Posts Tagged ‘Windows’

HyperDock adds eye candy, functionality to your Mac’s dock

Monday, September 27th, 2010

HyperDock is a System Preferences pane that you can install on your Mac that adds some nice visual improvements to the dock, as well as some very useful window-handling functionality. Currently it’s in beta, but you’d never know it; I have yet to have a single problem with it on my system.

Visually, HyperDock adds window previews when you mouse over icons for running applications, much like what you see in Windows 7. I haven’t decided if I like this feature (on my Mac, or on Windows), but even turned off HyperDock is still worth having installed.

HyperDock adds the ability to set up mouse and keyboard shortcuts for your applications individually or en masse, with options like Activate App, Hide App, Hide Other Apps, Quit App, Kill App, Exposé, Reveal App in Finder, Open Location, and Execute AppleScript. But as much as I love adding keyboard shortcut functionality to my system, it’s HyperDock’s window handling abilities that really shine.

You can set hotkeys for moving and resizing windows. This fixes one of the biggest UI problems in OS X, which is that to resize a window you must grab a tiny widget at the bottom right of the window. Using HyperDock, you can press a key combination (it defaults to Ctrl-Option) and whatever window the cursor happens to be over suddenly starts moving with your cursor. Release the keys, the window stops right there. Adding Shift (for Ctrl-Option-Shift) resizes the window under the cursor.

HyperDock is currently in beta, and while so it is a free download. Once it is released it is likely to “cost a small fee” according to the site.
Webcams For a wide variety of the industry’s top grade web cameras at the best prices, go to dell.com to find web cams from Creative Labs, Logitech, Microsoft and many more top rated and best selling computer cameras.
logistics solutions – Inventory control management solutions for supply chain management and supply chain logistics delivered software as a service or web based.
custom gaming laptop – Prostar has been committed to the providsion of the latest mobile technology and gaming laptops. Please visit our site if you are interested in Cheap Custom Gaming Laptop, Cheap Custom Gaming Notebook, Best Custom Gaming Laptops, Best Custom Gaming Notebooks.
J2EE performance tools – RTI lets you trace transactions for web-based applications, measure end-to-end slowness, and drill down to diagnose performance problems from the browser, network, web and application tiers down to the database query.

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Internet Technology | No Comments »

PerformanceTest by PassMark lets you benchmark and compare your system

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

“I need a new computer!” is a cry often heard by parents and system administrators alike. But often, the problem isn’t in the hardware – if the user isn’t an avid gamer or using a really ancient system, more often than not the problem is a crudded-up Windows installation (yes, I know, “this doesn’t happen on Linux”).

Proving to your user/kid that the hardware isn’t the problem is often easier said than done. What they see is just a slow computer, but PassMark’s PerformanceTest may be able to help you prove that the hardware isn’t all that wimpy.

First of all, you should know this is a Shareware product. You get it for a 30-day free eval period, after which you should buy it. But for most home users, 30 days should be plenty – you just want to see if you should buy a new computer, and if so, how much would that computer really be better than what you have now.

PerformanceTest runs a fairly comprehensive battery of tests, including CPU, graphics (2D and 3D), memory, hard-drive and CD performance. It then lets you upload the results onto its online database, and you can also pull information from the database to compare your system to right within the program.

For some reason, I was unable to find other systems listed as running Windows 7 x64, and so I had to compare my system with rigs running Vista x64.

Even if you don’t want to benchmark your own system, the database provides some very illuminating statistics. If you’re on the market for a new system, you should definitely take a stroll through some of the charts.

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Internet Technology | No Comments »

Root your HTC Android phone with unrevoked

Friday, July 16th, 2010

Not everyone who wants to root his or her Android phone is interested in doing things the hard way (like me, for example — if I had an Android phone, of course). Want to make things easy on yourself? Download unrevoked and let it do the heavy lifting for you!

The tool provides simple rooting for five HTC Android phones: the Incredible, Desire, Aria, Hero, and Evo.

Windows users: you’ll need to first load the included HBoot drivers — Linux and Mac users won’t. You’ll also need to make sure that no other programs are trying to access your device via USB (like HTC Sync or DoubleTwist, for example).

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Internet Technology | No Comments »

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 public beta now available

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

We already told you that Windows 7 Service Pack 1 had hit closed beta, but now Microsoft has made it available to everyone. Announced on Monday at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference, SP1 reflects Microsoft’s increased focus on cloud computing.

As we’ve mentioned before, SP1 includes RemoteFX, which allows for host-based [...]

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Internet Technology | No Comments »

Microsoft leaks plans for a Windows 8 app store

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

According to leaked documents making the rounds of the Internet, Microsoft’s Windows 8 will come with an app store, allowing users to download Microsoft-endorsed apps and sync settings across all their Windows 8 devices. The service will be hosted entirely in the cloud, with a focus on helping developers reach an audience with a simple sales and licensing process. Is this Microsoft’s attempt to energize third-party Windows devs the same way Apple’s iTunes app store attracted Mac developers?

From the documents we’ve seen, It looks like the store will also include social features and app recommendations to help users with discovery and help app developers with sales. Neowin speculates that the whole thing will be powered by Microsoft Azure, the MS cloud OS, to help attract Azure developers.

Windows users: what features would you like to see in a Windows App Store?

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Internet Technology | No Comments »

How does Windows Live Sync stack up to DropBox?

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Live Essentials 2011 is nearly ready for the launch of its beta and with it will come Live Sync, Microsoft’s desktop-to-cloud storage app which provides Dropbox-like capabilities via SkyDrive. Both services provide a nice bridge between your computer and the cloud, and they’re extremely handy if you use more than one computer system on a regular basis — especially if they’re in different locations.

So how do the two services match up? Let’s take a gander.

Capactiy: tie (sorta)
Both Dropbox and Live Sync provide 2GB of accessible-by-anyone cloud storage for free. Dropbox, of course, offers paid upgrades while Live Sync presently does not. Whether Microsoft will allow you to expand into more of your SkyDrive’s maximum 25GB of space remains to be seen.

Flexibility: Live Sync
Though Dropbox lets you choose which subfolders of your My Dropbox folder you want to sync, there’s no easy way to include folders located elsewhere on your system (yes, there are ways to do it using symlinks). Live Sync lets you choose any folder on your system, plus it can also sync Internet Explorer Favorites and Office templates.

Peer-to-Peer Sync: Live Sync
Dropbox doesn’t offer this function, and it can be incredibly handy. In addition to letting you sync 2GB of data to your SkyDrive cloud storage, Live Sync will also do folder-to-folder syncing on any machines you want to connect. Just sign in with your Live ID on both systems and create the folder pair.
Platform support: Dropbox
With apps available for just about every mobile device around and desktop versions for Windows, Mac and Linux, Dropbox has a clear advantage here. Live Sync will probably get a Mac client, but mobile access will likely be limited to the browser on non-Windows Phone 7 devices.

Bandwidth: Dropbox
My ISP is pretty stingy with the uploads — I’m limited to about 34K/s, and my downstream gets choked whenever I approach that limit. As such, I prefer apps that provide an option to limit transfer speeds. Dropbox does, Live Sync doesn’t.

This isn’t to say that Live Sync is a hog. I never noticed any issues with my connection while running a sync operation, but I prefer being able to set a self-imposed limit.

Remote access: Live Sync
This may not factor in to the decision-making process for you, but if you’re a Windows user and you think having full remote access to your computer might come in handy from time to time, Live Sync can do it and Dropbox can’t. Even if you don’t think it’s a feature you would use often, there’s always a chance that one day you’ll need access to some file you’ve forgotten to sync — and Live Sync’s remote function will be a life-saver.

Final thoughts
If upgradeable storage and cross-platform (including mobile) support are crucial, go with Dropbox. If you’re primarily concerned with accessing files on your Windows systems both at home and at work, Live Sync is tough to beat with its peer-to-peer sync and remoting options.

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Internet Technology | No Comments »