Hasta La Gadget!

We oftentimes hear raw numbers of apps bandied about in mobile OS comparisons, but we rarely get any idea of just how many developers are behind the scenes working for each platform. This is the void of knowledge filled by AppStore HQ today, who have gone to their dev directory — claimed to be a complete listing of all 55,000+ coders whose work is currently available for consumption in the Apple App Store or Android Market — and stacked them into neat piles of Apple, Google and Gapple programmers. It’s immediately apparent that single-platform development is the norm (with Apple holding the predictable edge), but AppStore HQ also provides a list of some of the most well known (and well funded) apps doing the cross-platform dance, and suggests that a movement is afoot toward making software available for both sets of users. Then again, the BNET article below points out the difficulties faced by smaller outfits, who might struggle to find the resources required to port their content over and maintain the skills required to be multi-platform, resulting in them sticking to one environment, irrespective of what allures others might throw their way. Give them both a read, we say.

iOS has a bigger dev army than Android, but will cross-platform apps rule the day? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Jul 2010 04:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink VentureBeat  |  AppStore HQ  | Email this | Comments

We just couldn’t leave this face-off of superscreens alone, and went back for another bite at the cherry. Admittedly, we found out the Galaxy S had a browser-specific brightness setting that we hadn’t maxed out before setting off our camera hounds, so we’ve gone and remedied earlier comparison shots with the gallery below, and just as a bonus, we’ve now also run a HD video clip on both phones. This was to see how the Hummingbird and A4 SOCs, considered close siblings, handled some taxing video work and also to again compare performance deep down on the pixel level. What we can tell you now is that both handsets chewed through the 1080p clip with ease and that both gave results we have no hesitation in describing as sublime. Click past the break for the up close and personal video comparison action.

Continue reading iPhone 4 vs. Galaxy S, part deux: HD video playback (video)

iPhone 4 vs. Galaxy S, part deux: HD video playback (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Choices, choices. Do you get the 16GB or 32GB iPhone 4? The black one now or the white one a little later? We can’t tell you which variant of Apple’s next phone will hold its value best over the coming months, but we can try to clear up a bit of the fogginess surrounding price plans on offer from UK networks. Orange and O2 are the first to drop handset pricing and full contract details, but they haven’t made it easy for the discerning buyer, with each carrier offering more than a dozen options. Vodafone, T-Mobile, Three, and even Tesco Mobile are set to follow suit in the coming days and weeks, but we thought we’d get the ball rolling with the pair we have now.

P.S. — And just as we publish this, Voda has gone official with its tariffs. We’ve now broken them down into a more digestible format as well. Just for you.

Continue reading How-to: figure out the best value iPhone 4 contracts in the UK

How-to: figure out the best value iPhone 4 contracts in the UK originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Jun 2010 06:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

This article was written on August 21, 2007 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

Transferring files from one folder to another, or from computer to computer is something most people do on a regular basis. Have you ever thought about speeding up the process by using a file transfer utility? They’re similar to the download managers in your web browser, except they’re made to be used all around your computer.

The best part is that the two free programs that I mention below replace the built-in Windows file transfer manager. You can still use Windows Explorer just as you normally do, but anytime you try to copy, paste, or move files, these apps will do the dirty work for you. Not only that, but both programs will pick up where they left off, should you shutdown your computer in the middle of a transfer, or need to stop it for some reason. Heck, you can even pause the transfers and resume them later on!

–Copy Handler (Homepage)–

This is probably my favorite of the two programs this article covers. It has an insane number of options (over 60) that you customize, doesn’t require any installation, and is open source. One of the reasons that I love this program so much is that you can adjust the number of simultaneous transfers, and once that number is hit it will queue up the rest for later on.

After you download the ZIP folder and extract the contents, the first thing you’ll want to do is register the DLL. This will ensure that Copy Handler replaces the built-in transfer manager for Windows:

Then whenever you go to transfer a file you’ll be presented with an extremely compact file transfer window (left – actual size), or you can open a more detailed window full of all the stats that you crave (right – click to enlarge):

Then if you want to try and speed things up even more, or want to change how something works, just head on over to the options where there are plenty of things for you to play with:

There is one downside to this program, and it’s that it isn’t actively developed any more. The last update was provided back in October 2006, but luckily it still works great on Vista. The developer is currently looking for a sponsor so that he can continue the development on Copy Handler.

–TeraCopy (Homepage)–

This application is similar to the Copy Handler above, but I saw it on Lifehacker recently and it also piqued my interest. I gave it a whirl and found it to be much simpler than Copy Handler. It doesn’t really have anything for you to configure, and what you see below is essentially the entire application.

You’ll be notified if an error occurs while in the middle of a transfer, but TeraCopy will continue working on the other files. That way one bad file doesn’t screw up the entire batch of files being transferred.

–Overview/Benchmarks–

You’ll only notice a large speed difference with these file transfer utilities if your moving or copying many files, or really big files. To give you a quick comparison of the differences in using these I transferred 85 images over the network that totaled 114MB. Again, the differences aren’t that large, but if you’re moving around a few gigabytes of data these utilities could possibly chop a few minutes off of the transfer time.

• Copy Handler – 58 seconds
• TeraCopy – 1 minute
• Vista (with Performance Pack) – 1 minute and 3 seconds
• Vista (without Performance Pack) – 1 minute and 14 seconds

Note: Default options were used in each of the applications.

If you find yourself frequently moving large things around, these apps could be priceless to you. Of the two, I would recommend Copy Handler to anyone that is a power user, and TeraCopy for anyone looking for a simple replacement for what’s built-in to Windows.

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

Your Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryGoogle Reader Gets Search Box!Soashable: An Open Source Meebo CloneCyberNotes: Week In Review With Sunday’s SummaryDaily Downloads: Firefox, openSUSE, TeraCopy, and More

So these three operating systems walk into a bar one night … alright, we’ll behave. With all the Steamy conversation about gaming on non-Windows desktop platforms going on, we thought you might care to peek at a little OpenGL performance comparison review. As the chief cross-platform API, it’s the only way we’re going to be seeing the latest games running natively on Mac OS and Linux, but how will that experience compare to the market leader? As it turned out, Windows maintains superiority in this field, with frame rates that were habitually above those on the latest Ubuntu and well ahead of what you might get on Mac OS 10.6.3. It’s still early days — after all, Steam’s non-DirectX cupboard is pretty bare right now — but at this point in time, OpenGL gaming is a crown that Microsoft retains with relative ease. Hit the source for all the line graph evidence, and let’s hope things improve for the rest of us in rapid fashion.

Windows 7, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu 10.04 meet up for an OpenGL benchmarking session originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 May 2010 04:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Phoronix  | Email this | Comments