent from TuneUp Utilities 2013 [3-PC], ideal for installing on three home computers. If you have a single PC, save even more with TuneUp Utilities 2013 [1-PC]. There is also TuneUp Utilities 2013 [UPGRADE] for existing users to upgrade, at a significant discount. Another recommended maintenance tool is AVG PC TuneUp 2013, effectively a rebranded TuneUp Utilities, which helps you to eek extra performance from your machine. This great utility costs as mere $12.99, or a saving of 68% off the MSRP. Auslogics Boostspeed 5 is also worth considering for $19.95, 60-percent off MSRP.

More security software is available from Bitdefender, including the brand new Bitdefender Windows 8 Security, yours for $19.95, 67-percent off MSRP. There’s a saving of 63-percent off Bitdefender Total Security 2013 [3-PC], which includes a strong antivirus engine, intelligent two-way firewall, capable spam filter -- all for just $29.95. If you want to keep your computer safe for even less, look no further than Bitdefender Internet Security 2013 [1-PC], which still packs a punch for just $14.99 saving you 70-percent off the MSRP.

Many homes have more than one computer and keeping them all protected can get expensive. However, if you invest in Bitdefender Internet Security 2013 [3-PC] can be used to ensure the safety of three PCs for just $29.95. Every computer should have at least an antivirus tool installed, and it’s hard to find something that’s better value than Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2013 [1-PC], which costs just $6.95 with a reduction of 83 percent. You can save a fortune protecting all of the computes in your home with 74-percent off Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2013 [3-PC] – a mere $12.95 to protect up to three computers.

Everyone needs a backup tool, whether this is to store important files in a secure location or to make a 1:1 copy of your hard drive, to safeguard against system failure. There are few better backup tools than True Image 2013 by Acronis (Acronis True Image 2013), available for only $24.99, which is currently half price.

Finishing off this selection of the latest and greatest offers are two tools from O&O, both of which place you in control of your hard drive. O&O Migration Kit for Windows 8, available for $22.45 ( a savings of 25-percent off the MSRP), is a bundle consisting of Laplink PCmover Professional 8 and O&O DiskImage 6.8, enabling you to migrate your installed applications and system data to a brand new Windows 8 PC. O&O Defrag 16 Professional is available at a 20-percent discount -- that’s just $23.95.

Of course, all these recent new releases can be found in the Downloadcrew Software Store along with a host of other offers -- take a look and see what else you can find.

Photo Credit: Kenishirotie/Shutterstock
Nexus 4 is still sold out

Publié: novembre 23, 2012, 6:29pm CET par Joe Wilcox

That's not the headline I hoped to write this Black Friday. Having used iPhone 5 and Nexus 4, I easily recommend the LG-made Android over the Apple. There simply is no comparison in terms of overall user experience. I'll go into detail in my comparative review, which I'm writing now (in another browser tab). Nexus 4 should be deal of the day -- even full price. Not that you can pay the price. It's simply abominable that Google has none to sell; T-Mobile is sold out, too.

Trust me, if there was even whiff of supply, Nexus 4 sales page would read "ships soon" rather than "out of stock". The smartphone's Black Friday absence suggests deep shortage, unless someone at the top of Google's retail supply chain thinks Cyber Monday is better day to bring back the smartphone. Absolutely not. Because over the next three days, some buyers wanting Nexus 4 will take a hot deal on some other handset.

Many of you would buy, if only Google had something to sell. Last week I asked: "How does the Nexus supply shortage affect you?" Fifty-one percent "would order if devices were in stock". Demand is there. Too bad Google has no phones to sell.

New Nexus 10 tablets are somewhat better. The $399 model is in stock; the $499 32 gigger can be ordered but "ships in 2 - 3 weeks". All Nexus 7s, including the one with HSPA+ cellular data, are in stock.

As I explained last week, Google really botched the Nexus 4 launch. According to our poll, nearly 25 percent of respondents tried to order a device. Only 8.75 percent of respondents succeeded. Matters are worse -- the biggest sales weekend of the year is here.

"I still can't understand why Google doesn't just take pre-orders", BetaNews reader SDsurfin asks. "Let me check out and then, when the phones come in stock, charge my card and mail it to me. This stupid game of checking the website every 2-3 days is getting old. We might have some. We might not. Who knows? To add insult to injury they have the 'You can buy one from T-mobile now!' link. Yeah, I'm gonna go screw myself with a 2-year T-mobile contract. Get your act together Google! Take pre-orders and call LG and tell them: 'We need about 16 million more phones'".

Designating the costlier Nexus 10 as "ships soon", and that being weeks away, essentially is what Google does. That suggests to me the severity of the N4 shortage. Definitely between the choice of taking Black Friday weekend orders that might not ship for Christmas and offering nothing at all, the latter is Google's more sensible choice.

I've got two stories coming within days -- first-impressions review and comparison to iPhone 5. I can tell you why Nexus 4 is a great smartphone. If only you could buy one.
One in six UK users download or stream media illegally

Publié: novembre 23, 2012, 5:02pm CET par Wayne Williams

A new report from Ofcom reveals that one in six Internet users in the United Kingdom access films, TV shows, music, or eBooks through illegal means. Published this week, the first results from an ongoing study of Internet users aged 12 and above also reveals that 47 percent are unsure whether the online content they download, stream or share is legal or not.

During the three-month period from May to July 2012, Ofcom found that the levels of infringement varied considerably depending on content type. For example, while 8 percent of users accessed music illegally and 6 percent consumed films that way, just 2 percent downloaded games and software. That said, of all the computer software obtained online, 47 percent of it was acquired illegally.

Unsurprisingly, the greatest copyright infringers were likely to be male and aged between 16-34, with books clear and away the least enticing form of pirated media.

The reasons given for downloading or streaming content illegally included because it’s free (54 percent), it’s more convenient (48 percent), it’s quick (44 percent) and it lets you try before you buy (26 percent). This last reason seems to carry at least some weight as users who consumed a mixture of legal and illegal content claimed to have spent more money on media than both those who obtained their content entirely legally or illegally.

When asked what would make the infringers stop, responders said availability of cheaper legal services (39 percent), if everything they wanted was available legally (32 percent) and if it was clearer what was legal and what wasn’t (26 percent).

The full report is available from here.

Photo Credit: CREATISTA/Shutterstock
Get the right screen resolution with Window Size

Publié: novembre 23, 2012, 4:46pm CET par Mike Williams

Normally, when you resize a PC application window, you don’t particularly care about its final resolution. You’re just looking to make sure that it has room to display something (a website, say), or you might be reducing a window to make room for something else.

There may be occasional exceptions, though: you might need to take a screen grab of a window at a specific resolution, for instance, or a certain aspect ratio. Changing your display resolution may help, or of course you could resize your window, check the results and resize again until you get it right -- but Window Size could offer a more convenient solution.

The program is portable and extremely small (a 20KB download), so it’s very convenient to use. And the process starts by choosing the preferred resolution of your target window from the options available (or click “Custom” and enter whatever you like).

By default Window Size will assume you might want to maximize your window, and so the program automatically tweaks your chosen resolution to take account of the border, taskbar and so on. If you won’t be maximizing anything, and just want a window that’s 640×480 (or whatever) pixels in size, then you’ll need to clear both checkboxes.

Finally, click the first “Click here”, link, then click the window in question, and that’s it -- Window Size will automatically adjust your target window to your specified resolution. You can now take a screen grab, check how it looks, or otherwise do whatever you need to do, before getting Window Size to restore the original window size, if necessary.

We would recommend you use the program with a little caution. It’s possible to specify ridiculously small window resolutions (1×1), and then resize dialogs if they’re not even resizable, which means buttons and other controls may become invisible. And if the application in question has code based on its window size, then this might crash if the values are outside of an expected range.

If you just need to set an application window to a specific resolution for some reason, though, and that’s well within its normal range, you’re unlikely to have any problems. In which case Window Size could prove a convenient and time-saving addition to your desktop toolkit.

Photo Credit: corepics/Shutterstock
That was fast -- Dropbox 1.6.2 is available

Publié: novembre 23, 2012, 4:16pm CET par Nick Peers

“It happens to the best of us” was Dropbox’s explanation for this, the swift appearance of Dropbox 1.6.2 for desktop, less than a week after Dropbox 1.6.0 made its first appearance. ” You test a build but when you finally put it out there for tons of people to use it they find more bugs. So here we are with a quick bug fix release”.

Version 1.6.2 fixes four major bugs reported since version 1.6.0 first appeared, including install failures in older versions of Windows and blank selective sync windows in OS X after updating.

In addition to resolving issues with installing in Windows Vista and XP as well as the blank window in OS X, version 1.6.2 also fixes issues with Italian translations (the Italian language was added to version 1.6.0 for the first time) as well as an issue whereby the web login refused to work when Dropbox was not in English.

Dropbox 1.6.2 does, of course, include all the major new features and improvements added in 1.6.0, which included new icons for all platforms, specifically designed to take advantage of higher resolution displays including Retina. It also promised better overall performance through the switch to Python 2.7 and claimed faster startup times on Macs working with a large number of files in their sync folders.

Despite the new release, users continue to complain about other unresolved issues, including problem installing the software in newer versions of Windows -- fix this issue by ensuring the installer runs with full administrator rights. Other glitches with the user interface, including the Preferences dialog being lost behind other windows in OS X, have also been reported.

Dropbox 1.6.2 is available now as a free download for Windows, Mac and Linux. Users of 1.6.0 wishing to update now should download this version manually as automatic updates won’t appear until after the Holiday weekend in the US.

Photo Credit: Inq/Shutterstock
You CAN have LTE on Google Nexus 4

Publié: novembre 23, 2012, 4:07pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic

There is a heated discussion surrounding the lack of LTE on the Google Nexus 4 -- my college Joe Wilcox deems it problematic, while I'm far less affected on the other side of the pond. But there's more to it than meets the eye. Fast data speeds are not out of this world on the Nexus 4 with LTE found working on Roger and Telus in Canada.

The Nexus 4 is similar to the LG Optimus G in the hardware department, but while the latter has a full-blown setup the former can only connect to LTE on Band 4. This limits the number of carrier networks that the Google-branded smartphone can utilize to achieve the higher data speeds. Rogers and Telus customers are apparently "blessed" by the recent discovery, as both can take advantage of LTE with only a few minor modifications. The bad news is that the hidden feature may be useless on other carriers that do not use the mentioned band.

In order to activate LTE on the Nexus 4 users have to dial *#*#4636#*#*, which will then show a "Testing" window. Afterwards "Phone info" must be opened and LTE selected from the first dropdown menu. Depending on the carrier a different APN might be needed as well. Rogers customers reported that changing it to "ltemobile.apn" does the trick.

For those that can take advantage of it, the benefit is easily noticeable. Owners have reported speeds in excess of 20Mbps, and even 50Mbps. However this, may be short-lived as Google could take the feature down completely in a future update.

Photo Credit: Sashkin/Shutterstock
Sandcat 3.0 browser is supremely useful for developers

Publié: novembre 23, 2012, 3:27pm CET par Mike Williams

If you’d like more information on the low-level details of how a particular web page works -- for security or web development reasons, say -- then the usual route is find and install a few extensions. Firefox alone has more than 1,000 addons in its Web Development section which could prove very useful.

But if researching all of those seems too much like hard work, you might prefer to simply download the free Sandcat 3.0, a penetration-oriented browser with plenty of advanced functionality already built it.

Despite its specialist nature, Sandcast is supremely easy to use. It’s portable, and based on Chromium, so you’ll be up and running in seconds: unzip and launch the browser, enter a URL and you’re off.

When you need to know more about your current page, though, clicking the tabs at the bottom of the program window can help. You’re able to view the page source code, for instance, and your HTTP headers (sent and received). There’s also a list of page objects, and clicking any of these displays them in a preview pane, allowing you to (for instance) view whatever scripts might be included.

This is just the start, though. The browser also includes extensions to display HTTP headers as they’re sent and received in real time. You can view cookies associated with the current page, or change the Sandcat user agent to identify you as Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari, Opera or anything else you like.

Tor integration should in theory allow you to browse anonymously in a couple of clicks. (This didn’t work for us -- Sandcat crashed, instead – but version 3.0 is currently a beta, so maybe you’ll be luckier.)

And elsewhere you get a stack of developer tools, which give you an in-depth view of every page component and detailed reports on how they affect performance.

And of course there are all the features more oriented to penetration testing, which is why Sandcat exists in the first place. So you can load and run custom scripts, for instance, there’s a request editor, a fuzzer extension, CGI scanner scripts, encoding and decoding tools, and more.

None of this functionality gets in the way, though. So if you’ll use everything Sandcat has to offer, great; but if you only want easier access to one or two of its advanced features, don’t worry – you’ll be able to do so, it’s all very easy to use: there’s something here for every level of user.

Photo Credit: Sergej Khakimullin/Shutterstock