Hasta La Gadget!

The good folks over at Skype have been mighty busy recently. In the last month (give or take a day) the company has announced integration with Facebook, launched a new version of its Windows client to support the social network, released an iPad-optimized version, and expanded Android support to an additional 17 handsets. Now the video-chat stalwart has update its Mac app with support for Lion and HD video calls — something Microsoft fans have been enjoying since 2010. You can check out the full announcement and download Skype 5.3 for Max OS X at the source link.

Skype for Mac updates to 5.3, adds Lion and HD video call support originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on March 25, 2008 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

We have a terrific application that we are going to take a look at today called Videoraptor. Prior to writing this article I had never heard of the program, but I have to say that many of you will find it to be as useful as I have. And what’s even better is that we have 500 licenses to giveaway so that you don’t have to fork out $25 for it! Yes, that’s over $12,000 in software that we’re giving out.

So what is Videoraptor? It’s a tool that you can use to scour the Internet looking for music and videos that have been posted. It reminds me a bit of the music search engine called BeeMP3, except that Videoraptor comes back with an even wider array of results. The real gem is that you can specify a different format that you would like your media in, and Videoraptor will convert it for you once the download has completed.

–Using Videoraptor Search–

Once you get the application up and running you’ll be able to search for music or videos on the Internet. It will list them in a friendly format, and in parenthesis next to each result you’ll be able to see exactly what domain the song is coming from:

(Click to Enlarge)

Before starting a download you’ll want to ponder what format you would like your media to be in. Videoraptor can convert any of your downloads into a variety of formats which we’ve listed below. That way you can begin a download, walk away, and come back to find that your media is ready to go.

Now you’re ready to download a song. After you’ve found what you are looking for and have set the conversion format, just double-click on a result to begin the download process. Once the download is completed it will be moved into the folder that you specified in the options.

Videoraptor even comes with an integrated media player that is capable of playing the songs and videos that you download. To listen to a song or watch a video just double-click on the one you want in your completed downloads list.

–Using Videoraptor Surf & Catch–

Videoraptor not only lets you download music and videos by searching, but it will also monitor popular media sites such as YouTube and Last.fm for media that you might be playing in Internet Explorer. It will then give you the option of downloading the song or video, and having it converted on-the-spot.

(Click to Enlarge)

As soon as a video starts to play it will show up in the Videoraptor’s play list under the Surf & Catch tab. If you’re listening to a song on a radio station such as Last.fm the song will automatically begin downloading. I’m not quite sure why the songs don’t show up in the list like the videos do, but it may have something to do with session expiration times that prevent a song from being downloaded at a later time.

Note: I had some issues getting the radio stations to work in Internet Explorer 8 Beta, and so you may want to use Internet Explorer 6 or 7 to ensure that you have as few issues as possible.

–Music Sources & Formats–

Music is searched for on beemp3.com, miaskcom.com, mp3realm.org, projectplaylist.com, seeqpod.com, songza.com, spoolfm.com, and tagoo.ru. Any of these sources can be disabled in the options.

Any music that you download can be instantly converted into the following formats:

• M4A (128kbps, 192kbps) – iPod
• MP3 (128kbps, 128-192kbps VBR, 256kbps)
• Ogg (128kbps, 192kbps, 96-160kbps VBR, 128-192kbps VBR)
• WAV (uncompressed)
• WMA (128kbps, 192kbps, Q75 VBR, Q98 VBR)
• WMApro (128kbps, 192kbps, Q75 VBR, Q98 VBR)

–Movie Sources & Formats–

Videos are searched for on aol.com, clipfish.de, cnettv.com, myvideo.de, yahoo.com, and youtube.com. Any of these sources can be disabled in the options.

Any videos that you download can be instantly converted into the following formats, in addition to the music formats listed above:

• 3GP (176×144 @ 96kbps, 320×240 @ 528kbps, 320×240 @ 608kbps, 320×240 @ Q80 VBR, original @ 96kbps)
• AVI (320×240 @ 608kbps, original @ 128kbps, original @ Q95 VBR)
• MP4 (320×240 @ 384kbps, 320×240 @ 608kbps, 320×240 @ Q95 VBR, 384×288 @ 608kbps, original @ Q95 VBR, original @ 96kbps)
• WMV7 (320×240 @ 608kbps)
• WMV9 (320×240 @ 608kbps, 320×240 @ 704kbps, original @ 96kbps, original @ Q95 VBR)

–The Giveaway–

We currently have 500 serial numbers for Videoraptor sitting on our desktop waiting to be sent out. Normally we would just have you comment on the article if you wanted a license, but since we have so many that would be a lengthy process.

What we’re doing this time is requesting that you send us an email so that we can simply reply with your serial number. Send the email to [REMOVED SINCE GIVEAWAY IS DONE], and put Videoraptor somewhere in the subject line or body of the email. That way we’ll quickly be able to search through any spam for valid entries. First come first serve.

We’ll send out the serial numbers for however long it takes to give them all away, and just so you know what kind of chance you have of getting them we’ll keep a running count below of how many we have given out. This will be updated each time any invites are sent out:

Number of licenses sent out: 500 of 500 (as of 03/26/2008 @ 10:29AM CST)

Videoraptor Homepage

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on February 20, 2007 by CyberNet.

Windows Vista has a feature included that ranks your hardware on a scale from 1 to 5.9. It is called the Windows Experience Index (WEI) and the better your hardware is the higher your score will be. It analyzes your processor, memory, graphics, gaming graphics, and primary hard disk to provide you with your overall score.

The overall score, which is referred to as the base score, is only comprised of the lowest subscore from the items mentioned above. A post was started in our forum a few weeks ago asking what everyone’s Windows Vista Experience Index was, and from the looks of it the highest value you can get is 5.9. As OldManDeath pointed out in the forum the maximum WEI score will continue to increase as better hardware makes its way to the market:

Considering how often computer technology changes, you may wonder how rating values will change as new hardware capabilities become available. So that the score you see today has the same meaning at any point in your computer’s lifetime, Microsoft will increase the top end of the rating scale as new hardware innovations become available. For example, the top end of the WEI score range by this time next year might be 8.0 instead of the current 5.9 to accommodate the availability of more advanced computer hardware. So, if I happen to still be using the same computer at that time without having made any hardware changes, my base score would still be 2.2.

Microsoft has a set of benchmarks that it obviously follows when testing your hardware to rank it. Better performance will result in a higher WEI score. What if you could know what hardware ranks up at the top? This might help you pick out hardware the next time you’re in the market to purchase a video card or processor.

ShareYourScore.com is a site where you submit the file that Windows creates when analyzing your system’s hardware performance. The file that Vista creates is a simple XML file that could be modified by anyone to provide false information, but the cool thing is that the file includes the name of your video card and processor so that they can rank them. You can also lookup your current graphics card to see what detailed statistics have been received by other submissions.

Right now there doesn’t seem to be a lot of software that makes use of the Windows Experience Index, but I’m sure they will start to emerge. Games can especially benefit from this because they will be able to know what a user’s hardware is capable of handling, and adjust the quality to optimize the performance. Give it some time and I think this could turn out to be a great thing.

Source: Connected Internet

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on July 29, 2008 by CyberNet.

Windows only
One of the things that I think all operating systems lack is a universal way for applications to display notifications. Yes, there are those pesky popup balloons on Windows, but using that to display notifications for things like new emails or messages is flat out wrong.

I’m not sure why all of the operating systems aren’t coming equipped with notification systems yet, but third-party developers are starting to take it upon themselves to create easy-to-use universal notification systems. Growl on Mac OS X started this whole idea, and it looks like something similar is making its way over to the Windows side. It’s called Snarl.

What’s nice about programs like this is that they provide a central location to enable and disable notifications for all applications that use the system. Right now Snarl ships with several different types of system notifications, and extensions can also be downloaded to add additional functionality. These extensions add compatibility for programs like Firefox, Pidgin, Songbird, Thunderbird, and more.

Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of supported programs at this point, but that’s because they partly rely on developers to take it upon themselves to add support for Snarl. There’s a developers section on the site dedicated just for that purpose, and hopefully in the future extensions for popular apps like Outlook will be available.

Snarl Homepage [via Lifehacker]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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So Adobe has finally gotten around to releasing a PDF Reader that doesn’t take ages to open. They call it Adobe Digital Editions and it is a Flash-based application without many options, which can be seen in the screenshot.

I went to their site and decided to install it thinking that it was going to download some kind of setup file to my computer. Well, it isn’t exactly your typical installation. It is all done in a little Flash window and then all of a sudden it says that the installation is complete. There is no “where would you like to install this” or any of those questions that you would typically expect.

Then I was in awe that it installed a shortcut in my Start Menu and there was actually an uninstallation option in the Add/Remove Programs. That kinda worries me because it only took a few clicks to perform the installation…and think about all of the Flash banners out there that people click on.

After the “installation” I opened the program to see what it was like. It was actually more difficult to open a PDF then I would have ever imagined! There is no option to “Open a File,” instead you have to add a PDF to the library and then you can open it. Between that and the huge lack of features I decided that it won’t be pulling me away from Foxit Reader. I thought Adobe was listening to what the people wanted…but they must have ear muffs on or something.

News Source: Digg

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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