Apr 23

Internet Explorer 8 Download (IE8 Beta 1)

Posted in: Features, Internet Explorer, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on March 05, 2008 by CyberNet.

So far all that we’ve known about Internet Explorer 8 was that they finally decided to push for web standards, and for that I’m extremely grateful. Microsoft has, however, posted an IE 8 Readiness Toolkit likely in preparation for MIX08 which starts today and runs until March 7th. In the toolkit they have download links (which we’ve posted at the end of this article) as well as a feature guide.

UPDATE: The downloads are now available.

We’ve taken the liberty of outlining all of the features below, but you won’t be able to get your hands on the browser quite yet. While the links to the IE8 Beta 1 downloads are available they have yet to be activated… you’ll get an error page if you try to download it at this time. Be patient though because I would expect them to be available shortly.

Okay, lets move on to the good stuff…

–Internet Explorer 8 Features–

As part of the readiness toolkit Microsoft has assembled a new features page which outlines what appears to be the big new things in Internet Explorer 8. I have to admit that some of them are actually really nice additions.

  • Activities – Activities typically involve two types of scenarios: “look up” information within a webpage or “send” web content to a web application. For example, a user is interested in a restaurant and wants to see the location of it. This is the form of a “look up” Activity where the user selects the address and views an in-place view of the map using his favorite map service. [Learn how to develop Activities]
    ie8 activities
  • WebSlices – WebSlices is a new feature for websites to connect to their users by subscribing to content directly within a webpage. WebSlices behave just like feeds where clients can subscribe to get updates and notify the user of changes. These sound a lot like Firefox’s Microsummaries, except IE’s are way better in my opinion. [Learn how to develop WebSlices]
    ie8 webslices
  • Favorites Bar – The Links bar has undergone a complete makeover for Internet Explorer 8. It has been renamed the Favorites bar to enable users to associate this bar as a place to put and easily access all their favorite web content such as links, feeds, WebSlices and even Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.
    ie8 favorites bar
  • Automatic Crash Recovery – Automatic Crash Recovery (ACR) is a feature of Windows Internet Explorer 8 that can help to prevent the loss of work and productivity in the unlikely event of the browser crashing or hanging. The ACR feature takes advantage of the Loosely-Coupled Internet Explorer feature to provide new crash recovery capabilities, such as tab recovery, which will minimize interruptions to users’ browsing sessions.
    ie8 recovered tabs
  • Improved Phishing Filter – The Safety Filter continues to block known Phishing sites and now blocks sites known to contain malicious software that could harm users’ computer or steal their information. Beyond this improved protection, the Safety Filter operates more quickly than ever before to ensure that users can browse both safely and quickly.
    ie8 safety filter

 

–Download Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 (IE8 Beta 1)–

Here are the links you need to download Internet Explorer 8:

[via ActiveWin]
Thanks a ton to Oliver for the tip!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Apr 22

Backup Only Changed Portions of Files with DeltaCopy

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on August 21, 2009 by CyberNet.

deltacopy.png

arrow Windows Windows only arrow
I’ll forewarn you that DeltaCopy is something you won’t want to use for all of your backup needs because it’s not the easiest thing in the world to set up. It is, however, useful if you’re backing up large amounts of data every night that doesn’t change very much.

DeltaCopy is different than most other backup utilities because of how it handles incremental backups. Normally a program will check to see if a file has changed, and if it has it will update the file with the new data. To do this it will copy the new file over top of the old one, which for most people is just fine. When you start dealing with large files on a regular basis, however, this can take a long time to process.

What DeltaCopy does is transfer only the pieces of the file that have actually changed. For example, if you have a 1GB file and only 2MB of data has changed DeltaCopy will only transfer that 2MB instead of the entire 1GB file again. When you’re talking about gigabytes worth of data this can save a bunch of time.

The catch? In order to do this you’ll need to install both a server and client app on the respective machines. This is needed so that DeltaCopy is able to figure out what has changed in the file before transferring any of the data. So it does require some extra steps, but it may be worth it for some of you.

Aside from that the program is pretty basic and offers only the necessary features:

  • Incremental backup – Copies part of the file that is actually modified
  • Task scheduler – Profiles in DeltaCopy can run based on a schedule
  • Email notification – Administrators can receive email confirmation on successful as well as failed transfers
  • One-click restore – Backed up files can be easily restored.
  • Windows friendly environment – No need to manually modify configuration files or play around with command line options.

I know this is just a GUI to the rsync command (ported from Linux/UNIX), but it makes the whole process a bit easier to manage.

DeltaCopy Homepage (Windows only; Freeware)
Note: If running this on Vista/Win7 make sure to install it to a location that has write access (meaning a location that UAC isn’t blocking write access to). I noticed that DeltaCopy writes configuration files to the install directory, and UAC will prevent that from happening if you install it into the Program Files folder.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Apr 21

The iPhone tracking fiasco and what you can do about it

Posted in: Apple, feature, Features, gps, ios, ipad, iPhone, privacy, security, Today's Chili

By now you’ve no doubt heard about a certain iOS database file called consolidated.db. It made quite a splash yesterday when a pair of researchers, Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, from O’Reilly Media announced the “iPhone tracking software” the duo had “discovered hidden on the phones.” Here’s the problem: they didn’t discover it, at least not originally. The file, known to hold large amounts of geolocation data collected from WiFi access points and cell-towers, has been probed by forensic experts ever since the retail launch of the iPhone 4 back in June of 2010. Hell, Sean Morrissey and Alex Levinson published a physical book on the topic back in December 2010, entire excerpts of which can easily be found on Google. So either the team from O’Reilly is being disingenuous with its claims or it’s being lazy.

Regardless, the story laid dormant for months until the O’Reilly team was able to visualize the data in a very personal way. Running the team’s open-source iPhoneTracker software to see the detailed locations of our worldly travels is absolutely fascinating. Imagining the same data file in the hands of a stalker, misguided detective, or a jealous lover is downright creepy.

But how is it possible that an issue like this has avoided the tech community at large for more than a year? And more importantly, what can you do about it? Read on to find out.

Update: A timely discovery from Vishal — here’s a note from Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell [PDF] to Congressmen Edward Markey and Joe Barton, providing a detailed look at its privacy policy, presumably regarding this issue.

Continue reading The iPhone tracking fiasco and what you can do about it

The iPhone tracking fiasco and what you can do about it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 11:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 20

CyberNotes: Backup Files When Your Computer is Idle

Posted in: CyberNotes, Features, Freeware, Screenshots, Software, Tips and Tricks, Today's Chili

This article was written on April 03, 2008 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Tutorial Thursday

The biggest reasons that I hear as to why people don’t perform backups is that they are either too lazy to set them up, or there just isn’t a good time to schedule them. The later excuse is often because they don’t want to “waste” their computer’s processing power and memory performing a backup when they are actually trying to use their computer. Sure they could leave it on overnight, but that just seems silly to leave a computer on for an extra 8 hours when all you need is 20 or 30 minutes to perform an incremental backup.

If you use one of those two excuses I’m hoping that the free Windows application I’m going to show you today will solve both of them. The solution is called IdleBackup, and as the name implies it can be used to backup important files and folders on your computer. The thing that really makes this unique is that it will check to see if the computer has been idle for at least one minute before performing a backup.

Once you get IdleBackup installed on your computer you’ll be presented with a window that looks like this:

idlebackup setup
(Click to Enlarge)

As you can see it is a pretty simple program without an over abundant amount of things to confuse you. All you have to do is check the box(es) corresponding to the areas on your computer that you want to backup. Each folder that you designate will be listed below the selection area for easy viewing.

The next thing that you’ll want to configure is the destination location for the backup files. This can be a location on the current hard drive, an external drive (memory card, USB drive, etc…), or another computer on the network:

idlebackup configure destination

idlebackup timer And lastly you’ll want to set how often the files should be backed up. Check the Automatic on box if you want IdleBackup to stay on a set interval, otherwise backups will only be performed when you manually start them. If you do decide to enable the automatic backups you’ll want to specify how often the program should check to see whether the files have changed or not.

Backups, unless manually started, will only begin once the computer is idle for one minute regardless of whether the timer has hit the magic number you specified. That means if you schedule a backup for every 15 minutes, but use your computer for four straight hours the backup won’t begin until after you’ve finished.

The countdown area will show how long you have to wait before another backup is performed, but if you see it “stuck” on 60 seconds (like in the screenshot to the right) it’s because the computer is not idle. Once there is no activity on the machine the countdown will wait 60 seconds to ensure that the computer is idle, and then it will begin the backup process.

By default the IdleBackup will check keyboard/mouse usage and CPU activity to determine whether the computer is idle. I’m not sure how low the CPU usage needs to get before being considered “idle,” but if you find that backups are never being performed it might be good to disable the Cpu activity check feature.

There are some things that would be nice to configure, such as the amount of time the PC has to be idle before initializing a backup. However, that is a tradeoff you have to make for getting an application that is extremely simple to use.

Note: The first time that you run a backup it may take awhile depending on how many things need to be transferred. After that it will only copy changed files, and will never delete a file from the destination even if it is deleted from the source.

Get IdleBackup

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Apr 19

AppHider for Mac Puts Program Shortcuts in Menu Bar

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Mac, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on July 15, 2009 by CyberNet.

apphider-3.png

arrow Mac Mac only arrow
It’s not often that I write about Mac apps because I don’t find some of them all that interesting, but I came across one that I thought was pretty useful. AppHider is a free program who’s goal is to tuck apps away into the Menu Bar. It then lets you assign any keyboard shortcut or AppleScript to the menu options you create.

Where would this be useful? The reason I wanted something like this is because I use the Spaces virtual desktop feature all of the time. If I already have a Safari or Firefox window open on another desktop and I click on the icon in the Dock it won’t open another window. I have to click on the icon and then press Command+N to get a new window. By throwing it up in the Menu Bar I can get one-click access to opening a new browser window no matter which Space I’m in.

You can configure AppHider to work with just about any program, and it’s actually just a Preference Pane instead of a full-blown program:

apphider-1.png

If you’re not into using Spaces I’m not sure how useful something like this would be, but it may have other purposes as well.

AppHider Homepage [Mac only; free]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Apr 18

T-Mobile G-Slate review

Posted in: Android, feature, Features, Google, honeycomb, LG, review, t-mobile, Today's Chili, video
The tablet wars are building, petty disputes that will soon lead to bloodshed. Products will be launched into battle only to be gunned down straight out of their boxes, crying for their fabricators as bigger, faster, better slates step over the stricken chassis of their predecessors, running on to their own brief bits of glory. At a high level it’s obviously Android vs. Apple vs. The Rest, but battle lines are forming as we consumers, caught in the middle, try to decide just what the right size is for a tablet.

Right now two camps seem to be getting the most supporters: seven-inchers, like the Streak 7 and BlackBerry PlayBook, and 10-inchers, like the Motorola Xoom and the Apple iPad. But, sometimes weapon systems need to be a little more specialized. Sometimes the templates don’t fit, and the $530 (after rebate, on-contract) T-Mobile G-Slate by LG isn’t fitting into those categories, slotting somewhere in between with its 8.9-inch display backed with Tegra 2 graphics, 4G HSPA+ wireless, and all the oomph you want in a modern Android device. It’s a little smaller and little lighter than the 10-inchers, bigger and meatier than the sevens and, by cutting down the middle, it hits almost all the right marks.

Gallery: T-Mobile G-Slate

Continue reading T-Mobile G-Slate review

T-Mobile G-Slate review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 14

Ask Engadget: best Android smartphone with a physical keyboard?

Posted in: Android, AskEngadget, feature, Features, Google, GoogleAndroid, keyboard, qwerty, smartphone, Today's Chili

We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Michael, who needs a physical keyboard with his next Android phone. Because she said so. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“My girlfriend is currently using the T-Mobile G1. Her contract is up soon, and she’s looking for a new Android smartphone. Her requirements are that it should be Android-based with a physical keyboard, good battery life and the hardware shouldn’t be too out of date. My own research resulted in the HTC Desire Z, but isn’t there something similar (or upcoming) with more improved hardware (Tegra 2, perhaps)? Thank you in anticipation.”

Alright, Android junkies — we know more than a handful of you rely heavily on a physical keyboard, so which one’s superior? Intelligent responses are encouraged in comments below.

Ask Engadget: best Android smartphone with a physical keyboard? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Apr 2011 22:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 14

TiVo survey hints at multiroom companion box, four tuner DVR in the future

Posted in: dual-core, DualCore, dvr, Features, leak, tivo, Today's Chili

If you were wondering what is next for TiVo, another leaked customer survey may give some indications. ZatzNotFunny has a few screenshots, and the questions ask customers about their interest in a companion box that could sit in another room and stream live TV or recordings from the DVR on a second TV, as well as their interest in a DVR with four tuners. Windows Media Center fans with four tuner InfiniTV setups or Moxi owners with three are unlikely to accept anything with less, and TiVo itself already ships a three tuner box for Virgin Media in the UK while cable and satellite providers have largely stuck with two, making it a logical feature to beat them on. Those weren’t the only features users were asked about, they also ranked items like the ability to hide SD versions of channels from the guide, browse recorded shows on every DVR from any box and other UI related options. TiVo is apparently figuring out where it should allocate resources going forward and while we’d suggest enabling the second core of that processor and extending the new Premiere UI across all menus, they didn’t ask us. Check out the full text of the survey a tipster forwarded to us after the break and see if TiVo missed anything else you might want them to focus on.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Continue reading TiVo survey hints at multiroom companion box, four tuner DVR in the future

TiVo survey hints at multiroom companion box, four tuner DVR in the future originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 13

BlackBerry PlayBook review

Posted in: 7-inch, BlackBerry, Features, playbook, review, RIM, tablet, texas instruments, ti, Today's Chili, video

The words “play” and “book” are a bit of an odd choice for RIM’s latest attempt at consumer relevance, a tablet that, at its core, runs one of the most hardcore and industry-friendly operating systems known to man. The OS is QNX and the hardware is, of course, the BlackBerry PlayBook. It’s an enterprise-friendly offering that’s also out to conquer the consumer tablet ecosphere, hoping to follow in the footsteps of the BlackBerry handsets that have filled the pockets of corporate executives and BBM addicts around the globe.

It’s something of a serious tablet when compared to the competition running software from Apple and Google and, while it certainly has games, its biggest strengths are rather more boring. It does a really great job at displaying PowerPoint presentations, for example, and has the security chops to keep last quarter’s dismal sales figures from falling into the wrong hands. Exciting stuff? No, but useful features for sure, and regardless of whether you find those intriguing or boring this is RIM’s seven-inch, Flash-having but 3G-lacking tablet clad in an unassuming but extremely sophisticated exterior. It’s what’s running behind the glass that disappoints.

Gallery: RIM BlackBerry PlayBook

Continue reading BlackBerry PlayBook review

BlackBerry PlayBook review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 11

WrapUp: SearchTabs Enhances Your Google Results, Find Source Images for Desktop Wallpapers, and More

Posted in: Features, Firefox 3, Google, Tips and Tricks, Today's Chili, verizon, WrapUp

This article was written on October 15, 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–

google shared docs.jpgShared Folders Now on Google Docs
Google has added a feature to Google Docs that I’m sure collaborators will love. They now let you share an entire folder of documents with a group of people instead of having to specify permissions on a per-document basis. That means you can have a folder of docs for co-workers, another for family members, and so on. This just got a lot more useful for me!


office 2010.jpgMicrosoft Ditches Works for Office 2010 Starter
Microsoft has decided to give the axe to MS Works, and replace it with Office 2010 Starter edition. This will included stripped-down ad-filled versions of both Word and Excel that will ship on many new PC’s… instead of the current 60-day trial solution that is getting included. I’m a bit torn as to whether this will be good or bad. In some ways I’m happy I won’t have to hear people say “why can’t I edit my documents in Office anymore?” I’m a bit concerned, however, as to what the quality of ads will be like, and what information Microsoft will be able to collect from users as a result of that.


verizon.jpgVerizon Promises Android Phones with Google Voice Support
Verizon and Google made a joint announcement that they will be working together to serve up some Android-powered phones this year. They also said that they will be including support for Google Voice, which was obviously a jab at Apple/AT&T considering the lack of support for the service from those two companies. This should definitely shine some more light on the Android platform, which will hopefully give Google the push they need to continually innovate in the mobile area.


–News in Brief–

walmart phone plan.jpgWalmart Offering $45 Unlimited Nationwide Cellphone Plan
The retail giant Walmart will begin offering a no-contract cellphone plan in the coming days that includes unlimited minutes, data, and messaging for a mere $45 per month.


gmail mean-1.jpgGmail Labs Introduces “Got the Wrong Bob?”
 Google can analyze the recipients that you have selected in an email composition, and see if you’ve likely chosen the correct people based on past email habits.


youtube details.jpgYouTube Shows Video Info
By right-clicking on a YouTube video you can now get information like bitrate, frame rate, and other details.


teen entrepreneur.jpgTen Teen Entrepreneurs to Watch
TechCrunch outlines 10 teens that you should keep an eye out for… because you’ll probably hear about them again in the future.


google sites.jpgGoogle Sites Gets More Features
When using Google Sites you can add things like documents, spreadsheets, calendars, and more.


schmidt.jpgGoogle’s (Lack of) Acquisition Process
 Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt admits that Larry and Sergey buy companies on a whim.


quickview.jpgQuickly View Formatted PDF’s in your Google Search Results
Google now includes a “Quick View” option next to PDF search results to make reading PDF’s less painful.


skipscreen.jpgMediaFire Pushes for a Firefox Extension to be Banned
MediaFire is urging Mozilla to remove a Firefox extension that is against their terms of service.


meebo.jpgMeebo Hits 90 Million Users
Congrats to Meebo for inching even closer to the huge 100 million user milestone!


pirate bay bunker.jpgPirate Bay Relocates to Nuclear Bunker
The Pirate Bay is protecting themselves from physical attacks by relocating to a nuclear warfare bunker.


–Tips, Tutorials, and Reviews–

searchtabs.jpgSearchTabs Enhances Your Google Results
The SearchTabs Firefox extension is pretty cool because it leverages the data from Xmarks, which includes over one billion user bookmarks. SearchTabs looks at this data and displays stats next to the results letting you know how each one ranks in particular categories. This can definitely be helpful when trying to determine how reputable something is that you’re reading.


disk2vhd.jpgCreate a Virtual Machine Image From Your Hard Drive
Interestingly enough the Microsoft-owned Sysinternals company has created a free application that lets you turn the OS on your hard drive into a virtual machine image. The image that is generated can then be used in one of numerous virtual machine applications, or when you’re in Windows 7/Vista you can actually mount and browse the contents of the image without actually needing to fire it up.


photojoy.jpgCreate Dynamic Desktop Wallpapers
PhotoJoy is a free Windows app that lets you create dynamic wallpapers and screensavers from the photos you have stored on your computer. If you’re looking for a way to spice up your desktop this is an awesome way to do it. And, if you’re anything like me, you have plenty of photos on your computer for it to work with.


tineye.jpgFind Source Images for Desktop Wallpapers
I’m sure it’s happened to you before where you’ve seen an image or screenshot of an image that you really want to use as your wallpaper, but you’re not sure where the original high-res version can be found. That’s where TinEye comes in. Just upload the image, and it will try to locate some higher quality versions of the same photo that will hopefully be good enough to grace your desktop.


–Tips in Brief–

firefox 37 thumbnails.jpgFirefox 3.7 Starts Prepping for Windows 7
Firefox 3.7 is including Windows 7-specific features like jumplists and per-tab Taskbar thumbnails… it’s just disappointing that this final release won’t be available until next year.


doubletwist.jpgDoubleTwist: Another Media Player
This is a decent media player that supports a wide range of devices, including Android-powered gadgets.


wheresmycellphone.jpgWhere’s My Cell Phone Service Calls Your Phone
That’s right… you won’t have to ask one of your friends to call your phone the next time you can’t find it. Although that does require you to have it off of silent, and you have to be in the general vicinity if you want to hear it.


google homepage.jpgJoin the Minimalist Google Homepage Prototype
Google is testing a truly minimalist homepage with not much more than a search box and a few buttons. Just run a quick script and you’ll be able to join in the fun.


color code outlook.jpgColor Code Outlook for Easier Management
Make some of your emails stand out from the others by color coding them as they fly in.


default browser.jpgMake a Portable Browser Your Default
If you prefer to use a browser that is self-contained (a.k.a. portable) on your machine this is what you need to do to make it the default one.


windows mobile 65.jpgWindows Mobile 6.5 Review
Who would have thought… the reviews for Windows Mobile 6.5 aren’t looking too good. Gizmodo even goes as far as to say that the changes are barely noticeable.


tuberadio.jpgCreate Music Video Playlists with TubeRadio.fm
This website, which will remind you a lot of iTunes, lets you queue up a bunch of music videos that you want to watch.


–Downloads–

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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