This article was written on December 04, 2005 by CyberNet.
I have been an avid user of Mozilla Firefox for quite some time now. At school, however, I was unable to install Firefox because of not having the proper permissions. They do have Firefox installed, but only version Firefox 1.0.6 and I like 1.5 much better. Since I am allotted a given space at the University, I am able to put the Portable Firefox on my roaming profile so it will follow me to any computer I go to on campus.
I decided to give the Portable Firefox a shot to see how it would work with the extensions I like to use. Well, let’s just say I can’t tell a difference between Portable Firefox and the real Firefox. I currently have IE Tab, CustomizeGoogle, Foxpose, and Tab Mix Plus installed. I have no troubles with any of them. If you are looking to Download Portable Firefox then don’t hesitate, because it works great.
This article was written on June 27, 2007 by CyberNet.
It’s time for your daily fix of iPhone updates! The first reviews are in from The Wall Street Journal (Walt Mossberg), The New York Times (David Pogue), USA Today (Ed Baig), and Newsweek (Steven Levy), and overall I’d say the reviewers were pretty impressed and generally had nothing but good things to say about the phone. My biggest concern after reading the reviews however, is that they mentioned that AT&T’s Edge Internet service is slow. I’ll get more into that later, but first we’ll start with the areas where they were all in agreement.
Areas of Agreement :
Worth the hype?
Is the iPhone worth all of the hype that it’s been receiving lately? The general answer is absolutely! Pogue of the New York Times says, “most sophisticated, outlook-changing piece of electronics to come along in years,” while Baig of USA Today says “This expensive, glitzy wunkerkind is indeed worth lusting after.”
Design, Screen and User Interface
Good news! All four pointed out that it’s practical, but more importantly fun to use. And in a nutshell, it’s slim, sleek, and comfortable in the hand to use and touch.
Regarding the screen, many people including myself were wondering how the screen would stand-up to heavy use. I was thinking that users would end up using a screen-protector of sorts to keep it scratch-free, however that may not be needed. All four reviewers noted that the screen doesn’t scratch easily, and after weeks of use, it was nearly as good as new. Now, whether or not the phone will look “as good as new” a year from now we have yet to know.
Edge Internet/Wi-Fi
While they were all in agreement here, they’re not agreeing that the Internet is great. Instead, the resounding agreement was that it was slow. Not good!
Excruciatingly Slow (Pogue)
Pokey; far slower than Verizon or Sprint networks (Mossberg)
Pokey, compared with 3G data networks (Baig)
Feels like dial-up
The one thing that will help compensate with the slow Internet is the Wi-Fi access which Levy notes is partial compensation, and Baig says is iPhone’s savings grace for data. Mossberg says that it doesn’t fully make up for the lack of a fast cellular data, but Pogue says it is fast and satisfying.
I have a feeling that users will be quick to switch to a Wi-Fi network for data when one is available if the Edge Internet is as slow as all four said it was.
Areas of Disagreement :
Typing
I had already been hearing that the keyboard is difficult to use for typing, however it may be one of those things that just takes getting used to. The reviewers didn’t all agree here with Pogue saying it was frustrating, especially at first, and Mossberg saying it’s a non-issue because of smart software.
Apple has actually put together a video specifically for typing on the iPhone. I must say, it does look like there is pretty amazing technology behind the keyboard. While they recommend getting started with just one finger, I don’t think it’ll be too difficult before you’re using both of your thumbs to quickly type emails and text messages (unfortunately, no instant messages).
Battery Life
Just a couple of weeks ago, Apple surprised everyone with battery life details for the iPhone saying that it will get 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback, and 24 hours audio playback. While those numbers are impressive, how did the reviewers rate battery life?
Well, three of them thought it was great with comments like “impressive,” “so far so good,” and “generally lasts the day.” Pogue however, said that it was not quite as impressive.
I think we’ll wait for the masses to give their opinions on this one, because I’m sure it will widely vary depending on what people are doing with their phones.
Overall
Overall, I’d say wait for the masses to give their opinions. While I think all four reviews had a lot of great insight in them, I tend to find the average-joe review to be more accurate, and I’m sure we’ll be reading plenty of those within the coming weeks. From the sounds of it, the iPhone will in fact live up to its hype and really change the cell phone industry.
Let’s be frank. The Vizio brand doesn’t exactly connote… greatness. You might think it’s a bargain-bin TV, or one for your dorm, or one you get because you simply can’t afford something better. But this econo-panel apparently kicks ass. More »
Want to know what the famous act of cutting down a graphics card to match a given price point looks like? Well, here it is, the $349 GTX 580 (aka GeForce GTX 570): it has 480 CUDA cores running at 1464MHz, a 732MHz graphics clock, and 1.25GB of GDDR5 memory hurtling along at an effective rate of 3.8GHz. Each of those specs represents a moderate downgrade from NVIDIA’s original 500 series GPU, while the physical construction — including that vapor chamber cooler — is almost wholly identical to the 580. Aside from the paintjob, the only difference is that the GTX 570 can live on a pair of 6-pin auxiliary power connectors. The best comparison for the 570, however, turns out to be NVIDIA’s former flagship, the GTX 480, as reviewers found the new card’s performance to be nearly identical to the old tessellation monster. Verdicts invariably agreed that the 570 is quieter, cooler, and more power-efficient, making it pretty much a no-brainer of a purchase in its price bracket. Of course, every recommendation comes colored with the warning that AMD should finally be unveiling its upper-tier wares next week — we’d wait the extra few days before parting with our cash.
This article was written on April 05, 2007 by CyberNet.
A couple of days ago, the Windows Vista Blog announced what they thought would be a big day for IT pros – The Resource Kit for Windows Vista has been released! That’s right, 1500 pages (yes, you read that right) of “in-depth” technical guidance “on deploying, securing, and managing Windows Vista.”
Who knew it would take 1500 pages to explain all of this to IT pros? I wonder how many pages would be included in “Windows Vista for Dummies” or an “Instruction Manual” that I hear people complaining is missing from the box when they purchase Vista?
For $59.99 you can learn all the ins and outs of Windows Vista deployment (i.e. disk imaging, volume activation), management (i.e. user accounts, printing, file sharing and collaboration), maintenance (remote user assistance, software updates and patches), networking, and troubleshooting (i.e. how to deal with errors).
ZooGue’s leather folio-style case for the iPad is called the Genius. That’s some fancy talking right there, but amazingly it actually manages to live up to the name. Almost. A slightly more accurate name would be Fat Genius.
Let’s get the problem out of the way first. The Genius might be incredibly handy, but it is also thick and heavy, thanks mostly to the profusion of clever extras. Empty, it weighs 16-ounces, or around two-thirds the wight of the iPad itself. It is also fat, looking less like you have slipped the iPad into a case and more like you have tucked it up in bed: The case is all but a full inch thick. All that material does help protect the iPad inside, though.
The Genius might be bulky, but the features it packs in almost make up for it. First, slot the tablet in. It works like the Apple case, with the iPad entering through a slot by the hinge. A flap then wraps around and Velcros into place, and all ports and switches are left clear. Flip the case open and the stiff front-cover sits around back, out of the way.
This cover has a pair of ugly Velcro strips along the top and bottom edges (along with a nasty plastic logo-badge, apparently shrunken from an earlier version). These strips engage with a Velcro-tipped kickstand on the back, letting you prop the iPad at any angle from around 35-degrees to vertical. This is the best part of the case: adjustment is fast and easy, and the stand is as sturdy as you could wish for. It is also very comfortable for reading, with the iPad either on your lap or on your chest (if you’re lying down).
The other gimmick is a strap that wraps around a car-headrest to keep the kids entertained. The strap is elasticated, and in two parts. Wrap both sides around the headrest and they Velcro together. It works well, and the straps can also be used to keep the case closed.
The leather is plush, but slippery. Prop this against a wall and it may slip and fall flat, unlike the grippy Apple case (still my favorite of every case I have tried).
If you don’t mind its size, then the Genius should be on your list: It’s well made and easy to use, and for what you get, pretty cheap at $50. If you’re looking for something simple and slim, move along.
This article was written on March 06, 2008 by CyberNet.
(Click to Enlarge)
We’ve been receiving quite a few requests from our readers wanting to know what we think about Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1, and whether it is worth the upgrade. I downloaded and installed it shortly after it was released yesterday, and the total installation time on my Vista machine took around 4 or 5 minutes. There were absolutely no problems for me upgrading to IE 8 from IE 7.
–Performance–
Everything in Internet Explorer 8 seems a lot more responsive than in Internet Explorer 7: tabs open faster, pages render more quickly, and the “Quick Tabs” works almost instantaneously. Really, I’m not exaggerating the difference at all. Ashley and I have the exact same laptops, and we wanted to do a side-by-side comparison of how long it took to load our site. The difference was like night and day… Internet Explorer 8 loaded our site at least twice as fast.
I’ve gotten a handful of emails already that have been wanting me to run the SunSpider JavaScript test on Internet Explorer 8. Previously it failed miserably coming in a very distant last place. Here’s how it stacked up against the latest Firefox 3 nightly build (the lower amount of time is better):
That’s more than five times better than Internet Explorer 7 in our previous tests! So it looks as though there has been substantial changes under-the-hood in Internet Explorer 8 to make it perform better. The best thing is that the speediness doesn’t show just in the numbers. I can almost guarantee that as soon as you start using Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 you’ll see a noticeable difference.
–Features–
I’m not going to just list out the features here because I did that yesterday. Instead there are two things that I really wanted to comment on. The first is the new Activities that was introduced into Internet Explorer 8. I didn’t think that these were really anything special, but I’ve actually come to love them after just a few minutes of using the browser.
When you highlight some text a little green arrow will appear above your selection. If you click on that arrow you’ll see a list of all your installed Activities that you can choose from. This is a quick way for you to translate text, map an address, define a word, and much more:
Microsoft has a site setup where users can add more Activities, but given that the browser is so new there are only a handful of them available.
The one other thing that I really like is something Firefox 3 was (or maybe still is) supposed to have when it is released. It’s a domain highlighting feature that makes users more aware of the domain that they are viewing by graying out portions of the URL. Here’s what it looks like for one of our articles:
This will help users avoid phishing scams that are located at obscure domains disguised to look like a legitimate one, such as paypal.com.example.com.
–The Price of Standards–
Many of us applauded Microsoft for making the browser more standards compliant out-of-the-box, but I’m already starting to see the effects of the change. At first glance I have found that nearly every site I visit has some sort of rendering glitch in Internet Explorer 8. Our site, for example, had problems properly positioning the footer. We had to insert this code into the head section of the HTML on our site:
This forces Internet Explorer 8 to render the site the same way that Internet Explorer 7 does, and is a great temporary fix until you get the time to make the necessary changes. Our site is far from the only one that has problems. Here are some of the others that we’ve noticed:
CNN.com has some video thumbnails that float off to the right side.
Yahoo.com has a toolbar underneath the search box that is not aligned properly.
News.com has a few issues in the upper part of their site around their search box.
Yahoo Mail just pops up with error messages and is non responsive when you try to do just about anything.
You can quickly correct these issues by forcing IE 8 to emulate IE 7 using the “Emulate IE7″ button on the toolbar. You’ll need to restart the browser for the changes to become active, but it should solve most of the problems.
–Overview–
Overall I would have to say that this is a great update for Internet Explorer, but I don’t think Microsoft has done enough to pull users away from Firefox and Opera. There’s nothing that really leaves me in awe, but I do have to say that the performance improvements definitely deserve to be applauded.
To find out the best laptops of 2010, we checked in with Mark Spoonauer who, as editor-in-chief of Laptop Magazine and Laptopmag.com, oversaw 140+ notebook and netbook reviews this year. If you’re buying, buy one of these.More »
This article was written on September 04, 2007 by CyberNet.
Time Saving Tuesday
Hard drives are becoming huge these days, and most applications have begun to make use of the abundant space that barely ever gets filled up. I’m a big proponent to full-featured applications as long as they serve a purpose, but size isn’t always the best representation of quality. To prove that, I set out to find 15 top-notch apps that take up little to no room on your hard drive.
–Requirements–
The first thing I did was setup a few requirements for the applications that I was going to look for:
A download size smaller than 250KB (I caved in and included one program that was 252 KB though)
I preferred apps that didn’t require any installation
They must run on Windows (at least compatible with XP, but most listed work on Vista as well)
Has to be completely free
One of the problems I ran into is that many programs include installers with the download, and doing so often adds a considerable amount to the download size. After some careful deliberation I still decided to go with the download size as the deciding factor for this article, and not the actual size of the program once it is setup on your computer.
–The List–
I’ve listed each of the 15 programs below, and sorted them with the smallest program first. Next to all of the apps you’ll see the download size, and some of them also specify that they don’t require installation. A few of the programs we have also written about before, and we give links to our reviews on those apps. Some also have similar, but more feature-packed siblings, and we’ve listed those in case the small size isn’t the primary characteristic you look at.
Without further ado I present to you our top 15 ultra tiny apps:
jRes [5KB] – No Installation Required Description: Switch between all available resolutions using a simple System Tray icon.
WinRoll [9KB] – No Installation Required – Our Review Description: Roll windows up so that only the title bar of the window is visible.
GhostIt [11KB] – No Installation Required Description: You can assign certain windows to have a “ghosting” effect. When a ghosted window loses focus it stays on top but becomes ultra-transparent.
Mouse Emulator [14KB] – No Installation Required – Thanks for the tip “s”! Description: Control the mouse using the number-pad on your keyboard
SlimFTPd [59KB] – No Installation Required Similar: Quick ’n Easy FTP Server Description: There is no GUI for this FTP server application, but everything can be edited through a well-explained text configuration file. I’ve yet to see another FTP server that has a footprint as small as this one.
Switch Off [64KB] Similar: WinOff, Power Manager, Shutter, and PowerOff Description: Schedule your computer to shutdown at a specified time, or you can easily access the shutdown options from the System Tray.
Taskix [64KB] – No Installation Required – Our Review Similar: Taskbar Shuffle Description: Rearrange Taskbar items using this super-small app. Prior to this I used Taskbar Shuffle, but this is much smaller and does the same thing.
TinyResmeter [92KB] – No Installation Required Description: Monitor your system’s resources with this customizable application. You can pick and choose which stats you want to see, and you can customize the look as well.
TrayIt! [144KB] – No Installation Required Similar: TrayDevil and DM2 Description: Minimize windows to the System Tray therefore decluttering your Taskbar!
TweakUI [147KB] Description: Customize dozens of hidden Windows XP options. This is a must-have for anyone running XP!
Unlocker [192KB] Similar: WhoLockMe Description: Unlock files that are still considered “in-use” by the operating system. That way you will be able to deleted them without restarting your computer.
uTorrent [219KB] – No Installation Required – Our Review Description: This is hands-down my favorite BitTorrent downloader.
Notepad2 [243KB] – No Installation Required Similar: Notepad++ Description: A great Windows Notepad replacement that has dozens of settings you can configure.
Total Copy [252KB] Similar: Copy Handler and TeraCopy Description: This one barely broke the 250KB limit that I was shooting for, and so I thought I would include it. With this you’ll get a better file transfer manager that can pause and resume file transfers. You can also impose speed limitations so that the transfer doesn’t hog all of your network bandwidth.
–Overview–
Did you even realize that there were so many tiny apps that are this useful? I’ve only begun to scratch the surface, and there are hundreds more that are just as good if not better. I just wanted to diversify the list, and tried hard not to list programs that performed similar functions as one another.
If you know of any free tiny apps that you use on a regular basis, hit us up in the comments below. Let everyone benefit from your knowledge!
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, a 7-inch tablet powered by the Android operating system, has made its rounds with gadget reviewers, and consensus says it’s a solid but pricey device.
Reviewers at tech blogs and mainstream publications, including Wired.com, found that the Galaxy Tab offered a pleasing user experience despite some flaws. Many complained that the Galaxy Tab, priced at $600, is too expensive when pitted against Apple’s larger $500 iPad.
The Galaxy Tab is the first official Android tablet on the market to compete with Apple’s iPad. Samsung has marketed the smaller, pocketable size of the Galaxy Tab as ideal for commuters, while highlighting Adobe Flash as a key feature that the tablet supports, unlike the iPad.
Reviews of the Galaxy Tab were mostly positive, but the most dissenting opinion comes from Matt Buchanan of Gizmodo, who described the Galaxy Tab as a “pocketable trainwreck.” A list of excerpts from reviews of the Galaxy Tab follows.
“The Tab is attractive, versatile and competitively priced, though monthly cell fees can add up. It’s different enough from the iPad, yet good enough, to give consumers a real choice.”
“This thing is just a mess. It’s like a tablet drunkenly hooked up with a phone, and then took the fetus swimming in a Superfund cleanup site. The browser is miserable, at least when Flash is enabled. It goes catatonic, scrolling is laggy, and it can get laughably bad.”
Joanna Stern, Engadget:
“It’s the best Android tablet on the market. Now, that’s not saying much given the state of the Android competition, but we can also assuredly say that the Tab is the first true competitor to Apple’s iPad. Its crisp display, compact form factor, touch-friendly software and dual cameras undoubtedly have what it takes to win over the average tablet seeker.”
Melissa Perenson, PCWorld:
“The Samsung Galaxy Tab lives up to its promise as the most credible Android tablet to date. Though it isn’t perfect, it is a strong first-gen device. It isn’t for everyone: The high cost without a monthly contract ($600) underscores that. Nevertheless, if you’re planning to get a mobile broadband data device, the Galaxy Tab’s potential as a mobile hotspot makes it more attractive than some of its competitors.”
Chris Davies, SlashGear:
“Its 7-inch display may offer only half the usable area of the iPad, but the high resolution and responsive, accurate capacitive touchscreen add up to a user experience that’s significantly better than a regular smartphone for browsing, multimedia and – thanks in no small part to Samsung’s custom apps – messaging.”
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.
It’s time for your daily fix of iPhone updates! The first reviews are in from 
A couple of days ago, the 
Hard drives are becoming huge these days, and most applications have begun to make use of the abundant space that barely ever gets filled up. I’m a big proponent to full-featured applications as long as they serve a purpose, but size isn’t always the best representation of quality. To prove that, I set out to find 15 top-notch apps that take up little to no room on your hard drive.
