Hasta La Gadget!

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

All sites that mention Apple’s next big operating system release, called Leopard, say that the release will be late April or early May. DigiTimes is going against what the rest of the Internet is speculating by saying that the release date will be in October of 2007. Why such a delay? Vista…

The sources pointed out that the launch delay is not due to software design problems with Leopard but instead is attributed to Apple’s plan to have its new OS support Windows Vista through an integrated version of Boot Camp. Boot Camp is an Apple software application that currently assists in the installation of Windows XP on computers using Apple’s latest OS. The company hopes with support for Vista, Mac computers using the new OS can grab more market share, according to the sources.

To try and squeeze out some more info Mary Jo Foley contacted Apple hoping for an informative response. All she got was this:

We don’t comment on rumors and we’ve made no announcements about Leopard availability more specific than Spring 2007.

Ahh, but wait! Does this mean it is definitely coming in the next few months? Nah, as Mary Jo pointed out that could just mean that only a select few people may know about the delay right now.

I think that getting Vista to work with Boot Camp is important, but probably not initially. Why not just release the new operating system and provide the updates further down the road? I don’t think that Vista compatibility is a reason to hold an entire Mac operating system back from being released…unless Apple is just going to use that as their scapegoat?

Oh yeah, and people are already installing Vista on Mac’s, but a little bit of troubleshooting may be needed. Just hop on over to this instructions page if you need more information on setting up Vista on a Mac using Boot Camp.

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on March 14, 2012 by CyberNet.

We’ve covered a bunch of different applications that can be used to bulk rename files and folders, and normally they all have their own strong points. Bram is another one of those utilities, and like the others it has some features that set it apart from similar apps.

For starters Bram has a bunch of different modes available so that you can rename, copy and rename, move and rename, rename then copy, only move, only copy, or delete the files and folders. All of those different modes help ensure that the app is capable of doing exactly what you want it to. If you’re worried about the changes you are about to make to the files you can always have them copied so that the originals remain untouched, but Bram also includes an option to undo the last set of changes that were made to the files. It’s nice knowing a simple mistake won’t mess up all of your files.

Bram is also able to handle nested folders with ease, and you can tell it how deep it should traverse through the folders. If the files you are looking to rename are split up across a bunch of a directories this is a great tool to handle that.

Bram Homepage (Windows only; Freeware)

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

If console gamers have the PS4 and Xbox One to be excited about, Valve has given the master race and their incessantly upgraded next, next-gen PC hardware something to tinker with. You can now download the first public beta version of SteamOS, the Linux-based and gaming-centered operating system.

The current version of SteamOS is based on Debian 7 plus the Gnome desktop environment. As Ars Technica notes, this beta build is for the earliest of early adopters. Bugs and glitches aside, “all it is today is a way to run a limited subset of your existing Steam library on an odd version of Steam that requires a dedicated computer.” Another thing to keep in mind is that the beta only supports NVIDIA graphics cards, though the final version will include support for AMD and Intel graphics. Here’s an overview shared by YouTuber Marcelo Salvador. Skip to 3:00 in the video to see SteamOS – or at least Steam in SteamOS – in action:

You can download the SteamOS beta from its official website. Valve also posted installation instructions here, which by the way clearly state that the process will erase all content on the target drive, so you might want to consider installing it on a virtual (Steam) machine for now like Marcelo did.

[via Ars Technica]

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

A few months ago we were racking our brains trying to figure out what a reasonable price would be for a subscription-based version of Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007. In the end I estimated that Microsoft would charge at least $5 per month, but probably not more than $10 per month. The software suite itself retails for about $150, but with a little shopping around you can find it for about $110.

Good news. Today Microsoft announced that in the middle of July 2008 over 700 Circuit City stores around the United States will be selling their subscription-based product dubbed Microsoft Equipt. With it you get full access to Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007 in addition to the Windows Live OneCare antivirus software. The price? It will be $69 per year, which works out to just $5.75 per month. Not too bad considering you’ll always get the latest version of Office and OneCare as part of the subscription.

Here are some screenshots of what the service will look like:

(Click to Enlarge)

Naturally I began crunching some numbers to see whether this was as good of a deal as you might think it is. As I mentioned earlier you can go buy Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007 for $110, and OneCare is already a subscription based program that will cost about $30 per year (MSRP is $50 a year). So the real value depends on how long you’ll have Office 2007 for. Here’s a breakdown for you:

If you have Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007 for [insert number of years] before upgrading it will cost…

• [1 year] = $30 + $110 = $140 per year
• [2 years] = $30 + $110/2 = $85 per year
• [3 years] = $30 + $110/3 = $67 per year
• [4 years] = $30 + $110/4 = $58 per year

What does this all mean? If Microsoft releases a new version of Office at least every three years (and you always upgrade right away) the subscription package is actually a reasonable deal.

Don’t forget the fact that both Office Home & Student and OneCare come with licenses that are good for up to three computers, and the same goes for your Microsoft Equipt subscription. If you have three computers that you would use the software the price-per-PC actually isn’t all that bad.

The interesting thing is that Microsoft hasn’t said anything about this being offered in other countries besides the United States, and for that matter it appears that only Circuit City will be selling it. I’m not quite sure why Microsoft wouldn’t offer something like this for download online?

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on February 16, 2008 by CyberNet.

We love to cover new and exciting application launchers because they can really improve the productivity of a user. When we came across the free sTabLauncher for Windows we really felt like this is something a lot of people would love.

In a lot of ways it is similar to RocketDock and ObjectDock, but there are some things that really distinguish it from the others. As you can see in the screenshot above sTabLaucher has a tabbed interface for your various applications. This is something that RocketDock can’t do, and ObjectDock can only do with the $20 Plus version.

In sTabLauncher there is a very extensive tab configuration tool that is applied on a per-tab basis. for each tab you can choose the color, font style/size, tab shape/skin, and much more:

(Click to Enlarge)

The tab bar can only be docked along the top or bottom of the screen, but it can be positioned anywhere you want along those edges. The nice thing is that when the tab bar is collapsed along the edge you can make it extremely transparent so that the space isn’t really lost. The amount of transparency can be configured in the options.

Here are some other great features offered by sTabLauncher:

• Configurable Separators – Change image and add text to separators
• MiniBrowser – Add a folder, and select the option Browse Folder, then click on it
• Draggable Tabs – Try adjusting the tab’s position by dragging them
• Open With – Drag and drop files over an application to have them open in with it.

sTabLauncher Homepage
Note: There is a no-install version available.

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com