Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on May 20, 2008 by CyberNet.

I swear that Napster is as close as it gets to a cat with 9-lives. In 1999 it started off as a file sharing service that exploded with popularity. People could share and download songs freely, but the service was doomed to failure since it used central servers to connect one user to another. That made it easy for the RIAA to shut it down, which is exactly what happened in 2001. Napster then turned to a subscription-based model for music in hopes of recovering some of the $36 million they had to pay in the settlement.

They’ve been alive ever since, but not doing all that well. What they’re hoping to do today is make it easy for people to purchase DRM-free music that can be played on nearly any music player, including the iPod and iPhone. Their library consists of over 6 million songs, and for $0.99 per song (or $9.95 per album) you’ll get an MP3 that’s likely encoded at 256Kbps, and includes high-resolution album art.

Napster also has a web-based store available, which means that users on any operating system can sign-up and purchase songs with ease. You can also browse their collection of music without needing to create an account first, which is nice. The question is whether they’ll be able to compete with with the other big names offering DRM-free music, such as Amazon. Is this finally going be the formula that provides financial success for Napster?

In case you’re wondering Napster is still offering the “unlimited” music plans, but the songs you get from those are in a WMA format that is still plagued with DRM. Bummer!

Napster Homepage [via Yahoo!]
Thanks for the tip Omar!

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This article was written on April 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

Microsoft just released Windows Mobile 6.1 yesterday, and they’ve added some features that are actually pretty slick. The new home screen is really the focal point of the release. With it you have several “panels” that get expanded as you scroll up and down over them. A video demonstration of this (and other features) is at the end of the article.

The thing that really caught my attention, however, were the new text messaging layout and Internet browsing. It looks as though both of them have taken some cues from the iPhone. First off the text messaging looks like it would if you were instant messaging the person on your computer. It keeps all of the messages from an individual into one fluid layout so that you can easily keep up with the conversation.

Next, the browser. Microsoft has made it possible to zoom in and out of web pages so that you can get the “full view” of them. This way users get a more desktop-like browsing experience, but are still able to read the content by zooming in when necessary.

Here are some of the other features that you’ll find in Windows Mobile 6.1:

• Simpler e-mail and Bluetooth setup
• New Getting Started Center
• Security enhancements
• Easier Wi-Fi connection
• More personal choice

And finally lets wrap things up with a nice video demonstration put together by Microsoft:

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This article was written on May 23, 2008 by CyberNet.

I’ve read about how a lot of people have chosen to disable User Account Control (UAC) in Vista because of the headaches that can result from it. That’s mostly because of applications that have not yet been programmed to run in a general user mode, and they are still accustomed to running as a privileged user just as they did in XP.

If you’ve chosen to leave UAC enabled then there are a few different ways you can selectively bypass the UAC prompt without disabling it all together. One way is to take ownership of files, but there is also another rather clever method that takes advantage of the Task Scheduler. Here’s some background as to how it works:

Few days ago I tried to run some scheduled task that required admin privileges. After some investigation I found out that you can specify that scheduled task can run using highest privileges.

These scheduled tasks don’t prompt you with UAC. First idea that came to my mind was – OK, so if scheduled task runs on demand, then it should in fact disable UAC for specific program? I tried it and it worked… So for some time I was using on demand scheduled tasks – for example instead of running MMC I run Schtasks /Run /TN “Elevated\MMC”.

The end result is a context menu entry that shows up whenever you right-click on a file or shortcut (as pictured above). It’s labeled “Elevate me,” and works exactly as advertised. When you select that option from the menu the program runs as an administrator without a single UAC prompt.

To confirm this I ran the command line and tried to release my IP address. When running the command line normally it wouldn’t let me make the change, but using the “Elevate me” option made it possible to release my IP. And I never had a UAC prompt asking if I wanted to confirm the action.

You can also turn this into a shortcut so that you won’t even have to right-click on a file to elevate it, but you really only have to do that if a particular program always needs to run as an administrator.

Download Elevator [via Lifehacker]

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This article was written on September 06, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft briefly announced in one of their press releases today that they hired on the developer of the popular WebGuide software for Windows Media Center (both XP and Vista). This software lets Media Center users manage all of their recordings from any browser, as well as stream content from your Media Center computer. You can also stream music, pictures, and videos that are stored on the PC all from the comfort of your browser.

I’ve actually been using this software for months, and there was both free and paid versions available. The free version did just about everything except for the streaming media, and I liked the software so much that I decided to buy it for the $10 or $15 that it was. Now, however, Microsoft has decided to make the software available at no cost.

The creator of WebGuide, Doug Berrett, made this announcement yesterday afternoon in his forum. Here’s a summary of what he had to say:

I’m excited to announce that I recently finalized a business deal with Microsoft to make WebGuide available to users for free and to become a member of the Media Center team.
…
For those of you who feel I’ve sold out, given in to "the man" or crossed over to the dark side, you don’t need to send me a nasty email.  I hear yah.  Go play a round of Halo to get it out of your system.  At the end of the day, my passion is for developing cool software, and this is an opportunity to do just that.  I’d be a fool not to take advantage of it.

Honestly the interface on this program is amazing, and it even includes a mobile version for phones and PDA’s that make scheduling a piece of cake. There’s also a Vista Sidebar Gadget available so that you can manage your recordings, view scheduled shows, or search and browse the TV guide without ever opening your browser.

Another interesting part of the website is the Top List which collects anonymous television recording stats. You can then view the most recorded shows for your country, and it’s pretty interesting to see what tops off the list for different parts of the world.

I highly recommend installing this software if you’re using either XP or Vista Media Center. It will handle almost all of the configuration itself, and you can create multiple users each with customized access restrictions.

WebGuide Homepage
WebGuide Screenshots

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

Lifehacker’s Adam Pash just released the 6th installment of Texter, which can shave an insane amount of time off of repetitive tasks. Texter is used to make text replacements as you type. For example, you can have the “hotstring” mysig be replaced with a customized text signature each time it is typed.

Simple text replacements like the one I just mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg though. There are many advanced operations that you can perform, such as pre-formatting items on the clipboard and then inserting them somewhere. You can also simulate keystrokes like Control, Alt, and Tab. When you combine all of this stuff together you can create some pretty complex macros and text snippets.

Here are some of the new features in Texter 0.6:

• Instant Replacements: If you don’t like the Space, Tab, or Enter triggers, but would prefer instead that your hotstring executes as soon as you finish typing text, try out Texter’s new “Instant” option.
• Hotstring Renaming: You can now rename any current hotstring through the Texter Management by right-clicking it and defining a new one.
• Universal Autocorrect: If you like Microsoft Word’s automatic inline autocorrect try enabling Universal Spelling AutoCorrect in the Preferences.
• Scripting Shortcuts: If you’re big into using Texter to perform a little automated scripting, Texter now includes a simple keyboard shortcut that makes scripting tons easier: the Insert key. For example, if you want Texter to send an Enter keystroke, just hit Insert+Enter, which will automatically insert {Enter}. If you’re not familiar with scripts in Texter, these instructions (and this video) will help.

This thing would be a real goldmine for me if it supported HTML insertion into Rich Text Fields, like the one in Gmail or when writing a post in WordPress. If you need that feature checkout PhraseExpress (our review).

Download Texter (there is a portable no-install version available)

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