Hasta La Gadget!

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

Microsoft gave a pleasant surprise over the weekend for all of the Vista SP1 testers out there. Earlier last week they provided a “refreshed” version of Vista SP1 to a group of 15,000 Beta testers who’ve been part of the SP1 program for quite awhile. A few days later Microsoft decided that they wanted more feedback, and therefore made the Vista Service Pack 1 RC Refresh available to the public.

For the curious minds: The new build number is 6.0.6001.17028 and it will show up as version 744 in the system properties.

I jumped on the download because I wanted to see if it fixed an issue I was having with Vista SP1 RC when attaching an external monitor. The first thing I had to do was uninstall Vista SP1:

Open the Programs and Features control panel and select View installed updates. In the Microsoft Windows section, right-click Service Pack for Windows (936330) and select Uninstall. Please wait one hour after uninstalling a previous version of Windows Vista SP1 before installing Windows Vista SP1 RC Refresh. The installer service needs to clean up and complete the uninstall prior to installing the RC. Failing to do this can result in installation errors when installing the RC version.

Uninstalling took about 45 minutes to complete, and then the process of reinstalling Vista SP1 took another hour or so. Make sure you set aside plenty of time for this process, because most of the time the computer is in an unusable state.

Now I don’t know for sure whether the bug that I mentioned above has been fixed, but I haven’t had it happen thusfar. It’s kind of been an intermittent problem, and I’ll have to give it a week before I know for sure.

As far as other changes go I haven’t noticed much, but in general after testing Vista SP1 I would have a hard time going back to a PC running Vista without it. Searching for files is so much faster with the Service Pack installed, and file transfers are definitely speedier. I can’t wait for the final version which should be out within the next couple months.

Important note: Installing a pre-release version of SP1 will cause the operating system to expire on June 30, 2008. An “Evaluation Copy” message will also appear on the desktop, but uninstalling the pre-release version of SP1 will remove all of these restrictions. This is just a way for Microsoft to ensure that people will install the final version when it comes out.

Download Vista SP1 RC Refresh [via Download Squad]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on January 12, 2011 by CyberNet.

Windows only
There are all kinds of great video players out there such as VLC and GOM, but when it comes down to appearance I have to give Splash Lite the credit it deserves. You can see what I’m talking about in the screenshot above, but that only gives you a glimpse of how polished the app actually is. Everything from the settings to the main interface is thoughtfully assembled to give you, the user, the best experience possible.

If you’re reading this article the chances are good that you’ve heard of VLC before, and know that it is popular for the wide range of video formats that it is able to playback. Splash Lite doesn’t support quite the list that VLC does, but it’s no slouch by any means. Here’s a list of features and supported video formats that can be found in the free “lite” version of Splash:

• Supported video formats: AVI, M2T, MTS, M2TS, MKV, MKA, MOV, MP4, MPG, TS, M4V, VOB, DIVX, XVID, WMV, MBT
• H.264 video decoding hardware acceleration
• Subtitle support
• Stereo or 5.1 channel audio output
• Media Center Remote Control support
• Aspect ratio settings
• Multicore CPU support

As you can tell by the name, Splash Lite, there is an older brother called Splash Pro that includes some uniquely awesome features, but it also has a $20 price tag attached to it. I’m sure for most of your video watching needs will be fulfilled by the free Splash Lite version, but you can always take a look at the features page if you’re wondering what kind of additional stuff you’d get with the upgrade.

Splash Lite Homepage (Windows only; Freeware)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on February 22, 2007 by CyberNet.

The thing that is probably holding most people back from upgrading to Windows Vista is that they’re unsure if many programs will work. In the past I have always just used the list that users put together over at IeXBeta. It is pretty comprehensive, and best of all is that people are pretty good about adding notes to applications that don’t completely work with Vista so that you know what to expect if you decide to install it anyways.

Microsoft must have seen some value in such a list because they have created their own, labeling software as either “Certified for Windows Vista” or “Works with Windows Vista.” Here is the difference between the two labels:

The “Certified for Windows Vista” logo is a compatibility designation for applications and devices that have passed a rigorous testing program on computers that are running Windows Vista. The technical requirements for this designation target four core areas: reliability, security, compatibility with Windows Vista and future operating systems, and installation and removal.

The “Works with Windows Vista” logo is a compatibility designation that is designed to encourage Windows Vista compatibility for the current generation of Windows-based applications. To receive this designation, software companies test their applications to make sure that the applications meet the program’s guidelines.

The list of “Certified for Windows Vista” applications is a lot smaller than the other one because the requirements are a lot more strict. For example, Microsoft Office 2007 is on the “Certified for” list while Office 2003 is just on the “Works with” list. Most of the programs on the “Certified for” list appear to be ones that have taken extra strides and provided updates to their applications to make them work great with Vista.

One thing that was a little disappointing in the list was that Trend Micro has the only antivirus solution that is “Certified for Windows Vista.” Personally, I use Avast with Vista and it runs very smoothly. The requirements to be certified must be a bit strict or require a lot of work that most developers don’t want to go through.

One thing that Microsoft’s list doesn’t seem to cover that the IeXBeta does is a list of programs that are known not to work. Microsoft definitely has this information available because Vista will prompt you when you are installing a program that has known compatibility issues, but the information is not readily available to users.

I remember back when Windows XP was initially released, it seemed like it took forever for compatible software to become available. Vista is already off to a better start than XP was so I definitely give Microsoft credit for getting the word out about Vista early on to developers who then had time to prepare for the release. The next few months will probably be the birth of a lot of new software, and some of it will hopefully take advantage of Vista’s new graphical features.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on May 19, 2008 by CyberNet.

We’ve mentioned the “SAVE XP” Petition that InfoWorld has put together before and at last count in mid-April, over 164,000 people had signed it. The purpose of the petition is to ask Microsoft to extend the date that XP will be available. InfoWorld has just updated the petition count and at this point, over 200,000 people have signed it. The exact count as of May 15th is 200,805 signatures and that’s the number after they took out those who signed multiple times, as well as the fake sign-ups. Clearly people want XP to stay around a little longer but is it enough?

In the big scheme of things, 200,000 people really isn’t THAT many people when you take into consideration the millions of people still using XP. It is a large enough number though that it should eventually get Microsoft’s attention and may make them stop and reconsider how long they should keep XP around. At this point they aren’t willing to meet with InfoWorld to receive the petition, but they do know that it exists. In their most recent update, InfoWorld says, “through its PR firm, Microsoft has declined to meet with InfoWorld to receive the petition and discuss the concerns of its customers who have signed it.“

One of the first thoughts that came to mind when we first heard about this whole petition several months ago was “are we going to be seeing a SAVE VISTA petition several years from now?” So many people are resistant to change because they get comfortable with what they are using and don’t want to have to get used to using something else. People were resisting XP back when it first came out. Technology changes and advances and upgrading to a new operating system allows us to take advantage of it.

So what will come of this? There are a couple of things that could happen. First of all, we’ve seen Microsoft extend the deadline for ULCPC’s (ultra low-cost personal computers) until June 30, 2010. Maybe they’ll decide to extend the date for anybody who wants to run XP and allow Vista and XP to co-exist? Or maybe they will just stick to their original plan?

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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

On this day five years ago, the Apple iTunes Music Store launched. The date was April 28, 2003, and ever since the launch, the store has managed to become more successful than I think anyone ever imagined. By early this year in 2008, over 4 billion songs have been sold through the store.

Taking a look back to 2003, it’s interesting to note that when the iTunes music store first launched, it was for Mac users only. It took several months for them to expand further and launch the iTunes Music store for Windows users in October, 2003. Had they not expanded and offered the store for Windows users, it would have taken them much, much longer before they would have been able to reach the 4 billion songs milestone that we mentioned earlier. They’ve got Windows users to thank for much of their success.

We decided to go back and find the original Press Release from Apple to checkout some of the original stats. At the time of launch, here’s what the iTunes Music Store was able to offer and some of the requirements:

• 200,000 songs
• exclusive tracks from over 20 artists
• iTunes 4 was required
• Users had to have Mac OS X version 10.1.5 or later

Now the iTunes Music Store has over 10 million songs! To go from 200,000 songs to 10 million songs in five years is pretty impressive and shows the growth that iTunes has experienced. Another interesting article we came across was from News.com when they were writing in October of 2003 about how the iTunes Music Store for Windows was coming. They mentioned how much revenue would be generated from the store and predicted that Apple could claim 20 percent of the market share. Then they went on to say, “Still, even those optimistic about the market don’t see Apple getting a major boost to the bottom line.”

Certainly Apple doesn’t make much money per song, but iTunes has exploded into popularity and has likely influenced more people to buy iPods which does boost Apple’s bottom line. Notice they also said that Apple could claim about 20 percent of the online market share? Well, they’ve now managed to secure their place as the number one largest music retailer in the United States. This includes online sales and those from brick and mortar stores, which is pretty impressive.

Happy Birthday iTunes Music Store, and here’s to another five great years!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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