Hasta La Gadget!

Oct 09

WrapUp: Microsoft Pulls Windows 7 Family Pack, Set Bing Backgrounds as Your Wallpaper, and More

This article was written on December 08, 2009 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–

Joojoo Tablet Hand-On
Over the last week there has been a lot of talk about the “CrunchPad” (now named Joojoo), and whether it would actually come to existence. Despite dropping TechCrunch from the project all together the tablet is still being pushed out the door in some sort of final form. In fact pre-orders are being taken starting December 11th for $499 each, which is much higher than the original pricing they were gunning for. Engadget got a hands-on experience with the device already.

Google’s Real-Time Search
Google announced yesterday a real-time search strategy that will let users see results roll in almost instantly. It’s pretty cool and all, but you have to keep in mind that this doesn’t work for every page found on the Internet. Right now most of the timeline is flooded with results from Twitter, and every now and then you’ll see a news result or two depending on what you’re searching for. It’s cool, but not something I’ll use on a regular basis.

Microsoft Pulls Windows 7 Family Pack
Paul Thurrott has noticed that the Windows 7 Family Pack is becoming increasingly difficult to find at the $150 price point. As all stores sell out of these family packs their stock is not getting replenished, and has lead him to the conclusion that the limited time offer is coming to an end. Pretty stupid if you ask me… couldn’t they wait to kill it after the holidays?

Bing Maps Gets a Big Upgrade
Bing has taken a little while to get this upgrade, but now that it’s here I can say that they did a great job with it. They have put their Photosynth technology to work for them to help create what you might say is a better Street View representation than what Google has available. This way you get high quality images with awesome zoomability.

–News in Brief–

Google Chrome for Mac/Linux Available
Google has officially released rather stable builds of their web browser for both the Mac and Linux operating systems.

Boxee Beta Unveiled
A new version of Boxee is available with DirectX support and a revamped UI.

Amazon Says No Plans for Physical Stores
There have been rumors that Amazon is assembling resources to create a physical store, but they (of course) claim that’s not true.

Office 2010 Box Art
Curious what the boxes are going to look like for the next generation Office Suite? They’re all right here. About as exciting as a box can be.

Mininova Traffic Plummets After Going Legal
It shouldn’t really come as a surprise that after removing all illegal torrents the Mininova site saw a huge traffic drop.

Apple Acquires Streaming Music Service Lala
Apple has acquired a music streaming site called Lala for what’s expected to be a nice addition to iTunes.

Twitter’s New Mobile Version
It took awhile, but Twitter has finally updated their mobile client.

Google Public DNS Available
Google now lets you use their very own DNS servers to resolve website host names, but keep in mind that they can then keep tabs on even more of your surfing habits.

Google Homepage Updated
The Google Homepage now hides nearly all text until you move the mouse on the screen.

Specify Default Email Text Style in Gmail
A new Google labs addition lets you specify the default font style used to compose all of your emails.

What a Square Receipt Looks Like
A “Square Receipt” could be what all of our future receipts will look like when they come through to you via email.

Is YouTube Ready to Stream TV?
Google is trying to convince the television industry that YouTube is ready to stream shows.

–Tips, Tutorials, and Reviews–

Get an Aero-Style Classic Start Menu in Windows 7
We’ve seen other people come up with solutions for a classic Start Menu in Windows 7, but one of the downsides is that they always drop the nice Aero interface in favor of the truly classic theme from back in the Windows 98 days. This app brings you the same functionality, but does so with a classy Aero interface. Well done.

Use Bing Backgrounds as Your Wallpaper
I’m a huge fan of the backgrounds that Bing.com places on their search homepage, and often find myself going there just to see what image they’ve chosen to represent the day. Now I don’t have to go there with an app like this that automatically rotates the background as new ones become available. Very sleek!

Free up Memory in Chromium with a Single Click
Tired of your browser hogging some of your precious memory? The nightly developer releases of Chromium have a new “purge” feature that will instantly clear up as much of the browser’s memory as possible. It’s like they work some black magic or something.

–Tips in Brief–

Add IE Tab to Google Chrome
Get the famous Firefox add-on in the Google Chrome browser.

$wolfram math.jpg$ Wolfram Alpha Teaches You How to Do Math
When possible Wolfram Alpha will try to show you the steps used to solve mathematical equations.

Skin the Windows 7 Taskbar Without Patching System Files
Make your Windows 7 Taskbar look a little nicer without doing any dirty work.

See if a Certain Port is Open or Blocked on Your PC
Perform a quick check to see if a port is open on your network/PC… great for troubleshooting port forwarding issues.