John Thompson
Here are all the Zath articles written by John Thompson...
Here are all the Zath articles written by John Thompson...
Microsoft Arc Keyboard – Stylish, Portable, Wireless & Curved!
March 17, 2010
First introduced to the world earlier this year at CES 2010, the Microsoft Arc Keyboard has been released which compliments their previously released Microsoft Arc Mouse, which debuted in late 2008. It’s small form factor and unique design offers a compelling wireless experience, and I for one couldn’t wait to check it out at first glance.
The first thing that struck me when seeing the keyboard was how much the curvature resembled Apple’s Magic Mouse rather than Microsoft’s Arc Mouse design. It certainly takes some getting used to; the curved design feels unnatural when you first start typing on the keyboard, I know that much from using other curved Microsoft keyboards in the past.
Continue reading »TotalFinder – A Better Finder (Mac OS X)
March 13, 2010
TotalFinder is a new application for Mac OS X, which allows you to pump your Finder full of steroids (not literally of course, but you see where I’m going with this…) and enhance it with many new and useful features. It’s still only in Alpha, but it’s stable enough for everyday use, and is now an indispensable tool on my MacBook Pro.
The first thing you’ll notice about TotalFinder is that once it’s been installed on your system, Finder will have tabs! With tabs styled on Google’s Chrome browser thanks to the Chromium codebase, you can easily flick between tabs and save the hassle of having a lot of Finder windows open to carry out your daily tasks. For those ol’ Norton Commander fans out there, you can also view your windows in a dual panel mode which is a nice option to have, although one I don’t personally use.
Continue reading »Pushme.to iPhone App Review
March 13, 2010
Pushme.to is a free alternative to text messaging on the iPhone, allowing users of the app to send and receive messages from others on the service. At first I questioned the necessity of this application, after all, iPhone users already have SMS and various instant messaging and social networking clients (including Facebook and Twitter) on the App Store right?
After using it for a while, however, I came to appreciate the great service pushme.to offers as an alternative to these apps when you’re out of texts – after all, some of the iPhone contracts available on the market aren’t exactly generous when it comes to SMS limits. Another useful feature with this service is that it allows people to send messages to registered users from the Pushme.to website.
Continue reading »Opera Mini 5 Beta Android App Launched
March 12, 2010
Opera Mini 5 beta became available for download on the Android Market yesterday and after a long hands on, I believe it shows a lot of promise as a mobile browser on Android.
Opera has good history on mobile devices such as their Opera Mobile 9.5 browser for Windows Mobile phones, so the first thing that struck me about Mini 5 is that it too has an extremely simple user interface (UI) that’s extremely intuitive and makes a lot of key operations in mobile browsing very easy.
At the bottom of the screen, there’s a black bar with all the navigation tools you need, and although this may take up valuable screen estate on an already small screen, it’s very functional. You have your back, forward and refresh buttons as expected, but the tabs button makes it incredibly easy to add, remove and switch between tabs – much easier than it is on Android’s stock browser.
Continue reading »Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software Review
March 11, 2010
We’ve all been there and done it… Not many people can say they’ve never accidentally deleted an e-mail or an important file, and those who have may not have got it back! With Stellar’s Windows Data Recovery Software, you can make sure that those all important files are recovered if you ever lose them or format a drive and forget to backup a file.
Installation was effortless, and I was up and running in no time with no hassle. Unlike most complex applications that are designed for a similar function, Stellar’s recovery software is extremely well designed, providing easy access to key functions and allowing even the most inexperienced user to navigate around. You’re given five tabs to choose from at the top of the window. When a tab is selected, you’re given different functions to choose from and an explanation on how each of these functions work and how to use it. This is especially useful for beginners, and shows how much thought went in to the design process of the application.
Continue reading »Tagcrumbs iPhone App Review
March 10, 2010
If you haven’t heard of Tagcrumbs before, it’s a service dedicated to sharing your favourite places with your friends and people on the web, offering a great service when finding things to do around where you are, or just finding new places.
With such a service being well suited to location aware devices such as the iPhone 3GS, it was only a matter of time until Tagcrumbs had an application on the App Store, and it’s now available in the store for seven countries.
With the free Tagcrumbs iPhone app, you can recommend a place you’ve been for others to go, knowing that they’ll have a great time. With Tagcrumbs, users can tag places they find, offering great flexibility to users who can recommend and find virtually anything they want that’s been tagged by others.
Continue reading »AppZapper Review (Mac OS X)
March 9, 2010
One of the great delights of Mac OS X on my MacBook Pro is how easy it is to install and uninstall applications and now AppZapper makes it even easier. For those of you who aren’t familiar with OS X, when installing an application, all you have to do (most of the time) is drag and drop in to your applications folder.
When uninstalling, you simply drag the application into the trash can. As with any program, however various leftovers remain on your hard drive which are hard to identify amongst the multitude of other files floating around. This is where AppZapper comes in!
Continue reading »VoucherCloud iPhone App Review
March 9, 2010
Whoever invented discount vouchers should most probably be a saint…if you look hard enough, you’ll be able to find discount vouchers for most stores you’d want to buy from, but it’s the looking that’s the hard part!
Luckily for us, the VoucherCloud iPhone App takes the pain out of hunting for vouchers by simply offering you choices based on your current location and any category you wish to view.
VoucherCloud is available as a free application on the App Store, if you’re out and about you’ll be saving money in no time with all the offers in your area that you didn’t know about! Presenting offers around your current location using GPS is a great location based service that makes this app a great addition to your iPhone.
Continue reading »Steam Coming To Mac OS X (Digital Games Distribution)
March 9, 2010
I know, I know, Christmas happened way back in December, but presents are better late than never! In case any of you Apple fanboys out there missed the news, Steam announced yesterday morning that they’re bringing their service to the Mac along with a great library of games which will be available to purchase like PC users running Steam.
In case you’ve not used used it before, Steam is probably the best digital games distribution platform out there, which most of the big and small games publishers are now using to cut out the need for physical media distribution for games. Not only are publishers using it to release new games, but also to find a market for their older games, for example Lucasarts re-released some of their older classic titles. It’s fair to say that we’re big fans of it here at Zath.
Continue reading »VOi Lorem iPhone Case Review
March 7, 2010
When you live in a world filled with expensive gadgets and gizmos, you’re going to want to protect that shiny new hi-tech gadget investment of yours! The iPhone is by far the most popular smartphone on the planet, but even the folks from Cupertino can’t protect your phone from the everyday beatings it will undoubtedly endure.
With many iPhone covers and cases on the market, it may be hard to choose how you want to protect your iPhone, but the VOi ‘Lorem’ iPhone Case one that’s certainly caught my eye and is rather effective at keeping your indispensable iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS from cracking (literally) under the pressure of everyday life…
Continue reading »
