Better bring an umbrella if you’re going out, because the Windows Phone 7 hardware leaks are really starting to rain down. We’ve so far peeked pre-release handsets from ASUS, HTC (twice), and LG, and now Samsung is pitching in with what looks like a device fated to dance on retail shelves. Details are, as usual, scarce on the ground, but the angular aesthetics suggest it isn’t the AT&T-bound Cetus that recently graced the FCC. Taken together with the physical separation of the Windows-branded Start key, however, they do rather resemble what we’ve seen on ASUS’ hardware, which might suggest that there is some undercurrent of cohesive body design that Microsoft is pushing out to its hardware partners. Or maybe we’re just grasping at straws to kill the time until this OS finally launches. One more pic after the break.
This article was written on July 11, 2007 by CyberNet.
Microsoft just released the second installment of their Windows Live OneCare antivirus software, and they have added some nifty new features to it. Interestingly enough some of the new features have little to nothing to do with an antivirus application, and in my opinion should actually be included with Windows.
So what kind of features would make me say such a thing? Well, here is a list of what’s new from the OneCare blog:
Multi-PC and home network management. Helps ease management of multiple-PC environments by providing a single navigation bar for monitoring the security and maintenance of networked computers. Also enables one-click actions to resolve issues among computers within a home PC network.
Printer sharing support. Makes it easy to connect printers to local networks so all users in the vicinity can use the same printer.
Start-time optimizer. Speeds PC boot time by removing rarely used applications from start-up menu. This helps to address one of the noticeable areas of frustration for PC users as time goes on.
Proactive fixes and recommendations. OneCare constantly monitors the specific configuration of the user’s system and makes proactive fixes and recommendations to improve the computing experience.
Monthly reports. Provides a summary in the Windows Live OneCare dialogue box of key activities and recommended actions for all PCs in a local network.
Centralized backup. Enables users to centrally configure and monitor backups for all PCs covered under the same OneCare subscription, with the data from all PCs backed up to a central location.
Online photo backup. Keeps precious photos safe from theft or accidental loss by backing them up to a secure, offsite location in Windows Live Folders (available at an extra cost once v2.0 is out of beta).
So how much of that would you expect your antivirus & firewall software to do? Now don’t get me wrong, a lot of those features would indeed be nice to have, but I think they would be more appropriate if they were included with Windows.
For example, the printer sharing makes it easy to install a networked printer on all of your computers running OneCare. How does it do this? After you configure a printer on the network, OneCare 2.0 will take those same settings and apply them to the other computers. You no longer have to install the printer drivers on each computer individually because it will do all of that for you. This is especially convenient since you can install OneCare on up to 3 computers for each license you purchase.
In addition to the improved printer sharing support, OneCare also optimizes your computer’s startup time, can schedule backups of important information, and enables the use of the Live Folders service as an offsite storage solution. I would expect none of that from OneCare, but instead it is what Windows should be doing.
I give them credit for adding some unique features to the application, but this is sounding more like a software suite rather than a security suite. If you want to try out the OneCare 2.0 Beta it is available for download from here. You’ll get a 90-day trial with the normal version of OneCare and 224-days (about 7-months) with this Beta, which I found to be a generous amount of time. After that runs out though you’ll need to drop $49.95 on a 3-computer license that is good for a year.
Note: Don’t let the initial 1MB download deceive you. The real download starts after you download this "small" program.
This article was written on March 08, 2006 by CyberNet.
Congratulations to our winners: Ryan (not me) and aae55555!
We have 2 invites for you that will allow you to join the Windows Live Messenger Beta program. It seems like Microsoft has been a little scarce giving these away. Well, here is how this is going to go…All you have to do is make a comment here and I will randomly choose 2 out of the first 5 comments. I think those are pretty good odds!
The invitation can be sent to any email account, but you must supply us with your email address. The best way to do this is to fill in the email address field in the comments section. This is the best way because only I will see this address! That way you won’t get hit with spam!
This article was written on January 15, 2006 by CyberNet.
I recently was fortunate enough to win a Windows Live MessengerBeta invite from BetaNews. I have signed up for the service and would have to say that it is pretty nice. As soon as I get some invites I will be posting on how you can receive your invite from me. So make sure you keep checking back!
This article was written on May 25, 2006 by CyberNet.
It looks like Microsoft is claiming that Office 2007 Beta 2 has received over 200,000 downloads. I would say that sounds about right, because BetaNews said it has been downloaded 5,500 times from themselves and I have had 1,800+ follow the download link (I’m sure there were some people who clicked the link more than once).
That is quite a number for being released just over a day. I am trying to determine whether Vista will have more downloads or fewer downloads when it goes public. I think more people would download Office 2007 Beta 2 because they can always easily uninstall it. With Vista they will have to wipe their whole computer. It’s a tough call though.
This article was written on August 15, 2006 by CyberNet.
Apple has released Boot Camp 1.1 Beta today which appears to target some more compatibility issues when running Windows XP. Here is what they say they changed:
Support for the latest Intel-based Macintosh computers
Easier partitioning using presets for popular sizes
Ability to install Windows XP on any internal disk
iSight camera support
Support for built-in microphones
Right-click when pressing the right-hand Apple key on Apple keyboards
Improved Apple keyboard support including Delete, PrintScreen, NumLock, and ScrollLock keys
I don’t have a Mac to test this out on but I do have to admit that screenshots make it look extremely easy to use. It would be nice to run Mac OS X and Windows XP on the same machine but a hunch tells me that we shouldn’t expect anything similar to this from Microsoft. Performance-wise I wonder how well Windows XP runs on a Mac computer?
This article was written on June 25, 2007 by CyberNet.
We’ve seen this Ubuntu installer for Windows before, but now it has new features and a new name: Wubi Beta. It uses no confusing lingo, and even lets you choose a variety of options that similar applications don’t offer:
Choose the drive to install Ubuntu (should have at least 10GB available)
Choose how much room to reserve for Ubuntu (minimum is 4GB while 8GB is recommended)
After you get done with that screen it will just tell you to reboot your computer where you will then choose Ubuntu during the bootup sequence…piece of cake! This actually uses a Virtual Partition Manager known as LVPM to keep your Ubuntu installation in a single self-contained file. The reason why that is good is that if you ever decide that you don’t like Ubuntu (or one of the other Linux distributions Wubi offers) you can uninstall it just like you would any other Windows application:
Now you’re probably thinking to yourself "why not just use a LiveCD if someone wants to try it out?" The reason being that a LiveCD can’t retain any configuration and settings after the computer is restarted, so if you want to install some drivers or reconfigure some of the options you’ll be able to restart Ubuntu without loosing the things you altered.
I haven’t tried this out myself because I already have Ubuntu installed on a partition, but this looks like a viable alternative for someone wanting to try out Ubuntu without going through the typical installation.
This article was written on June 07, 2007 by CyberNet.
Big news comes today as LogMeIn releases a preview version of their application for the Mac OS. If you own more than one computer, LogMeIn is a must. It allows you to connect to any PC (or now Mac) computer located anywhere in the world using only your browser, and it’s free.
You do, however, have to install an application on the computer you’re wanting to control which is why this Mac client is important. Then you’ll be able to access that computer simply by pulling up your browser and going to the LogMeIn site where they’ll list all of the computers you have access to. There is no configuration needed for routers…it takes care of that for you.
This is something that I use on a daily basis for several different purposes. One reason I use it is to help my family out with their computer needs, because in an instant I can pull up their computer and help them out. Best of all is that they can actually see what I’m doing, whereas the Windows Remote Desktop will logout the person who is currently using the PC when I take control of it. That means that they can’t see what I’m doing when I’m controlling it, which makes it a lot easier to explain things.
Besides for that, I also use it around the house. I have a server PC that I don’t have hooked up to a monitor, and instead of using Remote Desktop I always use LogMeIn because it is faster in my opinion. You can adjust things like the color depth and screen resolution on-the-fly, but that’s often not needed since LogMeIn does a great job of picking the appropriate settings immediately when you connect.
Overall, I would have to say that LogMeIn is among my top-5 favorite applications of all-time because of the convenience that it puts at my fingertips. If you can’t tell, I highly recommend that you give it a shot.
This article was written on March 16, 2006 by CyberNet.
Finally, Microsoft has released the Technical Refresh for Office 2007 and it is GREAT! They have fixed many of the bugs that I found which increases the usability tremendously.
One of the biggest bugs that I noticed they fixed was being able to change the properties of a chart. Before it was very difficult to change the axis intervals but all of that has been fixed.
Also, don’t forget that parts of the user interface have been updated for a more streamlined look. The most notable change is the lack of a ‘File’ menu and it was replaced with the Office logo. I haven’t experienced any crashing yet but there are many people experiencing frequent crashes.
This release includes Microsoft Access, Excel, InfoPath, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word. Details on this release are as follows:
Release Date: March 13th, 2006 Directory Name: Microsoft.Office.Professional.Plus.2007.Beta.1TR-WinBeta Supplier: Microsoft Type: App Format: .exe Number of Discs: 1 Archives: 31 x 15 MB (2% rar recovery record+1 .rev volume) Files: wb-o2007propb1tr.rxx Protection: Key Requirements: CPU: 1 GHz+ / RAM: 128MB+ / HDD: 1gb+ Link: http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/default.mspx
This article was written on June 21, 2007 by CyberNet.
Stardock just released a free public Beta of the TweakVista software that will be launching in August of this year. This program is really focused on those people who want to control many different aspects of the Vista operating system that wouldn’t ordinarily be easy to change. Stardock says that the software is geared towards both the casual and power users, but there are a lot of things in there that would confuse any non-geeks.
So what kind of stuff does this program let you change? Here’s the list as provided by Stardock:
Security Handling. Users can now easily and safely adjust the way Windows handles security prompting including the new UAC (User Account Control)
Memory Optimization. TweakVista knows which start-up services different types of users will typically use and offers recommendations on what services to disable. Users can easily switch between different profiles (including the default) based on their needs to maximize performance and memory use.
Resource Control. Tweak Vista has several features for keeping an eye on and flagging programs that use excessive amounts of resources (memory, CPU, or system handles) as well as integrating seamlessly with built in hardware diagnostic reports.
Start-Up Management. TweakVista not only will display and enable users to control what programs are loading on start-up but will identify in plain English what these programs do. Internet integration in the software allows users to comment on these processes within the program to one another.
Performance Assessments. TweakVista uses the new Windows Vista assessment features to benchmark nearly every aspect of a user’s PC and allow them to submit their results for comparison with other users of similar or upgraded hardware.
TweakVista.com integration. TweakVista partners the software development skills of Stardock with the on-going tweak expertise of TweakVista.com to provide an on-going live database of helpful tips and tricks for maximizing the Windows Vista experience.
As you can see there are a lot of things that you can customize, and instead of trying to put it all in a bunch of screenshots I put together a quick 2-minute video that shuffles through all of the different tabs and options. There’s no music so it is a little boring to watch, but just hit the pause button if you want to examine a tab’s options a little closer.
While in Beta TweakVista is completely free, but when starting up the program I was promptly notified that it expires at the end of the "pre-release period." I’m not sure how long that is, but once it is available in final form there will be a feature-limited free version as well as a premium version costing $19.95.
One of the cool things about this program is that you can run it, configure the options that you want in Vista, and they will remain that way until you change the options back. That’s because most of the settings modify registry values, which will remain changed even if you uninstall TweakVista.
One thing that I would like to see them throw in is an Alt-Tab configuration screen. As I previously pointed out it is possible to adjust the settings of Vista’s Alt-Tab thumbnails to utilize more of your screen, but it is kind of a pain to change. This is something a user interface would be extremely beneficial for doing.
Other than that there are a few tools that we’ve mentioned here that also help with configuring Vista. The first being TweakUAC which can help you avoid UAC prompts without needing to restart your computer. The second program is Vispa which has a bunch of different configuration options, but no where near the extent of TweakVista.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
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Apple has 
Stardock just released a free public Beta of the 