Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on February 18, 2008 by CyberNet.

Now that Vista SP1 has been released there’s no surprise that performance tests and benchmarks are going to start flooding the Internet, and not surprisingly XP takes the crown in most of the cases. ZDNet has gotten the ball rolling (here and here) with their test results:

Looking at the data there’s only one conclusion that can be drawn – Windows XP SP2 is faster than Windows Vista SP1.  End of story.  Out of the fifteen tests carried out, XP SP2 beat Vista SP1 in eleven, Vista SP1 beat XP SP2 in two of the tests, and two of the tests resulted in a draw.

There’s one inherent problem that I’ve seen with several of the tests so far. Testers are putting the two operating systems up against each other using the exact same systems. No harm, right? Well, there’s a natural progression of technology that would obviously make you think that running XP on the same system as Vista will always result in XP being faster.

Obviously as time goes on the operating systems will take advantage of the system resources that are made available, and if they didn’t there would never be any need to upgrade to a new computer. I remember when I was running Windows 98 thinking that in 10 years we’ll be able to hit the power button and the computer’s bootup sequence would take just seconds because processors would be so fricken’ fast. Here we are about 10 years later, and the bootup times are about the same as they always have been simply because the software grows along with the hardware. Otherwise we might see Windows fit on a few floppy disks.

What I would like to see is someone running XP on a system that was released one year after XP was made available, and then comparing it to Vista running on a similarly priced new system. Or maybe running each of them on a computer that only meets the minimum or recommended requirements for each operating system would be even better. Then these tests would mean a little more to me.

To me these comparisons are like looking at the performance of a video game that was released back in 2001 and putting it up against a game that was released in 2007… using the same hardware. You would obviously expect to see the game from 2001 to do a lot better, but the one from 2007 will likely be better in the graphics compartment.

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Amazon has just expanded the potential audience for its ebook format by a few orders of magnitude with the Beta release of its free Kindle for PC application. Doing exactly what it says on the (imaginary) tin, this will allow you to read the locked-down Kindle format on your Windows weapon of choice, though Mac users are left with merely the “coming soon” message you see above. Given that you’ll now be able to consume Amazon’s ebooks on your PC and iPhone, there’s a risk that people might entirely sidestep the Kindle and Kindle DX for more familiar hardware, but clearly the company is willing to undertake it in order to get its wares out to a wider client base. We still think Amazon should do away with the proprietary madness and utilize a common standard like ePUB, but until then we can at least appreciate being given the ability to sync our Robinson Crusoe read across a few more devices than before.

Filed under: Software

Kindle for PC app out now, Mac version to soon follow originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on March 14, 2008 by CyberNet.

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One of the things that I absolutely love about Opera is the Speed Dial that was introduced back in Opera 9.2 almost exactly one year ago. It basically adds thumbnail images of your 9 favorite sites to the page that is displayed when you open a new tab.

Well, like most great features it didn’t take long for a Firefox extension to appear that offered a similar concept. The extension fell short in a lot of different areas, and I didn’t feel as though it stacked up very well against what Opera was offering. It turns out that there is a better one available called Fast Dial that is much much closer to Opera’s Speed Dial, and actually has some rather unique aspects to it:

• Up to 36 different sites can be added (6×6).
• Hotkeys! Just like Opera you can use hotkeys to access your first 9 sites. However, with this extension you can actually customize the hotkey that’s used in conjunction with the number.
• Specify a custom image to be used for the thumbnail. This way you can just use a site’s logo if you don’t want to actually have a screenshot.
• Customize the appearance so that it looks the way you want it to. For example, I changed the background color in the screenshot above from being white to a darker gray. You can also change the font and several other colors used in the extension.
• You can add files/images from your desktop! For example, you can add a link to a PDF or a DOC file that you frequently need to access. You’ll want to specify a custom image for the thumbnail image though because it won’t be able to generate a preview. Note: Firefox will prompt your with the open/save box assuming that the file can’t be displayed within Firefox.
• Right-click on a site or tab to quickly add it to the Fast Dial.
• Drag and drop to rearrange the different items.

The only thing that I’ve found this extension to lack is dragging and dropping bookmarks/URLS onto a blank square which I believe eases the setup process. Admittedly this extension is the closest thing I’ve seen to Opera’s Speed Dial, and it even has some aspects that I like better. From now on I don’t think I’ll be using Firefox without this extension.

Get the Fast Dial Firefox Extension

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

How many popup boxes do you see in a day’s time? I’m not talking about the popups that most browsers these days will automatically block, instead I’m talking about the popups that ask you things such as “would you like to update your browser?” These are things that you don’t necessarily need to take action on now, but currently a window will popup asking what you want to do.

Mozilla is looking to make things a little easier on the user by possibly creating a more centralized notification system. By doing this it would be more apparent when the browser is sending a notification, compared to a simple JavaScript popup window that may sometimes leave you unsure whether Firefox is asking for input or a website is. There would be no confusion in the new design they are thinking about:

Level 1 Notifications

This kind of notification would only display an icon on the toolbar. It is the least obtrusive out of all the ones available and would be used for things like notifying a user that a RSS feed is available on the site:

Then the user can click on the icon to see more information and options:

Level 2 Notifications

This type of notification would be used for things like notifying users that a download has completed or asking if they want to remember a password for a particular site. It wouldn’t require user interaction, and I’m guessing that it would probably fade out after a short period of time:

Level 3 Notifications

This level would notify users of things slightly more critical that need to have action taken on them, such as an updated version of Firefox or extension updates being available. This would probably require user interaction before being able to close, instead of the previous level which would automatically close after a specified period of time.

Level 4 Notifications

These are the most important notifications and would require interaction before continuing. To make the user aware that they have to select an option in this notification, the content area would be blacked out to draw more attention. An obvious example of such a notification would be an alert for a suspected phishing site:

Mozilla is currently looking for any feedback that you might have regarding how these new notifications will work. One other thing that you might notice is that the notifications are displayed in the Navigation toolbar next to the Search Box, but they are also toying with the possibility of having it show up in the Status Bar. I think that would be a better location simply because that is where notifications, such as the “download completed alert”, already appear. That will make it more natural for users in my opinion.

There isn’t much word on when we might see these notifications implemented, but I would like to see it in the Firefox 3 release. With that, is it better than the current solution?

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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In this week’s never-gonna-switch-so-stop-asking app roundup: Free games, reinvented! Airplane anxiety, averted! Photos, wirelessly printed! Cool apps, discovered by other cool apps! Navigation, cheapened! Black Friday rush, preempted! Google Wave, appified! Screens, pointlessly tapped! And more!

The Best

Chorus: Hey, Apple, when people start making apps just to help people find new apps, take it as a sign that your App Store interface could use a little help. Chorus crowdsources the effort to cut through the endless jungle of trash:

Chorus is a bit like Apple’s native App Store app, except with drastically shifted emphasis: instead of giving category “Top” lists, which rank apps by overall download numbers, Chorus only pitches you apps that’ve been explicitly recommended by someone. These someones could include other friends who use Chorus, nearby Chorus users, or a stable of “App Mavens”-online reviewers and tech journalists, mostly.

Free.



ZenApps: An even better sign that the App Store could offer more in the way of search tools, filters and sorting options than a company making an app-finding app? Two companies making app-finding apps. ZenApps takes a more traditional approach than the social network-y Chorus, aggregating review buzz from a list of app sites into a tag cloud, or a simple list. Also free.



Million Tap Challenge: Speaking of maybe worthless crap apps, Million Tap Challenge is a simple app with a simple goal: to be tapped. A million times. This makes the cut because unlike 99.99% of the spammy crap in the App Store, Million Tap Challenge has a sense of the absurd. It knows how ridiculous it is, and for just the right kind of person, it’s a brilliant timekiller.



Flying Without Fear: My pops was a pilot, and the thought of being suspended 32,000 feet in the air in a tiny aluminum tube still freaks me the hell out. Flying without fear takes a two-pronged approach to soothing panicked passengers, with relaxation exercises on one side, and more importantly, detailed explanations of each step in typical airline flight, and the terrifying sounds that accompany them. Minor complaint #1: $5 seems a little steep for a branded app—this one is slathered in Virgin Atlantic’s colors and logo. Minor complaint #2: Sir Richard Branson, who provides a video intro, is scarier than the worst transatlantic turbulence I’ve ever sat through. IT’S THE BEARD, BEARDO.



Gokivo: It’s getting hard to keep track of all the iPhone navigation apps’ names, much less their price structures, so here’s what you need to know: Gokivo, the decent-but-too-expensive navigation app, has become Gokivo, the decent and now-not-too-expensive navigation app. The price has dropped from $5/mo to $5 dollars 30 days or $40 for the year. It’s not as dirt-cheap as products like MotionX Drive and CoPilot, but solid text-to-speech and live traffic make this a deal.



Black Friday(s): This one comes in two parts, actually! Both FatWallet and Dealnews have put together apps that’ll aggregate the best last-minute Black Friday deals come (almost) Thanksgiving. Neither is getting very good reviews right now, mostly due to their lack of deals. Today November 6th, so this is mildly mind-boggling. Patience!



LexPrint: Hey, remember Lexmark? They made printers! And evidently, they still make printers! Also, they’ve put together one of the better iPhone photo printing apps I’ve seen. Instead of shipping with grossly limited compatibility like other printing apps (seriously, everyone’s got one now, but they’re all pretty picky about which printers they talk with) Lexmark bridged the wireless gap with a PC client called Listener, which accepts print requests in lieu of a wireless radio on the actual printer. Kind of brilliant, if you have a Lexmark.



Waveboard: Google Wave is still invite-only, so it’s a little strange to see a dedicated app this early on. That said, a sizable group of people are already power-using the shit out of this service that I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand, so Waveboard, which is marginally better than the stock Wave web interface, might be worth the one dollar entry fee.



Eliminate: This one lands in the top ten for two reasons. One is obvious: This is a fun, smooth-running FPS with intuitive controls—rare!—and solid gameplay. The other is a little counterintuitive: To get the full Eliminate experience, you probably need to shell out for Energy Cells via in-app purchases. This is good precisely because it’s terrible, and provides a perfect example to other devs of how not to use the new in-app purchase system. It’s fun while the free lasts, though! A cautionary tale.



TowerMadness Zero: TowerMadness used to be a better-than-average tower defense game, rendered in 3D and priced at about $3. Then, there was a lightning strike. A developer was zapped in the skull, collapsed, and three hours later awoke, dazed. As he stood up and surveyed his charred surroundings, he froze as if he was having a stroke; his eyes, though, twinkled. He had an idea. When he finally spoke, everyone around him was stunned: “TOWERMADNESS SHALL BE FREE,” he bellowed, “AND IT SHALL BE SUPPORTED BY ADS THAT ARE NOT VERY ANNOYING.” Then he died, from the burns. Pointlessly dramatic fake scenario aside, this kind of thing should happen more often.

Honorable Mentions

Cry Translator: This one purports to tell you what your baby’s various gurgles, yelps and screams mean. This sounds implausible! Also implausible: That it’s somehow worth $30. Just jingle your keys, try to feed it, and smell for poop. Parenting, done.

Family Guy: Hey look, it’s a game based on a popular-but-well-past-its-prime television series! It’s a bit Nintendo-like, which is charming, and the free version is worth a few minutes of you time, provided you don’t hate Family Guy.

This list is in no way definitive. If you’ve spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory. Have a great weekend, everybody!