WrapUp: 30 Safari Extensions to Try, Unlocker Supports 64-Bit Machines, and More

This article was written on July 07, 2010 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–

ethernet.jpgEthernet Cables to Replace HDMI?
Large companies such as Sony, Samsung, and LG are contributing to a new technology called HDBaseT that could eventually replace HDMI.


gmail conversations.jpgGoogle Will Let Users Disable Gmail Conversations
Google is apparently working on letting users turn off the conversations feature in Gmail so that they can view their emails in a more traditional “flat” view.


firefox addons.jpg2 Billion Firefox Add-ons Downloaded
Over 7 thousand developers have helped contribute to Firefox’s 2 billion add-on downloads.


tapulous.jpgiOS Game Developer Tapulous Acquired by Disney
The maker of the popular iPhone game Tap Tap Revenge was acquired by Disney last week.


microsoft kin.jpgMicrosoft Pulls the Plug on Kin
The Microsoft Kin phone has only been on sale for two months, and has already been discontinued so that Microsoft can focus more on the Windows Phone 7 Series that is launching later this year.


google news.jpgGoogle News Gets Redesigned
Google News has received a slight facelift and some additional features, such as selecting which news sources you’d like to see more/less.


woot.jpgAmazon Acquires Deal Site Woot
Last week Amazon bought Woot.com, a site that offers one deal per day, for an estimated $110 million.


hulu plus.jpgHulu Plus Subscription Officially Revealed
Hulu is offering (currently by invite only) a monthly subscription-based viewing plan that makes their content viewable on some mobile devices and video game consoles.


chrome logo.jpgChrome Overtakes Safari in Usage
According to StatCounter the Google Chrome browser has inched by Safari coming in at 8.97% and 8.88% usage, respectively.


–Tips, Tutorials, and Reviews–

chrome tab manager.jpgMore Ways to View/Manage Your Chrome Tabs
This nice little Chrome extension provides an icon-only view of all your open tabs across all open windows.


unlocker.jpgUnlocker Removes “In Use” Files on 64-Bit Machines, too
One of my favorite apps, Unlocker, now supports 64-bit machines. That means you can remove virtually any file regardless of whether something already has a hold of it.


iphone backup.jpgToggle iPhone Backups On/Off in iTunes
This free Windows app will let you toggle backups on/off for your iPhone in a single click.


changedetection.jpgChangeDetection Watches for Updated Sites
If you want to monitor a site for changes head on over to ChangeDetection.com to set it up. Once configured it will email you anytime it detects an update to that particular page.


browser speed test.jpgLatest Browser Speed Comparison
This is a great set of performance tests that put the latest browsers up against each other.


pixelpipe.jpgUploading HD Videos from Your iPhone Using Pixelpipe
By default the new iPhone 4 doesn’t upload full HD videos to YouTube, but using a free app such as Pixelpipe will help you get around that limitation.


lasso.jpg30 Safari Extensions You Can Try Right Now
Get everything from Gmail counters to Twitter integration right inside the Safari browser.


–Downloads–

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:


Intel Core i7-990X reviewed: best performance ever, but far from best value

As T-Pain once so wisely proclaimed, “it ain’t hardcore unless it’s hexacore.” Intel should have no worries with its Core i7-990X, which has enough processing units to satisfy even the most demanding of hip hop moguls, but it pads out its extreme credentials anyway with an audacious 3.46GHz default speed. That can be Turbo Boosted to 3.73GHz (yes, we are talking about a CPU that can run at 3,730MHz right out of the box) and there’s 12MB of L3 cache and three channels for DDR3 memory to justify the $999 price tag. Well, to partially justify it, anyhow. Tech Report and Tom’s Hardware both ran this new chip through their benchmarking suites and both concluded it’s the fastest consumer processor around, but neither was willing to recommend it as a terribly astute purchase decision. Then again, when has an Extreme Edition of anything ever been a good value proposition?

Intel Core i7-990X reviewed: best performance ever, but far from best value originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 12:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceTech Report, Tom’s Hardware  | Email this | Comments

AMD compares upcoming Llano Fusion APU with Intel Core i7, puts the heat on Sandy Bridge (video)

So far, AMD’s new Fusion chips have been all about the low-end, whether you’re talking in terms of price, performance or power consumption, but the company has a vision for its future that has these new Accelerated Processing Units dominating every segment of the market. In order to do that, AMD will need to overcome Intel’s latest generation of mainstream processors, the Core 2011 family we’re more familiar with under the Sandy Bridge codename. Before you rush past the break and watch AMD’s own comparison between said Intel hardware and the forthcoming quad-core Llano APU, be aware that processor performance can rarely be generalized from a single test alone and the one we’re witnessing is specifically geared to highlight the Fusion chip’s strengths. All that said, the workload demonstrated by AMD — a 3D game, HD video playback (plus post-processing on the Llano rig), Excel calculations, and some 3D modeling, all running simultaneously — is handled most impressively by the A8-3510MX APU, which even manages to use less power than Intel’s 2GHz Core i7-2630QM. See the video after the break.

[Thanks, Vygantas]

Continue reading AMD compares upcoming Llano Fusion APU with Intel Core i7, puts the heat on Sandy Bridge (video)

AMD compares upcoming Llano Fusion APU with Intel Core i7, puts the heat on Sandy Bridge (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 12:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAMDUnprocessed (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

Website Performance Test and Optimizations

This article was written on September 21, 2010 by CyberNet.

web page test.png

A few weeks ago I was browsing around looking for a website benchmark and optimization tool, and in doing so I stumbled across a real gem. WebPageTest.org is what I’ll safely call a powerful set of data that you can quickly pull up about any site. Even better is the fact that you can have it speed test the site from one of a dozen different locations from around the world.

Sounds like a pretty basic test, right? Not at all. If you start to drill into the data you can see all kinds of nitty gritty details. The waterfall will display load times of all the objects, and the optimization checklist tries to point out some areas you might be able to speed up the site (by combining JavaScript files, for example). The URL will process both of those reports twice: one request being made with a clean slate, and the second request makes use of images that are still cached. That way you can examine what the performance may be like for a repeat visitor.

From there you can drill into each of the reports. The waterfall is definitely my favorite because it will also provide details on how long the DNS lookup took for each item, how long the content actually took to download, and a lot more info you probably don’t care about. It even breaks down both the request and response headers for every single item on the page, which can be especially useful when troubleshooting issues.

Oh, and did I mention that you can choose to have screenshots rendered by IE 6, IE 7, IE 8, or IE 9 Beta? Just expand the advanced settings before starting a test, and you can select from one of those 4 browsers. As part of the results you’ll be given a screenshot of what the page looked like after it finished loading.

This is great stuff. 100% free, exportable data, performance review, content breakdown, and so much more. I can’t say enough about how awesome this is, and everyone I’ve shown it to feels the same way.

WebPageTest.org Homepage

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:


Vista SP1 Download Coming Soon

This article was written on August 29, 2007 by CyberNet.

Vista SP1

Microsoft has taken the lid off of Vista SP1 (Service Pack 1) by releasing a detailed report of what to expect when it is released. This announcement comes the same day that Microsoft pushed out two of the most important updates since Vista’s release, both of which make significant improvements to the usability of Vista.

All the information that you need regarding Vista SP1 is below, and it’s broken up into categories so that you can quickly find what you’re looking for. Disappointingly there was no news of a revamped User Account Control (UAC), but hopefully they’ll consider adding a "remember my choice" option so that it isn’t so redundant.

UPDATE: A Release Candidate of Vista SP1 has been made available publicly, and feel free to read our initial thoughts on it.

Alright, now we’ll take a look at the important release dates that were mentioned as well as some of the bugs that will be fixed.

–Vista SP1 Beta Release Date & Availability–

Microsoft said that they plan on releasing Vista SP1 Beta to a moderate amount of testers (10,000 to 15,000) by mid-September. It’s speculated that a public build of Vista SP1 won’t be ready until it hits the release candidate stage, which Microsoft hasn’t provided a timeframe for.

There’s no doubt that Vista SP1 Beta will be leaked to Internet shortly after it is in the hands of testers, especially since another pre-beta version was just leaked the other day. This pre-beta is a standalone version with the build number 6001.16633, and it’s a hefty 700MB download. If you do a search on torrent sites for that build number you should have no troubles finding it.

–Vista SP1 Release Date–

We knew that Vista SP1 was in the works when Google hammered Microsoft with an antitrust complaint regarding the integrated search in Vista. Microsoft was forced to open the search capabilities to third-party applications, and Vista SP1 will be doing just that. Microsoft, however, still has plenty of time before they have to worry about Google overtaking the search capabilities in Vista.

The final release date of Vista SP1 is expected to be in the first quarter of 2008. They are holding back on announcing an official release date because they want to hit the "quality bar" first, but they said that it will ship alongside Windows Server 2008 RTM (release to manufacturing).

–Vista SP1 Delivery Format–

When Vista SP1 is released it will come in several different formats just like XP’s Service Packs did. Almost everyone will probably be using the Express version which will download only the updates that are needed for your computer, but I always like to have the standalone on hand. Here are the three different formats that will be available:

Express – Requires an Internet connection but minimizes the size of the download by sending only the changes needed for a specific computer (approximately 50 MB for x86-based operating systems).

Standalone – Recommended for computers with limited Internet connectivity and for applying the service pack to multiple computers. The download size is larger than the express package (about 1GB for the x86 version), but customers can apply a single package to any Windows Vista version and language combination (within a platform).

Slipstream – The slipstream version of Windows Vista SP1 is media that already contains the service pack, which companies can use to deploy the operating system to new computers or to upgrade existing computers. Slipstream media will also be available to Volume Licensing customers.

–Vista SP1 Features–

Reliability improvements:

  • Improved reliability and compatibility of Windows Vista when used with newer graphics cards in several specific scenarios and configurations.
  • Improved reliability when working with external displays on a laptop.
  • Improved Windows Vista reliability in networking configuration scenarios.
  • Improved reliability of systems that were upgraded from Windows XP to Windows Vista.
  • Increased compatibility with many printer drivers.
  • Increased reliability and performance of Windows Vista when entering sleep and resuming from sleep.

Performance improvements:

  • Improves the speed of copying and extracting files.
  • Improves the time to become active from Hibernate and Resume modes.
  • Improves the performance of domain-joined PCs when operating off the domain; in the current release version of Windows Vista, users would experience long delays when opening the File dialog box.
  • Improves performance of Windows Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista, reducing CPU utilization and speeding JavaScript parsing.
  • Improves battery life by reducing CPU utilization by not redrawing the screen as frequently, on certain computers.
  • Improves the logon experience by removing the occasional 10-second delay between pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL and the password prompt displaying.
  • Addresses an issue in the current version of Windows Vista that makes browsing network file shares consume significant bandwidth and not perform as fast as expected.

More Information: Vista Blog, All About Microsoft, Ed Bott, and jkOnTheRun

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:


Sandy Bridge memory performance tested, value of expensive top-shelf memory questioned

Sandy Bridge memory performance tested, value of expensive top-shelf memory questioned

Intel’s Sandy Bridge chipset hasn’t exactly had a flawless launch, but let’s move past that and take a look at how well it performs before it starts breaking. One of the improvements here is meant to be better memory performance, and The Tech Report ran a variety of sticks through the gamut to see what the benefits of high-cost, high-speed memory is versus the cheaper stuff. The results showed that, in the vast majority of cases, DDR3-1333MHz memory was barely outclassed by the DDR3-2133MHz stuff, exhibiting only a modest improvement in games, just a couple FPS at most. Lesson learned? Save your pennies — or go ahead and spend ’em elsewhere, like that new Thermaltake case.

Sandy Bridge memory performance tested, value of expensive top-shelf memory questioned originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceThe Tech Report  | Email this | Comments

Would You Pay $50 for a Bloat-Free Computer?

This article was written on March 21, 2008 by CyberNet.

sony fresh start

Sony has begun to do what we have all been asking begging of computer manufacturers: deliver a bloat-free computer. There is a catch are several catches though. At this point the option is only available for a custom-configured Sony VGN-TZ2000, and Vista Business must be your operating system of choice. Oh, and we can’t forget to mention that there is a $50 premium that you must pay to get a squeaky clean PC.

Sony dubs the option Fresh Start, and while they don’t say exactly which things your system will come without they do have a reassuring statement regarding it:

Opt for a Fresh Start™ and your VAIO PC will undergo a system optimization service where specific VAIO applications, trial software and games are removed from your unit prior to shipment. Fresh Start™ safely scrubs your PC to free up valuable hard drive space and conserve memory and processing power while maximizing overall system performance right from the start.

What I love is that it says they “safely scrub your PC” which is almost a statement of admission as to how terrible the software is that they actually pre-install normally. I’m actually surprised that they wrote that second sentence in the description at all because that will leave a lot of people wondering why Sony wouldn’t want to give them the best experience possible right off the bat.

I would like to give Dell some credit because I believe that they are leaps and bounds better than many of the manufacturers out there. Even on one of their budget computers you’re able to remove any antivirus software and productivity suite, which is a lot more than I can say for their competitors. And Dell doesn’t charge a dime for turning those things off, but then again there are some other things that comes with their PC’s that you still can’t have removed at the factory.

So what do you think? I know I’d go for it, but is forking out an additional $50 worth it to you considering how much hassle it could save in the future? I would assume that the computer also comes with a way to restore the system back to this “Fresh” state, but there is no mention of that.

UPDATE: Looks like Sony will be removing the $50 fee tomorrow.

[via Engadget]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:


USB 3.0 Transfer Speeds are Blazing Fast

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

usb 3.0.jpg
Picture of a USB 3.0 cable

Last week Intel unveiled USB 3.0 specs that demonstrates how the next generation USB is going to work. USB 3.0, also known as SuperSpeed USB, is due out in 2009 or 2010. Intel was even kind enough to make the new specification royalty free so that developers don’t have to fork out money just to make devices that utilize the new technology.

What’s so great about USB 3.0 that will make you want to jump on the bandwagon? Here’s a list of some of my favorite features:

  • Faster transfers, duh. USB 3.0 will be able to move data at a mouth-watering 4.8Gbit/s (614MByte/s). That’s 10 times faster than USB 2.0, and the speed difference will definitely be noticeable with larger files. For example, a 27GB movie will take 70-seconds to transfer as opposed to 15-minutes with USB 2.0.
  • Read and write simultaneously. With the current USB technologies devices can’t read and write at the same time, but that’s a thing of the past with USB 3.0.
  • More power output. The power output will be bumped up from 100 milliamps to 900 milliamps. You’ll therefore be able to charge more power-hungry devices at a single time.
  • Power friendly. USB 3.0 will use an interrupt-driven protocol instead of a polling system when the host is looking for traffic. That means your laptop won’t have to waste precious resources trying to see if a connected camera is trying to send data.
  • Backwards compatible. You’ll be able to plug-in a USB 3.0 cable into a USB 2.0 device, and still reap some of the benefits like the new interrupt-driven protocol for conserving power.

Sounds great to me. Some of the things like the faster data transfers will be governed by what your hardware is capable of though. Mechanical hard drives will be one of the biggest limitations for users as they won’t be able to write data faster than USB 3.0 will be able to transfer it. SATA drives capable of 6.0Gbit/s speeds might be out in time for USB 3.0, otherwise we might be relying on solid state drives (SSD) to make the most of the technology.

Checkout Maximum PC for more photos of what the USB 3.0 cable looks like.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:


PhraseExpress 6: HTML Formatting & Performance Enhancements

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

phraseexpress.png
(Click to Enlarge)

We’ve written about PhraseExpress before because of the fact that it’s a free application for personal use ($50 for commercial users). They are pretty smart giving away their software for home users, because they know once you start using it you’ll want to have it in front of you while you’re at work as well. So if you do happen to be a PhraseExpress user you’ll be pleased to know that version 6 was just released today, and includes some nice improvements:

  • Support for HTML formatting
    PhraseExpress now supports Rich Text and HTML-formatted phrases which can include pictures and hyperlinks as well.
  • Up to 10x faster loading time
    A new file format reduces the phrase file size by more than 10 times compared to previous versions.
  • Restrict Autotext and Hotkeys to certain applications
    The scope of Autotexts and Hotkeys of any phrase can now be restricted to certain programs or excluded from a customizable list of applications.
  • Autocomplete for individual words
    The unique text prediction feature which has been introduced in v5 has been significantly improved. Additionally, it also offers to auto-complete single words rather than full sentences only.
  • Multi-language support
    PhraseExpress supports Unicode for multi-language phrases but now also offers to switch the keyboard language layout automatically.
  • Automated Email creation
    PhraseExpress can now compose an email including html text/bitmaps (Outlook only), file attachement and definition of cc: and bcc:. The body text length is now only limited by Outlook and PhraseExpress can be configured to send the email immediately without need of confirmation.
  • Runs from a USB memory device
    PhraseExpress can now be used on a USB memory stick. If running from an USB stick it stores all user and configuration data on the removable device only and leaves no traces on the host PC.

Another free text replacement utility is Texter, and while it isn’t as powerful as PhraseExpress it is definitely a fast and simple tool. Give them both a whirl and see which one works best for you. But remember, PhraseExpress is only free for personal use.

Get PhraseExpress for Windows [via Lifehacker]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:


iPhone 3GS Camera Review

This article was written on June 24, 2009 by CyberNet.

It was a tough decision, but I decided to upgrade my iPhone 3G to the iPhone 3GS. I wasn’t sure if the new features would be enough to justify the purchase, but I figured I should be able to sell my iPhone 3G on eBay and recoup a good chunk of the cost. So I pre-ordered the phone, and got it delivered to me last Friday morning.

I’m not going to do a full-fledged review because I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of those already. Gizmodo has a really good in-depth review, and so does Engadget if that’s what you’re looking for. Instead I really wanted to focus on the camera, and then briefly throw in my thoughts on some of the other features.

–The Camera–

They bumped up the resolution of the camera to 3.2MP, but the thing I love the most would have to be the auto/manual focus capabilities. I’ve never seen a camera that would let you choose which spot you want to focus on simply by touching it on the screen, but I’m sure that will be the next big thing on point-and-shoot cameras. Combining this with some camera-specific apps I found (more details in a later post) will make this a valuable device to be carrying in my pocket.

I have quite a few friends who ended up grabbing the iPhone 3GS, and one of the first things there’s always comments on is the quality of the images. Some are surprised at how good they turn out, while others say it could be a lot better. I think for a phone the camera is pretty darn good… except in low-light situations where a flash is a must-have.

I took some time to walk around Millennium Park in Chicago since it’s right down the street from where I work, and along the way I took some pictures. I didn’t just take them with the iPhone 3GS though, I also took the exact same photos with my Canon XSi Digital SLR for comparison sake. The iPhone doesn’t really let you adjust any settings when taking photos, and so I decided to set my DSLR to fully automatic mode in the spirit of keeping things fair. I did my best to split each of the photos so that you can really see the differences when they are side-by-side.

The “Bean”
bean.jpg
Click the image to view a larger version

 

Garden/City View
garden.jpg
Click the image to view a larger version

 

Concert Hall
hall.jpg
Click the image to view a larger version

 

Flowers
flowers.jpg
Click the image to view a larger version

As you can tell from the example photos the iPhone 3GS isn’t the best camera, but it’s pretty good for those times you don’t have a dedicated camera on you. One thing I did when taking the photos above is I let the iPhone focus on the center without manually adjusting it. I noticed, however, that if you’d tap the screen to focus on a different part of the photo that the brightness would also adjust accordingly. So after you get used to working with the iPhone’s camera you might be able to take some pretty nice photos.

–The Other Features–

Here’s my quick thoughts on the other new features:

  • Speed – I didn’t think the speed increase would make that much of a difference, but it does. Hearing a stat like “2 times faster” doesn’t really put things into perspective until you sit down to use it. Everything is snappier… switching between apps, loading websites, playing games, and so on. Plus there’s double the amount of memory, and because of that I noticed Safari has never unloaded from memory. That means the websites I was viewing when I closed the browser will be there (without refreshing) the next time I open Safari.
  • Video – There is no doubt in my mind that this will become my primary method for capturing videos. Previously I had used a point-and-shoot camera for taking videos since I don’t like hassling with a bulky camcorder, and I love having a video stored as a single downloadable file. Given the amount of free space I have on my iPhone I’ll be able to save hours of video.
  • Voice Control – I think I’ll be surprised at how much I’ll use this. I tested it out on a few contacts, and also for controlling my music, and overall it worked pretty well. What makes this useful for me is that I can activate this even when my phone is locked by holding down the Home button, or by holding the button on my headphones. So I really don’t have to take the phone out of my pocket to call someone if I’m already listening to music. Now if only it would read the name/number to you when receiving a call with your headphones on.
  • Maps – Having the map rotate in the direction you’re facing was also a big selling point for me. Working in downtown Chicago it can be tough to figure out which way the GPS wants you to go when you’re walking since the little dot doesn’t move very fast. This makes finding your way when walking a lot easier, but I noticed that a lot of things seem to cause interference with the compass causing it to be inaccurate at times.
  • Support for Apple In-Ear Headphones – I bought Apple’s in-ear headphones a few months ago because they had some really good reviews, and I have to say they are the most comfortable pair of headphones I’ve ever owned. The main reason I got these headphones was because they supported hands-free calling with the iPhone, but the volume up/down buttons never worked since this was a hardware limitation. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that all of the buttons on the headphones are now fully supported on the iPhone 3GS.

I was running the iPhone 3.0 software on my iPhone 3G about a week before I got my new phone. Apple definitely tuned the overall performance of the software with this release, and combining that with the new hardware makes it that much faster.

There are also a lot of little things around the operating system that I’ve noticed, and I really like. Such as being able to display the remaining battery level as a percentage (on the iPhone 3GS only, apparently because previous iPhones didn’t have an accurate enough battery meter). Or the fact that when an SMS/MMS fails to send it just places an exclamation point next to the message, but it will still let you keep entering more if you want. Before if a message failed to send you’d have to wait to send that one before you could try sending another.

Overall I’m really happy that I upgraded because I use my iPhone for hours everyday when commuting on the train. For some people the upgrade may not be worthwhile, but I spend more time on this than I do my personal computer. So it’s a device that I like to keep up-to-date.

Feel free to jump into the comments and shoot us your thoughts/questions on the iPhone 3GS.

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts: