Barnes & Noble has ceased development on its NOOK app for Windows 8 and Windows Phone, and will instead simply provide content for Microsoft’s own “consumer reader” platform, a regulatory … Continue reading
This article was written on March 21, 2007 by CyberNet.
Yesterday, Microsoft announced yet another way to save money when purchasing multiple licenses of Windows Vista. With the release of Vista, we’ve seen Microsoft take extra steps to make Vista more accessible to consumers with multiple purchasing options.
The new way to save money is called the “Windows Vista Additional License Program.” This program will help people save money by giving them 10% off of suggested retail prices when they purchase additional licenses, provided that they have purchased a full or upgrade version of Windows Vista from retail, or pre-installed on a new machine.
While it doesn’t seem like a lot, the savings will definitely add up if you have multiple computers that you’d like to install Vista on, and users will be able to use that 10% discount for up to five additional licenses.
To put this in perspective, if you need to purchase three additional copies of Home Premium at $239, your savings would be $71. If you needed to purchase 4 additional copies of Vista Ultimate at $399 each, your savings would be $159.
You may recall a previous discount program that was announced earlier this year called the Family pack. It’s yet another more affordable way for multiple computer households to make the upgrade. The deal is, if you purchase Vista Ultimate for $399, you can get two licenses for Home Premium for $49.99 each.
It’s nice to see that Microsoft is willing to make things a bit easier for people as multiple computer households are not that uncommon. However, I think Microsoft needs to take another look at their upgrade pricing, because as it stands, upgrading is more expensive than purchasing it right from the start.
Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com
This article was written on May 02, 2006 by CyberNet.
Analysts are now saying that we should not expect to see a release of Windows Vista until Q2 of 2007! Microsoft has already pushed the release date back to January 2007 and another push-back will definitely start to anger some people.
If Microsoft wants to make their January 2007 date then they will need to push hard because they aren’t given much time between their beta versions and the time it gets sent to the manufacturer. One analyst has said:
Microsoft’s track record is clear; it consistently misses target dates for major operating system releases. We don’t expect broad availability of Windows Vista until at least 2Q07, which is nine to 12 months after Beta 2.
Although this is disappointing news I can see it being true. I guess we will have to wait a little longer before we can get a better idea of how long it will be before it is released.
News Source: Digital Inspiration
Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com
This article was written on April 17, 2008 by CyberNet.
One of the questions that I get asked rather frequently is how people can take their media with them to places (normally work) without carrying a media player around. There are plenty of services out there that will let you upload, for example, your music so that it can be accessed from anywhere. But most of the time people want to stream it directly from their home machine.
Is it possible? Of course, it’s just a matter of finding the right tools for the job. If you’re trying to stream media (music, movies, images, documents, or television) from your home computer I recommend checking out the free Orb service. With it you download and install a small application that always runs on your computer. Then by logging into their website you can access nearly any type of media that has made its way onto your machine. Forget a file at home? No problem! Orb can not only stream media but will also let you download files directly from your home computer.
–Supported Media–
Orb handles a wide array of media including television, videos, photos, music, documents, and more. In the configuration options you can set the directories that you want Orb to snatch media from, which means the control is really in your hands.
You might be wondering how the streaming television works. It’s required that your computer have a supported tuner first of all. After that it takes just a few steps to configure the Orb software. You can also schedule shows to record so that you don’t miss them!
–Supported Devices–
The primary computer that hosts the media will need to be running Windows XP or Vista for Orb to work. Then when it comes to accessing the media all you really need is a computer with a browser and Internet connection. Or more specifically…
- Any Windows, Linux or Mac OS-X laptop or desktop computer that has a broadband connection and a media player that can stream Windows, Real or 3GP media, such as Windows Media Player (v.9 or above), WinAmp, RealPlayer (v.9 or above) or Quicktime Player.
- Any Pocket PC that has Microsoft Windows 2002, 2003 or Mobile 5 Pocket PC.
- Any Palm OS device with the Kinoma Player 4 EX is compatible with Orb. Such devices include (but are not limited to) the Treo 650, 680, 700p, 750 and the Tungsten C.
- Any cell phone with a Web browser and either Windows Media Player, TCPMP, RealPlayer, or 3GP Player.
- All of the major gaming consoles so that you can stream all the digital content from your home PC and from the Web onto your TV screen in the living room! Orb works seamlessly with the Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation3 and Microsoft Xbox 360.
So it’s safe to say that you can stream media using Orb to a lot of different devices.
–Setup–
I hadn’t used Orb prior to writing this article, and despite being a first-time user I had the software setup and running within a few minutes. Here’s what you have to do:
- Download and install Orb. It’s available in a variety of different languages, and works with Windows XP or Vista.
- Start going through the setup process. If you don’t already have an Orb account you’ll be able to create one from within the application. Note: You’ll need to verify your email address if you’re creating a new account.
- Head on over to mycast.orb.com to start streaming media! There you’ll find a fully customizable homepage, but I recommend that you click the Open Application button to select what type of media you want to stream:
–Remotely Manage Media–
Now that you have Orb setup and understand how to navigate around the site it’s time to have some fun! You can create playlists of your favorite songs so that they are quickly accessible, and managing photos is a breeze. From within the Orb MyCast site you can do it all:
And before you shrug this off as something you’ll never use there’s one very important aspect that has made this a valuable tool to me: downloads. Even if you don’t want to use Orb to stream your media it can still be used kind of like a personal FTP server. If you get to work and realize you forgot an important document at home just pull up Orb, find the file, and click the download button. To speed things up you can even have the file compressed before downloading it (if you’re downloading multiple files they’ll automatically be compressed before sending them):
–Overview–
There is a sense of reassurance that Orb isn’t storing any of my files on their servers, but at the same time they’ve got an amazing online interface that I can use to access any of my media located at home. Give it a whirl and I’m sure you’ll like it as well!
Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com
This article was written on May 23, 2007 by CyberNet.
Back in April Paul Thurrott started to think that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) was a dead dream. He talked about the numerous delays it has suffered, and the lack of motivation Microsoft had to ship another Service Pack due to the release of Vista:
And while I’m ranting a bit, let’s dredge up Windows XP Service Pack 3, which was delayed from 2005 to 2006 to 2007 and now to 2008. If you were looking for any glimpse into the mind of Microsoft, this is it: The company has completely abandoned Windows XP, and it has absolutely no plans to ever ship an XP SP3.
…
But the reality is, Microsoft is looking ahead to new revenue and not behind to money that’s already in the bank.
According to the Windows Service Pack Road Map SP3 is still scheduled for the first half of 2008, but that date is still considered to be tentative. Now there is speculation that XP SP3 could still be released this year (2007) because of a recent press release by Microsoft that says:
Microsoft is announcing that Windows Vista supports this protocol today and Windows Server 2008 and Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) will support it as well later this year. The Juniper Networks UAC solution is expected to support the new TNC standard in the first half of 2008.
Then later in the press release they make another mention of SP3:
Simplified deployment: Customers running Windows Vista or Windows XP SP3 will be able to easily realize the benefits of a Juniper UAC deployment without requiring the need to deploy additional client software.
In August it will have been three years since Windows XP SP2 shipped, so there is no doubt that SP3 is long overdue. It’s doubtful that any new features will sneak into the service pack since Vista is already available for consumers to purchase, but it should at least address common issues that XP users incur.
Update: | Looks like this was just a mistake on Microsoft’s behalf. Oh well, back to 2008 it is. |
Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com
Time to Let Go of Your Windows XP
Posted in: Today's ChiliIt’s doubtful that any avid readers of the ‘brick are still sporting a Windows XP machine for their online perusing, however if you are (and our stats tell us that 15% of you Windows users visiting here are) you may want to pay attention.
After a few pushes of the date, Microsoft’s end of life for Windows XP is coming near and it appears they are sticking with it this time. After April 8, Microsoft will no longer be officially supporting the operating system. This doesn’t mean that your XP machine will suddenly quit working, but it does mean that in about 30 days there will no longer be technical support or more importantly, security updates for this operating system.
After some time this will likely leave an XP user that accesses the internet with some vulnerabilities to hacking and technical issues as other software continues to evolve. After all, believe it or not the OS is 13 years old. Windows 7 or 8 (assuming you’re sticking with Microsoft) maybe something to look into this month. Check out Microsoft’s XP countdown and you can see the end of life dates for other Microsoft OS’s at the Windows lifecycle fact sheet.
With a decent prosumer-like specs such as 4th-generation of Intel Core i5 (or i7 processors), AMD FirePro W4170M (2GB GDDR5 memory), 16GB RAM and 1TB Storage, you can expect the … Continue reading
ASUS introduced its Transformer Book Duet TD300 during CES 2014 this year, revealing a hybrid laptop/tablet device that offers both full Windows and Android experiences, allowing users to toggle between … Continue reading
This article was written on October 05, 2006 by CyberNet.
More and more people must be using Windows Vista because I am starting to receive emails on a daily basis with questions or regarding cool features. There have been a few different people asking how they can replace the Windows Vista boot screen with something other than just the progress bar. Of course it can be done just like in other versions of Windows but if you are just looking for something a little more graphical it is pretty easy.
Microsoft may not have gotten around to updating the primary boot screen but you can get decent looking boot screen without having to mess intensely with system files (there is a screenshot of the boot screen towards the end of this post):
- Go to the Start menu and in the Search Box type msconfig and press Enter.
- When the System Configuration window appears switch to the Boot tab and check the box that says No GUI Boot.
- Press OK and you will be prompted to reboot your computer. Go ahead and while your computer is rebooting you’ll notice the new boot screen (sorry the quality isn’t that great but I don’t have this installed on a virtual machine so I had to use my camera):
- After your computer fully restarts a window will popup saying that you altered the boot process yada yada yada but just check the box so that you won’t see the message every time you start Windows.
I had completely forgotten to mention this because I have been using it since Beta 2. Hope everyone likes it though. 🙂
Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com
Now here is a little bit of a pet project for folks who like to tinker with their computer’s operating system. Assuming you do not mind making a few tweaks to your registry, you are able to download the Windows 8.1 update 1 right away. All that you need to do is to add a value to your registry, and this will offer you the relevant access capability required in order to download the long awaited update, all without having to go through any kind of third party hoops that might prove to be dangerous.
Registry Tweak Lets You Download Windows 8.1 Update 1 original content from Ubergizmo.