Google’s kicking off a Festivus for the rest of us, erecting the traditional aluminum pole alongside your search for the made-up holiday that falls on December 23rd. So start preparing for the airing of grievances, and limber up for the feats of strength. [SearchEngineLand via Huffington Post]
     |
We’re quickly losing count on how many times we have seen leaks of the Nokia Lumia 929. Still, something tells us Verizon subscribers won’t mind getting as many looks as possible at what’s rumored to be a pretty high-end smartphone. Now, courtesy of a forum member on Windows Phone Central, we’re seeing the Lumia 929 from a slightly different angle than in previous occasions. As a refresher, Nokia’s unannounced handset is rumored to come with a 5-inch, 1080p display, 32GB of built-in storage and a 20-megapixel PureView shooter. Previous reports suggested it could hit Verizon around Thanksgiving, but according to the person behind the most recent leak, this Windows Phone device won’t be official until sometime in mid-to-late December.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia
The U.S. Army just paid a $50 million settlement over accusations that it illegally installed software on thousands of devices without a license. Even after the settlement, the Army ended up saving a bunch of cash. Maybe crime really does pay?
| |
This article was written on January 23, 2007 by CyberNet.
Time Saving Tuesday
Last week I wrote an article on freeware applications that let you arrange your windows in a more organized, and productive fashion. Then in the comments Everton mentioned an application that he found that lets you minimize windows to the System Tray. The only problem was that the link he posted vanished, and he didn’t mention what the name of the program was.
I’ve done a post before about minimizing applications to the System Tray and the popular one was 4t Tray Minimizer. There is both a paid and free version of that application. I also brought up other alternatives like Opera’s built-in Ctrl+H shortcut to minimize the browser to Tray…and you don’t have to install a thing to do that.
Then there is TrayDevil (download mirror): a freeware application that does more than just minimize windows to the System Tray. I’m not sure if this is the application that Everton was talking about in his comment, but when a friend of mine told me about it I couldn’t pass it up. Now that I have had some time to explore the program I thought I would share all of the things that it can do.
The primary purpose of TrayDevil is to let you minimize applications to the System Tray that normally couldn’t be. There are all kinds of applications I find this useful for, like Web browsers and file explorers, but if you completely understand how TrayDevil works it will become an amazing tool.
To minimize a window you can do one of two things:
I would say the most unique thing happens when you have a window minimized to the System Tray. Unlike other tray applications that I have used, TrayDevil will keep the application’s icon in the System Tray even after clicking to maximize it. Of course, that’s only if you single-click because if you double-click it will remove the icon.
If you right-click on a minimized window you will receive the following options:
The Min, Max, and Close button options will disable those buttons on a given window. I haven’t really found this to be too useful quite yet, but I guess it could be if you wanted to make sure you didn’t accidentally close a window.
Then there is the Restore button (
) which is equivalent to double-clicking on the icon…it restores the window and removes the icon from the tray.
The bottom option that has the up arrow (
) is equivalent to single-clicking on an icon…it restores the window but leaves the icon in the tray. After a window has been restored the right-click menu option changes to a down arrow (
) which will minimize the window back to the System Tray.
So what happens when you right-click on the TrayDevil icon? It provides you with all sorts of options like turning your monitor off or restarting your computer. It isn’t the end of the world if you accidentally click on one of those options while you were on your way to the settings…TrayDevil gives you 10-seconds (or more/less if you customize it) to cancel any of the operations.
Options, options, options…TrayDevil has them! There are all sorts of things you can finetune with my favorite being the application’s tray icon. Instead of adding another worthless icon to the System Tray (I currently have 16), it lets you completely turn it off or display what day of the month it is. Thank goodness that there are some developers in the world who think outside the box. 😀
There are several other options that can be customized, so I thought I would take screenshots of all the things you can configure (many of which pertain to hotkeys):
As you can see this is one powerful freeware application that offers a wealth of customizability. It handles so smoothly that it is now one of my favorite programs, where I previously used 4t Tray Minimizer (free). The program is very light weight so you don’t have to worry about it taking up resources…go on now, it’s calling your name:
Download TrayDevil from their homepage
Download TrayDevil from our mirror
Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com
The Xbox One arrives with a 500GB HDD built-in, and in contrast to the PlayStation 4’s easily-accessed storage, it’s not meant to be accessed or replaced by the user, ever. While we’ll probably leave ours in place to keep from voiding the warranty or risk a ban from Xbox Live, a few folks have already cracked open the console to see what else will fit. iFixit noted during its teardown that there’s an off-the-shelf 2.5-inch Samsung HDD inside connected via SATA II inside, and swapping that out isn’t much of an issue. Brian Williams has already tried out the system with two alternate drives: a 500GB Samsung EVO SSD, and a Seagate 1TB hybrid SSHD. As you can see in his video (embedded after the break) boot time from off to the dashboard only improved slightly, with the SSD loading in 46.1 seconds compared to 50.5 stock. A test with Call of Duty: Ghosts revealed similar results, with the SSD loading up in 27 seconds and the hybrid drive close behind in 27.7, compared to 33.5 seconds stock. We’ll need tests with more games to be sure, but so far it’s not showing the improvements seen after swapping the PS4’s hard drive out for speedier options. The folks at Tested report doing so improved level load times in Killzone: Shadow Fall from 60 seconds to 39 seconds.
So, if it’s not a ton faster, why would you want to take the chance of prying Microsoft’s box open? To get more space. Brian’s drives were simply copies of the original transferred by Clonezilla, but an individual named Juvenal1 has already worked out how to get the system to actually recognize and make use of drives bigger than 500GB. By copying files from your original drive and using their Linux-compatible tool to repartition the new HDD, you can be up and running with more capacity after just a reboot or two. Of course, this carries significant risks and we don’t recommend it for most, as Microsoft’s Albert Penello has already revealed support for external drives is coming in a future update, along with the ability to do crazy things like see how much storage you actually have left. Still, if you just need to live on the edge (or store every game released so far and record hours of clean Upload Studio clips) the instructions can be found here.
Update: If you’re interested in performing the upgrade, Brian Williams has followed with a video walkthrough for the process of properly formatting a larger hard drive, even if you’re not familiar with using Linux.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Source: Juvenal1 (Github), Brian Williams
Black Friday, and its stinky alter-ego Brown Friday
| |
The Eggbot is an art robot that can draw on spherical or ovoid surfaces. Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories originally made the Eggbot to decorate Easter eggs, but because the robot can accommodate any ball or egg-shaped object between 1.25″ to 4.25″ in diameter, you can also use it to decorate Christmas ornaments. Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories is giving away a pack of holiday designs to give Eggbot owners a head start.
The Eggbot Holiday Super Pak includes all of the designs shown in the image above and more. Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories recommends that you use ornaments with a satin finish. They’re easier for Eggbot to grip and their surface contrasts nicely with marker ink. You may not get vivid drawings on transparent or shiny ornaments.
Here’s a short video by YouTuber sean berry showing the Eggbot at work:
Check out Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories’ blog post for the link to download the holiday designs. The shop will add more designs to the pack so keep an eye on that post.You can order an Eggbot here for $195 to $220 (USD).
Look at you, freshly emerged from your 48-hour food coma. Or your ten-round Black Friday brawl over a stuffed animal. From pooping in retail shops to creepy sea animals, here’s the best stuff we wrote about this week.
| |
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
