Sling only refreshes its TV-streaming set-top boxes once every few years, and indeed, the current models only came out 13 months ago. So, it’s a bit early for new hardware, but the company has at least been busy making over its family of apps. Today, Sling released an overhauled version of its iOS app (SlingPlayer 3.0), along with a brand new Sling channel for Roku players. Additionally, the company says it’s coming out with a Windows 8.1 app, but that won’t arrive until December.
Starting with SlingPlayer 3.0, it ushers in a redesigned, split-screen UI, with various filters for finding the shows you want. There’s also a bigger emphasis on sports this time out. For starters, it should be easier to figure out what channel a game in on; once you do, you can pull up stats, real-time scores and other factoids you might find interesting as you’re following along. You’ll also notice some deeper social media integration throughout the app, allowing you to post to Twitter and Facebook as they’re watching TV. (Where was this feature when the finale of Breaking Bad aired?) Also, though you could watch shows on your iPad’s display, you can also fling it to a TV and use your device as a remote control instead. %Gallery-slideshow122017%
This article was written on January 08, 2007 by CyberNet.
Yesterday Bill Gates announced to some of the CES attendees some features that will be part of the Windows Extras. One of the new features that really stood out to me was the Windows DreamScene which allows you to add videos (MPEG and WMV) to your desktop to give an extremely unique experience. This is truly something that I would love to be able to do because it adds another dimension to your Windows desktop. There is one thing though…it requires Windows Aero to be enabled which means your graphics card needs to support it. If you don’t have Windows Aero you’ll be able to position stationary images on your desktop for a more customized experience…but it doesn’t quite stack up to the videos. Checkout this video that Microsoft posted on their new Windows Vista Ultimate site:
I had used Windows Vista RC2 for several months as my primary operating system. Within the last week I finally decided to take the plunge back to Windows XP. There are several reasons that I did this, but the biggest is that my primary PC did not support Windows Aero. Without having Windows Aero I think users will lose out on “the ultimate” (no pun intended) Vista experience. There are several things, like Flip-3D and the new DreamScene, that normal users will never be able to experience without upgrading their PC’s. The transparency that can also be enabled around the Windows is something that I can live without, but some of the features that go along with Aero take away from the “wow factor” that undoubtedly impresses people.
Now what about the theme that non-Aero users get to use? It is called Windows Vista Basic and it isn’t exactly to my liking either. It is a light blue theme that can be seen in screenshots that I have taken over the past few months like this one. I wouldn’t say that it is horrible, but Microsoft offers no color choices like users had when Windows XP was released (blue, silver, or olive). Color adjustments can be made if you enable Aero in Windows Vista, but then again your graphical hardware needs to support it.
Not being able to use Aero isn’t the only reason that Vista isn’t installed on my computers. The last release that I was able to get my hands on from Microsoft was Vista RC2 which was by far the most improved release at the time. As time went on, and I installed more and more of my favorite software, I started receiving various prompts of important Windows services crashing and having to be restarted. Then while submitting a crash report it would tell me that this was a known bug and has been fixed in the final release of Vista. That’s great to know, but that doesn’t help me at that time because I am still stuck with a pre-release version that doesn’t have a patch available to fix the problem. I managed to work through a lot of small issues like this enough to continue using Vista for several months.
Now I’m sure that the result of some of the crashes is not directly a result of the operating system, and has more to do with me installing a bunch of my “XP only” applications. Applications are slowly shifting towards officially becoming Vista compatible, but there are still so many that have not released updates or patches to make sure their programs work correctly. For example, iTunes works great for me in Vista…except when it tries to update my Podcasts. That will cause the whole application to freeze up. That was really hard to troubleshoot at first, trying to figure out why iTunes would freeze every time it started. I’ve stumbled upon several other applications (especially screencasting software) that initially appears to work great, but after digging a little deeper you’ll find that it might not be as perfect as you thought.
To review software on the site I also find myself installing and uninstalling things frequently. Windows XP never had that much of an issue with that happening, but then again, the applications I were testing were designed to work with Windows XP. In Vista I found my PC becoming slower and slower over time until it got so slow that I felt like my computer was 160MHz instead of 1.6GHz. Vista has slightly different folder structures (especially for user’s profiles) so the uninstallation process of the applications would probably silently receive errors that would eventually lead to the demise of my Vista installation.
So what do I miss from Vista now that I am back to XP? Search! Vista has an astonishing search system built-in throughout the operating system. Finding files, folders, and just about anything else has never been so quick and easy. One prime example of this is in the Control Panel where you can start typing the name of an option you are looking to change and it will return a list of Control Panel results that match the option you want to change. With Vista’s search engine you are also able to instantly search other Vista PC’s since everything gets indexed…so the results are near instantaneous.
Secondly, I miss the Windows Update feature. I never opened Internet Explorer (well, maybe when testing for website compatibility but that’s it) because Windows Updates were performed through the Control Panel rather than through the browser. Not that I go to the Windows Update site often, but it was nice not having to open a different Web browser just to see if there were any optional updates that were worth while.
The thumbnails and preview feature in Vista was also a really great and something I already find myself missing terribly. It would always give me a sneak peak at a PowerPoint presentation, an image, or a text file…all without ever having to open the document or picture. Vista also doesn’t create those dreaded “thumbs.db” files which quickly become annoying in XP if you want to use thumbnails in your folders.
There are a lot more features that I have fallen in love with in Vista, but I’ll save that for my review. Hopefully I am able to write that review on a PC with Aero enabled because then I will be able to share a better experience that involves a larger array of features. Will I ever go back to Vista? There is no doubt in my mind that I will, but it probably won’t be until some of the software developers release updates to their applications which should happen shortly after the January 30th consumer launch. Not only that but I am going to hold off until I purchase a new laptop (hopefully later this year) that can handle the graphical demands of Aero, and to me that is very important. At that time I’m sure all of my favorite software will work flawlessly on Vista, and the hardware will be much more compatible as well. Vista is a great operating system, but I think they should have put some more focus on making features for the non-Aero theme as well. Of course, almost all new computers will be able to support Aero so it isn’t that big of a deal since a lot of consumers wouldn’t go out to purchase Vista separately. Since I plan on upgrading our laptops soon there is no sense in going out to upgrade the operating system separately, so we’re going to hold off for a little while.
This is still to be considered the February CTP (go figure, you would think they would just call it the March CTP). The ISO is quite large but people are experiencing high transfer speeds. Feel free to give it a shot and post any comments here. If the Vista Beta 2 is still on track from the pushback then we should expect to see it May, 24! So don’t expect to see too many releases before then.
This article was written on May 04, 2007 by CyberNet.
After Gaim had a run in with AOL over their name, the project was renamed to Pidgin and development continued. This was very good news as any future releases had been halted until the situation was resolved.
With a fresh new logo (pictured to the right) and some great new features Pidgin 2.0 is all ready. Take a look at just a few of the things that makes Pidgin 2 an amazing instant messenger:
Fresh new interface adds a more modern look to the software.
Preferences are now in tabs instead of a tree-like layout.
Toolbars removed from chat windows (except for formatting toolbar). I’m definitely glad they did this.
Online/offline icons are now unified across all of the various messenger networks. If a buddy is online it will only show a green circle, but you can still find out what network a buddy is on by hovering over their name.
I haven’t officially been able to see a list of changes in Pidgin 2.0 because the site is currently down, but you can still download Pidgin 2.0 from SourceForge without any troubles.
I’m sure some of you are really don’t like the last bullet that I mentioned regarding the removal of network icons next to the buddy list. This is pretty controversial since the network icon made it easy to distinguish between your buddies that were online, but now they all look the same. Personally, I like the change and it makes the interface seem a lot cleaner, but then again I’m not using a ton of different networks either.
The future looks bright for Pidgin now that the AOL woes are behind them. They no longer have a name nor an icon that looks anything like AIM, so they should have a safe journey ahead of them.
For a more complete review visit Ars Technica. They cover many of the changes and walk you through some of the features found in Pidgin 2.
This article was written on November 06, 2007 by CyberNet.
A new feature to Windows Vista is the Volume Mixer which allows users to choose the volume for any application that is running. In Windows XP there is only one single control for all sounds which means that you could find yourself constantly making adjustments. This is why the volume mixer in Vista is so convenient, yet many users don’t even know that it’s there. To access the Volume Mixer, just right-click on the speaker icon in your system tray and select “Open Volume Mixer.” You’ll notice that there is a master control for the device and then individual volume controls for each application that is running.
If you increase the device volume, it adjusts the volume for your applications proportional to what they were set to. For example- as shown above, I raised the volume for Google Talk to the maximum. Windows Media Player was set to about half of the speaker volume, and the Windows Sounds were the lowest. When I adjusted the main volume, each application volume adjusted accordingly.
So now you’re probably wondering when you’d actually use this. Say that you wanted to play your music quietly in the background while you were talking to a friend on Google Talk. You could set it so that Google Talk is always twice as loud as Media Player so that you’ll be able to hear your music faintly in the background, and hear the person that you’re talking to loud and clear. If you want to mute a program entirely, you have that option as well. Should you change the output device from speakers to headphones, you’ll need to readjust the volume for each application again.
This article was written on October 27, 2006 by CyberNet.
Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) has become world renowned as a big pain in the butt. It isn’t really the people who are pirating Windows that are complaining about how bad it is…instead it is the people who legally purchase Windows and Microsoft tells them that their operating system is pirated. In fact, the whole WGA thing turned out so well that Microsoft had to give users the necessary information to remove WGA!
Just when we thought Microsoft had learned from what it had done comes Office Genuine Advantage (OGA). So what does this entail? Here is what PCWorld explains:
The company’s Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) program will require mandatory validation of Office software starting October 27, the software vendor quietly disclosed today. After that date, any Office Online templates downloaded from within the Office 2007 Microsoft Office System applications will require validation of legitimacy.
Similarly, starting in January, users of Office Update will have to validate the legitimacy of their Office software before they can use the service, Microsoft added.
Yep, it is supposed to start today. I downloaded a few templates using my legal pre-release copy of Office 2007 and I wasn’t prompted for any kind of check. I’m not sure if my Office 2007 has already been validated without me knowing but I would think that it would be just like downloading software off of Microsoft’s site where you have to go through a whole process each time that you try to download something.
So while you are celebrating the release of Firefox 2 this weekend maybe you should take an extra drink to celebrate prepare for the Genuine Advantage woes we have ahead of us. 😉
It’s been several months since Google introduced info cards to the Play Movies Android app, with the handy feature being limited to folks living Stateside ever since. That’s about to change, however, as Google today updated Play Movies & TV in the UK and brought info cards to the application. For those in the United Kingdom, what this means is that you’ll now be able to pause any video being watched and easily learn the filmography of the humans behind your favorite characters. Of course, this also means you’ll have some extra time to spare during the day, since the Google Now-inspired feature is definitely going to save you a few trips to IMDB.
This article was written on August 17, 2006 by CyberNet.
Tutorial Thursday
Okay, this has to be one of the smallest (11KB) and coolest programs I have every seen. In just a few steps I am going to show you how to use Deskview to change your desktop layout from the “icon view” to a “list view.” I never knew how much room I really had on my desktop until I used this program!
I made a copy of the deskview.exe and pasted it into my Startup folder. That way Deskview will start with Windows.
If you just want to try it out go ahead and double-click on the deskview.exe file. Voila! Your icons are now nice and organized.
To switch back to the normal icon view go ahead and run deskview.exe again.
Okay, a few other things you should probably know about this. Deskview is NOT a constantly running program…go check your running processes if you don’t believe me. When you execute the program it simply changes the layout and terminates itself. For that reason it has no way of remembering the layout of the icons that are located on your desktop. Once you restart your computer it may not organize them the same way they were before you shutdown your computer.
That doesn’t really matter for me because I hardly have any icons on my desktop to begin with. I try to keep it clean but I like being able to fit 4 icons into the space that one normally takes up. Best of all is that I never have to worry about Deskview hogging the memory since it runs and then quits!
Microsoft has released a 3D printing app for Windows 8.1, bringing native support for producing physical objects from a variety of 3D printers to its OS. Building on the 3D printer driver MakerBot released earlier today, the Microsoft 3D Builder app comes with a wide range of preconfigured objects it can produce – including LEGO-style […]
Steve Ballmer’s announcement that he would retire from Microsoft came as something of a surprise, and left many wondering whether his eventual exit is voluntary. Thanks to an interview with the outgoing CEO at the Wall Street Journal, we now know that it is — although it’s coming after intense pressure. Ballmer explains that the company board of directors has been pushing him to speed up Microsoft’s transformation into a devices and services company ever since January. By May, he decided that his own way of thinking was slowing down the transition; he was the “pattern” that had to break. New leadership might reshape the company at a faster pace, Ballmer says. While the success of his strategy will depend heavily on just who takes the reins next year, it’s clear that the chief executive is willing to sacrifice a lot to keep Microsoft healthy… including himself.
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.
Now what about the theme that non-Aero users get to use? It is called Windows Vista Basic and it isn’t exactly to my liking either. It is a light blue theme that can be seen in screenshots that I have taken over the past few months 
After Gaim had a run in with 
Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) has become world renowned as a big pain in the butt. It isn’t really the people who are pirating Windows that are complaining about how bad it is…instead it is the people who legally purchase Windows and Microsoft tells them that their operating system is pirated. In fact, the whole WGA thing turned out so well that 
