Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on May 30, 2011 by CyberNet.

Welcome to the WrapUp by CyberNet. This is a collection of news stories, downloads, and tips that we have collected over the last few days, but never got around to writing about. Don’t forget to send in your own tips, or just leave a comment on this page if you think you’ve got something we should include.

–News–

Google Wallet Coming to Your Phone
Google will be turning your NFC-equipped phone into a digital wallet that is packed with coupons, membership cards, and credit cards.

Amazon Launches Mac Download Store
Amazon is now selling Mac software downloads with some titles that even Apple’s own Mac App Store doesn’t have, such as Microsoft Office.

Gmail Will Display Related Contact Information
A new feature that Google is rolling out in Gmail will show information (off to the right of an email) about the contact(s) in the message you’re reading.

YouTube Streams 3 Billion Videos Each Day
As YouTube rolls by their 6-year anniversary they announced that over 3 billion videos are watched every day, and 48-hours of footage is uploaded every minute.

Yahoo! Mail Redesign Leaves Beta
Yahoo! Mail has over 277 million users, and they will all get to experience the new interface that marks the first major update in over 5-years.

WolframAlpha Adds Medical Information
I am constantly amazed at the amount of information pouring out of WolframAlpha, and last week they announced that medical data has also been added. Now you’ll be able to find out interesting medical stats, such as how many patients suffer from a particular illness each year.

Microsoft Shows Off Features in Windows Phone Mango Update
According to Microsoft there will be “hundreds of new features” coming in the new Windows Phone Mango update due out later this Fall. Some of the features include IE9, multitasking, threaded conversations, and speech-to-text support.

Dropbox Crosses 100 Billion File Mark
Dropbox hit a huge milestone with over 100 billion files having been saved by their service, and another 300 million being added every day.

Square Launches iPad App
Square’s new iPad app gives users the ability to accept credit card payments using a powerful register-like application.

–Tips, Tutorials, and Reviews–

iOS Style Scrollbar in Google Chrome
This awesome extension will shrink the size of the scrollbar in Chrome, and does it for both the main reading area as well as any scrollable areas inside the page.

Submit Forms to New Tabs in Firefox
With the TabSubmit Firefox extension you can submit forms in a way that a new page is opened up. When is this useful? I’d use it when doing searches on a site or in a forum so that the search results page opens up in a new tab.

Evernote Extension for Chrome Updated
The new Evernote Chrome extension has added the ability to auto-detect the body of an article making it easier to clip only the content.

AirPlay for Windows Media Center
With the help of this free addon users can actually stream video directly from their iOS device to any Windows Media Center PC.

Bulk Convert Audio Files on a Mac
xACT is a free utility that will let you bulk convert over a dozen different types of audio files to the MP3 or AAC format on your Mac.

Compare the Cost of Driving vs. Flying
The Fly or Drive Calculator is a great way to determine whether it is more cost effective for you to drive or fly to your destination.

–Downloads–

• CDBurnerXP 4.3.8.2568 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Dexpot 1.5.10 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Dropbox 1.1.35 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Fedora Linux 15 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• FileZilla 3.5.0 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Firefox 5.0 ^{Beta 2} [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Foobar2000 1.1.7 ^{Beta 5} [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Foxit Reader 5.0.1.0523 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Google Chrome 13.0.772.0 ^Beta [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Miro 4.0 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Opera 11.50.1016 ^Beta [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Skype 5.3.0.113 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Sumatra PDF 1.6.3834 ^Beta [Homepage] [Mirror]
• uTorrent 3.0 ^RC2 [Homepage] [Mirror]

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on May 12, 2008 by CyberNet.

Microsoft/Mac Monday

Today we’re taking a look at Apple’s Front Row vs. Windows Media Center. We’re not really sure if Front Row can be compared to Media Center because right now, they serve different purposes. Front Row is more of an interface for controlling the media already on your computer while Media Center will do that in addition to recording television shows. They’re both media hubs though, so we thought it would be interesting to see how they compared.

Before we dive in, we thought we’d first mention the fact that while we may be using MacBook Pro computers for our everyday use, we do have a PC dedicated to running Vista’s Media Center. It has 3 tuners and enables us to record 3 shows simultaneously, and was one of the best investments we’ve made.

Front Row Background

Front Row is an application for Apple computers that is similar in some aspects to Windows Media Center. The first time it was announced was back on October 12, 2005. It now comes shipped on all new Mac computers.

Media Center Background

Windows Media Center originally debuted in 2002 for Windows XP. Now it comes with Windows Vista Ultimate and Home Premium versions of Windows Vista.

Front Row Features

One thing that Apple did really well with Front Row is transitions. These transitions start the moment you open up Front Row because it nicely fades-in to display the menu. Their interface is nice, but I noticed it’s missing a few things. First I should say that a lot of people use the Apple Remote to navigate Front Row, but for people who don’t want to use the remote, they’re stuck using a keyboard. There’s not a way (that we know of) to use the mouse which is pretty inconvenient. Navigation with a keyboard is a little more difficult, and you’ll end up using the Escape key frequently.

The biggest downside to Front Row if we’re comparing it to Windows Media Center is that there is no way to watch or record live TV.

Content that you can access via Front Row include:

• Movies – view movies stored in your iTunes library or in a user’s movies folder/ also option to download and play movie trailers
• TV Shows – any you’ve download from iTunes will be displayed
• Music – music is pulled from your iTunes music library/ includes option to listen to a preview of the top songs on iTunes
• Podcasts – allows you to play podcasts that you are subscribed to, right from Front Row
• Photos – pulls in photos you have saved in your iPhoto library
• DVD (if there is a DVD in the drive)

Overall Front Row is nicest for watching movie trailers or maybe listening to your music but really it’s just a remote-friendly, fancy interface for iTunes. If they’d allow you to rent movies from iTunes via Front Row, that would be fantastic, but they don’t. They also don’t allow you to watch YouTube videos from there which is something that can be done on Media Center through an add-on, or even using Apple TV.

Media Center Features

One of Media Center’s best features is the interface. Microsoft really did a fantastic job here. Another thing they did a great job with is packing a lot of features in under the hood. Not only does it come loaded with a bunch of features, but there are many add-ons that give you even more features like commercial skip and WebGuide which we’ve mentioned before. To Apple’s defense, because they don’t provide a way to record and watch live TV, there’s really no need for add-ons like commercial skip.

Another awesome thing about Media Center is that they’ve got quite the community surrounding it. There’s a website at www.thegreenbutton.com where you’ll find thousands upon thousands of people who are there to post and answer questions. There are even members who work on the Media Center Team that will stop by to help answer questions. While Apple does have a developing community out there, a lot of them are for Mac computers in general and not specific to Front Row.

Features:

• Record and playback TV
• Music – listen to songs from your library
• Radio (some TV tuners support FM radio)
• Video – have videos on your computer? Watch them from Media Center
• Pictures – flip through your picture library
• Sports – keep up with games in progress or ones that have ended
• and more…

Unlike Front Row, users are able to navigate through Windows Media Center using a mouse, and in fact, when they use a mouse or a keyboard, other navigational buttons appear on screen to make it a little easier.

Conclusion

If we were asked to decide which was better, Front Row or Windows Media Center, without question we’d choose Windows Media Center. This is one of those things that Microsoft really has done a great job with in multiple aspects. Maybe Apple will “borrow” a few of their ideas to improve Front Row in the future?

While Windows Media Center may be superior, it also depends on what you’re looking to do. If you don’t have a tuner card and you don’t have any intentions of getting one for your computer, there’s no reason why you can’t get most of the same functionality out of Front Row as you would with Media Center.

Those of you looking for a nice way to manage your media, graphically both applications look nice and get the job done. If you’re looking to record TV, Media Center is the only way to go. So now our question for you is, do you think Apple will go the route of recording television, or will doing so distract people buying episodes of TV shows from iTunes which ends-up bringing in money?

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

Windows Media Center users still in shock over the indefinite hold placed on Ceton’s Q DVR / Blu-ray player finally have some good news, as the company has officially revealed the details of the Echo extender. Now ready to go on sale around Thanksgiving, the Echo Windows Media Center Extender is looking much more polished than the demo unit we saw at CES, and Ceton says the final unit is actually 72 percent smaller, or 1/4 the size of the Xbox 360’s power brick. The smaller size is not the only benefit to those looking for an alternative to the gaming console as an extender, as it claims to be 90 percent more power efficient, rated at less than 5 watts and should be much quieter to boot. In the beta period it’s lacking some features that should be ready upon release like 1080p video, web browsing, and support for MPEG-1 / WMV9 codes, with more features promised in future updates.

Like any Media Center Extender, you’ll need a properly equipped Windows 7 (or 8, once it’s released officially with the Pro Upgrade) PC to run the show and an Ethernet cable drop since there’s no WiFi, but this tiny box promises multiroom access to live and recorded TV, plus your personal media library. We’ll have to wait for some hands-on time with a beta unit to find out if it lives up to the hype, but if you’re looking to squeeze some more life out of the WMC platform this may be just the boost you’re looking for. Check out the gallery for more pics or the source links for detailed specs, while confirmed beta testers should select the third link for relevant information like a $20 price drop.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

Ceton’s $179 Echo Windows Media Center Extender is ready to go on sale ‘around Thanksgiving’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 05:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now that Ceton has pushed its Companion mobile apps for Windows Media Center out the door, our attention returns to the hardware we got a look at during CES. A blog post from the company indicates the Echo extender has passed FCC and CE certifications, with alpha tests under way. If you’re not in position to borrow a unit from the home of an employee, your next opportunity to obtain one will come when the beta starts. The 1,000 applicants accepted should receive ordering information around the end of this month before hardware ships on October, which, if there are no delays, could mean general availability as soon as November. Still waiting for word on that slick six tuner Q DVR? So are we, but an update, along with final specs for the Echo version 1, are promised at the end of the month.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

Ceton Echo WMC extender beta units set to ship in October, on target for November release originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Sep 2012 13:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Most VidaBox Media Extenders have borne a closer similarity to mini PCs than to the kind of equipment you’d stack on top of a home theater receiver. That’s already been changing, but the company’s new vPlayer and vStreamer are virtually invisible in the living room by comparison. Either has a newly streamlined, stackable design that feels entirely at home in the den and keeps the noisy buzzes and whines to a minimum through a new cooling system. Although VidaBox is wonderfully vague about specs — both hubs tout a “dual core processor,” for example — its units have been modernized enough to use a thrifty 35W of typical power. The boxes lack dedicated media storage space and curiously have to be factory upgraded to get HDMI 1.4 instead of 1.3, but they’ll output 7.1-channel audio and 1080p video while integrating with most common home automation systems over RS-232. We haven’t been quoted prices to simplify any buying decisions; we expect the gap to be small between the two offerings, since the vPlayer and vStreamer are identical on the inside except for the vPlayer’s Blu-ray drive. Dealers will have a better answer for you when VidaBox starts shipping the extender duo on September 4th.

Continue reading VidaBox unveils vPlayer and vStreamer Media Extenders with slicker looks, green credentials

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

VidaBox unveils vPlayer and vStreamer Media Extenders with slicker looks, green credentials originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Sep 2012 05:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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