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Apr 06

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Now Works With eBay TurboLister

Posted in: Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on January 21, 2006 by CyberNet.

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Now Works With eBay TurboLister

For those of you who do a lot of work on eBay, then you probably use TurboLister in order to minimize the amount of time it takes to design a listing. Our company is a pure eBay company (all of our sales come from eBay) and we use TurboLister day in and day out. We use it so much that when there was all of the excitement about Internet Explorer Beta 1 being released, I wasn’t able to give it a shot because TurboLister would crash. This is because TurboLister is based off of IE and apparently Microsoft must have changed something and TurboLister didn’t like it.

Whatever the problem was, it is now gone! I am using Internet Explorer Beta 2 Preview Build 5299 and it is running flawlessly. I still use Internet Explorer minimally because of the enormous selection of extensions for Firefox. Also, one of the features I use the most in Firefox cannot be found in IE: Find As You Type! It is such a basic feature but I can’t live without it! Overall, the IE7 is a big improvement over any other version of IE in the past.

If you are interested in trying out the new Internet Explorer, head over to my post with the instructions to download Internet Explorer Beta 2 Preview Build 5299.

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Apr 04

Latest Vista News: Updated Pricing New Release Dates

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on August 29, 2006 by CyberNet.

Windows Vista Pricing

The other day we got word that Microsoft placed the pricing for Vista and Office 2007 on their Canadian site.Well, Longhorn Blogs pointed out that Amazon.com also has pricing available for Vista and for Office 2007. This time they are in U.S. dollars and the cost obviously makes much more sense in terms of rounding, but still not in terms of reasonability.

Also it is important to note that Amazon says that the release date for both pieces of software is scheduled for January 30, 2007. I thought Microsoft was trying to push for an early January release but I guess I was mistaken.

Microsoft started giving away 100,000 downloads today for Vista 5536 which is the pre-RC1 build. I am using it and after getting all of my software installed it seems to be really stable. The only thing that I am having a hard time finding is a good antivirus that is fully compatible. If you know a good one that works with this build please let me know. Right now I am stuck using Free AVG because it appears that Microsoft broke the Avast compatibility: “OK folks, I just got some feedback from MS, it seems that the avast driver was “hard blocked” BY MISTAKE, hopefully, the issue will be remedied in the next Vista build.” That is just wrong that we have to wait until the next build that will possibly never exist since the next step is to send Vista to manufacturing. A Windows Update should definitely be issued to the public to fix the problem.

Microsoft was expected to release RC1 on September 7 but it looks like that date may be changing. Yep, same ol’ Microsoft huh? But wait…it might be two days early? InfoWorld is reporting that Microsoft may actually release Vista RC1 to the public as soon as September 5! This is amazing and I don’t know how Microsoft pulled out such a stable release so quickly (maybe they copied and pasted some Linux code ). I’m sure quite a few coders over there pulled some late/all nighters in order to make this release as good as it is.

Thanks for the tip “C”

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Apr 03

CodeWeavers CrossOver Pro Free Today Only

Posted in: Linux, Mac, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on October 28, 2008 by CyberNet.

crossover mac.jpg

CodeWeavers are the people behind the free and open source implementation of the Wine project. Most Linux users are familiar with this project because this is how they can run Windows programs in Linux without needing any kind of virtual machine. Well, the same people behind Wine also develop a more professional-grade product called CrossOver Pro that’s available for both Mac and Linux. One of the largely added benefits of CrossOver vs. Wine is a slightly more extensive list of compatible programs & games.

Good news… you still have a few more hours to grab their software for free (regularly $70 for the Professional version). Their site is currently suffering from the enormous amounts of traffic, but all you have to do is enter in your email address and you’ll receive a serial number over the next few days for the product(s) you’re requesting.

Why are they giving the software away for free? Here’s what they said in their press release:

In July, CodeWeavers – whose software lets Mac OS X and Linux users run Windows programs without having to Microsoft for a Windows OS license – launched the Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge (lameduck.codeweavers.com) to encourage President Bush to make the most of his remaining days in office by accomplishing a major economic or political goal by January 20, 2009.
The goals focused on President Bush making specific positive accomplishments in areas such as the economy, home values, the stock market, the war on terror and other key issues. Specifically, one goal called for President Bush to help down bring average gasoline prices in the Twin Cities to $2.79 a gallon.
On Monday, Oct. 14, gas prices in Minneapolis and St. Paul did just that.
“That morning, I was filling my tank at Big Steve’s Gas Palace in St. Paul,” said Jeremy White, president and CEO of CodeWeavers. “I had just finished my morning corn dog and 64-ounce Dr. Pepper when I looked at the pump and noticed gas was at $2.79. I screamed ‘Woohoo,’ then I yelled ‘Oh, crap!’ as I realized every American can now have my software for free.

What other goals are on the list? If any of these goals are met by January 20, 2009 they will once again offer their software for free:

Return the stock market to it’s 2008 high
Reduce the average price of a gallon of milk to $3.50
Create at least one net job in the U.S. this calendar year
Return the median home price to its Jan. 1, 2008 level
Bring Osama Bin-Laden to justice

Thanks CodeWeavers for living up to your word!
Get CrossOver Pro for Mac or Linux

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Apr 03

Purchase and Download Windows Vista and Office 2007 Online

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on January 18, 2007 by CyberNet.

More new announcements from the Windows Vista team today! With the launch of Windows Vista and Office 2007, consumers who live in the United States will be able to go online to purchase and download both pieces of software. They’re clearly catering to the more tech-savvy crowd with this option, who would prefer it over going to the store to purchase it. If you’re wanting to do this, you’ll definitely need a great Internet connection, because it will be a large download.

I’m sure there are plenty of people who don’t want to go out and buy a new computer to experience Vista, which is why this option will be a great choice. This new download process uses a technology called Digital Locker. Software is securely stored, along with the license keys. When you begin your download, Digital Locker will know when a download has been interrupted so that it can automatically resume when the connection is restored.

Another update comes for the Windows Anytime Upgrade (available in US, Canada, Europe and Japan). As we have mentioned before, all versions of Vista will either be on a CD or embedded onto your computer when you make the purchase. At any point, you can upgrade to a better version. Here are the upgrade costs:

Home Basic to Home Premium — $79
Home Basic to Ultimate — $199
Home Premium to Ultimate — $159
Business to Ultimate — $139

As it stands, regular retail prices are:

Home Basic – $199
Home Premium – $239
Business – $299
Ultimate – $399

There’s a nice comparison chart that has been put together to give you a visual of what each version has. Obviously, the Ultimate edition has all of the bells and whistles which is why it’s the most expensive option.

Finally, the speculated “Family Pack” option will be available to those who have a need to purchase multiple copies. This will make it more affordable, and potentially provide Microsoft with additional revenue. You must purchase Windows Vista Ultimate for $399. After that, you’ll be eligible to purchase two licenses for Vista Home Premium for $49.99 each. This will be valid in the US and Canada only.

All of these options will make Vista more accessible to consumers; the consumers willing to pay that is. There’s no doubt that $399 may be enough to push someone over to Linux, especially because you can nearly purchase a computer nowadays for the $399 that will be charged for Vista Ultimate. And, unfortunately all of these options have restrictions on availability throughout the world. Regardless, Bill Mannion who is the director of consumer marketing for Windows says that these options are available “to give more flexibility to users.”

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Apr 01

Pause Animated GIFS in Firefox and IE

Posted in: Freeware, Internet Explorer, Opera, Software, Tips and Tricks, Today's Chili

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

Have you ever been on a page with a ton of animated GIF’s, and all you’re trying to do is read the content? It can get quite distracting, but if you’re using Firefox or Internet Explorer just hit the ESC key. Doing so will immediately pause all of the animated GIF images on the page. Go ahead, try it with this image:

Stick Figure Animated GIF

The only bad part about pausing the images using the ESC key is that there’s no way to have them resume without refreshing the page.

One thing that I’ve never understood about browsers is why they don’t have a play, pause, and restart options on the right-click menu for GIF animations. That would be a really nice feature to have, but Firefox and Opera users do have a few advanced settings for GIF animations:

–Firefox Users Only–

In Firefox you can also completely disable GIF animations, or only allow them to play through one time. Here’s what you have to do:

In the Location Bar type about:config and hit Enter
Type “animation” in the Filter field (to quickly find the needed preference)
Double-click the image.animation_mode line and edit it to one of the following:

none — will prevent image animation
once — will let the image animate once
normal (default) — will allow it to play over and over

–Opera Users Only–

If you want to completely disable GIF animations in Opera here’s what you have to do:

In the Location Bar type opera:config#Multimedia|ShowAnimation and hit Enter
Uncheck the box next to Show Animation, and then save the settings

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Apr 01

REDFLY Mobile Viewer removes the need for Mobile Companion

Posted in: ctia, Software, Today's Chili, Windows XP

Given that REDFLY can’t sell its Mobile Companion for free-after-rebate, we’re not at all shocked by this move. If you’ll remember, we actually heard that Celio was looking to dabble in software back at CES, and now the company has selected CTIA to showcase its REDFLY Mobile Viewer. Available as a free download today in beta form, the Windows-only program essentially turns any PC into a Mobile Companion by blowing up smartphone applications on a bigger screen. The software works with all current REDFLY-compatible handsets, and it gives users the ability to surf their WinMo desktop at 800 x 480, 800 x 600, 1,024 x 600 or 1,024 x 768 resolution. We’re struggling to see how Celio is going to monetize this, but who knows, maybe it’s just in it for the fame.

Filed under: Cellphones, Displays

REDFLY Mobile Viewer removes the need for Mobile Companion originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 31

Comodo Firewall 3 – They Did it Again!

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Newly Released, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on November 21, 2007 by CyberNet.

Comodo Firewall 3 Summary

We’ve always been a relatively large fan of the Comodo Firewall Pro software, not only because it is 100% free but also because of its award-winning reputation. The new version pulls out all stops bringing full support for both XP and Vista 32-bit and 64-bit versions! After playing with this for a few hours I would have to say that they did it again … they created another amazing firewall that has won my heart, and my computer. We’ve got a ton of screenshots for you at the end of the article, so make sure you stick around.

Before I get started I wanted to send out a quick warning to everyone running both Vista and Avast! antivirus. There seems to be a critical issue with Avast! that prevents Vista from loading at startup, and in order to uninstall Comodo you’ll need to boot into safe mode. Updating to the latest version of Avast! will help ensure that Vista can load properly, but the startup time will be significantly longer than normal. For a status update on this issue keep your eyes peeled on this post in the Comodo forum.

I finally ended up getting Comodo Firewall Pro installed after that little ordeal with Avast!, and aside from that rather critical bug the program is stellar. During normal use of my computer Comodo only consumes 3.5MB of my memory, which is amazing when you compare that to some of the other firewalls out there. And I ran several bandwidth tests both with and without the firewall enabled, and I came to the conclusion that the firewall had very little effect on the speed of my Internet.

At first I wasn’t too sure about the redesigned interface, but it is definitely starting to grow on me. The old one was much more vibrant and lively, but the new one makes Comodo feel more like a professional app. And the popup alerts will surely grab your attention.

Personally I’m the type of user that prefers to see what Comodo is doing, and I want to see any alerts that it feels would be good for me to scan. When finishing up the Comodo setup process it will ask whether you want to run the advanced firewall filled with all of the alert goodness, or whether you just want the basic protection where it does most of the authorization itself (there is a screenshot of this below). If you’re installing this for someone else who isn’t tech-savvy I recommend sticking to the basic mode so that they aren’t bombarded with popups that they don’t understand.

Alright, lets take a look at some of the new security features, and then we’ll move over to the plethora of screenshots!

–New Features–

Clean PC Mode – This feature takes a profile of a new PC and all the applications in it and registers them as safe. Then, any new application trying to gain access to a computer will be denied access to the PC unless the user expressly permits it since it is assumed to be potentially unsafe. This feature prevents most types of malware and rootkits from getting installed and keeps a new PC virus and malware free.
Defense+ Host Intrusion Prevention System – Defense+ is one of the most advanced Host Intrusion Prevention Systems available in any desktop security program. This new addition helps to secure desktops and servers against rootkits, inter-process memory injections, key-loggers and more.
Advanced Network Firewall Engine – New features such as Stealth Mode to make your PC completely invisible to opportunistic port scans; Wizard based auto-detection of trusted zones; Password protection of firewall settings; Diagnostics to analyze your system for potential conflicts with the firewall and much more.
Security rules interface – Users can quickly set granular Internet access rights and privileges on a global or per application basis using the flexible and easy to understand GUI. This version also sees the introduction of pre-set security policies which allow you to deploy a sophisticated hierarchy of firewall rules with a couple of mouse clicks.
Training Mode – By selecting ‘Train with Safe Mode’, the firewall will learn how your trusted applications work and silently create rules for them.
Application Recognition Database – Includes a proprietary and continually updated white list of nearly 1,000,000 safe executables. The integrity of every executable is checked against this database to determine whether or not it is genuine before it allows it installation rights. Firewall Pro will alert users of potentially damaging applications before they are installed.

–Screenshots–

(Click to Enlarge)

Comodo Firewall Pro Homepage

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Mar 31

Microsoft Skymarket for Windows Mobile 7 Coming in 2009?

Posted in: Microsoft, mobile, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on September 01, 2008 by CyberNet.

windows mobile 7.jpg It was just a few days ago that Google unveiled their idea to come out with a central market for Android developers to share their latest creations, and now Microsoft is hot on their tail. The istartedsomething blog noticed a few job postings that Microsoft made regarding something called Skymarket.

The details are sparse, but the launch of Skymarket will be done alongside that of Windows Mobile 7, which is currently slated for early 2009. The job descriptions, however, say that the marketplace will be available for developers as early as this fall. Whomever gets the position at Microsoft will have to draw up a “product offering, pricing, business model and policies that will make the Windows Mobile marketplace ‘the place to be’ for developers wishing to distribute and monetize their Windows Mobile applications.“

One thing I can’t wait to see is how much of the cut Microsoft decides to take from developers for the sale of their applications. Steve Ballmer always kind of shrugged off Apple’s App Store because he thought developers wouldn’t want to give up 30% of their revenue to Apple. Well, as it turns out some developers are still able to make a good chunk of money since they are exposed to a lot more users than they would ordinarily be.

By the time 2009 comes to an end we will have three application stores/markets that will be heavily competing for users, and it will be interesting to see which of them comes out on top. Will it be Apple, Microsoft, or Google?

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Mar 30

Maximize Vista’s Battery Life with Vista Battery Saver

Posted in: Freeware, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili, Windows Vista

This article was written on July 25, 2007 by CyberNet.

On my laptop that runs Vista (with the Aero Glass enabled) I receive about 4-hours of battery life on full screen brightness. I would say that is pretty darn good, but I can often squeeze out an additional hour or two if I use the free Vista Battery Saver.

This program is designed very well, and with it running you’ll be able to disable the Aero interface and the sidebar if your battery level gets too low. The Aero interface is claimed to reduce your battery life by 1-4% of what it would normally be, so disabling it along with the sidebar should definitely give you some extra time when you need it.

Vista Battery Saver
Click to Enlarge

Also, a new feature in Vista Battery Saver lets you choose a different power plan for Vista anytime your computer isn’t plugged into an outlet. This is nice because you can send Vista into Power Saver mode when using your battery, and have it automatically switch back to a more performance-focused state when you plug back in. And from personal experience I can get an extra hour of battery life just by using the Power Saver mode, so this is a very welcomed addition to the application.

All you have to do is download the Vista Battery Saver, install the program, and set it up once. From then on it will automatically start with Windows, and will quietly do all of the work in the background while running in the System Tray.

Vista Battery Saver Homepage
Vista Battery Saver Download

Thanks to Download Squad and gHacks for the heads up!

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Mar 30

Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta Refresh

Posted in: Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on September 21, 2006 by CyberNet.

Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta, an Outlook Express Replacement has received a resfresh with some new features. Here’s a highlight of some of the changes including bug fixes and performance improvements:

Virus Scanning: Some important updates and improvements have been made.
Photo E-mail Updates: Now you can send photo email via POP accounts.
Customize Your Folders: You’ll be able to right click on a folder or account name and set a color.
Contact Importing has been improved to give the users the option of merging duplicate contact data into one.

If you’re currently using Windows Live Mail Desktop, be sure to download the refresh. There have been a lot of improvements made, and I’m sure you’ll notice the differences. If you don’t have an account yet, but you’re wanting one, you can sign up here (You will need a Passport or a Hotmail account).

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Hasta La Gadget!

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Now Works With eBay TurboLister

Latest Vista News: Updated Pricing New Release Dates

CodeWeavers CrossOver Pro Free Today Only

Purchase and Download Windows Vista and Office 2007 Online