Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on April 14, 2007 by CyberNet.

Weekend Website

There are several well known web-based music services available, and probably one of the most popular is Pandora which allows you to create “stations” based upon your old and new favorites.  Another great music service that hasn’t really managed to get plastered all over the radar yet is Soundpedia, and I think that it deserves some attention.

Soundpedia allows you to listen to streamed music or watch videos right from your browser.  While you can listen to entire albums, you’re not allowed to download any of the content. They have a large sampling of everything from independent artists, to commercial artists, and it’s all free. You just stream the content using their built-in player.

Registration

If you want to simply listen to music, it’s free and no registration is required.  If you decide that you want to create playlists however, you’ll need to create a login. It’s still free though. And if you’re wanting to listen to albums, if you don’t have an account, you’ll only have access to the first five songs. After registration, you’ll have access to them all.

Features

While the songs are playing in a separate window, it shows you the lyrics (pictured to the left) to the song if they have them available.  While you’re listening to songs, you can:

• Add them to a playlist (registration required)
• Add a comment (registration required)
• Select to “repeat all” songs

The play and pause controls are found under the lyrics, and the sound quality is decent.  Definitely not perfect, but it’s decent.

Advertising

One of my only complaints is the way they’ve decided to monetize the site.  It needs to be monetized, there’s no doubt about that.  However, I think they need to come up with a new method.  Currently, at inconvenient moments ads will appear where you’ll be required “click to skip” (or wait a few seconds for it to disappear) in order to go on.  The types of ads that take up the whole page that must be clicked to be removed is a bit much.

You’ll also find ads at the bottom of the player which are discreet and don’t take away from the experience.

Independent artists

Independent artists have a great opportunity to share their music at Soundpedia.  Using Soundpedia, you can upload your songs and then view live statistics of your music so that you know how many people have listened to it.  You’ll also get a profile, a journal, and a photo gallery to share important information with others.

Extras

If you’re a Mac User, Apple has a Dashboard widget available for download that will make it easy for you to perform a Soundpedia Music Search right from your computer.

Searching

Soundpedia makes it easy to search for your favorite songs, artists, or movies. They break both the music and the videos down into genres and artists .  You can also use their search box, or browse for artists by clicking on the first letter of their first name.

Version 2 Coming soon

They’ve been around for just about 7 months, and now they’re getting ready to release version 2. The new version will be mostly changes to the graphical user interface, however there will be new players, and they’ll be adding video channels. They’ll also be adding a rating system where you’ll be able to promote artists or albums to the front page (I’m thinking Digg, kinda).

For only being around 7 months, Soundpedia is a great service and worth checking out. While it isn’t the best sound quality, it will give you a chance to listen to some of your favorite songs that you don’t want to purchase, or that you don’t have access to anywhere else. It also gives independent artists an additional place where they can get their music heard.

Source: Thanks for the tip Jack of all Trades!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on May 31, 2008 by CyberNet.

Weekend Website

Every time I drive by the gas station these days, the price seems to continue to go up, and up, and up. The other day when I went past the gas station, the price at the pump was $4.07. Five years ago if someone had told me we’d be paying over $4 for a gallon of gasoline, I probably would have laughed. It’s no laughing matter now, and everybody is talking about the prices and how they are impacting our lives.

We’ve seen all kinds of sites pop-up around the web for helping you find the cheapest gas prices in your area which can help you save money. In the past we’ve written about those sites, so today we’re looking at a site called FuelFrog for helping you track your gas mileage. Sure car manufacturers put out gas mileage information, but mileage varies for every driver. Using FuelFrog will give you a good idea of what kind of mileage you actually get, and then you’ll be able to keep a history of it as well.

What is FuelFrog?

According to their “About” page FuelFrog’s goal is to help you track your gas milage but more than that, they want to be able to provide you with a history of your milage so that you can watch trends. They try to make the process of adding your information quick so that you’ll be more likely to use the service, and part of making it easy involves allowing users to enter their info via Twitter, which we’ll explain in a minute. Ultimately, they want users to be able to do the following:

• Quickly add info to your account after filling up
• View trends for the amount you spend on gas
• See how gas prices change in your city over time
• Gain insight into how your car’s gas efficiency changes

Dashboard/Records

As you’ll see from the screenshot below, the Dashboard is the place where you’ll be able to view your fuel efficiency history in the form of a graph. You’ll also be able to view your latest fill-up information and add a new record. The only information you’ll need for a fill-up record is:

• Miles you drove since you last filled up
• What you paid at the pump per gallon (or liter, depending on your settings)
• How many gallons you put in your car
• The date you filled up

You can also click on the “Records” tab at the top of the page and then you’ll be able to see your entries in a list. This is where you’ll also be able to delete entries as well. At the top of the page you’ll see what your average mileage over the last 30 days has been.

Settings

There aren’t that many things that you can tweak in the settings of FuelFrog because it’s really a simple service. What you can do though is enter your Twitter ID so that you can take advantage of using the service to enter in your fuel and mileage information. You can also select your region so that the currency and measurement of fuel and distances will be correct (miles/km or gallons/liters). If you want you can enter in your vehicle make, model, and year. They have a big long drop-down menu that has them all listed. It would probably be easier if they had three drop down lists- one for the make, model, and year, so that people didn’t have to scroll through such a long list to find their vehicle.

Using Twitter

They’ve made it really easy to enter in your information to FuelFrog by using Twitter. All you need is a Twitter account, and then you’ll need to enter your Twitter ID in on the FuelFrog settings page which we mentioned earlier. Look at the example below to see how you’ll enter your data.

1. enter @fuelfrog
2. then enter the miles
3. enter the price
4. enter gallons

So in the example I drove 251 miles on the tank of gas. I paid $4.09 for each of the 13.589 gallons of gas I put in.

Wrapping it up

Of course this is not for everybody. If you don’t use Twitter, it’ll take effort to remember to go to FuelFrog to enter in your data every time you put gas in your vehicle. For those who do decide to use it though, it’ll be a great way to watch trends and keep track of the kind of mileage your vehicle gets over time and how gas prices change.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on January 19, 2007 by CyberNet.

Free for all Friday

It’s Free for all Friday, and thanks to a couple of tips from our users, I have a new service for you to try.  It’s called Secunia Software Inspector. Haven’t heard of it? This is one you’ll want to check out! Secunia’s Software Inspector dives into a different aspect of computer security, one that some of you probably don’t think of.  Its job is to detect insecure versions of applications that you may have installed on your computer. It also verifies that all Microsoft patches that are available have been installed.

When you think that your anti-virus is all you need to keep your computer safe, you’ll want to think again. What’s great about Secunia’s Software Inspector is that it’s java based so it just uses your web browser on your Windows PC.  All you have to do to get started is click here. On the website you’ll notice a ‘Start Now’ button.  You simply click Start Now which activates the Java application. From there you’ll click start, and the process is already underway.

So, what types of applications does it check? Well, most of the typical ones that people generally use most often, like Internet browsers, browser plugins, instant messaging clients, email clients, media players, operating systems, etc. The complete list of applications and operating systems is here. On my computer, it checked 9 different applications.  After it has checked, it will display a report.  Out of the 9 applications that it detected on my computer, it found 0 insecure versions (yeah!). This is probably due to the fact that my hard drive was reformatted just a week or two ago, and all of the latest versions of everything were installed.

In the instance that it comes back with applications that are insecure, they let you know which patches or upgrades you’d need on the results page.  The screenshot above shows what my results page looked like, and which applications it checked. It literally takes just a few seconds. The complete inspection on my computer took 16 seconds.

It’s actually kinda scary to think that with one click and only a few seconds later, Secunia was able to get a good list of applications I was using. That means any website could probably do the same thing with one click. And of course if they know what applications I have installed, and the version I have, they should be able to know which ones they can use to exploit things.

According to the Secunia Blog, here are some interesting statistics that they gathered over a week and a half:

• From over 400,000 detected applications – 35% were tagged as insecure
• Out of IE6 users, 4.12% were insecure (This shows those Automatic Updates must be doing their job!)
• Adobe Flash 9.x users – 53% were operating insecure versions
• 1/3 of Firefox 1.x users were running vulnerable versions
• 13.04% of Opera users had vulnerable versions of Opera 9x.

With your first run, you’ll probably have at least one application that will need an update to be fully secure.  I think this is a great, FREE service that will just add another layer of security to your computer.  You never know when there are vulnerabilities that others may be able to use to their advantage.  We’ve talked quite a bit about this in the last week (here and here) with all of the potential vulnerabilities in Vista, as well as in web browsers. Computer Security is an important issue, and one that continues to get easier to manage with services like Secunia Software Inspector.

Thanks for the tip Jack of all Trades and ClausValca!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on August 30, 2007 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

Flickr is an extremely powerful resource for uploading your photos, especially if you’re like me and bask in the glory of their Pro account for just $25 per year. With a Pro account you get unlimited storage and no bandwidth restrictions. That’s the reason I use it to backup all of my images!

Uploading thousands of photos can be a daunting task, and that’s why I’m glad that I came across a tiny little app called FlickrSync. It’s free, open source, and runs on Windows XP SP2 as well as Vista. It supports one-way photo syncing…meaning it will take the photos on your computer and upload them to Flickr. It never modifies the images that are stored on your hard drive, so you don’t have to worry about permanently losing an image.

Here’s some of the features Flickrsync has to offer:

• Works with both Pro and non-Pro Flickr accounts
• Browse local folders and Flickr sets. Then match your local folders to the corresponding Flickr sets.
• Create new Sets when uploading new folders.
• Define Flickr permissions for each folder and other synchronization options
• Preview all operations (including photo thumbnails) before applying them to Flickr .
• Synchronize specific folders or all selected folders
• Synchronize all image information, including metadata like title and description, keywords/tags and even geo information. Works great with Vista’s built-in tagging and caption system.
• Use different synchronization methods according to your needs (ex: by date taken, by caption, by filename).
• Define optional filters for each folder. For example: only synchronize to Flickr images that have a certain keyword/tag on a specific folder.
• Support for all Flickr image formats

So now that you know exactly what FlickrSync is capable of doing, why don’t we take a look at how to use it:

Important: I’ve noticed a slight bug in the program, and it’s that you’ll get an error message if you have no sets in your Flickr account. So you’ll need to make sure that you’ve created at least one set before proceeding.

1. Download and install FlickrSync (currently in the Beta stage).
2. After installation you’ll be prompted to authorize FlickrSync so that it has access to your Flickr account.
3. After FlickrSync starts up you’ll want to check the box corresponding to a folder on your computer that needs to be synchronized (your Flickr sets are shown on the right side):
   
4. Now you’ll need to pick one of your existing sets or create a new one to be synchronized with that folder. Here you can also choose how you want FlickrSync to match up photos, what permissions they should be given, and whether you want to filter a certain set of images to be uploaded. Also, look closely at the two checkboxes located at the bottom of the window, because if you leave them unchecked some of your Flickr images might get unexpectedly deleted:
   
5. Now when you’re taken back to the main screen just go to the Sync menu and choose the View and Sync option to synchronize your photos. FlickrSync will then show you which photos will get uploaded, and which ones will get deleted:
   

Tip: If you don’t want to synchronize all of the folders that you have setup, just right click on a folder (or on the corresponding set) and choose the View and Sync option. This will synchronize only the photos associated with that particular folder or set.

This is one app that I’m really glad I found. There’s no doubt that it will shave some time off of my photo management process, and all I’m hoping to see now is a scheduler so that I can automate the syncing process. Boy, you’ve gotta love when you come across free apps like this that are unbelievably useful!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on November 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft Monday

Microsoft is best known as a successful software company, but they’ve also worked to make themselves known as a hardware company. Microsoft’s Hardware group was established in 1982 which means that they are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. Because of this, we thought it was a perfect time to take a look at all of the different hardware options that they offer and how they’ve made a difference in the world of peripherals through keyboards, mice, Internet communication devices, and more.

–Internet Communications–

Among the hardware that Microsoft has available under the Internet Communications category are webcams and headsets optimized for Windows Live Messenger. The newest LifeCam (webcam) is the VX-7000. Features include:

• 2.0 Megapixel Sensor
• Universal Attachment Base
• Built-in Microphone
• Crystal-clear Audio
• Glass Element lens

Price: $99.95

LifeChat

Aside from Webcams, Microsoft also offers their own line of LifeChat headsets. While the two options that they offer aren’t “top of the line,” the LifeChat ZX-6000 would be perfect for calls made with Windows Live Messenger. Its best feature is that it’s wireless. Features include:

• Digital speaker
• Nose-canceling Microphone
• Padded Ear Cup and adjustable earband
• Optimized for Windows Live Messenger
• Wireless Headset

Price: $69.95

–Mouse & Keyboard–

Most of you are probably aware that Microsoft offers all kinds of mice and keyboards to fit your needs. They’ve got everything from rechargeable mice like the Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 to Bluetooth enabled keyboards like the Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000 which is one of Microsoft’s newest offerings. It includes the keyboard and a rechargeable mouse. Features include:

• 2.4 GHz Bluetooth Technology
• Navigation pad
• 4 USB Ports
• Ultra-thin comfort curve design

Price: $299.95

–Gaming–

Obviously we know that Microsoft’s most prized possession in the gaming category would be the Xbox 360. Aside from the console itself and the controllers, they also have products for PC gamers. Those products include gaming keyboards and gaming mice. The gaming keyboard that they offer includes features that gamers would love like six programmable gaming hot keys, a Razer Hyperesponse Gaming Key Action, four bumper buttons and two 360-degree Jog Dials. It is priced around $69.95.

–Presenter Products–

Seeing as PowerPoint is a rather large part of Microsoft Office, it makes sense that they develop tools which make presenting both easier and more professional.  They offer a Mouse called the Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000 which has an integrated slide presenter, laser pointer, and a media remote control (located on the bottom of the mouse and pictured below). It’s priced at $79.95.

They also offer the Presenter 3000 which is a handheld device that allows you to walk around the room and lead your presentation from as far away as 50 feet! It also offers a neat little feature where it will vibrate to keep you on time with your presentation. It’s priced at $59.95.

–Media Center Products–

As Microsoft dives deeper into entertainment with media center built-in to home-premium and Ultimate versions of Vista, they offer some of the accessories you’d need to make your Media Center experience that much better. Offerings include the Wireless Entertainment Desktop series, the Remote Keyboard (replaces handheld remote), and of course the standard handheld remote.

The Remote Keyboard works as a television control and a keyboard, and allows you to control all of your entertainment like music, movies, and photos. It also has an integrated mouse, although it’s frustrating to use. Priced around $90, it’s the perfect accessory to accompany your Media Center PC.

–Fingerprint Reader–

Sick of entering in passwords for all of your password protected web sites? Microsoft has the solution with their Fingerprint Reader. Not only can you swipe your finger to log on to your PC, but you can also use it for all of those sites that require a password. Neat, huh? It’s priced at $49.95.

Are there are Microsoft peripheral fans out there?

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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