Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » février 22, 2013

BetaNews.Com (14 non lus)

Pale Moon 19 is first major update since version 15

Publié: février 22, 2013, 10:50pm CET par Nick Peers

Moonchild Productions has launched Pale Moon 19.0 and Pale Moon x64 19.0 for Windows. Pale Moon is a customised build of popular web browser Firefox, with the developer making no attempt to keep pace with Mozilla’s six-weekly development cycle in favour of applying security updates and concentrating on delivering improved performance.

This release marks the first major update since Pale Moon 15.0 -- based on Firefox 15 -- was released last August, but while Pale Moon 19 utilizes the brand new Gecko 19 engine found in the latest version of Firefox, don’t expect to see all the functionality in Firefox 19 making an appearance here.

With the underlying Gecko update, Pale Moon 19.0’s HTML5 implementation is more complete than the previous build. Javascript performance has also been improved thanks to the shift to the IonMonkey engine, which first appeared in Firefox 18. Also improved in Gecko 19 are the layout and rendering engines, but one side-effect is that users may have to update both add-ons and themes to retain compatibility with Pale Moon 19.

While the overall layout of the browser hasn’t changed, there are subtle changes to the main browser controls and padlock icon.

Moonchild has – in accordance with its desire to produce a faster browser than Firefox – also applied specific tweaks to the rendering engine to improve performance, which it claims is noticeable both in general user and via certain unspecified benchmarks. These changes should help prevent browser stalls or high CPU usage on certain web pages.

Pale Moon 19.0 also abandons PGO (Profile Guided Optimization) in favour of global speed optimizations, which should give better smoothness regardless of which PC is using the browser.

As this is a custom build, don’t expect all of the functionality of Firefox 19 in this release. There are fewer developer tools, for example, while Moonchild has publicly stated the social API introduced in Firefox 17 won’t be appearing in Pale Moon.

The inline PDF viewer is also apparently missing in this release, but that’s because it’s been switched off by default. Switch it on by typing about:config into the browser Address bar, then search for pdfjs -- verify that pdfjs.firstRun is set to true, then double-click pdfjs.disabled so it’s set to false. Once done, you’ll be prompted each time you click on a PDF whether or not you want to preview it in Pale Moon. To make it the default choice, open Pale Moon >Options > Applications tab and change the Portable Document Format (PDF) entry to Preview in Pale Moon. Job done.

Pale Moon 19.0 and Pale Moon x64 19.0 are both available as freeware downloads for PCs running Windows XP SP3 or later, as are portable builds Pale Moon 19.0 Portable and Pale Moon x64 19.0 Portable.

Photo Credit: Michal Ninger/Shutterstock
Better hurry! Nexus 4 is free from T-Mobile

Publié: février 22, 2013, 7:59pm CET par Alan Buckingham

The LG-made, Google-branded Nexus 4 made quite a splash when it debuted, but some of that attention was for the wrong reasons. The phone was almost impossible to grab, even at launch. Since then, supply problems have continued, extending from the T-Mobile online and brick-and-mortar stores to the Google Play Store.

If you think demand issues were bad before you may not have seen anything yet. Today T-Mobile dropped the price on the Android 4.2 handset all the way to zero.

But, you better hurry because the deal is only good through February 24th and it is available only through the T-Mobile website or by calling the mobile carrier at 1-877-387-4324.

By now you likely already know what your are getting with this handset, but I will give a brief overview in case you were not interested until the word "free" caught your attention.

The phone comes with a 4.7-inch screen, WiFi and Bluetooth, NFC, HSPA+, wireless charging, Snapdragon S4 processor, 8-megapixel camera and a bunch of other cool features.

Given the recent supply problems, I would recommend acting sooner rather than later if you really want the Nexus 4. Of course, T-Mobile looks to lock you into a two-year contract in exchange for the deal. The alternative is an unlocked version which is currently in-stock from Google Play Store for $299 for 8GB or $349 if you would prefer 16GB of storage.
NUI can save Microsoft

Publié: février 22, 2013, 7:39pm CET par Robert Johnson

I don’t know about you but as a lover of technology and the world around it, I find these times to be quite compelling. Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft (the big four) are setting the stage for an epic battle for tech dominance. The many articles and blog posts calling Microsoft dead in the water are way too premature. We are way too early in this new world of mobile computing to call Microsoft out of this game.

However, I will say this: If any of the four previously mentioned companies are in the most danger of failing at the consumer market, it’s Microsoft. The company better figure out how to get things together and quickly as time is not on the leadership's side and their competition is hitting on all cylinders.

A Good Foundation?

Whatever you think about the Windows 8 devices (including phones and Surface RT/Pro), the bottom line is that they represent a transition to the future Microsoft. They offer a peek into what will become the New Microsoft. Are there remnants of the “old way” still around? Of course. There are myriads of examples but let’s look at two:

1. The slow pace at which Windows 8 apps like Mail, Calendar, and the Xbox Music service are fixed is mind boggling. It’s unacceptable. These apps are barely usable, and the fact that they are apps implies they can be updated on a much quicker pace. I’m not talking about performance and bug fixes. I’m talking about features.

Xbox Music is probably the biggest failure of them all. Microsoft deserves a class action suit for how it bungled this mess. The company advertises features that barely work. Customers are left hanging on support sites with no answer to legitimate issues they are experiencing with this pooch screw of a music service. Spotify has its issues, but at least the service does what it is advertised to do.

2. Windows Phone early adopters are treated worse than slaves on a plantation. So Microsoft announces an upgrade for early adopters called Windows Phone 7.8 and then proceeds not to say anything else about it for months. They also announced a special program where fans of the phone can get early access to updates. Nothing else has been said about this either. Way to treat your fans/early adopters Microsoft!

Despite these issues, Windows 8 and its supporting services (SkyDrive, Bing, Skype etc.) all represent the solid foundation that Microsoft needs to leverage in order to get the attention of consumers, because let’s face it, right now, Microsoft is not really at the forefront of the consumer mindset.

To compete as a complete ecosystem and player, the company needs to have a way for customers to work/play wherever and whenever across all device types. SkyDrive, Office, and Skype allow us to work whenever and wherever on PC, tablet, phone and TV. SkyDrive, Xbox Music/Video and Xbox Live allows us to play whenever and wherever. Admittedly the “play” aspect of Microsoft's current ecosystem needs work but at least the foundation is in place.

Microsoft really is the underdog of the big four, and I love rooting for the underdog. So how can this underdog claim its rightful place among the big four and secure its position for the future of mobile computing? I have a few ideas.

NUI

Natural user interfaces is an area that Microsoft has invested heavily over the past several years. The company has teased us with all sorts of amazing videos from its research division. However, what have we seen so far? Kinect. Great start, but not enough to increase consumer adoption across its consumer product portfolio. So what can they do beyond Kinect?

1. Expand Kinect to other platforms. I use Kinect on Xbox regularly. I mostly use the voice controls, because I am always losing my piece-of-crap Xbox media remote, and it’s just a lot faster to navigate the interface this way rather than click on a remote. Providing the ability to use the proper or more natural input device based on the moment is what makes regular consumers like myself feel at ease; instead of having to adjust to the device, it adjusts to me.

Kinect is a powerful technology, and when Microsoft released it on the Xbox -- I believe strongly (and I could be wrong here) -- the controller is the one thing that catapulted the consold to the #1 spot here in the United Stated. If Microsoft can leverage this technology across other devices/platforms like Windows, Windows Phone and Surface, it will differentiate its products from others in the mobile space and get consumer attention as well.

Bill Gates has already said that Microsoft platforms will support multiple input types (read keyboard, mouse, touch, voice and camera-based gestures) but we don’t know when. Perhaps this is the killer feature of the “Blue” wave of updates.

2. Get TellMe to the masses. We’ve seen the videos of the TellMe service using natural language, a la Siri and Google Now. So we know that whenever Microsoft finally gets off its rear-end and releases something similar we can’t say it's just copying competitors. But then again, in this Apple-obsessed tech culture, we all know what will definitely happen. Releasing an upgraded TellMe service that simply returns movies, weather and traffic info is not enough.

This is no different than what’s currently on the market today. Microsoft needs to go much further and release a product that allows a user to navigate an entire computing interface. For example, a user should be able to control an entire phone by voice by saying, “Show me my text messages from Brian Rains” or “Take me to Williams Sonoma dot com and show me their latest cookware”.

Perhaps I could even tell my Windows Phone to cue up Hulu Plus at 4:15 p.m. so that when I get home, it’s already up and running on my Xbox. Maybe I’m living in a pipe dream, but this would certainly differentiate an upgraded TellMe service.

3. Bring NUI to the web. I don’t see why not. Microsoft is already heavily committed to advancing web technologies like CSS and HTML5. Microsoft has a major in by recommending new HTML specs that leverage voice and camera-based gestures. Web development in large part is not taking place on Microsoft platforms, and one way the company can win over web developers is by creating new technology that’s easy to integrate into our existing solutions and is open source. As someone who works on web-based business applications, the ability to create interfaces that allow users to use whatever input method they want would be a huge win.

In the same way that this technology reinvigorated the Xbox, I believe NUI can reinvigorate Microsoft’s other platforms as well. It seems to be the one technology that the others in the big four are working on but don’t appear to be all that serious about right now.

Google’s approach seems to be about besting Apple. While Siri is an interesting product, it’s hard to tell where Apple wants to take it. It seems way too gimmicky right now while Google Now actually feels useful. But none of these approaches are as pervasive as what is needed to really take computing to the next level.

How important is NUI to Microsoft’s future? I think it is one of the most important technologies the company could ever invest in. But what do you think? Is NUI Microsoft’s Trojan Horse or is it something else?

Photo Credit: Slavoljub Pantelic/Shutterstock
Best Windows 8 apps this week

Publié: février 22, 2013, 5:49pm CET par Martin Brinkmann

Seventeenth in a series. The Windows 8 app store is picking up pace again. New apps this week almost doubled in comparison to last week. A total of 1,049 new apps found their way into Windows Store -- of which 826 were listed as free to install and use and 224 as paid apps. It will be interesting to see if this is the beginning of an uptick in terms of new apps in the store or if things will dry off again in the coming weeks.

Microsoft did update a couple of first-party applications this week. Just in is the Skype update, which enables Windows 8 users to transfer files using the client, a feature that has been an integral part of the desktop app for a very long time.

The official eBay application received an update as well adding much awaited features such as saving sellers, asking seller questions or providing access to a user's message history.

This week I'm going to introduce a new feature in this series, the app of the week. It is the application that impressed me the most in a given week.

App Stars

Windows Store is not that comfortable to navigate, and there are a number of reasons for that. There is for instance no option to combine sort options, like sorting apps by recency and ratings, or filtering out paid apps in the new releases listings of each category.

AppStars has been designed to provide Windows 8 users with a selection of handpicked apps from the store. The app displays various charts, hot 25, trending or superstars, that users can browse. The idea here is to limit the listings to only display quality apps to the user.

The trending category is especially nice as there is no comparable option in Windows Store.

Microsoft Download Center Checker

The application displays the last downloads that have been added to Microsoft's Download Center. You can access a listing of all downloads, or downloads that have been filed into categories such as Office, Developer Tools or Cloud Tools.

Each download is listed with its name, date and time it was added to the download center, and a short description. A click on a download opens its download page right in the application, with an option to load it in the default system browser.

You can also search Microsoft's Download Center, but search results appear to be limited to the files that the developers of the application have added to the apps' database.

Party Anthems

Full-screen, high definition music videos is what this application is offering to you. When you start the app you are presented with a list of songs that you can start listening to and viewing.

Each song is listed with its name, artist and a thumbnail to give you a first impression of it. A click loads the song and from that moment on everything else is on autopilot. The application loads the next song automatically, and you can use controls displayed by the application to control playback or go full screen.

If you like club music, then this application may be worth a look.

Sky Map Free

A port of the popular windows Phone application of the same name. The application is available as a free and paid application. The free version supports zooming and touch support, while the paid version, available for $1.99, many additional features such as customization, wikipedia integration or improved sky map graphics.

You can use the built-in search to find constellations you are interested in.

VBA8

A Gameboy Advance emulator for Windows 8 and Windows RT. You can use it to play Gameboy ADvance games using virtual touch controls, the keyboard, or a connected Xbox 360 controller.

The emulator ships with one demo rom that you can use to test its functionality. To play games you need gba rom files which are for instance available when you search for homebrew gba roms.

Sample Browser

This application makes available more than 4500 code samples from the MSDN Samples Gallery. You can search, download and favorite samples using the application, or request samples if you cannot find a sample for a particular issue.

Options are provided to either browse all samples regardless of application or programming language, or to use one of the categories - Visual Studio 2012, WPF or SQL Azure for example -- to browse only code samples that have been listed in that particular category.

">Movie Premier

Movie Premier has been designed to provide you with the means to manage your virtual movie collection across all Windows 8 devices. The application scans the videos folder automatically when run and adds the movies it finds to the list of available movies on the device.

You can then sync the collection across devices, play movies right from the app interface, or create playlists of movies that you want to watch. The app lacks a couple of features that desktop programs offer, like selecting different locations for video files or adding movies manually to the database. All in all though it is an interesting application if the bulk of your movie collection is stored in the video folder.

iApps

The iApps application displays iPhone and iPad app listings in Windows. It lists iPhone apps for the US by default which you can change with a right-click. Here you can switch to iPad instead and select another country as well.

The application displays top free, paid and grossing apps in the selected store, and the same for categories such as business, books or finance.

Each app is listed on its own profile page in the application that includes a description, ratings, and basic information about it. Links point to the applications page on the iTunes website from where they can be bought and downloaded.

App of the week

Dragon's Blade

Turn-based strategy games are one of my passions and I seem to have played them all. From Shining Force on the Sega Genesis over Final Fantasy Tactics on the Playstation to Heroes of Might and Magic, Fallout and the excellent Masters of Magic. Dragon's Blade ins inspired by classic turn based fantasy games.

You command a party of four characters that you create in the beginning. A total of nine different classes are available, from melee classes like knights or berserkers to masters of the arcane.

Your journey begins in your home town. Here you are introduced to key game concepts like moving around and interacting with objects and people, but also to the turn based combat system.

Each turn you select one of four available actions for each party member. You can use weapons to attack, defend the round, take potions or cast spells, and combat ends when either the enemy or the party is defeated. Since the party is pretty weak in the beginning, it may make sense to stay close to the town until you level up at least once as it will become increasingly difficult to defeat enemies as you will eventually run out of mana and health.

The game offers everything you'd expect from a classic turn based strategy game. Different classes that level up, heaps of items you can find and equip your characters with, an interesting magic system and a large world to explore.
You can run legacy apps on jailbroken Windows RT and will be able to use a third-party app store (soon)

Publié: février 22, 2013, 3:21pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic

Starting out as a rookie among veterans, in a matter of months Windows RT has transformed into an exciting and intriguing alternative to established tablet operating systems. The trigger for the frankly unexpected makeover is the jailbreak which allows enthusiasts to run unsigned apps on their Windows RT-based devices -- there's even an automated tool which makes modding a breeze. If you think that is not good enough and you still need or want your old apps, a developer has released a tool that allows legacy programs to run on Windows RT.

The tool, however, does not support every Windows-compatible legacy app known to mankind. It comes with some limitations as resource-hogging, complex, .NET-based, modern, 16-bit and 64-bit apps, among others, cannot run. The reasoning, judging by the developer's input on the matter, is to deliver a solid user experience across the board without major compromises when running legacy programs.

In its current state, the tool features an installer with a GUI (Graphical User Interface) launcher, "speed" and, considering the manpower behind the project, a decent number of emulated Windows API (Application Programming Interface) functions. The developer plans to expand the number of emulated Windows API functions even further in a future release; at the moment it can be considered work in progress.

As you might imagine, the tool has to be installed on the jailbroken Windows RT and cannot be run on the untouched version of Microsoft's tablet operating system. Users then have to open the "Launch x86 program" entry from the start menu, browse and select the executable of the legacy program, and just press the OK button to power it up.

The developer says that WinRAR, 3D Pinball "Space Cadet" (without sound), Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (with a 32-bit patch, but no music), the 7Zip benchmark and "lots of tiny simple progs" work using the tool. That said, launching one legacy app from another is as yet unsupported. The developer also plans to add support for all version of Age of Empires, Command and Conquer, Jagged Alliance 2 and uTorrent 2.x and warns that some programs might require specific registry entries in order to open.

Another benefit of jailbreaking Windows RT is the ability to use a third-party app store, similar in concept to Cydia on iPads, iPhones and iPod Touch devices. One was released in January, but the developer retired it because the source code contained "too many kludge fixes on kludge fixes". But that will change "soon".

The same developer released a suite of suite of apps meant to enable running unsigned ARM-compatible apps and legacy programs on Windows RT, that would lay the groundwork towards the release of RTD Store V2. The latter is a "work in progress version" of the former third-party app store, but much simpler and more stable, according to the developer.
HFS simplifies the process of sharing files across your network or the web

Publié: février 22, 2013, 1:55pm CET par Mike Williams

When you need to share files with others, setting up a web server probably won’t be the first idea that comes to mind. It just seems like too bulky a solution, too complex, and so you’d probably opt for something more conventional: setting up a network, using a file sharing service, whatever it might be.

With the right software, though, setting up a web server can be much more straightforward than you think. And the open source HFS (Http File Server) is a particularly good example of this, because even if you’re a networking novice, it could have you sharing your files locally within minutes.

This all starts with an ultra-compact download (559KB), all the more surprising because it’s not even zipped. The entire program is contained in a single executable which you just download and run.

The interface is relatively straightforward, too. If you’ve set up a server before then you’ll probably guess that the "Virtual File System" pane is where you’ll share your files. But even if you’re a beginner, hovering your mouse cursor over the pane will explain all with a tooltip asking you to "drag your files here".

And all you then have to do is drag and drop the files you’d like to share onto the Virtual File System pane, click the "Server is currently OFF" button to turn it on, and give the IP address HFS displays to someone else on your local network. When they put that into a browser they’ll find a simple page with your files displayed, ready for immediate downloading.

If you want to share your files across the internet then there is more work to do, but HFS can at least help you get started. Click Menu > Self Test and the program analyses your system and network setup, before explaining what else (if anything) you need to do to make this happen. If you’re new to this kind of networking complexity then there may still be some research to do (on our system we were told simply to ensure out router was "configured to forward port 7000 to your computer", for instance), but it’s still much more straightforward then many similar tools.

And when you’re ready to consider what else you might need from a file sharing tool, there are plenty of options on offer. So you can password-protect particular files and folders, for instance. You might allow users to upload, as well as download files. There are various speed limits and controls to help ensure the program doesn’t tie up all your bandwidth. And there’s dynamic DNS support, a configurable HTML template, a custom scripting language, and lots of configuration settings to help get everything working properly.

HFS still has some limitations. While in theory you could use it as a web server to host your own website, for example, that probably wouldn’t be a great idea. It’s short on features (there’s no PHP support, for instance), doesn’t run as a service, and tends to do most things in its own, very non-standard way: even if you did get something to work here, it may not be easily transferrable to another host.

If you’re just interested in an alternative way to make files available on your network, though, it’s a very different story. HFS is lightweight, quick and easy to configure, and ideal as a simple way to share some files or folders with others.

Photo credit: mojito.mak[dog]gmail[dot]com/Shutterstock
LG, wake up! The Optimus G arrives too late in Europe

Publié: février 22, 2013, 1:49pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic

There's a great saying that applies to new products -- get it while it's hot. Or shall I say, give it while it's hot. LG, sadly, is not familiar with either expression as the South Korean manufacturer has only now finally released the Optimus G on European soil. That's a whopping six months (well, nearly) after the smartphone's unveiling in late August, last year.

LG is its own worst enemy right now. The main problem with the late Optimus G release, apart from the obvious waning of initial interest, is the smartphone's bigger brother -- the Optimus G Pro -- and the plethora of new devices that were released after the Optimus G, with better specs and time advantage on their side. And we haven't yet reached MWC (Mobile World Congress) frenzy yet, where manufacturers are known to release or announce even more products.

The Limited European Endeavor

I got a kick from reading LG's announcement. The South Korean manufacturer releases the Optimus G in Europe, starting this month, but only mentions four major markets -- Sweden, France, Germany and Italy. Heck, that's not even a small part of the European Union let alone the whole continent. Will it be available in Spain, or Switzerland, or Belgium? LG doesn't say, which is not reassuring.

Trying to make up for the late release, LG says that the Optimus G launches with "enhanced" features, and I quote: "The European Optimus G will feature Google’s latest Android Operating System, Jelly Bean 4.1.2", alongside QSlide, Safety Care and Privacy Keeper among others. Say what? Android 4.1.2 is the latest version available?

LG must be joking as quite a lot of people have been using Android 4.2 for months now on their Nexus devices, one of which -- the Nexus 4 -- is even manufactured by LG itself. Talk about not knowing its own products.

Great, but Last Year

To be honest, the Optimus G sounded great at the time -- a super fast quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, a large IPS display, 32GB of internal storage and 4G LTE really grabbed my attention, six months ago. But all that, and more, can be had nowadays in a newer device that will not be surpassed by a bigger brother in a few months and still has that novelty ring to it.

Imagine going to a retailer or carrier to choose a new phone sometime this month. Which one would you choose, honestly? A six month-old smartphone or a brand new one like, let's say, the Sony Xperia Z? Or, if you wait a little longer, you can get a great looking HTC One.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is last year's news and so are most of the specs. Qualcomm released two high-end processors, the Snapdragon 600 and the Snapdragon 800, that outshine the older Snapdragon S4 Pro. We're starting to see even more 1080p displays, with HTC packing a 1920 by 1080 resolution in a 4.7-inch panel -- same screen size as the Optimus G -- and promises of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean upgrades from Sony for the Xperia Z and Xperia ZL. Generally speaking we're seeing the future of smartphones, not the past.

I'm a European and I wouldn't touch the Optimus G, not even with a ten foot pole right now. LG, you can keep it.
Back up all types of USB drive with USB Image Tool

Publié: février 22, 2013, 12:48pm CET par Mike Williams

Alexander Beug has released USB Image Tool 1.60, the latest version of his compact, portable and free backup tool for USB devices.

And a very welcome addition this time is support for non-removable USB devices. So on launch, the program won’t only list any mobile USB devices you might have connected (keys, cameras, MP3 players and so on), but it’ll also display regular USB drives, memory card readers and so on, and allow you to back them up.

Another new feature is the Reset button. USB Image Tool has always been able to, say, restore an 8GB image to a 16GB drive, but you would then effectively "lose" the extra space. In version 1.60, though, clicking Reset will overwrite the boot sector, causing Windows to reformat the drive with its original capacity.

USB Image Tool 1.60 is also now simpler to use, as there’s no need to manually run it as an administrator: the program now prompts for the appropriate rights on launch.

A new option to define the program’s buffer size may help improve performance, which could be important if you’ll now be using USB Image Tool to back up large USB drives.

There are a few extra options in the command line version of the program, and a couple of bugs fixed (see the official change log for more).

And, remarkably, all of this still comes in an ultra-lightweight portable package (even unzipped, it still required only 422KB of drive space on our test PC), with no adware or similar annoyances.

Put it all together and USB Image Tool 1.60 is an excellent tool, especially now it’s able to back up just about any USB storage device. Of course the GUI doesn’t support extras like scheduling, but if you’re happy to create your own scripts then it’s not difficult to set that up: just launch usbitcmd.exe from the command line to get a feel for your available options.

Photo credit: chien321/Shutterstock
Overhauling a home network, Part 2 -- back to FreeNAS afterall

Publié: février 22, 2013, 12:46pm CET par Alan Buckingham

Let us get a bit geeky. This was not my original intention, but it is how things turned out in the end. First, I believe I misspoke twice in part one of this series -- one time was unintentional, the other was apparently my wishful thinking. The first was when I called my recent used server purchase a Dell Optiplex. It is actually a Dell Poweredge. The second involved my new operating system and I'll get to that in a second.

To begin with, the server was running Windows Server 2003 and the small business I purchased it from had failed to wipe the data, but did leave it password protected -- something a tool like Ophcrack may have been able to breach, though I had no desire to try. The server also contained a CD-ROM drive which I needed to replace with a DVD drive in order to install Windows Server 2012 Essentials. Fortunately I had one laying around -- yes, I know that is not normal. You should see our storage room. There are boxes of computer parts and a stack of old towers filling a corner. At least this time the "it will be useful someday" statement worked out for me.

However, the 32-bit server architecture did not support 2012, meaning I moved on to Home Server -- that required 512 MB of RAM, and the server, woefully older than I had thought, only had 256 -- an easy upgrade, but expenses and wife-acceptance-factor for this project were mounting up.

In short, I went back to my old standby -- FreeNAS, which my last server ran. The operating system has improved quite a bit over the time since I last installed it. I knew there had been upgrades, but my system was set and working fine -- don't fix what is not broken. In fact, it has moved all the way to version 8.3.

I will not waste a lot of time here. FreeNAS has more than enough information to help you out and, surprisingly, Engadget did a very lengthy and helpful guide last year. Use those and you should have no problems.

I will point out a couple of things to pay attention to. First, make sure you change your password, which by default, is set to "password". You will also be spending a bit of time setting up your drives. If you can, choose ZFS over UFS because of storage restrictions. Remember that the drive on which FreeNAS is installed cannot be used for storage, so do not waste a multi-terabyte drive on a very small operating system.

There are also some plugins that may interest you. Those can be found on the FreeNAS website. In fact, you can even hook up a network printer to the box, but it gets a bit complicated. Once volumes are configured and working then you are ready to start backing up and sharing files.

Backup and Sharing

There are a few ways to do this. When I last set up the OS I simply used SyncBack SE on each networked computer in order to backup a copy of all files automatically. There were likely other options, but it worked for me so I did not mess with it.

Rsync is built right into FreeNAS, but it requires a client app installed on each computer on your home network. As my colleague Joe Wilcox pointed out in the newsroom the other day, and I am paraphrasing here -- the simplest solution is usually the best.

That meant SynBack SE because it recognizes mapped drives. That is big because it means that it can be installed on one PC (the desktop in this case) and used to back up and sync all computers in the home.

What's Next?

In the process of doing all of this I stumbled across an MSDN post from Microsoft's Emmanuel Bergerat which detailed the over-the-top home server he had recently built. My new setup suddenly looked completely inadequate. Still, despite his statement that one of his requirements was "cheap", it is all relative. Maybe someday I will do something like that.

For now my future plans for this box are simply to purchase a four-bay external drive enclosure so that I can begin expanding the space one drive at a time. I also may add a KVM switch between the server and desktop, but that is really not a necessity given that FreeNAS can be shutdown or restarted right from the dashboard on any computer. Heck, there is even a couple of Android apps to control it.

The Microsoft solutions may be nice and have more features, but the bottom line here is that I simply want my files safely backed up and, for that, FreeNAS and SyncBack SE (both free) will meet my needs perfectly and even provide a few little extras to boot.

Photo Credits: Norebbo/Shutterstock
Edit and convert videos to any format with Video to Video

Publié: février 22, 2013, 11:55am CET par Mike Williams

If you’re looking for a free video converter then there are now plenty of great free programs around, which is plainly very good news for the end user.

Software developers, though, are having to cram in ever more features to help their converter stand out from the crowd and Video to Video is a particularly strong example.

The program supports over 200 input formats, for instance, while exporting over 700. And so it can handle several file types which aren’t so well covered elsewhere (DV, VC3, MXF, NUT).

Video to Video also provides output profiles for a host of different devices: Apple, Android, Mobile, Sony, Blackberry and more. We’re not just talking about one or two generic examples, either. Click the Android tab, say, and you’re presented with more than 240 profiles for mobile devices from all the major manufacturers (and quite a few of the minor ones, too).

You could then accept the default profile settings, click Convert and wait for your new videos to appear. But if you like more control, then you’ll love the options available here. You can set your video and audio codecs, bit rates, resolution, aspect ratio, frame rate and more. There’s subtitle support. You can crop, pad, rotate or flip the video. There are options to tweak brightness, contrast, colors, hue and saturation. And an "Other Filters" list contains tools to sharpen your video, remove noise, stabilize a clip, remove a logo, and more.

A "Tools" menu provides some useful processing options, allowing you to trim videos, join them, rip and burn video DVDs, and more.

There are some unexpected bonus features, too. So the program can actually create animated GIFs from a video, for instance. And an "Images to Video" tool proves a surprisingly powerful way to create video slide shows, with support for a soundtrack, text captions, a vast number of custom transitions, and more.

And all this comes in a straightforward portable package with no codecs to install, no adware, not even a "Donate" button (unless you head to the website).

There are some downsides, too. Once you get past the basics, for instance, the interface isn’t always as intuitive as it could be. And we did run into one technical issue when creating a video slide show; the conversion process failed for no apparent reason when exporting to AVI, but worked just fine if we chose MP4 instead.

For the most part, though, the program performed very well, importing all the files we threw at it, and quickly converting them to our chosen formats. And so if you’re in the market for a video converter with some real power, then should probably download a copy of Video to Video right away.

Photo Credit: Spectral-Design/Shutterstock
BBC updates its iPlayer app -- background streaming via AirPlay now enabled

Publié: février 22, 2013, 11:54am CET par Wayne Williams

The BBC’s iPlayer app is available for both iOS and Android, but owners of Apple devices definitely get the better deal with additional features, such as the ability to download shows to their iPhones or iPads for offline viewing.

The latest update from the BBC widens the gap between the app siblings further by introducing improved AirPlay support. Owners of iOS devices who also have Apple TV will now be able to beam a show from the app to the big screen, and then background iPlayer, and use their phone or tablet for something else while the show continues to play.

In addition, the new version of the app fixes various minor problems and glitches, improves playback quality, and ensures downloads are more reliable.

You can grab the latest version of iPlayer from the App Store now.
Google rolls out Chrome 25, lets you talk to websites

Publié: février 22, 2013, 8:50am CET par Mike Williams

Google has announced the release of Chrome 25 to the Stable Channel for Windows, Linux and Mac, and as revealed in the beta, this release features a major change in the way extensions are handled.

In particular, the previous support for the automatic and silent installation of extensions will now be disabled by default, as apparently Google has noticed that this feature "has been widely abused by third parties to silently install extensions into Chrome without proper acknowledgment from users". We could argue Google really should have predicted that in the first place, but at least it's seen the light now.

This change will have an immediate impact, as any extensions previously installed in this way will be disabled by default, while a one-time dialog will ask users to re-enable them.

And the other result is that, in future, every Chrome extension will require specific consent from the user before it can be installed.

Elsewhere, Chrome 25 adds support for speech recognition via the Web Speech API, which means you could be talking to websites very soon. Once you’ve installed the new build then you can get a feel for how this could work at Google’s speech demo page.

The official Chrome blog post on this release reports that it also includes "better support for HTML5 time/date inputs" and "better WebGL error handling".

And there are also the usual collection of bug and security fixes, although one of the solutions was a little drastic: the Webkit MathML implementation apparently includes a "high severity security issue", and so it’s been disabled in this release.

The extra security alone makes it well worth upgrading to Chrome 25, then, but if you need to know more than the fine detail on this release is available at the SVN Revision Log.
Google announces support packages for Cloud Platform

Publié: février 22, 2013, 1:13am CET par Alan Buckingham

Did you know that Google has real people working there? If you have ever tried to contact the company then you may have concluded otherwise. In fact, it may be more difficult than finding a phone number for Amazon -- a task that has resulted in websites dedicated to the adventure. Apparently the search giant would like to change that reputation and today it took the first step.

Google has announced a new support package for customers of its Cloud Platform services. This is an enterprise service that the company would like to use to compete against Amazon S3 and Windows Azure. In fact the service is doing very well, with some high-profile customers such as Best Buy. But a bit more was needed to boost things over the hump -- namely human interaction.

Today Google announced new customer service options, available in tiers based on what your business requires and, of course what it is willing to pay.

Brett McCully, of the Google Cloud Platform team, announced the service, calling it "a comprehensive collection of support packages for services on Google Cloud Platform, so you can decide what level best fits your needs".

There will be four levels of service -- Bronze, Silver Gold and Platinum. These range in price from free to the sky-is-the-limit (meaning Platinum requires you to contact a service rep to inquire) -- however gold starts at $400 per month, just so you have an idea.

Service levels range from "access to online documentation, community forums, and billing support" for the Bronze to "The most comprehensive and personalized support. In addition to Gold, you’ll get direct access to a Technical Account Manager team" for the Platinum subscription.

The service is now open for sign-ups if you care to take the plunge and see what Google truly offers in the way of customer care. And, if you do, then be sure to let us know how it works out for you.

Photo Credit: Dudarev Mikhail/Shutterstock
Will you buy Google Chromebook Pixel?

Publié: février 22, 2013, 1:09am CET par Joe Wilcox

That sound you just heard was Google slapping Apple across the face. Today the search and information giant unveiled and starting selling high-end portable Chromebook Pixel. By just about every measure, Google guns for Apple in its dominant market -- premium PCs, or those selling for $1,000 or more. When rumors circulated about the computer, I opined: "Chromebook Pixel looks like MacBook Pro to me". The impression is stronger now that the real deal is here -- from form factor to price, either $1,299 or $1,449.

Should Apple sweat about Chromebook Pixel? I would. Following a years-long retail trend, Apple share of PCs selling for $1,000 or more was over 90 percent in 2012, according to NPD. Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis, asks if Google is "more trying to compete with Apple and high-end windows machines for premium consumer and maybe corporate?" I answer: Yes. What I want to know: Will you buy Chromebook Pixel? But more importantly: Would you buy Chromebook Pixel instead of 13-inch MacBook Pro?

For Whom?

For many of you the answer is an automatic "No", because $1,000 is already too much. "I would never pay that much for any computer", my colleague Alan Buckingham says. "Five-hundred dollars is the limit". He paid $400 for his current laptop one-and-a-half years ago.

Then there are concerns Google's "For Everyone" marketing campaign, which emphasized value, creates expectations Chromebooks shouldn't cost much.

"It just seems like a big jump on price and specs and customer focus to me", Baker says. During the holidays, Google aggressively promoted the $249 Samsung Series 3 Chromebook, which sells for more than $1,000 less than Pixel. Baker "would have rather seen a more mundane $699-$799 type product that directly brought the value of the Chrome OS to compete with a large iPad or a Win 8 touch machine".

David Rodríguez Andino agrees with Baker: "Google is crazy pricing this at $1,300. A high-end Chrome OS device should be priced around $700 IMO".

Commenting to one of my Google+ posts, Ian Betteridge turns "For Everyone" on its head: "The thing was that up until now, Chromebook wasn't 'for everyone'. For people like me, who value high-end, well designed hardware with great screens, there was no Chromebook that fitted the bill. Now there is. 'Everyone' doesn't just mean 'only people who want cheap plastic machines'". He has a Chromebook Pixel already and so speaks with more authority than I.

I agree with Betteridge. Much as I like current Chromebooks, using Microsoft Surface Pro for nearly a month has me pining for high-resolution display and better performance. The new model promises both and for less than 13-inch MacBook Pro, which I would consider having ended the Apple boycott.

Value has different measures. Armando Ferreira asks the same question I do: "Google, are you poking at Apple because your commercial and price tag sure seem like it?" Value compared to something else, in this case MacBook Pro, is one measure.

Specifications

Here's how the two laptops compare:

Chromebook Pixel: 12.85-inch touchscreen, 2560 x 1700 resolution, 239 pixels per inch; 1.8GHz Core i5 processor; Intel HD graphics 4000; 4GB DDR3 RAM; 32GB or 64GB of storage; HD WebCam; backlit keyboard; dual-band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n 2x2; 4G LTE (on one model); Bluetooth 3.0; mini-display port; two USB ports; Chrome OS. Measures: 297.7 x 224.6 x 16.2 mm. Weighs: 1.52 kg (3.35 pounds). Cost: $1,299 (32GB WiFi); $1,449 (64GB WiFi/4G LTE). 1TB Google Drive storage is included free, for three years.

MacBook Pro: 13.3-inch LED display, 2560 x 1600 native resolution, 227 ppi; 2.5GHz or 2.6GHz Core i5 processor; Intel HD graphics 4000; 8GB DDR3L RAM; 128GB or 256GB storage; HD Webcam; backlit keyboard; 802.11n wireless; Bluetooth 4; two USB 3 and Thunderbolt ports; HDMI port; OS X. Measures: 314 x 219 x 19 mm. Weighs: 1.62 kg (3.57 pounds) Cost: $1,499 (2.5GHz, 128GB); $1,699 (2.6GHz, 256GB).

Usage scenarios are different, which applies to Windows touchscreen computers, too. Chrome OS largely runs apps in the browser, while MacBook Pro supports local apps. Chromebook's big draw is touchscreen, lower price and TB of free cloud storage. Is that compelling enough for you?

"Pixel is not going to fly of[f] the shelves like a new Mac Book Pro, but it has a niche", Simon Bengtsson asserts. "There is definitely people caring about simplicity, design and an amazing user experience. Previous Chromebooks has compromised on the last two".

Pixel Perfect?

At 4:13 p.m. EST, David Hoff "just finished ordering my new Chromebook Pixel".

Jeff Jarvis got one, too, and chimes in with Betteridge:

I was wishing for a beefier Chromebook. Having proven itself at the low end of the market, I've been saying that I wished Google would come up with one at the high end. Now it has: The Chromebook Pixel. I just bought one, sight unseen. It has more memory, a faster processor, a touchscreen (which I'm looking forward to), and LTE built into the most expensive machine. At $1,500 it's comparable to a Macbook, though I don't need to buy any software for it.

Jarvis, who has been using the $249 Samsung Chromebook, makes a good point about additional costs: Software.

Google sells a high-end Chrome OS laptop for $1,299 or $1,449. Would you buy Chromebook Pixel?

Peter Sitterly sees value beyond the machine that more than pays for it: "This is definitely priced higher than I thought it would be, but the fact that it comes with 1TB of Google Drive storage for 3 years changes the game a bit. For those who may already be paying $49.99 per month for 1TB of cloud storage, this is a no-brainer. This device would essentially save such folks from $1,799.64 worth of monthly fees over that 3-year span".

Hasan Ahmad: "Chromebook pixel is the kind of product that Google releases to see how far their rabid fanboys will go to worship them". I see something more Apple-worship-like here, because of design and features.

Off topic perhaps, but there's something strange about the social buzz excitement that grates Ferreira, and I have to agree:

You guys know I like Google but help me understand this for a second. Microsoft releases the Surface Pro (64GB) $899.00, it can run legacy apps also all of your Android apps (Bluestack) and also the ability to run another OS like Ubuntu. Yet it's 'too expensive'. Google releases the Chromebook which in theory is just a Web Browser, can't run legacy apps, maybe will one day run Ubuntu (Waiting on devs) only has 32GB of storage for $1,299.00 and people expect to jump on this like peanut butter on jelly?

Right. Why does Microsoft get grilled for Surface Pro passing ($899 or $999), while Google gets a pass?

So roundabout, I return to the two questions: Will you buy Chromebook Pixel and would you buy instead of 13-inch MacBook Pro? Please take the poll above and respond in comments below.