Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » avril 19, 2013

BetaNews.Com (13 non lus)

Family Tree Builder 7.0 syncs with MyHeritage.com

Publié: avril 19, 2013, 8:33pm CEST par Nick Peers

MyHeritage Ltd has released Family Tree Builder 7.0, a major new version of its free Windows app for recording, managing and sharing a family tree. Version 7’s major new features tighten its links with the MyHeritage.com website by introducing two-way sync and providing access to the billions of historic records held at the website, some free, but most requiring a subscription.

Version 7.0 also implements full Unicode support, tweaks the user interface and extends language support to four additional countries in the Mid and Far East.

Family Tree Builder 7.0’s headline new feature is the implementation of two-way sync. Previously users could upload their tree to the MyHeritage.com servers -- free account holders are limited to 250 individuals in their tree -- but version 7.0 now makes it possible to download trees and tree changes back to the program, allowing users to update their tree using a combination of the website, Windows app and iOS app. All changes are then shared across the different builds when the user next performs a sync.

Practically all information is synced from the app, with the notable exceptions being DNA markers, SSN fields and any fields specifically marked as “private”.

Version 7.0 also replaces the existing Smart Research and WorldVitalRecords Search tools with Record Matching and SuperSearch tools. Both are linked to MyHeritage.com’s growing list of records, numbered in the billions, with the Record Matching tool performing background smart searches based on the information held in the user’s tree. A clickable button next to individuals alerts users to the existence of potential matches.

The new build has also been rewritten to support Unicode, which ensures that data can be entered in any language, allowing for a mix and match between languages in the program. This has led to a new file extension, UZED, being implemented to reflect Unicode projects.

Other changes include a minor facelift of the program interface, plus support for Chinese (both Traditional and Simplified), Japanese, Korean and Farsi languages. Replacing existing personal photos in the tree has been simplified, while support for BCE dates and options to display the husband/father’s first name or initial in his children’s or wife’s name have also been added. The update is rounded off with the usual non-specified bug fixes.

Family Tree Builder 7.0 is available now as a free download for PCs running Windows XP or later. Users will need to sign up with MyHeritage.com to use the program -- free accounts are available, with paid-for premium versions extending the program’s functionality as well as providing more storage space online.
Best Windows 8 apps this week

Publié: avril 19, 2013, 6:53pm CEST par Martin Brinkmann

Twenty-fifth in a series. The increase of new apps slowed down a little bit, falling under the 2,000 apps per week mark that was passed in the last three weeks. A total of 1,928 new apps found their way into the store this week. The total number of apps in the U.S. store is now 42,478, made up of 33,430 free apps and 9,048 paid ones. Free apps increased by 1,447 this week and paid ones by 481.

The core Bing apps received updates a couple of days ago. I won't rehash all that we previously reporting, only this much: Bing News supports custom RSS feeds now that you can add to the app so that you can add your own news sources to it. News also supports keyword-based news that you can add easily to the application.

The location and real-time features of the Maps app are improved as well, which helps you find local stores, restaurants and other services in a faster fashion. Maps users benefit from the integration of walking and transit information as well for select locations.

The Travel app features new contents from popular sources such as Lonely Planet and Fodors. It offers a new local feature as well that you can make use of to find local attractions and points of interest near your current location.

The Finance app features a couple of new tools that may help you calculate mortgages, plan your retirement or convert currencies.

The Sports app, last but not least, received new local contents including football (that is soccer for you in the United States) league data and information from Europe and South America as well as information about football World Cup Qualifiers.

In other news: the popular app YouTube RT is currently available free of charge instead of the €2.49 that you pay for it regularly. The promotion runs until April 24 so make sure you download and install it before then if you are interested in its functionality.

App of the week

None this week. None stuck out.

Other apps

Sim Trader ($2.99, trial available)

If you are interested in the stock market but do not really want to invest your money, you can use Sim Trader to invest using virtual money. The app, or game, gives you $10,000 in starting cash that you can invest in the stock market. It uses real quotes from Yahoo Finance and news from finance related websites to make the experience as realistic as it can be.

The front page lists a custom selection of stocks that you can use as a monitoring tool and to purchase or sell shares. On the right are news that may help you make decisions, information about your portfolio, and a chat where users of the application can chat anonymously.

The app has more to offer than that though. You earn achievements for certain completed tasks, like "supporting the OS giant" when you buy 100 or more Microsoft shares, take automatically part in the leaderboard that is sorted by the amount of money in cash and in assets, and can read tutorials to understand how the stock market and trading works.

Deezer (not available in the United States)

The music app launched in several countries this week (but not in the United States). It provides you with an experience that is similar to Spotify or Nokia Music. Unregistered users get access to the whole music database but songs are automatically limited to 30 seconds.

A Deezer account is required for the full listening experience. A free account provides users with 12 months of unlimited listening, after which it gets reduced to 2 hours per month. Premium and Premium+ accounts are available for €4.99 and €9.99 per month, which remove the advertisement that is sometimes played and offer a better listening experience.

On a side note: if you want to check out the offerings of a different Windows Store, you need to change the home location in the Windows Control Panel to do that.

Film Closet

The movie application for Windows 8 serves two purposes. It displays information about current and upcoming movies, including information about the cast, plot, release date and trailers (linking to YouTube exclusive using the default system browser and not the app itself).

You can furthermore point it to any local folder with movies to add your movie collection to the app as well. Local movies are identified by their file name and folder structure, so that you may need to alter the names to have them identified correctly by the application. There is however no need to add local movies to the app if you only want to use it to retrieve movie information and watch trailers.

WeTube

The app may look like any other YouTube viewing app for Windows 8 on first glance, but it is packed with a couple of interesting capabilities. The feature that sets is apart is the one-click download option that it adds to any page on YouTube.

The application displays a list of downloadable videos on the right that you just need to click on to download to the local system. Basically, all videos found on the page - the main video that can be played and the list of related videos on the right, are displayed on the right sidebar.

Onboard

Onboard is a job search application for Windows 8. You can enter a keyword that you are interested in and make a couple of modifications before you hit the search button. This includes limiting results to a state or city, industry, as well as experience and education.

You can furthermore limit the search by occupation, e.g. management, legal or computer & mathematical to only get results based on your selection. The application is limited to the US, with no option to search for jobs in other countries.

Filmwave

The movie app displays current and upcoming movies in the interface. Each movie is depicted with a cover, name and rating, and a click opens a page with lots of details about the selected movie.

Here you can access general information about the movie, like the synopsis, information about the cast and crew, reviews, chatter on social media about the film and a list of similar or related movies that may be of interest to you. Trailers are available but link once again to YouTube where they can be watched. You can add your reviews to movies and also mark them as watched.

VGBC8

This emulator enables you to run Gameboy and Gameboy Color games, apps and demos on Windows 8. The emulator supports all kinds of ROMs including homebrew roms, and ships with a basic version of Pong that you can load right into the app after installation to test out its functionality.

If you have a XBOX 360 controller you can connect it to the PC, laptop or tablet to use it to play games or control apps on the screen. The emulator supports touch input and keyboard / mouse input as well. Note that it does not emulate GBA or Nintendo DS devices.

Meople

The basic idea behind Meople is to combine information and data from all social networking sites that you are a member of in one interface. So, instead of having to visit Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr or Instagram regularly to find out what is new, you can do all of that from a single app.

The app seems a 1:1 copy of the website of the service. You need to log in to at least one of the 12 social networking sites the service supports right now to get started. Each social networking site is represented by its own coloumn that you can check out individually but on the same page at the same time.

The app ships with several features that make life easier, like highlighting unread threads or messages, options to invite users to contact you or send messages or options to post a message or update to all networks you are currently signed in to.
Amazon Prime releases 14 original series

Publié: avril 19, 2013, 6:24pm CEST par Alan Buckingham

Up front I should confess that I love Amazon Prime. The service is a bit cheaper than Netflix for streaming movies and TV shows but brings along other perks such as free second-day shipping and a lending library for Kindle users. The retailer continues to add features and work with studios in an effort to provide more content to viewers.

Today Amazon releases pilot episodes for 14 new, original shows. We have known these were coming for some time, but the service waited until all pilots were ready and pushes them now as one giant release.

Among the pilots are six childrens' shows and eight original comedies, including the much anticipated Zombieland, which is based on the 2009 cult classic movie.

Now the ball is in your court. Not all of these shows will make it, the company wants feedback to make that determination. Amazon solicits reviews and provides ability to take a survey. Customers will determine which pilots get the green light to begin production as complete series.

Songs from the shows are also available for free download from AmazonMP3, and other information on each show is available from IMDb. Now you have a plan for your weekend and, if you are like me, then it involves zombies.

Photo Credit: FotoYakov/Shutterstock
Microsoft Windows sales are so good, they're scary

Publié: avril 19, 2013, 5:38pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

The "Microsoft's dead" meme is one of the most popular among tech bloggers and arm-chair pundit commenters. Posts are everywhere the last 30 days or so, fed this month by reports of record-weak PC shipments. After market close yesterday, with fiscal Q3 results, Microsoft proved critics wrong and showed just how much strength remains in the Windows franchise. More significantly, a dramatic change is underway, regarding which buyers generate more revenues.

IDC says that PC shipments fell 13.9 percent during calendar first quarter (Microsoft's fiscal third), and there was reasonable expectation Windows license sales would see similar fall off. Instead, when removing a one-time $1.085 billion deferral, Windows & Windows Live division revenue was flat ($4.62 billion) year over year. Given the sorry state of the PC market, flat isn't just good but great.

Typically, license sales to PC manufacturers account for 75 percent to 80 percent of Windows revenue. During fiscal third quarter there was dramatic shift, with non-OEM sales, largely from commercial licenses and Surface tablets, representing 40 percent of revenue. If this turns into a trend, within a year Windows & Windows Live could look more like Business and Server & Tools divisions, where, respectively, 60 percent and 50 percent of revenues come from multi-year license sales to businesses.

The dynamic smooths out revenue for the other divisions and insulates them from economic downturns or changes in PC sales. The Windows group moves in the same direction. The reason, however, will surprise many.

Two-thirds of enterprises now use Windows 7, according to Microsoft, and three-quarters of Enterprise Agreements include Windows licenses. Meanwhile, overall volume-licensing revenue grows in the double-digits. However, in my experience talking to IT managers, large businesses often buy licenses to exercise downgrade rights rather than to upgrade -- that's to standardize on one platform. There still is in process a massive move away from XP, which by analyst estimates accounts for 40 percent of the Windows install base.

The rise in uptake could easily reflect resistance to Windows 8 rather than demand for it -- large businesses choosing annuity contracts so they can downgrade rights and install Windows 7. That said, once businesses move to annuity contracts, they are more likely to stick with them, based on historical Microsoft corporate customer buying trends. Additionally, the business downgrading today can upgrade in the future.

Microsoft offers many multi-year license plans. Enterprise Agreement, generally the most flexible, is the more popular among larger businesses. To the other plans, buyers can attach -- and Microsoft encourages them to do so -- Software Assurance, which provides lower-cost upgrades. Businesses make annual payments for EA or SA, the latter 29 percent per year of desktop software's price. That's where Microsoft gets assured revenue, regardless of economic downturns or declines in PC sales.

So there are two lessons coming from fiscal Q3 results: Windows license sales are surprisingly healthy, particularly considering PC market ills. Windows revenue shifts from PC OEMs to other segments, particularly multi-year license sales to businesses. There remains Windows success, or failure, on future computing devices -- a topic I tackle in my next post.

Photo Credit: abeadev/Shutterstock
Set up two-step authentication for your Microsoft account on Windows Phone

Publié: avril 19, 2013, 2:49pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic
Following the lead of a number of high-profile companies like Apple, Dropbox and Google, Microsoft has finally embraced two-step authentication. Two days ago, the company unveiled the feature which, in order to "help keep your account more secure", enables using security codes or application-specific passwords when accessing Microsoft services. Sadly, for Android and iOS users, Microsoft only offers a Windows Phone app, at this point, to generate security codes.

The app is called Authenticator and works with both Windows Phone 8 as well as Windows Phone 7.5 (ironically, it was the app that revealed Microsoft's plans to offer the security feature in the first place). This guide will show you how to enable two-step authentication for your Microsoft account and use Authenticator to generate security codes on your Windows Phone smartphone.

Install Authenticator

Before getting down to business, you have to install Authenticator. To do so, head over to the Windows Phone app store on your handset (which is known as Store inside the app list) or use the link provided above in order to find and install the app.

Set Up Two-Step Authentication

It is worth noting that after Microsoft enabled two-step authentication for my Outlook.com account, a verify button appeared next to my phone number and alternate email addresses. I have verified my contact information and you should do so as well. Microsoft will send you a security code, on your phone and alternate email addresses, which you must enter when requested in order to verify the contact information.

After you have completed the aforementioned task, head over to the Security info control panel on your Microsoft account and follow the next steps:
1. Under Two-step verification, click on "Set up two-step verification",
2. Press Next and, finally, click on Done to complete the process.
Depending on the app or service that you wish to access, you may be required to set up application-specific passwords. This is because security codes are not generally supported. One scenario where you may be required to use an application-specific password is with an email application like Apple's Mail on iOS.

You can create application-specific passwords through the App passwords panel inside Security Info.

Also worth mentioning is that Microsoft doesn't ask for a security code when using a trusted device. If you wish, you can remove all trusted devices by using the "Remove all the trusted devices associated with my account" option from under Trusted devices in the Security info control panel.

Configure Authenticator

Now that you have two-step authentication enabled for your Microsoft account you should use Authenticator to generate security codes. To do so, head over to the same Security info control panel and follow the next steps:
1. Under Authenticator app inside Security info, click on "Set up",
2. Open Authenticator on your Windows Phone smartphone,
3. Tap on the "+" icon, then tap on the camera pictogram (both are found on the bottom menu bar),
4. Hold your device as to recognize the QR code displayed in the browser,
5. Head over to the browser and enter the security code, that is provided by Authenticator, inside the box,
6. Click on Pair to finish the process.
Two-factor authentication is now enabled for your Microsoft account and you can use Authenticator to generate security codes on your Windows Phone smartphone.

Microsoft says that you can generate security codes for two-step authentication using third-party dedicated apps available on Android, iOS and possibly BlackBerry. Similar steps should be carried out in such cases.

credit: marekuliasz/Shutterstock
Get Xbox Live Gold free this weekend

Publié: avril 19, 2013, 2:32pm CEST par Alan Buckingham

This may seem a bit ironic, given that Xbox Live spent much of last Saturday down, but this weekend Microsoft aims to make up for that little mishap with a free weekend of, well...possible service. Xbox Live Gold adds many of the features that the console has become known for, such as ESPN, YouTube, iHeartRadio and much more.

Xbox Live chief Larry Hryb, better known as Major Nelson, announces "if you’ve always wanted to check out the latest entertainment experiences on Xbox 360, now is your chance". The service will go free beginning at 10am ET today (Friday April 19) and remain that way though 1pm ET on Monday April 22.

This is not only valid in the United States, but also Canada, Latin America and Japan. "All Xbox owners in these regions, regardless of their current Xbox LIVE subscription status, will have access to online multiplayer gaming, Video Kinect, and our entire catalog of entertainment apps" Hryb explains.

This coincides with the debut tonight of the new Netflix (a Live Gold service) original series Hemlock Grove. The weekend also brings a special preview of Borderlands 2, for which Hryb provided a key -- KTW3T-ZXXS5-JBSJF-5FJT3-6TB9X.

Both the U.K. and Europe had a free weekend back in March, so this timing is seemingly coincidental and unrelated to last weekend's crash of the service -- in other words, it does not appear to be a Microsoft apology.

Photo Credit: Aaron Amat/Shutterstock
Do consumers really want touchscreen PCs? (Because I don't)

Publié: avril 19, 2013, 12:35pm CEST par Wayne Williams

I own an iPad, which I love dearly. I use it for lots of things -- games, email, browsing the web, social networking, writing, viewing photos and video, and remote accessing my PC. The iPad, like all tablets, is a true jack of all trades and a master of some too.

But, try as I might, I can’t use it for "real" tasks. While it’s fine for writing small-ish articles on, I could never write a novel on it -- and I’ve tried. For some reason, I just can’t connect with typing on a touchscreen in the same way I do when typing on a proper full-size keyboard. And I could never imagine attempting detailed Photoshop work on a touchscreen either (well, not without a fine stylus at least).

Maybe it’s just because I’ve been using a keyboard and mouse combo for so long that the old control method has become part of who I am when working. I sit down in front of my PC and the mouse and keyboard are there, in my hands without my ever really having to think about what I’m doing.

Touch is more deliberate. Of course I can zip around the iPad, switching apps, firing off emails and zooming in and out without thinking about it. It’s intuitive, but it’s not as fast or as comfortable. And when you put your fingers on the screen, you’re obscuring the view in a way a diminutive mouse cursor doesn’t.

When I’m working I’m at least twice as quick on my PC as I am on my iPad, and I’m usually doing lots more tasks at the same time too.

My point is while I love touch for lots of things, I can’t imagine it ever being the primary method of interacting with all the tech in my life and I really don't see the purpose of touchscreen PCs.

Is It Just Me?

The problem I have is I just don't think there's a need for touchscreen on PCs. It adds a third control method that's not required. And an awkward third control method at that. I know touch is useful for swiping through open apps in Windows 8, and performing other tasks in the OS (and admittedly it can be a little easier than using a trackpad at times), but I want to look at a screen directly ahead of me and interact with what it's showing me without stretching my arms out to it.

I asked around in our newsroom and my colleague Mihaita Bamburic agrees (so it’s not just me!), saying: "I share the same view. Touch is confusing because you have to reach out and then retract your arms in order to fully use it. I think we find it most convenient when the movement of our arms is done on the same level most of the time. Think about it, we move our left or right arm to the side to reach for the mouse and one stays on the keyboard at all times. It's natural to do so, it's habit. Now, with touchscreen PCs, we have to raise the left or right arm to do stuff, which I find tiresome in the long run".

Dire PC sales suggest -- to my mind at least -- that people don’t want to buy new computers with touchscreens and the touch-friendly Windows 8, because, well, they don’t need touchscreens. Touch is essential on tablets and mobile phones, but on PCs, where the issue of gorilla arm remains a problem, it’s not necessary, and it adds a lot of extra cost for no real gain.

As Isabelle Durand, Gartner principal research analyst, says: "The majority of consumers remain unwilling to pay the price premium for touchscreen capabilities on PCs at this stage".

Frankenstein Hybrids

Microsoft bet the farm on touch. It came up with an OS that works brilliantly on touch devices and not as well on bog-standard PCs (it’s not bad on them -- far from it -- but it’s not as good).

There are rumors that Microsoft is considering allowing users to skip the Start screen and restore the Start menu in the next version of Windows 8, which a lot of mice and keyboard users will appreciate, and which is clearly a good idea, but PC manufacturers aren’t going to stop pushing touchscreens on us. It’s the future, you see. Isabelle Durand again: "Touchscreens and Windows 8 will represent key opportunities for PC manufacturers in the second half of 2013".

According to the latest Touch Panel Market Analysis Report from NPD DisplaySearch, which was released a couple of days ago, manufacturers believe the penetration of touchscreens in notebook PCs is going to grow from under 3 percent last year to over 12 percent this year. Growth triggered, naturally enough, by Windows 8.

To drive this growth many manufactures are coming up with new types of PCs, such as flip and convertible models that can be both PCs and tablets. Great, except isn't that a bit like saying cars are great, and motorbikes are great, so here’s a car made up of two motorbikes stuck together. It can be an uncomfortable car, or it can be two slightly rubbish motorbikes.

Er, can’t I just have a great car AND a great motorbike?

Another analogy: touch is like 3D in the cinema. A few great movies came out which made excellent use of the third dimension -- well, Avatar -- and suddenly every film was 3D, including plenty which just didn’t work with an added dimension. Movie studios like 3D because they can charge more for people to see it, but consumers are less keen (a friend of mine runs a cinema and says 2D versions of movies are much more popular than their 3D counterparts, most of the time). 3D is a fad that’s now slowly dying out and hopefully touch -- on devices where it really doesn’t serve any great purpose -- will be too. But somehow I doubt it.

So my question for you is this: am I just swimming pointlessly against the tide here? Should I be forcing myself to fully embrace touch and accept it's here to stay -- on all devices -- or do you feel the same? Comments below please.
Samsung Galaxy S4 coming soon to Verizon

Publié: avril 19, 2013, 12:03pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

Unveiled in mid-March, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is one of the most eagerly awaited smartphones to be sold this year. Major mobile operators across the world have already announced pre-order offers, but one big player has yet to reveal any details concerning the Galaxy S4.

Verizon, one of the largest mobile operators worldwide and second-largest in the US, is expected to sell the Galaxy S4 in the upcoming period but, until Friday, the big red did not disclose any details concerning the date of availability.

In a Twitter post, Verizon has finally announced that the Galaxy S4 is headed to its network and arrives in May. As you might expect, the smartphone ships with 4G LTE cellular connectivity out-of-the-box and is big red-branded.

The US mobile operator has also posted a picture of the Galaxy S4 in white trim, which shows the smartphone carrying the Verizon and 4G LTE logos on the back. There appears to be no other branding other than on the back of the device

Verizon has also said that it will "soon" reveal more details, likely about pre-orders and the official sales date.
Eliminate adware with the Junkware Removal Tool

Publié: avril 19, 2013, 11:32am CEST par Mike Williams

If you regularly try out freeware tools then you’ll know many come bundled with annoying adware. This can use all kinds of dubious tactics to install itself on your PC, and getting rid of these irritations later can be a problem (even if you remove the core code, remnants usually remain to clutter your system).

Fortunately there are plenty of tools around to help clean up your PC -- and Junkware Removal Tool is just about the simplest we’ve ever seen.

The program arrives as a tiny (538KB) executable, no installation required, so it’s ready to go immediately. On launch it opens in a console window -- there’s no GUI here, no options or settings to consider -- and with the tap of a key it’ll start scanning your system.

This isn’t a particularly quick process, but then Junkware Removal Tool does do quite a thorough job, checking running processes, loaded modules, browsers, the Registry and more.

And it supports removing a reasonable number of products, too, at least for a product managed by a single developer. The Junkware Removal Tool names the following, as examples: Ask Toolbar; Babylon; Browser Manager; Claro / iSearch; Conduit; Coupon Printer for Windows; Crossrider; DealPly; Facemoods / Funmoods; iLivid; Iminent; IncrediBar; MyWebSearch; Searchqu; Web Assistant. (The program change log reveals support for several others, too.)

One issue we noticed is that the scanning process is rather more intrusive than you might expect from this kind of tool. It will close any open Explorer or browser windows, for instance, which can be annoying: to avoid problems, it’s best if you close these yourself before launching a scan.

You also get precisely no control at all over its final actions. Forget ideas of reviewing a final report, deciding to keep this, or remove that: Junkware Removal Tool simply deletes any remnants of its target products, and displays a text file showing you precisely what actions it’s taken.

This does make the program exceptionally easy to use, though. Just tap a single key to launch its scan, and there’s nothing else to do.

And in our tests Junkware Removal Tool also proved very effective, safely removing active adware from one system, and cleaning up the remnants still remaining on another.

The program still wouldn’t be our first choice for an adware remover; it just doesn’t support enough products, and we like to have more control over the removal process. But it’s capable enough that you should probably keep a copy around, just in case your first line tools fail and you need a little extra assistance.

Photo Credit: Stephen Finn/Shutterstock
Apple loses out to premium Android tablets

Publié: avril 19, 2013, 11:20am CEST par Ian Barker

UK polling company YouGov has released the results of its latest Quarterly Tablet Tracker for the first three months of 2013. It shows that consumers now see Android tablets as equal in quality to the iPad and as a result their makers are eating into Apple's share of the premium market.

Although it still has the largest slice of the UK's tablet market, Apple has seen its share drop by 10 percent in the past 12 months. Despite the launch of the iPad Mini and 4th generation iPad, Apple now has 63 percent of the market compared to 73 percent this time last year.

The main reason for the drop seems to be the emergence of strong new competitors which have taken sales not just from Apple but from the obscure budget brands too. Google's Nexus 7 has grabbed 8 percent of the market in under a year, while the Kindle Fire has taken 5 percent. Since the beginning of 2012 Samsung has also more than doubled its share from 4 percent to 10 percent.

There is some good news for Apple with the iPad Mini taking 4 percent of the market and generating the highest customer satisfaction scores.

Looking at the overall picture, the Quarterly Tablet Tracker shows that 18 percent of the UK adult population (more than 8 million people) now own a tablet. This is an increase of 5 percent over the last quarter of 2012, no doubt fueled by the Christmas period.

Of course Apple still has a huge share of the tablet market largely thanks to its head start. But that dominant position is only likely to slip further as the big-name Android makers raise their game.

Photo Credit: Adam Radosavljevic /Shutterstock
Defraggler 2.14 checks multiple drives

Publié: avril 19, 2013, 8:49am CEST par Nick Peers

Piriform has released Defraggler 2.14.705 and Defraggler Portable 2.14.705, a minor, but noteworthy, update of its freeware defragging tool that allows users to both defrag entire drives and individual files.

Version 2.14 adds support for UDF file systems, plus allows users to defrag their drive’s free space on a schedule while also improving its search tools and navigation.

Users can now schedule the Defraggler 2.14 to defrag a drive’s free space at set intervals: simply select Settings > Schedule, then enable a schedule for the selected drive and choose Freespace or Freespace (allow fragmentation) from the ‘Defrag type:’ dropdown menu.

Multiple drives can now be analysed with a single click too: simply select the drives from the top pane using the [Ctrl] or [Shift] keys, then click the Analyze button to perform an analysis on each drive in turn. The results for each drive can then browsed as normal by clicking the drive’s entry.

Defraggler 2.14 extends its file-system support to UDF, which is commonly found on rewritable CDs and DVDs – this complements existing support for FAT/FAT32, NTFS and exFAT file systems.

Defraggler’s Search tool allows users to target specific files for defragmenting -- the tool now implements better searching using wildcards. 64-bit Windows users should also find the shell extension options are improved too.

The GUI has been tweaked to provide better navigation, while a minor bug has been fixed in the monthly scheduler along with other non-specified minor improvements and bug fixes. Defraggler 2.14.705 and Defraggler Portable 2.14.705 are both available as freeware downloads for PCs running Windows XP or later.

Photo Credit: Sergey Mironov/Shutterstock
G Data releases 2014 security software

Publié: avril 19, 2013, 7:48am CEST par Mike Williams

G Data has announced the availability of its new consumer product line, including G Data Antivirus 2014, G Data InternetSecurity 2014, and the high end G Data TotalProtection 2014.

And the company is particularly highlighting its new CloseGap technology, which apparently “provides fast, effective protection against computer malware, based on a balanced combination of reactive and proactive malware detection techniques”.

What does that actually mean? We’re not entirely sure. But if you’re looking for something more specific, the entire range now includes an Autostart Manager, a tool to help accelerate your boot times. Essentially it’s an integrated startup delayer-type program, delaying certain autostart program to help your desktop load more quickly.

G Data TotalProtection 2014 also adds a device control option, which allows you to define which external storage drives can be used to read or write data. You can create a rule which allows your own USB drive to back up data, for instance, but other drives won’t be allowed access.

The interface has been completely re-engineered to make it easier to use. We’ve heard that particular claim many times before, but at a first glance the new build does seem to offer real improvements.

And, more generally, G Data says both its BankGuard technology (which protects your online banking and shopping technologies) and behavioural monitoring has been enhanced.

As an upgrade, this isn’t exactly exciting. The device control option is the most interesting addition, but that’s only available if you opt for the top of the range version.

G Data’s antivirus engine remains one of the best, though, coming top of the list (again) in the most recent A V Comparatives File Detection tests. And so if it’s accuracy you’re after, then you might want to sample the new range. 30-day trial editions of G Data Antivirus 2014, G Data InternetSecurity 2014, and G Data TotalProtection 2014. are available now.

Photo Credit: kentoh/Shutterstock
Jolicloud update brings search, new services and more

Publié: avril 19, 2013, 3:07am CEST par Alan Buckingham

Jolicloud may perhaps be the coolest cloud service you have not yet discovered. Created back in 2009, the company derived from Joli OS into a platform to access your cloud-based online life. It brings together everything you have stored on all of the various cloud services and, if you are like me, then that can be a wide net to cast.

The service finally adds search -- a feature long sought after by users. The company announces that it has "made it very easy to search anything you have in your Jolidrive: music, photos, documents, videos in your online storages but search can also help you find great content in all your favorite social services like Instagram, Tumblr, SoundCloud, Youtube and more".

This encompasses all of the cloud services compatible with Jolicloud, including Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, Facebook and more.

The news does not stop there though. The company goes on to point out new cloud services that are available within the platform. These include Exfm, Ubuntu One, Cloud App, Google Plus, Vimeo and Tumblr.

Finally, the service releases a brand new "explore" feature. "Combined with search we have created a powerful discovery feature letting you hop from users to locations or keywords. It’s a great way to discover new music, photos and videos that you can like and share with your friends" the Jolicloud team claims.

The service has remained a hidden gem of sorts on the internet, but the continued innovation and updates may finally change all of that as it moves closer to the mainstream.