Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on July 21, 2008 by CyberNet.

Apple apparently likes to do whatever it can to push its applications and services onto as many Windows users as it can. A good example of this is when trying to download QuickTime where you are required to install iTunes as well. Similarly Apple recently pushed Safari onto Windows users as an “update” regardless of whether it was previously installed.

They are at it again, but this time with their rebranded .Mac service called MobileMe. If you want to use MobileMe on your Windows PC to sync email, contacts, and more you’ll need to have iTunes 7.7 installed. What’s the big deal? It turns out that MobileMe ships with every iTunes 7.7 download, and by installing the latest version of the media player Windows users will see a new MobileMe Preferences icon added to their Control Panel:

Most people will probably never venture into the Control Panel to see the added icon, but as Apple demonstrates anyone using MobileMe on Windows is required to have iTunes 7.7 in order to get the needed functionality. So if you just want iTunes you’ll also get MobileMe, and vice versa.

Man, they sure know how to push stuff onto people. I’m surprised they don’t just bundle Safari, QuickTime, and iTunes together into one big package. In Apple’s defense Microsoft does do something similar with their Windows Live Services. When trying to install only Live Writer or Live Photo Gallery you also have to install the Sign-in Assistant, which isn’t required for the apps to work properly.

[via BetaNews]

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Haven’t had enough CES titillation yet? Good. ASUS has apparently been up to some mischief overnight in uploading and then pulling a new version of its teaser video from a week ago, though this time it also included explicit product names attached to some quite informative diagrams. It looks to be the full family of upcoming CES tablets, with the EP121 touting stylus input and a wireless keyboard, the EP102 showing that there will indeed be a slider in ASUS’ Pad family, and the EP101 looking like, well, a laptop. There’s also a media-centric EP71, whose proportions make it seem likely to be a sort of oversized PMP. Skip past the break for a closer look at them all and don’t forget to grace our comments with your theory as to why ASUS feels compelled to have such a segmented product offering.

Continue reading ASUS EP121, EP102, EP101, and EP71 tablets get diagramed in latest teaser

ASUS EP121, EP102, EP101, and EP71 tablets get diagramed in latest teaser originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Dec 2010 10:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on August 03, 2006 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

One thing I hate is to restart my computer, walk away to do something, and return just to find my computer sitting at the login screen. Then I have to wait for it to load all of my programs when really I just want it to be ready to use. I could just remove the password from my account but I also share files on my hard drive and don’t want to expose them to prying eyes. It took a little searching but I was able to find a few ways to automatically have Windows login for me.

The easiest way is probably to download TweakUI from Microsoft and use it to “enter” your password every time you boot Windows. Besides for just that feature it also has several other things that it does to let you customize Windows XP, so it is probably worth downloading anyways.

However, I wanted a quick fix that I could do for anyone without having to download some software. It takes just a few steps and about 60 seconds:

1. Go to Start->Run and type control userpasswords2 into the box.

   

2. In the box that pops up you need to select your username (the “Administrator” username will not work for Windows XP Home Edition users). Then uncheck the box that says “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer.“

   

3. Press OK to continue. You will be prompted with a box that asks for your password so enter it in and press OK again.

   

4. That’s it, now every time that you start Windows up it will automatically log you in.

Even though this is very convenient you need to think of possible security risks. I use this primarily at my house because no one else has easy access to that computer. If you do this to your laptop then anyone who steals it could gain access to your system without needing a password. So think wisely before using this feature on all of your computers.

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

Microsoft Monday

I’m one that tends to turn off most of the system sounds on my computer. I’ve never really found them useful, and in fact, most of the time they annoy me. Last August when it was reported that Microsoft was not going to allow you to disable the startup sound in Vista, many people including myself were a little upset. Luckily they changed their minds, and I can now disable it.

If you enjoy all of the sounds in your operating system and you’re using Windows Vista, you’ll notice that many of them sound much different than those in XP.  One major difference besides the actual sounds is the difference that they were encoded.  XP Sounds were encoded at 352 kpbs while Vista sounds were encoded at 1,411 kbps.  Vista sounds are clearly better quality, but they also tend to be shorter than any of the sounds in XP as well.

A nice comparison of Vista Sounds versus XP sounds can be found here.

Customize System Sounds

I don’t know how many of you go explore the Sound menu found in the Control Panel, but there are different sounds that you can choose from to customize what you hear and when. There’s an entire drop-down list of sounds so that you can select a particular sound for a certain event. By clicking the “Test” button, you can hear what a sound sounds like before you select it. You can also click “browse” to select your own WAV file.

Convert Your Own Sounds to WAV

As mentioned above, you can browse to select your own sounds. That means you can search around the Internet looking for sounds clips to then be used for your system sounds. The only requirement is that the sounds must be converted to WAV before you’re able to use them.

If you find sounds that you like that are in any other format like MP3 or WMA, you can use a tool like dBpoweramp to convert it to WAV. It’s free, and simple to use.

Download dBpoweramp Music Converter

Here are three websites where you can find sound clips:

1. WavCentral
2. Bravenet (you can filter by WAV sounds)
3. TheFreeSite.com

Create Your Own Sounds

Instead of going around looking for sounds around the web, why not create your own? Vista already comes with a Sound Recorder, so all you’ll need is a microphone.  Please note: It will record in WMA format, so once again you can use dBpoweramp Music Converter to convert the file to WAV.

Once you’re done recording your sounds and have selected which ones you’d like for different events, you can save it as a Sound Scheme by clicking “Save as.”

SoundPackager

If you’re familiar with IconPackager, SoundPackager will do something similar.  It’s a project in the works over at Stardock, and it looks like a beta will be available in July.  On their website, they say: “It applies sets of sound effects to a host of common Windows actions. Stardock has teamed up with famed composer Mason Fischer to create a series of elegant replacement sounds on Windows.” This will probably end up being one of the easiest ways to modify your system’s sounds, but there hasn’t been any word on the cost.

The screenshot below gives us an idea of what it will look like when it becomes available:

Vista Startup Sound Facts

Just in case you’re interested in more than just how the startup sound sounds, here are a few interesting facts that the Windows Vista Blog posted a few months before Vista debuted regarding it:

• The startup sounds is made of dual ascending “glassy” melodies played on top of a gentle fading Fripp ‘AERO’ Soundscape
• Has two parallel melodies played in an international “Win-dows Vis-ta” rhythm
• Consists of 4 chords, one for each color in the Windows flag
• Is about 4 seconds long from start to finish
• Is a collaboration between Robert Fripp, Tucker Martine and Steve Ball

The video below shows Robert Fripp recording some of the sounds. He was one of the individuals involved.

There you have it, more than you ever wanted to know about Vista sounds!

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

Microsoft announced last night that they’ve come up with with a name for Windows 7. You might be expecting something along the lines of “XP” or “Vista,” but they aren’t going that route this time around. They’ve actually decided to go back to their roots and call the next major release “Windows 7.” This is just like the old days when Microsoft named milestones based on version (3.11, etc…) or year (95, 98, etc…).

It will be weird to refer to a version of Windows again simply by a number, but I’m sure that’s a decision Microsoft has spent a lot of time considering. Of course Apple tends to go with both conventions: providing a number (10.4, 10.5, etc…) and also an easy to remember name (Tiger, Leopard, etc…). Hopefully Microsoft is making the right choice.

I think the biggest thing for most users in Windows 7 are improvements to how User Account Control (UAC) works. ZDNet noticed that even Symantec has come up with their own UAC replacement that contains the much requested “don’t ask me again” feature:

We’ll know in the coming weeks some of the things that we can expect from Windows 7 since the PDC and WinHEC events are right around the corner. Hopefully they won’t just talk about the stuff we already know about.

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