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Microsoft has a huge Windows 8 app problem

Publié: mai 27, 2013, 4:14pm CEST par Wayne Williams

A few days ago, cloud-based PC management service Soluto released a study into the habits of 10,848 Windows 8 users, and found that consumers really aren’t running apps all that regularly on the new operating system.

According to Soluto, "on average, a Windows 8 user will launch a Metro app 1.52 times a day. Tablet users launch the most Metro apps at 2.71 times per day".

Soluto also found that among desktop and laptop users, 60 percent of people launch an app less than once a day. Presumably the only tile they click on the Modern UI is the one that takes them through to the desktop. Or maybe they have a third-party Start button installed and don’t ever see the new UI.

I use Windows 8 for at least eight hours a day, five or six days a week, but I’ll admit I can often go for very long stretches without launching a single app. Although I have the free Adobe Photoshop Express installed in the Modern UI, I’ve only ever used it once. Even for simple tasks I prefer to launch the actual Photoshop from the desktop. I might not need anywhere the power it offers, but it’s good to have it on hand.

And once I’m working on the desktop, I have no real need to go back to the Start screen because I have a browser window with likes of Outlook.com, Facebook, and Google Reader permanently open in tabs, on my second monitor.

The Windows 8 app experience often isn’t a great one truth be told. Lots of apps are just websites presented differently or cut down versions of better programs. The few occasions I’ve used the Modern UI version of Internet Explorer I’ve felt as if it’s designed for people who don’t really use the web much.

Low app usage, coupled with the lack of big name apps, is clearly a problem for Microsoft. And it’s a vicious circle. Lack of official apps, leads to lack of app use, leads to the lack of official app creation. Certainly, in the case of Windows 8 on the PC, there isn’t a great need for apps based on websites, when you can fire up the actual website and get the full experience. And not all apps need clicking on anyway -- sometimes the information that appears on a live tile is all you need at that moment.

Soluto’s survey also found that most of the apps people were using were the ones supplied with the operating system. Out of the top 12 the most tried and used apps, all bar one (Netflix, at number 8) were from Microsoft. (Just as an interesting aside, Soluto found the most engaging app was Yahoo Mail -- the company’s reasoning for this is Yahoo mailers find it easier to use the app than work out how to set up their mail in Windows 8).

So we’ve got a lack of official apps, people mostly using the ones baked into Windows 8, and a vast proportion of users just not bothering with apps at all. Which clearly isn’t good news for Microsoft -- if Soluto’s findings are reflected across the entire Windows 8 user base, that is.

Many of the BetaNews audience are Windows 8 users, so I’d find it interesting to hear your views on the app situation. Do you use apps regularly (and if so, how often and which ones) or do you tend to bypass them altogether? Comments below please.
Oppo launches the Find 5 in Europe

Publié: mai 27, 2013, 3:51pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

With a low price-tag and high-end hardware, the Oppo Find 5 has managed to make a name for itself as an affordable premium smartphone. The handset, which runs runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, is available in a number of major markets including the US but, until today, eluded the old continent.

On Monday, little over five months after its unveiling, the Find 5 is finally available in Europe. The Chinese maker sells the smartphone for EUR 399 in the 16 GB storage trim and EUR 429 for the 32 GB version. Available color choices include Midnight and White (the more expensive model can only be purchased in the former shade). Let's take a look at the specs.

The Find 5 packs a 5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1080 by 1920 and a 441 ppi (pixels per inch) density. The smartphone ships with a 1.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor (similar to the LG Optimus G and HTC DROID DNA), an Adreno 320 GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), 2 GB of RAM and a 2,500 mAh battery.

The Find 5 also features a 13 MP back-facing camera and a 1.9 MP shooter on the front. Other specifications include: HSPA+ cellular connectivity; Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n; Bluetooth; NFC (Near Field Communication); GPS; DLNA and the usual array of sensors. The package also contains two NFC tags.

The attractive price may steer some buyers towards the Find 5, however those looking for the best hardware currently available may want to look elsewhere. Smartphones like the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4, albeit more costly, pack newer and faster chipsets and, more importantly, are available in most carrier stores across Europe.
Registry Key Jumper lets you quickly access any registry key

Publié: mai 27, 2013, 1:14pm CEST par Mike Williams

When troubleshooting technical PC problems then it’s likely you’ll often come across references to Registry keys, some of which you’ll want to check out. And usually this means you’ll have to manually launch REGEDIT, before browsing multiple levels until you find the key you need.

Registry Key Jumper, however, offers a simpler route. Once the program is running in the background, you can just select the text of any Registry key, press Ctrl+Alt+X, and REGEDIT will open automatically at the appropriate location.

You can use the program to maintain a list of your most-accessed Registry keys, which can then be accessed with a click. (REGEDIT already has its own Favorites list, of course, but Registry Key Jumper is portable: you can run it, and access your Registry list on whatever PC you happen to be using.)

And the program also has an option to create desktop shortcuts which will launch REGEDIT at any specified key.

Whatever you ask it to do, Registry Key Jumper does its best to help. You can specify your root hive in either the long (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE) or short (HKLM) forms, for instance, and the program will understand. And if, say, you’ve selected HKLM\SOFTWARE\CyberLink\PowerDVD13\KoanBox, but there’s no PowerDVD13 key on this system, Registry Key Jumper will still get you as close as it can (HKLM\SOFTWARE\CyberLink).

In another helpful touch, you can choose your preferred system hotkey from a lengthy selection.

The program isn’t restricted to working with REGEDIT; if you prefer some other tool, then you can point Registry Key Jumper at that, instead.

And there are assorted other options which might come in useful. So you can set up the program window to remain on top of others, say, for easier access. And your Registry favorites can easily be exported, including in HTML, convenient when you need to share them with others.

Despite this, if you only access the Registry occasionally, or you always revisit the same few keys, then there’s no real need to download Registry Key Jumper; the REGEDIT Favorites menu is likely to provide all the functionality you need.

If you regularly spend time troubleshooting other people’s PCs, though, it’s a slightly different story. The program allows you to carry around your own Registry Favorites, share them with others, and access just about any key you like with the absolute minimum of hassle. Check it out.
Mailbox on iOS is a major improvement over the official Gmail client

Publié: mai 27, 2013, 1:08pm CEST par Nick Peers

The default Mail app for the iPhone and iPad is capable enough, but sometimes you find yourself craving more. Google Mail users could opt for the official Gmail app, but despite some improvements over Mail, there’s still a bit of clunkiness in there, particularly when it comes to handling larger mailboxes. But there’s another alternative, one that has just been updated to run natively on the iPad as well as the iPhone. That app is also free, and it’s called Mailbox 1.3.

Mailbox takes a different approach to handling your email, providing you with five separate zones in which to work. Mail lands in your inbox and you simply swipe it in the direction of a specific zone to deal with it in a particular way. It allows you to quickly and easily bring order to even the most disorganized mailbox.

When it comes to swiping your messages to deal with them, here are the obvious choices: mark it as read, archive it or go the whole hog and delete it completely. You can also quickly organize messages into lists, but the most intriguing option of all is "snooze". If you’re too busy to deal with an email right now, you can "snooze" individual messages, setting a more convenient time when you’d like them to reappear in your mailbox.

The focus of the app is very much on letting you power through your messages, hence the use of single swipe gestures rather than the usual select-and-tap approach of other clients. So a quick, short swipe to the right archives your messages (look for the green tick) while a slower, longer swipe to the right produces the red cross that will delete your message if you complete it (just swipe back to undo unwanted actions).

Similarly, a quick swipe to the left places the message in the Snooze list. You’ll be given a choice of how long to hide the message for, from later in the day or the evening to a month’s time or the vague "Someday". You can also pick a specific date, but we’re a little disappointed that you can set up a custom time of your choosing too. Something for a future update perhaps? In the meantime, snoozed messages are easily available should you find the time to deal with them -- just tap the clock icon, which is basically a shortcut to a special "Later" folder created by Mailbox where these messages are stored.

When it comes to arranging your mailbox into lists, a long swipe to the left will bring up the options you need -- by default, three are set up (to buy, to read, to watch), but you can add your own. These lists are again accessible from other Gmail clients or your web browser via the specially created Lists folder.

We found these controls simple and easy to use, and powered through a disorganized mailbox with over 400 messages in minutes, finally getting a job done we’d put off for ages. But Mailbox is more than just a tool for organizing your mail, it’s a fully featured mail client in its own right, and we particularly love the way messages are automatically grouped into conversation view, making it easy to keep track of where you are in a particular chat. With the elegant design beautifully upscaled to take full advantage of the iPad’s extra real-estate, we think Mailbox could be a winner, which is why -- for now at least -- it’s replaced Gmail as our mail client of choice.

Mailbox 1.3 is available now for free for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Photo credit: Gina Sanders/Shutterstock
DNSQuerySniffer shows all the DNS traffic on your system

Publié: mai 27, 2013, 11:35am CEST par Mike Williams

NirSoft has announced the public availability of DNSQuerySniffer, a tiny (130KB, including a Help file) network sniffer which detects and displays your DNS traffic.

If you think this sounds just a little technical, then you’re right, but the program does have some interesting applications. Malware will often use DNS traffic to communicate with its operators, for instance, and so taking a closer look at your own system may reveal the signs of an infection (a large number of failed lookups to domains you don’t recognize, say).

And more generally, DNSQuerySniffer helps to reveal which of your applications is trying to go online, and maybe what they’re trying to do.

The data capture itself can be done via WinPcap and Microsoft Network Monitor. But if you’d rather not install anything else, the program also supports Raw Sockets capture, and this may produce acceptable results (the documentation provided with DNSQuerySniffer explains more).

Any queries intercepted are displayed in full, with all the details you’d expect: Host Name, Port Number, Query ID, Request Type, Request Time, Response Time, Duration, Response Code, Records Count, and the returned records.

All of this data is displayed in a sortable table, and can be exported as a report in TXT, CSV, HTML and more.

And as usual with NirSoft tools, while it’s not something you’ll use every day, DNSQuerySniffer is still a welcome complement to the more regular TCP/IP connection monitors, and you should probably grab a copy for your networking and security toolkit.

Photo Credit: Yuriy Boyko/Shutterstock
Evernote Reminders are a welcome addition

Publié: mai 27, 2013, 11:25am CEST par Nick Peers

Over the course of the past week, Evernote Corporation has been updating its flagship Evernote client across all supported platforms. As with most Evernote updates, however, the changes implemented have not been equal, with users of Evernote for Mac 5.1.1 and Evernote for iPhone and iPad 5.2.3 getting the best deal.

The big news for Evernote users is the addition of support for reminders -- initially on Mac, iOS and the web-based platform. These can be triggered as email or in-app alarms, and are easily set via the small timer button at the top of a note.

Once the small timer button has been clicked, users are prompted that the reminder has been added. Once a reminder has been set, the note is automatically pinned at the top of the user’s list in a new Reminders section, and notes can be repositioned in the Reminders list simply by drag and drop.

Users can also configure a reminder with a date and time, leading to an in-app alarm of email reminding the user of a deadline attached to the note in question, which can now also be marked as "Done" when completed.

Reminders are associated with notebooks, allowing them to be shared with other users too, making it possible to create a hierarchical series of notes for highlighting important entries over others. Shared users can also take advantage of the alarms feature, subscribing to be notified when notes become due.

While the feature has been universally welcomed, improvements have already been suggested, such as adding scheduled alarms for recurring deadlines. The Evernote team have also confirmed that the feature should be migrating to Windows and Android platforms "soon" (it’s already being tested in a version 5.1 beta for Android devices).

Other changes to the Mac build include a redesigned vertical list to show more notes on-screen, next superscript and subscript text styles and the ability to edit saved searches.

Windows users got a minor update last week -- Evernote 4.6.6 promised nothing more than unspecified bug fixes. Also updated was Evernote for Android 5.0.5, again a minor update consisting mainly of bug fixes and improvements to the Page Camera mode, which allows Android users to digitize photos of documents and pages. It did add support for the new Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine, however.

Evernote for Mac 5.1.1, Evernote for iPhone and iPad 5.2.3, Evernote for Windows 4.6.6 and Evernote for Android 5.0.5 are all available as a freeware downloads. Users require a free or Premium Evernote account to use them.