Acer TravelMate 8481 series laptop shown off with super thin bezel, or so you think

Remember the rumor about an upcoming Acer laptop housing a super thin LG Shuriken display? Well, here it is at Computex. Thanks to the crazy thin bezel, we noticed this TravelMate 8481 series laptop quietly chilling out in a corner at Acer’s booth, though upon closer inspection it turned out that the bezel is slightly deceptive. What’s really happening here is that while the screen module (which includes the 1.3 megapixel webcam) really is eating away the bezel, the actual LCD (14.1 inches at 1,366 x 768) isn’t really touching the edge. Still, it’s one helluva slim display thanks to LG’s display technology and Acer’s carbon fiber chassis.

Other highlights include Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce GT520M, up to 320GB of hard drive space, up to 13 hours of battery life, USB 3.0 with power-off charging, fingerprint reader, HDMI, and Bluetooth 3.0. Oh, and like some of the ThinkPads, the mouse buttons use the same mechanism as the keyboard keys for better clicking experience, though it might not be everyone’s cup of tea. No prices announced just yet, but keep an eye out for a global launch around mid-June. Video after the break.

Continue reading Acer TravelMate 8481 series laptop shown off with super thin bezel, or so you think

Acer TravelMate 8481 series laptop shown off with super thin bezel, or so you think originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 May 2011 10:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel shows off Oak Trail-based Android Honeycomb tablets, confirms Android Market support

At a time when ARM and Android are dominating the mobile computing world, Intel’s only just starting to catch up with some green robot-friendly prototypes, like these Oak Trail-based 10-inch tablets at Computex 2011. Starting from the left we have the Intel Green Ridge, Foxconn F150, Quanta QXZI, an unnamed Compal device, Intel Marco Polo 2, and Intel Carrot. Sadly, Intel wouldn’t give the names of the ODMs behind its own reference tablets, so your guess is just as good as ours.

With the exception of the Gingerbread-powered Foxconn slate, these were all running on Honeycomb 3.0.1 OS — well, we say running, but just barely. As you’ll see in our hands-on video after the break, most of the devices were struggling to keep up with the launcher animation, and needless to say, Intel wasn’t keen on letting us test video playback on them. We also noticed that Android Market was missing on the prototypes, but Intel assured us that it’ll be available on the final products, and that current Android apps are already supported by Oak Trail. In terms of build quality it left much to be desired, though this is forgivable at a trade show; it’s the software that we’re concerned with. From what we’ve seen here at Computex, Android on Oak Trail is far from ready, so it’ll be interesting to see if Acer can actually pull off a July launch for its rumored Oak Trail Honeycomb tablet.

Update: OK, our in-depth hands-on video is finally working. Check it out after the break.

Continue reading Intel shows off Oak Trail-based Android Honeycomb tablets, confirms Android Market support

Intel shows off Oak Trail-based Android Honeycomb tablets, confirms Android Market support originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 May 2011 03:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gigabyte’s 15.6-inch P2532 laptop arriving in June with Core i7, we go hands-on

Here’s a new option for those seeking a desktop replacement with adequate processing power: announced at Computex 2011 today is Gigabyte’s P2532, a 15.6-inch laptop sporting Intel’s Core i7-2630QM (2GHz to 2.9GHz), along with NVIDIA’s GeForce GT550M with 2GB of VRAM, up to 8GB of DDR3 system RAM, 500GB or 750GB hard drive at 7200rpm, and a tray-loading DVD burner. In fact, there’ll be two versions available: the P2532N that comes with NVIDIA Optimus for extra battery life, and the P2532V with NVIDIA 3D Vision but on a 1,366 x 768 LCD, as opposed to the 1080p counterpart on the former model. Otherwise, the remaining specs are identical on these 2.6kg (5.7lbs) laptops: two USB 3.0 ports, one eSATA / USB 2.0 combo port, HDMI, SD card slot, four 1.5 watt speakers with one woofer, Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, and a 1.3 megapixel webcam. Keep an eye out for this beast in June, but be prepared to shell out from around $1,500 if our hands-on pics below got your attention.

Gigabyte’s 15.6-inch P2532 laptop arriving in June with Core i7, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 May 2011 12:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SeaMonkey 1.1: A Nice Upgrade with Tab Preview Capabilities

This article was written on January 22, 2007 by CyberNet.

SeaMonkey 1.1

SeaMonkey is Mozilla’s browser that is more of an all-in-one type of solution with a built-in email client. I think this overview from Mozilla sums up SeaMonkey quite well for those:

The SeaMonkey project is a community effort to deliver production-quality releases of code derived from the application formerly known as “Mozilla Application Suite”. Whereas the main focus of the Mozilla Foundation is on Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird, our group of dedicated volunteers works to ensure that you can have “everything but the kitchen sink” — and have it stable enough for corporate use.

SeaMonkey 1.1 was released just the other day, and I have to admit that it features some nice enhancements. It is mostly stuff that can already be found in Firefox 2 since that is the basis for the browser. Here are some of the highlights:

  • Inline spell checking
  • About:config warning page
    About:config warning page
  • Drag and drop URL’s between existing tabs
  • Tab preview
    Tab Preview
  • Improved phishing protection in the email client

The tab preview functionality is pretty cool, but Firefox users can get an extension that does that. I have always found that feature to be useful when you have a bunch of tabs open and can’t see the name on it, but I’m not a very big fan of installing a lot of extensions to help keep Firefox slimmed down a little. It would be cool to see implemented in Firefox but there are a lot of other things I would rather see first.

I think SeaMonkey might be a good solution for some people looking for a packaged deal, but I still find it funny that the theme used with SeaMonkey is the old-school Netscape style.

Download SeaMonkey

Thanks to “Jack of all Trades” for the tip!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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CyberNotes: Organize Your DVD, CD, and Book Collection

This article was written on March 04, 2008 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Time Saving Tuesday

Sometimes it is astounding the collection of DVD’s, CD’s, games, and books people have. For some individuals it gets to the point where they don’t even remember what they have anymore. In fact, I’ve known some people who would find themselves purchasing the same movies over again simply because their collection was so vast that they couldn’t remember if they owned it already.

To solve problems like that you need to turn to a full media organizer, and luckily there’s a free one available which we’ve received several emails about over the last few months. It’s called Libra, and is capable of managing books, CD’s, movies, games, and DVD’s on Windows.

–Managing Collections–

Libra is available for both Windows XP and Vista, but the interface for Vista does have a bit more eye candy. Beyond the beauty also lies a lot of functionality. The size of the thumbnails on the virtual bookshelves can be adjusted so that you can see more or less at any one given time. This is done by using the slider in the upper-right corner.

libra overview
(Click to Enlarge)

It’s also possible to change how the media is sorted on the bookshelves. By default everything is grouped by type (books, games, movies, etc…), and are sorted by the title. Anything can be sorted in about a dozen different ways, which ultimately puts the control in your hands.

–Adding Media–

Obviously a program like this is only great if it makes adding media from your library a piece of cake. I would have to say that Libra is pretty simple from that standpoint because it uses Amazon’s vast database of information to grab details and box art for all of your media.

libra add game
(Click to Enlarge)

Searching can be done according to the type of media that you’re looking for (books, games, movies, etc…), and then results can be shown from Amazon’s United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, France, or Canada sites.

Naturally you’ll probably start searching for your media according to the names, but that will probably take awhile in the end. What I recommend doing is searching according the ISBN/EAN number, or even by the UPC. Don’t feel like entering in the UPC? If you have a webcam hooked up to your computer that’s not a problem. Just hit the webcam button and focus in on the UPC. Libra will read the UPC and scour Amazon looking for a match:

libra webcam

I mean really, could you ask for any more?

–Loaning to Friends–

Anytime you’ve got a good collection of media going it likely means that you’ll have friends crawling to your doorstep looking to borrow items at no cost. No problem, right? You lend a movie to one friend, a game to another, and a couple more movies to a few more friends. You eventually get to the point where you are relying on them returning it at some point in the future, but as many of us have experienced your friends need a few reminders.

Libra to the rescue! There is a loan feature in Libra so that you can keep track of who has what. Just find the movie that you want to lend out, click the “Loan” tab, select who is borrowing it, and pick a date that you would like it returned by:

libra loan

You’ll want to create a profile for each one of your friends and family that borrow movies from you, but after that it takes just a few clicks here and there to keep track of who has what:

libra friends
(Click to Enlarge)

–Overview–

As you can tell this is an extremely powerful application for the media gurus out there. There’s a lot more that you can do with Libra, and we would love to hear from some of the people who have experience with the application. Shoot us your feedback in the comments below.

Download Libra for Windows

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Steve Ballmer promises ‘over 500’ new features in Mango, teases new WP handsets (updated)

Just how big of an upgrade will the Mango release of Windows Phone be? Try “500 new features” big. Steve Ballmer revealed that seductively round number in a speech over in Japan today, where he also said that additional information about “who’s going to be building Windows Phones” will be forthcoming at tomorrow’s preview event as well. Combine that with an otherwise unsubstantiated rumor (more coverage link below) about Microsoft showing nine new Windows Phone handsets tomorrow, and it does seem like there’ll be fresh hardware to go with the ripening software. Neither the Mango release nor any devices on show will be coming to market any time soon, mind you, but it’s nice to think we’ll get to see what the future of Windows Phone will look like in physical as well as digital form.

Update: We have confirmation from a reliable source that tomorrow’s event will be entirely focused on the software, not the hardware. So, anybody looking for a flotilla of new handsets to be deployed had best get their favorite crying pillow handy.

Continue reading Steve Ballmer promises ‘over 500’ new features in Mango, teases new WP handsets (updated)

Steve Ballmer promises ‘over 500’ new features in Mango, teases new WP handsets (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 08:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve Ballmer promises ‘over 500’ new features in Mango, teases new WP handsets for tomorrow

Just how big of an upgrade will the Mango release of Windows Phone be? Try “500 new features” big. Steve Ballmer revealed that seductively round number in a speech over in Japan today, where he also said that additional information about “who’s going to be building Windows Phones” will be forthcoming at tomorrow’s preview event as well. Combine that with an otherwise unsubstantiated rumor (more coverage link below) about Microsoft showing nine new Windows Phone handsets tomorrow, and it does seem like there’ll be fresh hardware to go with the ripening software. Neither the Mango release nor any devices on show will be coming to market any time soon, mind you, but it’s nice to think we’ll get to see what the future of Windows Phone will look like in physical as well as digital form.

Continue reading Steve Ballmer promises ‘over 500’ new features in Mango, teases new WP handsets for tomorrow

Steve Ballmer promises ‘over 500’ new features in Mango, teases new WP handsets for tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 08:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CyberNotes: System Restore vs. Last Known Good Configuration

This article was written on December 11, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Time Saving Tuesday

I’m sure many of you have seen the Last Known Good Configuration option at some point or another when starting Windows, but do you actually know what it does? It says that it will use “your most recent settings that worked,” but that could mean a variety of things.

Then there is the Windows System Restore, which by the name would almost make people assume it does something similar to the Last Known Good Configuration, but in reality they are pretty different. Lets see how the two of them differ, and when you would want to use each of them.

–Last Known Good Configuration–

Each time you successfully startup your computer, Windows saves any system-related settings to the Windows Registry. Some of the information that is written to the Registry is in regards to device drivers and services that are used by Windows.

When you choose to use the Last Known Good Configuration mode all of the settings contained within the HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet Registry key will be restored to the last state when you’re computer booted up successfully. This will not modify any files, but it will be able to point the system back to older drivers, assuming that they are still accessible on the machine.

Using the Last Known Good Configuration…

  1. Start your computer.
  2. When you see the “Please select the operating system to start” message, press the F8 key.
  3. When the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, use the ARROW keys to select Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked), and then press ENTER.

Last Known Good Configuration

Use Last Known Good Configuration if…

  • The last time you started Windows you didn’t have any issues.
  • You install a new device driver, restart Windows, and the computer will no longer boot. By reverting back to the Last Known Good Configuration you will restore the settings so that they point back to the old driver.
  • You disable a driver that turns out to be more critical to the operation of Windows. By reverting back to the Last Known Good Configuration you will restore the settings back to when the driver was still enabled.

DON’T Use Last Known Good Configuration if…

  • Windows won’t boot because you deleted some system files.
  • You copy a new driver over top of an old one. Switching to the last known good control set will not undo anything since the configuration never changed.
  • Windows boots up, a user logs in, and then Windows freezes. By this point it is too late because Windows has already written over the Last Known Good Configuration backup.

–System Restore–

System Restore was haphazardly introduced back in Windows Millennium Edition, but wasn’t actually found to be useful until Windows XP was released. It’s progressively gotten better as more versions of Windows have been released, and in Vista it includes some new features.

Restore points (a.k.a. checkpoints) are, by default, created every 24 hours or when the user manually creates them. Aside from that restore points are also automatically created when some applications are installed, Windows Updates are installed, or non-signed drivers are installed.

System Restore is very selective in what it backs up. It keeps track of changed system files (extensions: EXE, BAT, DLL, etc…), Windows Registry, drivers, and more. It never touches file formats related to things like documents, email, music, and a few others that aren’t critical to the system’s operability. It will also ignore things placed in “My Documents” giving you a little reassurance that you won’t wipe out your documents during a restoration.

CAUTION: It’s important to know that all programs installed after the selected restore point will be uninstalled when rolling back your system using System Restore.

Using System Restore…

  1. Open System Restore by clicking the Start button, clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, clicking System Tools, and then clicking System Restore.
  2. Choose a restore point and proceed through the wizard.

System Restore

One of the nice things about System Restore is that a checkpoint is also created before you proceed with the restoration. If using a restore point didn’t help you’ll always be able to jump back.

Use System Restore if…

  • Problems started to occur after you installed an application, Windows Update, or a driver.
  • You accidentally removed or modified an important system file that is causing the system not to function properly.

DON’T Use System Restore if…

  • You have installed an application since the selected restore point, and you’re afraid of losing the application itself.
  • You have important files placed throughout your computer, and you’re not sure if System Restore will ignore them. Place all of your personal files into the “My Documents” folder to ensure that they are protected.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Yahoo Messenger 9 Beta Includes Flickr/YouTube Integration

This article was written on May 30, 2008 by CyberNet.

yahoo messenger 9.jpgarrow Windows Windows only arrow
Yahoo Messenger 9 Beta has been in production for months, and yesterday it received and update that provides even more improvements and features. One of the things that really caught my attention in their demonstration video was the Flickr and YouTube integration, which automatically converts hyperlinks into embedded media. That way you can share and watch YouTube videos without ever leaving the chat window.

There are a significant number of other features that they include in this release as well. You can, for example, import contacts from other services such as Gmail and AOL, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to chat with your friends on all of those other networks. Here’s a more detailed list of features provided by the Yahoo Messenger blog:

  • Games are back! – Checkers, pool, toki toki boom…you know the rest. Note that your friend needs to be on 8.1 or this latest release of 9.0 Beta to play games with you.
  • Status message improvements – The status message menu has been split into two parts – one where you can indicate your availability (busy, available) and the other for putting in a custom message or a link you want to share.
  • Yahoo! Updates – Yahoo! Messenger is one of the first products to showcase what your friends are doing on Yahoo!. When a friend buzzes a favorite news story or changes their Avatar, a Yahoo! Update is displayed next to that friend in your contact list (with more detail in their contact card).
  • Import Contacts – Select “Import Contacts” from the Contacts menu and you can add friends from address books you have on other sites like Gmail, Orkut, Yahoo! Address Book, Hotmail, AOL and many more. We’ll pull in your contacts and make it easy for you to start talking with them on Yahoo! Messenger.
  • Voice in chat rooms for Vista users & faster Captcha process – We added a fix to this latest version of Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta that allows Windows Vista users on 9.0 to use voice in chat rooms (and conferences).
  • New IM notification toast – When a new message comes in to the background window, a small notification will pop up from the lower right corner of your screen with the beginning text of the IM your friend just sent.

If you’re still not convinced checkout the video below to see if the new Yahoo Messenger 9 Beta is what you’ve been longing for. Or if you’re using Vista be sure to try their uber sweet Vista Messenger.

Get Yahoo Messenger 9 Beta for Windows [via Webware]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Foxmarks Introduces Sync Profiles

This article was written on July 08, 2008 by CyberNet.

I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been asked whether there is some way that users can synchronize select bookmarks with their work computer. It’s often because they like having access to some of their bookmarks from both home and work, while some they want left exclusively for one of the locations.

Foxmarks is once again coming to the rescue! A new version of the Firefox extension was just uploaded yesterday, and it includes the ability to create custom profiles. That way you can have some bookmarks show up on your home computer, some on your work machine, and so on. From what I can tell you can create as many profiles as you would like.

To get started you’ll want to go to Tools -> Manage Sync Profiles on your my.foxmarks.com page. Add the profiles you want to use, and select which bookmarks each profile should have access to:

foxmarks sync profiles.png

All that you have to do after that is tell the Foxmarks extension which profile it should use. To do this open up the Foxmarks settings in Firefox, and navigate to the Profiles tab. From here you can select which profile the computer should be synchronizing with.

Pretty cool, huh? This feature is sure to make a lot of people happy because it’s now possible to have a central location for managing all of your bookmarks that are spread across multiple computers. Talk about convenience!

Get the Foxmarks Extension for Firefox

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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