Oct 02

Download Music from Last.fm, Pandora, and More

Posted in: Freeware, Music, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on January 03, 2008 by CyberNet.

Free Music Zilla

With the growing popularity of online music streaming sites it’s not surprising that tools will emerge to download the tunes you listen to. Just look at YouTube and how many tools there are to download the videos to your own computer.

Free Music Zilla is an app that will monitor the content passing through your browser. If it sees that you’re listening to a song from Imeem, Last.fm, Pandora, MySpace, iJigg, MOG, or any other music service it will give you the opportunity to download the songs. The best part is that it’s pretty simple with how it works.

Once you download, install, and run Free Music Zilla it will sit in your System Tray waiting for you to listen to music on the Internet. Once it detects a song being played it will popup in the interface. Downloading it is as simple as checking the box next to the song, and hitting the download button. Alternatively you can right-click on a single song and select the download option.

As with most programs, this does have a few downsides:

  • The “Leech timeout” is a timer set by the website your listening to, and once the timer gets down to zero you won’t be able to download the song.
  • You never know which file corresponds to which song. The filenames are just numbers that make identifying the song rather difficult. Of course you can rename them just as you would rename any file, but if you’re doing this with several files the process would get rather tedious.
  • The program is limited to downloading 10 songs per day.
  • The quality of the songs vary, but the ones I tested it out on seem to have a bitrate of 128kbps. That’s not terrible, but depending on where you’re listening to the song you might be able to notice the sub-par quality.

Oh, and we can’t forget to warn you about downloading material illegally with this app. Ummm, hmmmm. I know, if you download illegal songs the RIAA will come over to your house and walk around your yard screaming “for the love of God, I have a Rolls Royce to pay for!” :)

What do you use to download songs from your favorite sites?

Free Music Zilla [via Download Squad & TechCrunch]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 01

Start++: Add Keyword Searches to Vista’s Start Menu

Posted in: Apple, Freeware, Microsoft, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista

This article was written on February 23, 2007 by CyberNet.

Start++

I was just reading a post by Brandon Paddock regarding a new (free) tool called Start++ that he made for Windows Vista. He works on the search technology over at Microsoft, and sticking with his area of expertise he has gone and made an awesome application. It reminds me of the keyword search in Firefox and Opera where you can designate a single letter or phrase to performing a search. The example search pictured above would do a Google search for “CyberNet News” in my default browser.

Start++

The thing that I really like about Start++ is that you can assign both keyword searches that open in your default web browser, or you can have it open a program/file. The only catch is that right now there is no “Browse” command to browse for the program or file that you want to open. I also noticed that it doesn’t support spaces in the file path even if you put quotes around it, and looking through the comments I see that someone else was having a similar problem. Brandon said that he should be able to work on it this weekend so I’ll be anxiously awaiting a new version.

It is probably important for me to mention that this does not work with Vista’s “global search field” and only works with things entered in Vista’s Start Menu search box. Initially I was bummed about that, but I don’t think I would ever use it anywhere but the Start Menu.

While you’re waiting along with me for the new release you can still take advantage of performing a quick search for your favorite sites. I can’t wait for this to work with spaces in document names and applications because it will become really useful to me then. Thanks for a great tool Brandon!

Vista tip: If you didn’t notice, as soon as you click on the Start Orb the search box is focused. I didn’t realize that initially and found myself clicking in the search field before I started typing, when in reality all I had to do was click the Start Orb (or press the Windows Key) and start typing. Props to Microsoft for thinking about focusing on the search box!

Download Start++

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Sep 30

CyberNotes: Delay Startup Programs

Posted in: CyberNotes, Freeware, Reviews, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on December 04, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Time Saving Tuesday

Do you find Windows starting up slow because of all the applications that are set to automatically run at the beginning? If you consult anyone tech savvy they will say to cut back on the number of applications that start with your computer, but that’s hard for some people to do. Most of the time those programs serve a purpose, and people want them to be running when they need them.

If you delete the items you’ll probably end up manually starting them later on. So how about we delay the startup programs for a few minutes until after Windows has had time to run all of your most important applications? That’s where the free Startup Delayer comes into play (for Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista). With it you can designate which applications you want to start with Windows, and you can associate a delay for each one. For example, your instant messenger programs probably aren’t of immediate importance so why not have them start a few minutes after Windows has done its thing?

Lets take a look at how to make Startup Delayer work for you…

–Adding Startup Items–

The heart and soul of Startup Delayer is the central management screen. That’s where you can specify what programs you want to startup, assign each one a delay in seconds, and move them around so that each app starts in the order that you want it to.

Delayer - Manage Startup Sequence
Click to Enlarge

You would think that being able to assign a delay to a startup program is enough, but Startup Delayer does even more than that. You can also choose the process priority (low, below normal, normal, above normal, high, or realtime) and the initial window size (maximized, minimized, hidden, or normal) of each application.

–Import Startup Items–

Sure you could sit there manually adding all of the programs to Startup Delayer, but why go through the hassle? In the File menu there is an import option which will list all of the existing applications that are scheduled to startup with Windows. Check the boxes of the apps that you want Startup Delayer to handle, and click the Import button. Startup Delayer will import them, and it will remove the options from the Windows Registry/Startup folder to ensure that there are no duplicates!

Delayer - Import Startup Items

Tip: There is a Create Backup button at the bottom that I highly suggest you use before importing any of the entries. This will backup all of your startup entries in case you decide to revert back to the traditional startup method.

–Make Your Sequence Start with Windows–

Entering in startup entries isn’t enough though. After you get the order and delays of your applications just right you’ll need to tell Windows to run your sequence when it starts up. Here’s what you have to do (see the corresponding diagram below):

  1. Save the sequence to your computer. It doesn’t really matter where you save it just as long as it will always be accessible (tip: don’t put it on a USB drive).
  2. Choose the display method (make sure to press the Save button if you make changes):
    • This Window – At startup it shows the same management screen that you use to configure the startup entries.
    • Report – At startup it shows a small window that lists which programs have already been initiated and which ones still need to run (screenshot in the next section)
    • None – At startup no information is shown on the progress of your startup items. It’s all done “behind-the-scenes”.
  3. Click the Execute with Windows link and find the file that you saved in Step 1. After completing this step your sequence will be scheduled to start with Windows.

Delayer - Start With Windows 

–Enjoy the Fruits of Your Labor–

So you have all of that done? There is nothing left to do other than enjoy the faster startup of Windows! Here’s what the report view looks like when starting the computer:

Delayer - Startup List

Ahh, it’s nice being able to fully control and delay startup programs!

Download Startup Delayer

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Sep 30

CyberWare: 3D Desktop for Windows is Sure to Impress Friends

Posted in: Apple, Freeware, Microsoft, Reviews, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 06, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNet's CyberWare
Tracking Down Great Software For You!

There is no doubt that 3D is going to be the way of the future when it comes to software as we have already seen with XGL in Linux. Windows seems to be falling behind in that respect, but there is a free program available to Windows users that offers a unique minimizing effect to the programs currently running on your computer.

The free program that I’m talking about is called Mandotate, and is found over in the Neowin forums (download mirror). The program, which was made available nearly 3 years ago, has begun to resurface as a popular freeware application. One thing that you should note before trying it out is that there is no installation of the program required, however, it does need you to install a registry key by double-clicking on the install.reg file that’s included. This registry setting is used to save your settings for the program.

So what does Mandotate do? It is similar to the Project Looking Glass in some sense, and is essentially another alternative to minimizing your computer. When you have it running there will be a button with a trapezoidal shape next to a window’s minimize button:

3D Desktop

After you press that button is when the magic happens. Windows will begin to angle themselves so that you can easily see what lies behind them. You can then drag them around and reposition them so that they are exactly where you want them:

3D Desktop

As you drag windows closer to the middle of the screen they will get thinner and thinner until they essentially disappear. You can kinda see this happening in the screenshot I took above, where the bottom Firefox window is “thicker” than the one located above it. Even though the windows may disappear there will still be the little tabs that stick out which make it easy to identify which windows are which.

So what have I noticed bad about the program? I have had it crash on “minimizing” certain programs which kinda sucks, but it doesn’t crash my whole computer or anything. I just see an error box popup in some other language and I press OK which closes the application. The other thing that I have noticed which is very annoying is a shadow box that shows up around the title box for the “minimized” window. Sometimes even after returning the window back to normal the shadow still appears, and I haven’t figured out a way to get rid of it besides restarting the computer. Those little tags can be disabled though, which is what I have done. I am running this on Vista which isn’t mentioned as a supported operating system and could be my problem, but it is still really cool.

I am hoping that a similar application will eventually emerge that uses Vista’s Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). If that happened then we would probably be able to see live previews of applications as they were angled, such as watching a movie play. In order to take advantage of any program using WPF will require that you have a graphics card capable of running Aero. As Vista gets more popular we will surely see WPF applications popping up left and right, and I am anxious to see what ideas developers can come up with that really showcase the power Vista harnesses.

Download Mirror

Source: Neowin [via Digg]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Sep 29

New Updates Increase Vista’s Performance

Posted in: Microsoft, performance, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista

This article was written on October 03, 2007 by CyberNet.

Vista Update Microsoft has quietly released four new updates for Vista that improve on performance and reliability. As of right now it’s unclear as to which of these updates, if any, will be made available on October 9th’s Patch Tuesday, but they are currently all available for individual download.

The first update that I want to mention really caught my attention. It is said to improve battery life, increase stability, and much more. Here’s a list of the more prominent things that it is supposed to improve, as well as some of the issues it is supposed to solve:

  • It extends the battery life for mobile devices.
  • It improves the reliability of Windows Vista when you open the menu of a startup application.
  • It improves the stability of Internet Explorer when you open a Web page.
  • It improves the stability of wireless network services.
  • It shortens the startup time of Windows Vista by using a better timing structure.
  • It shortens the recovery time after Windows Vista experiences a period of inactivity.
  • Resolves a compatibility issue that affects some third-party antivirus software applications.
  • Resolves a reliability issue that occurs when a Windows Vista-based computer uses certain network driver configurations.

The homepage for the update (KB941649) is here, and there are both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors available for download. It appears that this update is still in testing though, and Microsoft recommends that you do not install it yet unless you’re experiencing issues that it resolves:

This hotfix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next service pack that contains this hotfix.

Meh, that makes it sound like it’s not coming out until Vista SP1 is released so I installed it anyway. :) Things do seem to be chugging along a bit faster than they were.

The other updates aren’t quite as important in my opinion, but are still worth mentioning:

  • KB941229 (32-bit or 64-bit) – Update for Vista Media Center which resolves several issues.
  • KB941600 (32-bit or 64-bit) – Fixes critical USB issues.
  • KB941651 (32-bit or 64-bit) – Improves the reliability of Windows Media Player 11, but the homepage for the hotfix isn’t available so we’re not quite sure what it’s for.

Source: Techarena

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Sep 29

Video of iPhone Settings and Ringtones

Posted in: Apple, Gadgets, iPhone, Microsoft, Screenshots, Today's Chili

This article was written on June 25, 2007 by CyberNet.

Despite the fact that the iPhone will be released in just a few short days, we still really haven’t heard much about the details of the phone in regards to settings, and even some of its features. A recent video floating around the web gives us a glimpse at some of the settings that you can expect, including a sample of a few ringtones.

There’s a whole list of new details here, I’ll just point out some of the ones that stood out for me. From the movie, we learn:

  • Included with the iPhone is an in-line viewer for PDFs, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel documents in email.
  • Want to listen to a portion of a voicemail again? Rewind it like a sound file.
  • iPhone headphones include volume and call control.
  • Limited ringtone selection available in the start menu, and Gizmodo points out that it doesn’t look like songs can be used.
  • Confirmed IMAP/POP support

Cost

Now, another thing we haven’t heard any official announcement on is the price of the service plan. While there is still no word yet, using the current prices that AT&T charges for their BlackBerry users, we can get an estimate of what you might expect.  Currently, BlackBerry users are charged between $34.99 and $79.99 per month for data, and between $49.99 to $99.99 for voice. Assuming that iPhone pricing will be similar, we can expect the range of prices to be between $84.98 and $179.98.

Remember, if you decide to purchase an iPhone, you will be required to sign a two year service contract.  Should you decide that you don’t want the phone/service anymore, you will incur a $175 cancellation fee.

iPhone Shortcomings?

Engadget is reporting that a “trusted source” of theirs has been fooling around with an iPhone, and not all of their reactions were positive.For example, they pointed out that the keyboard was “disappointing,” and often times registers multiple keys because of the two-fingered nature of the keyboard. If you plan on doing a lot of typing, it’s possible that you’re better off sticking with your BlackBerry. Another shortcoming mentioned was that the touchscreen took some rough-handling at times before it would register the input, which is certainly something that would take getting used to.

When you head into an Apple store or AT&T store on Friday, be sure you play around with the phone before you commit to buying it, and make sure that it’s something you’d want for two years.  I’d hate for anyone to have to shell out the $175 required in cancellation fees.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Sep 28

CyberNotes: Best Application Launchers for Windows

Posted in: CyberNotes, Features, Freeware, Reviews, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on October 02, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Time Saving Tuesday

Applications are pretty much the core reason that computers are useful, and I’ve seen people that have literally hundreds of different programs installed. I’m not sure how they make it through each day with the super-sized Start Menu that they normally have, but I’m guessing that they use some sort of efficient application launcher.

Today we’re going to bring you our top 10 free application launchers, and we’ll throw two gadgets/widgets into the mix as well. We’ve grouped the application launchers into various categories based upon their type: docks, menus, find-as-you-type, and then the gadgets/widgets.

–Docks–

There are some Mac features that applications try to bring over to the Windows side, and one of the most common types are clones of Apple’s Dock. Here are a few apps that will give you the Mac OS X dock feel while in Windows:

  • ObjectDock [Homepage] [Our Full Review]
    This is one of my favorite docks, and the big reason for that is the new weather widget that they’ve incorporated into the latest version. There are both free and paid versions available, and the free version actually does more than the other free alternatives listed below. Vista users can even see live previews of any windows displayed in the dock.
    ObjectDock Application Launcher
  • RocketDock [Homepage] [Our Full Review]
    This is a freeware-only dock that is well updated, and supports many of the same features as ObjectDock. Vista users can also take advantage of live previews for windows that have been minimized to the dock.
    RocketDock Application Launcher
  • RKLaucher [Homepage] [Our Full Review]
    This launcher isn’t updated very frequently, but it is well known for being light weight. Out of all the options I would say that this one is the best performance.
    RKLauncher Application Launcher 

–Menus–

Menu access to your programs is probably among the most popular launchers because of how familiar users are with menu systems. We managed to scrounge up four of the best application launchers that use a menu-like structure for listing out your shortcuts.

  • 8Start [Homepage] [Our Full Review]
    This is one of my favorite application launchers because it is extremely powerful. The best part is that it always opens the menu of programs where your mouse is located, so the necessary mouse movement is kept to a minimum. That may not sound like a big deal, but if you have a high-resolution monitor it can make a big difference.
  • SC-QuickStart [Homepage]
    This is one of the lighter application launchers, and it primarily resides in your System Tray. You can also assign hotkeys to each of the applications to make launching your favorite programs even faster.
    SC QuickStart Application Launcher
  • JetStart [Homepage]
    This comes in both free and paid flavors, but the free version will be more than suitable for most people. It has several different ways to display your shortcuts, but my favorite is the customizable menu that’s displayed when you hover over the Start Menu (clicking on the Start Menu will still serve the normal purpose).
    JetStart Application Launcher
  • SpeedyStart [Homepage] – Thanks to “Chance” for the tip!
    This is a tiny little program that lets you customize the right-click menu attached to the Start Menu. Access to your favorite apps has never been so quick!
    SpeedyStart Application Launcher

–Find As You Type–

The find-as-you-type application launchers have really been taking off lately. They offer what I believe to be the fastest way to find what you’re looking for, and are typically very customizable.

  • Find and Run Robot [Homepage]
    Pressing just a single key will launch the search utility, and then you can immediately start typing the name of the program or file that you’re looking for. When the item shows up in the list just hit the corresponding number on your keyboard’s number pad.
    Find and Run Robot Application Launcher
  • Launchy [Homepage] [Our Full Review]
    This is the most popular “find-as-you-type” application launcher available. It has a slick yet simple interface, and there are several powerful plugins to extend the built-in functionality.
    Launchy Application Launcher
  • Colibri [Homepage]
    I just recently came across this program, and it’s not only intuitive but it looks good, too. It seems to lack some of the power the other two options have, but if looks could kill…
    Colibri Application Launcher

–Widgets & Gadgets–

Since gadgets and widgets are blanketing the world of computers I didn’t think I could make it through this post without mentioning a few gadgetized application launchers.

  • Vista Sidebar [Homepage]
    This is a sidebar widget for Vista, and you can add shortcuts to nearly anything (including folders).
    Vista Sidebar Application Launcher
  • Yahoo! Widget Engine [Homepage]
    This makes use of the cross-platform Yahoo! Widget engine, and it can be setup to launch all of your favorite programs. It utilizes user-created categories to organize the shortcuts.
    Yahoo Widget Application Launcher

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Sep 26

Monitor Program Updates with UpdateStar

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Newly Released, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili, Windows Vista, Windows XP

This article was written on October 02, 2007 by CyberNet.

UpdateStar Homepage 

There have been tools in the past that monitor programs on your computer for updates, but none is like the new UpdateStar. This free app claims to check for updates on upwards of 80,000 titles including freeware, shareware and commercial software products. That’s quite a database it has got built up!

Here’s a quick list of some features it offers:

  • Once program updates are available, UpdateStar lets you know and offers you information and download options as well as licensing links in the case of a commercial product or update.
  • Acts as a replacement for the well known “Add or Remove Programs” within your Windows Control Panel.
  • You can let it deliver information regarding your complete software setup, or you may also choose to just let UpdateStar look for available update information regarding pre-selected programs you consider important.
  • The database is maintained by the users, for the users. Thousands of voluntary users help us to keep our database with tens of thousand of software products up-to-date. If you find an update that UpdateStar does not recognize, you can help updating the database by using the “Send Update” link in the product’s details section within the program.
  • Informs you about available upgrades for your installed programs. By default an icon will appear in your system tray and inform you, when an update for you is available. Simply click on the icon to learn more about the available update(s). To change the settings, please open the “Preferences” tab in your UpdateStar.

I would undoubtedly say that this is the best application available for providing update information, but there was still a large majority of my applications that it couldn’t retrieve info for. Here are some of the more prominent ones that I was shocked to not see included:

  • It didn’t have version information for some common programs like Live Writer, GIMP, Notepad++, and 7-Zip.
  • Reported DriverMax 2.5 as the most current version, but as we already know DriverMax 3 has been released.

The screenshot at the beginning of the article is what it looks like when you first run UpdateStar. It gives you an overview of how many programs you have installed on your computer (not how many it is able to actually track), and how many program updates are available. There is also a more detailed product list available where you can see what the current version is for each of the applications it does have info for. The ones that can’t be tracked will say “Unknown” in the current version column:

UpdateStar Product List 

Another great way to stay up-to-date on your programs is to follow our Daily Downloads that are posted each weekday. ;) Did you not expect us to do any shameless self promotion?

UpdateStar Homepage
Thanks for the tip Radu!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Sep 24

IE7Pro 2 Lets You Pause and Resume Downloads

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Internet Explorer, Newly Released, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on January 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

IE7 Pro 2

IE7Pro just released version 2.0 to the public, and it has a few notable new features. For starters it has been modularized which will help increase its stability, and there is also a 64-bit version available on the download page. The biggest news, however, can be summed up by looking at the screenshot above. Yep, that’s a built-in download manager! It automatically integrates into Internet Explorer 7, and as you can see from the screenshot it supports the pausing/resuming of your downloads.

They took an interesting route with the way they implemented it, but I think they did it the right way. The download manager has a System Tray icon, and by default it is always running. Even if you close the browser the download manager will still remain open. One of the benefits for this is that your downloads will continue chugging along even when the browser has been closed, but there is an option in the settings to have the download manager close after all of the downloads have been completed.

One thing I’m sure many of you are wondering is whether you can completely shutdown the download manager and resume your downloads at another time. As it turns out you can! With this you can essentially restart your computer, and still pickup where your downloads left off. Now try doing that with Internet Explorer 7 out-of-the-box.

Personally I would never use Internet Explorer 7 without the IE7Pro add-on. It actually makes IE7 bearable. :)

Download IE7Pro 2.0

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Sep 24

Messenger Plus! 4.5 Released

Posted in: Newly Released, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on December 10, 2007 by CyberNet.

messenger plus
CLICK TO ENLARGE

Many people waited in anticipation for the new version of Messenger Plus 4.5 which has been six months in the making. It’s been a hot topic lately simply because everybody knew it was coming, and they knew it was coming with a completed skinning engine.  It’s finally available for download, and now the more than 22 million people who already use it along with some newcomers will be able to enjoy this add-on for Windows Live Messenger that adds all kinds of features and extras. I imagine many of you will want to download this new version which you can find here.

As mentioned, the skinning engine has been completed in version 4.5 which I’d say is the main highlight of the update. There are great skins to choose from, just note though that not all will work with version 9 of Windows Live Messenger – likely because skinners don’t want to take the time to make them work when things can still change. The entire Skins database can be found here, and it’s organized by featured skins, those that have just been added, and those that have been rated the highest by users. I selected an Apple skin which you can see in the screenshot above, and it is one of the few that work with WLM 9.

One of the first things you’ll notice when you pull up the Messenger Plus preferences is the interface. It’s been revamped and looks quite a bit better. From the preferences page you’ll be able to configure and select which extras and add-ons that you want to use.  Because there’s SO much that’s offered, I took screenshots of each page which are thumbnailed below.

Click to enlarge
preference 1  preference 2  preference 3  preference 4

Some of the popular features that Messenger Plus offers are a Messenger Lock which can hide all messenger windows with a shortcut.  Additionally, it’s available in a handful of different languages, there are advanced chat logging options, an event viewer, and tabbed chat where it’ll group all of your conversation in one single tabbed window which will save you some room on your desktop.

If you decide to install it or upgrade to a new version, just know that it’ll automatically integrate into messenger which means installing it is a snap.  When you start messenger, it will pull up the configuration wizard to guide you through some of the features that the add-on offers which is helpful if you’ve never used it before.  Just note that while installing it, there’s an option to install a sponsor program which you’ll find on one of the first screens. By selecting “yes,” you’ll be supporting those who create the add-on.  You do have the option to select no in which case the sponsor program will not install.

All in all I’m impressed with all of the changes with this new version.  I didn’t go into depth about the changes that have been made, but the list is long! If you’re interested in reading all of the details, the change log can be found here where you can read about some smaller changes like the two modes in the contact list clean-up window. I think most of you will be most impressed with the skinning options with skins being applied directly in the memory of Messenger. Installing them is so simple and gives your messenger a whole new look. Messenger Plus 4.5 definitely earns two thumbs-up from me!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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