Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on March 19, 2008 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

We realized that we’ve never really done an article diving deep into the history of browser stats even though we have shown you screenshots of browsers from long ago. Thanks to Net Applications we have about a year and a half worth of data to look at, and it is interesting to see the rise and fall of the different browsers.

We had aggregated so much information that even the most severe stataholics would probably start to feel queasy. Below we’ve got an overview of all the browsers wrapped up into one, and then we dive even deeper by breaking the stats down into the popular versions of each browser. To try and ease the nauseous feeling we decided to hide the actual numbers that were used to generate the graphs, but they are still available by clicking on the Details link located at the beginning of each section.

We’ll start by comparing the market share of each major browser, and then we’ll break it down into Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Netscape usage.

Note: The timeline for each graph is the exact same, but the market share percentages are scaled differently for each chart to make it easier to read. You can click the Details link to see what percentages make up each graph.

–All Browsers (Details)–

From this graph you can see that Internet Explorer still owns a huge chunk of the browser market share, but over the duration of the graph it has changed quite significantly. In the next month or two it will likely hit a 10% drop since August 2006, and about 5% of that has occurred in the last 6-months.

–Internet Explorer (Details)–

It wasn’t until December of 2007 that Internet Explorer 7 actually took over Internet Explorer 6 in usage, which is rather surprising. Maybe it is because so many people are sticking with Windows XP and not making the upgrade to IE7, but it looks like things are finally starting to pickup for IE7:

–Firefox (Details)–

When Firefox 2 came out in October 2006 it didn’t take long for users to make the jump from Firefox 1.5, and ever since then it has been rocking the house.

–Safari (Details)–

This obviously proves that Safari users enjoy playing with Beta versions of the browser, but don’t really adopt it until the stable version is available. In June 2007 Safari 3.0 Beta was made available by Apple, and in October it shipped with the OS X Leopard operating system. While in Beta it didn’t really affect the usage of other versions, but people made the upgrade rather rapidly once it was released. It’s been a hit ever since.

–Opera (Details)–

The Opera 9.x browser was first introduced in June 2006 shortly before these stats started to be collected. You can see from the chart that Opera 9.x usage has been increasing quite steadily even though the market share is still small. Considering the fact that until September 2005 you had to pay for Opera (or suffer with a built-in ad banner) I would say that they are doing pretty good.

–Netscape (Details)–

Late last year Netscape announced that they would no longer be developing the Netscape 9.0 version of their browser. Well, this might give us some indication as to why that is. The service we got our stats from didn’t even have anything on Netscape 9.0 presumably because the market share was so low. While Netscape 6.0 is currently the champ of all the versions available.

–Overview–

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed taking a look at all of the charts to see how your favorite browser has progressed over the last year and a half. If you haven’t gotten enough be sure to checkout our history of web browsers where we provide screenshots of browsers over the last 10+ years.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on December 17, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft Monday

It seems as though there’s never enough time in the days, weeks, and months to get everything done and fit everybody into the schedule.  Time is precious which is why it’s important to try and save yourself as much of it as possible.  One of the best things about Windows Vista is that there are a few built-in settings that can be tweaked and changed to increase your productivity.  All it will take is a few minutes and then you’ll be shaving minutes off the tasks your perform on your computer.

Add “User’s File” Folder to Desktop

When you install Vista, by default, one of the only things you’ll see on your desktop is the Recycle Bin. This is nice for those of you who like a clean desktop and prefer to have nearly nothing displayed.  If you’d like to make yourself a little more productive and save some time, there is one additional thing you’ll want to add to your desktop and that is your User’s File Folder. You can do this by right-clicking on your desktop > Personalize > Change desktop icons. Once you do this, you should see a screen like what’s shown below:

Check the box where it says “User’s Files, and then click OK. The user folder will now be added to your desktop. All it takes is a double-click and then you’ll have quick and easy access to documents, pictures, videos, music, and more.

Review Start Menu and Taskbar Properties

Click Start > Then Right-click >Select Properties. You should now be at a page that looks like this:

Under the “Start Menu Tab” click Customize. It’ll pull up a rather long list of different options to customize how links, icons, and menus look and behave on the start menu. Here are a few recommended changes to increase productivity:

• To search for for files or not? Scroll to the bottom of the list and find “Search Files.” If you access files frequently, you’ll want Vista to search the user’s file. One word of caution is that this can slow the search process down if it’s searching through all of your user files.  On the bright side, if you access them frequently, the few extra seconds it takes to perform will be worth it. Ultimately, it will save you more time in the end.
• How many programs do you want displayed? That’s another option you’ll see on that same screen. If there’s only 5 programs you regularly use, you’ll want to decrease the number of programs to display down to five. This will make it quicker for you to spot the program you need.
• Display the control panel as a menu – you’ll want to select this option if you regularly access your control panel.  By default it’s set to be displayed as a link.  When it’s displayed as a menu, it means less clicks that you have to make. Nice!
  

Customize Your Toolbars

To customize your toolbars, you’ll need to right-click the taskbar and then select “Toolbars.” Here you can add different elements to your taskbar like an address bar which can come in handy. Adding an address bar means you can enter URLs right from your desktop.  

Pin Applications to the start menu

If there are applications that you use frequently, you’ll want to pin them to the Start Menu so that they will always appear at the very top of the menu which will save you from searching. To pin an application to the start menu, just click “All Programs” and find the one you’re wanting to pin. Once you find it, right-click on it and you’ll notice one of the options is “Pin to menu.” Click it and you’ll always have the application at the top of your list in the start menu.

With these changes, you should be able to save yourself quite a bit of time!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on August 18, 2008 by CyberNet.

Microsoft/Mac Monday

Lately we’ve been finding ourselves discussing applications that we really like for one operating system, that would be great on another. We decided to put these discussions into an article about all of the applications we’d like to see for Windows, but are only available for Macs, and then visa versa, the applications we’d like to see available for Macs, but are only available for Windows. We’re also going to mention a few applications that would be perfect for merging together.

Applications we’d like to see for Windows, but are only available for Macs:

Adium

Mac OS X comes with iChat which we were happy using until multiple people mentioned that we just had to try Adium. It’s your all-in-one instant messaging application that connects to Jabber, Yahoo, MSN, AIM, and more. In some ways it reminds us of Digsby which is becoming a pretty popular all-in-one messenger for Windows. Digsby and Adium are two applications we’d love to see merge together and be offered for Windows and Mac OS X. If a merger isn’t possible, it would be a great offering for Windows users as well as Mac users.

Parallels

We’re not saying that specifically Parallels should be available for Windows, but the idea. If only Apple would loosen the reigns a little and allow their operating system to be used on PC’s. There are hacked versions of OS X that are designed to run in VMWare for Windows, but legally, it is not possible to do.

iPhoto

Those of you who read our iPhoto vs. Windows Photo Gallery article back in May are probably wondering why we’d like to see iPhoto for Windows. We complained about many aspects of the application like the fact that you have to import the images and iPhoto takes control over how things are organized. We ended up taking the advice of people who said to let iPhoto do the work for you, so we started using it and giving it control over how our library is organized (much like how iTunes is capable of organizing your music library). Once we got used to it, we really started to like how easy everything was and how adding new images to the library is so simple and effortless.

Skitch

Skitch is the best screen capture service for the Mac that we are aware of. It’s not that it’s far superior to, say, SnagIt for Windows, because it’s not. But it does have some really great elements to it. For some reason, the process of taking screenshots is sped-up while using Skitch, but it lacks some of the editing features we enjoyed with SnagIt. This is one of those applications we’d love to see merge with SnagIt and be offered for Windows and Mac OS X.

Name Mangler

Ryan has mentioned Name Mangler before as a tiny app that does a great job of taking care of bulk file renaming on a Mac. The interface of Name Mangler is more intuitive and clean compared to some of its Windows alternatives. It doesn’t have all the features of those Windows alternatives, but it’s easier and more natural to use.

Photo Booth

Photo Booth is an app that comes with Mac OS X, and it is used for snapping photos with iSight or another webcam. It’s not something you use often, so where’s the benefit? For one, for those who like to change their images on Facebook and MySpace, this provides an easy way to snap your pictures. It’s also fun because it’s one of those apps that you show people when they come over to, just to impress them. The built-in effects that can be applied really add a lot to the photos you take.

Automator

It’s a built in program that comes with Mac OS X. We like to think of Automator as a Macro. For example, in Microsoft Office you can use Macros to automate repetitive tasks. Automator does the same type of thing, but implements a point-and-click interface for creating workflows that work across the entire operating system.

Applications we’d like to see for Macs, but are only available for Windows:

Office 2007

One of the applications we miss the most since switching to Mac OS X is Office 2007. Office 2008 for the Mac simply does not compare. If only Microsoft was able to develop a version of Office 2007, with the ribbon, for Mac users. One of my personal biggest pet peeves is with the Toolbox because it’s inconvenient and never seems to be where I need it to be. If I move the window I’m currently working on, the toolbox doesn’t move with it. Are there any other Mac users who previously used Office 2007, that despise the Toolbox too?

Windows Live Writer

Microsoft really did a great job when they developed Windows Live Writer. It has an intuitive interface that is easy to use, and there are very few bugs. On the Mac we have yet to find a blogging client that we are completely satisfied with. The one we have been using lately is called Ecto and while it has some nice features, it pales in comparison to what Windows Live Writer offers.

Paint.NET

Paint.NET is a Windows only application for digital photo editing. It’s great because it’s feature-packed, yet free! For those who want to touch-up their images, Paint.NET is a simple solution. Photoshop is expensive and includes way more features than the average person needs which is why Paint.NET comes in handy. Any time I reformatted my hard drive, this was one of the first apps to get installed. I would love to see this for Macs.

Windows Media Center

Apple has Front Row, but it’s really meant to be a hub for watching movies and TV shows from your computer while Windows Media Center has a strong focus on recording television. Despite the fact that we use MacBook Pros for working, we still have a Vista machine with Windows Media Center that records the television shows that we want to watch at a later date. Apple has yet to venture down the route of providing software for recording TV but it could be something their users would enjoy.

Digsby

Like Adium above, Digsby is one of those applications that is really starting to take off and has some great features. We’d love to see Adium and Digsby merge together so that users get the best of both worlds whether they are using a Mac or a PC, but that probably won’t happen. Sure Digsby has its flaws, but the application continues to improve. Just last week on the Digsby blog they announced that they were preparing for a major new release that has some big performance and RAM optimizations.

SnagIt

SnagIt is truly an amazing application for capturing screenshots. While it’s not a free application (it costs $49.95), it is worth every penny that it costs, particularly because of its editing capabilities that have come in handy while capturing and preparing screenshots for CyberNet. SnagIt also makes it easy to combine images with their latest version which is nice as well. They’re sporting a new interface these days that reminds me of Microsoft Office 2007.

As we mentioned above, the features of SnagIt combined with the features of Skitch would give you one mean application for capturing images.

Applications We Would Like to See Merge

Here’s a quick run-through of the applications we would like to see merge to get the best of both worlds for both operating systems:

• Adium (Mac) and Digsby (Windows)
• Skitch (Mac) and SnagIt (Windows)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on August 19, 2008 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

Windows only
Searching for files on your computer was something that was once a tedious process, but in the last few years it has been one of the most talked about features in new operating systems. Sure you could always search for files on your computer, but do you remember when you’d have to sit there for several minutes while the computer scavenged everything on the hard drive looking for files and folders matching your search.

The benefit that search applications have these days is that they can index files on your computer so that search results are retrieved nearly instantaneously. Mac OS X 10.4 started doing this back in 2005 when Tiger it was released, and Vista followed it up with its own indexed search capabilities. Making search a strong focus of the operating system is a smart thing to do as it becomes harder and harder for users to find the files they are looking for. Without being able to search it can almost be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

What about the other operating systems like XP? Many of you have probably turned to Google Desktop or Copernic to do your searching, but I believe both of those programs use more resources than they need to. They’re constantly monitoring and indexing results on your computer, and Google Desktop even comes bundled with their own gadget/widget system.

Today we’re going to take a look at two excellent applications that focus on quickly searching for files on your computer without the unnecessary bloat. Both of them are free, use very little memory, and aren’t constantly indexing files on your computer… although they do use an index/database for retrieving results. Sound nice?

–Locate32 (Homepage)–

This is one of my favorite search applications for Windows XP, and it is always getting better. Locate32 is capable of indexing all of the files on your computer in no time at all, and after it’s done you can use the intuitive interface for searching and viewing results. It’s not the most snazzy-looking application, but functionality is more important than appearance when it comes to searching.

What does Locate32 have to offer? Take a look at some of my favorite features:

• Search the contents of files (takes longer since the content is not indexed)
• Save frequent searches as presets
• Long list of customizable keyboard shortcuts
• Pressing the Windows Key + F while in Windows Explorer brings up the search dialog, and sets it to search the current directory you were viewing
• Huge list of options
• and more…

The developers of Locate32 are currently on the homestretch to releasing version 3.1, and with it comes a lot of bug fixes and features. Things like find-as-you-type are automatically enabled making searches even faster and more natural.

Interface (Click to Enlarge):

Options (Click to Enlarge):

–Finder (Homepage)–

Finder, not to be confused with Mac OS X’s Finder, is a program that accomplishes the same goal as Locate32, but with a different interface. It will index your files and put search results on your screen in the blink of an eye.

There are some things that I like better about Finder, such as the wider interface, but generally speaking it’s not as powerful as Locate32. The more unique aspect of the program would be the things you can do with the search results:

• Perform operations on files and folders (copy, move, etc…)
• Designate default applications for specific extensions. You can customize what program is used to execute, view, and edit a particular type of file.
• Copy path(s) or name(s) to the clipboard
• and more…

A new version of Finder is in the works, but the developer is shooting for a November 2008 release. I can’t wait to see what good stuff is in store for Finder 3.

Interface:

Options (Click to Enlarge):

–Overview–

There’s one thing that I didn’t cover yet, and that is the performance of the two applications. Both of them are nearly identical coming in under 6MB of memory usage when they are active. That is significantly lower than most desktop search applications, and a large part of that is thanks to the on-demand indexing rather than trying to monitor your computer for new files. Both offer an option to only index the files that have changed since the last time the database was updated, which means the first indexing operation will be significantly longer than the others.

Let us know in the comments how you go about searching for files and folders on your computer. We are always interested in trying out new software!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on May 07, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft Monday

Internet Explorer isn’t known for its performance, and from a developers perspective, it’s a headache. Despite the fact that it’s behind the times in comparison to competing web browsers like Firefox or Opera, they still hold the majority of the market.

Looking at our demographics for CyberNet, I’m still amazed at how many people are still using IE6 when IE7 has been available for quite some time now. In terms of performance, it still has issues. But in terms of features, there are many improvements when compared to IE6. If you haven’t made the upgrade yet, now might be a good time to do that. You can find download information here, although the best way to get IE7 is via Automatic Updates.

If you take a visit to Windows Marketplace, you’ll find a ton of add-ons for IE7 that really add a lot of functionality to the browser. Below you’ll find five great options, but remember that this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many, many more available in categories like security, time savers, and entertainment. All of the ones listed below are free, but there are several add-ons that aren’t.

1.ieSpell – Spell-check in my opinion is something that should have been integrated into the browser from the start. However, it wasn’t. Luckily ieSpell is a free add-on that will spell-check any text found in input boxes on a Web page. This is great if you’re in forums, or commenting frequently.

Why Microsoft didn’t include this into the browser, I’ll never know. But because they didn’t, this is the next best way to make sure that what you type on the web is free from spelling errors. It’s pretty accurate, and fast, which is important. Although, unlike the spell-checker in Office, it will not check for grammar and punctuation issues. You’re on your own with that one!

Download

 2.IE7 Open Last Closed Tab – This is one of the most handy add-ons yet! With tabs being a big part of IE7, once again, I’m surprised this feature wasn’t included with the browser from the start.  If you’re like me, you have multiple tabs opened at once. At least once a day I close a tab that I really didn’t mean to close. Instead of trying to remember exactly what the URL is, you just have to press “Alt-X” and the last closed tab will open.

Another nice feature with this add-on is that if you press “Alt-Q,” you’ll see a list of thumbnails of the tabs that you’ve closed previously so that you can select which one you’d like to open. 

Download

3. Inline Search – If you’re needing to search a page for a specific word or term, this will do the trick, and will do so better than the built in search. It’s more of an extra added convenience because it searches while you type. It’s 1000 times better than the normal find box, but it’s not as nice as the “find while you type” feature that Firefox offers. It’s definitely worth installing though!

All you have to do is press control F, start typing, and it will start searching the page. It will also highlight all of the instances where your search term appears.

Download

4. Foxy Tunes – Talk about a crowd-pleaser! Foxy Tunes allows you to control your favorite media player like iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player, etc., without ever leaving your browser! For those who like to have their Tunes playing, this is a must-have. I haven’t come across one complaint yet for this add-on.

Download

5. RoboForm – Sometimes it’s hard to remember all of your passwords for all of the accounts you have online.  This is where RoboForm comes in.  It will save your password information from logins and automatically log you in to the password protected sites that you visit. It also makes the process of filling out forms easier by using identity presets.

If you use IE7, some of these add-ons are “must-haves” because they will make your experience that much better.  You can find the entire list of add-ons here, or you can find the add-ons we’ve written about before here.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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