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Software

Reading On The iPad Review: The Telegraph & Wall Street Journal Newspaper Apps

When there are so many different news sources out there, you may suffer from information overload. There are literally hundreds of thousands of news websites circling the web right now, each offering their own stories and opinions, but can you really beat a professional, trusted publication?

A lot of websites on the net offer exaggerated or fabricated stories that are simply not accurate, and in an age where information is king, we need to get our news from reputable places.

Two such examples on the Apple iPad are the Telegraph and the Wall Street Journal newspaper apps. Both of these well established newspapers are incredibly popular – the Telegraph is the highest selling newspaper among British broadsheets, with average daily circulation closing in on a million copies every day – but how do the apps stack up to the content?

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Google’s Web Store Now Online In The US – Chrome Web Apps In An iTunes-Style!

The curtains rolled back on Google’s web store back in May, and since then not a lot has been heard. However, now it has been officially rolled out in the US and was showcased today at Google’s press event in San Francisco.

The UI of the web store is pretty similar to the iTunes 10 store in truth, though I’m not sure anybody at Google would thank me for pointing it out. It is basically a mixture of category lists, previews and icons, quantified lists and collections. Nothing particularly revolutionary and the apps are not a lot different either to what you would expect to find on an iDevice.

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Google Chrome OS Features Finally Announced! Is A Full Cloud Computing Experience Viable?

It’s been a long time in the pipeline, but Google’s cloud-based Chrome OS was finally properly unveiled and detailed today at a Google press event in San Francisco.

Using demo-hardware, several key features of the operating system were shown off and on first impressions it actually looks pretty sweet. But first, let’s talk you through the basic principle of Chrome OS in case for one reason or another you’ve not heard of Google’s latest foray in to the OS market.

As the name suggests, Chrome OS is loosely based upon Google’s web browser of the same name. Using for the most part the same interface, the entirely cloud-based OS allows computing in pretty much it’s most basic modern form, thus making it an apparently perfect platform for a basic computer user (you know, browsing, email etc.).

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Reading On The iPad Review: Comic Book Apps

We’re pretty excited about the release of PROJECT on the iPad last week, and it’s gotten us interested in some other reading material on our favourite tablet too, so this week we’re going to be taking a look at all the different kind of reading material available for the device, from comics to newspapers.

Comic books are a great place to start, because they have been so influential not only to people who have read them for years, but also to people who haven’t picked up a single one. Thanks to the film industry, popular figures such as Batman have been thrown in to the limelight and been adored by millions. If you want to know where the stories all started then you’ll want to pick up the comic books, and this has become a whole lot easier thanks to the iPad.

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PROJECT Magazine iPad App Review

A few days ago, we told you about the new PROJECT digital magazine created by Virgin solely for the Apple iPad. A new issue will be released each month, costing just £1.79 for an issue with the app itself being free to download (all of the issues you download are stored inside the application).

The content of the magazine is updated regularly giving readers a month of reading material for a one off price. It also encourages contributions from its readers and bloggers, giving lots of people a chance to make themselves heard.

In the digital world, many things can be done that one simply can’t experience on print. You can incorporate animations, special features, videos and other add-ons which add to the experience. Quite frankly, I knew straight away that PROJECT was going to be packed with a host of extra goodies and features as the issue took an awfully long time to download, but as you’ll see, it was worth it…

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A Preview Of Norton 360 5.0 Beta For Windows

Do you remember Norton? We took a look at Norton 360 version 4.0 way back when the country wasn’t covered in snow, and to my surprise, I found it to be quite a pleasant experience.

Norton have just released the beta version of Norton 360 5.0 to the public. It contains a couple of nice upgrades over the previous version, and has a few other tweaks as well. Interested? Let’s take a look!

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Richard Branson’s PROJECT Digital Magazine iPad App Launched

PROJECT, the first major Apple iPad only publication on the App Store has been launched today by Sir Richard Branson in New York. Representing Virgin’s first experience of digital magazine publishing (there can’t be many more markets left for Virgin to be in can there?!) the app is available for free from the App Store, with each issue costing $2.99 or £1.79.

With a new issue being released each month content of the magazine is updated regularly, essentially giving readers a month of reading material for a one of price. It also encourages contributions from its readers and bloggers, giving lots of people a chance to make themselves heard.

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BitDefender ‘safego’ App Reveals One Fifth of Facebook Users Subjected to Malware

To call Facebook ‘massive’ would be an understatement: if it were a country its 500 million active members would make it the 3rd biggest in the world (behind China and India) and a staggering 250 million of these (enough to make it the 4th biggest behind the US and ahead of Indonesia) log in each day. So if you want a big market for your malware, this is the place to go!

Unsurprisingly that is exactly what people have been doing, but last month BitDefender who specialise in Internet security solutions announced the Beta launch of ‘safego’ which is a free application for Facebook focusing, surprisingly enough, on security and BitDefender have now released some of the statistics gathered by the app and they make very interesting reading.

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Do Mac OS X Users Need Anti-Virus Protection?

The necessity of anti virus applications on Mac OS X has long been debated. Just the other day, we brought Sophos’ latest malware figures to you which showed that a small percentage of Macs were infected with various pieces of malicious software. Only 2 of these viruses were capable of executing on OS X, and the rest were designed for Windows. The most prominent virus infected just 4.62% of machines, and isn’t even capable of running on Mac OS X.

Many people argue that Macs are less likely to become infected because they’re more secure by nature. After all, there are very few viruses written for the Mac compared to the plethora of threats created for Windows systems. Is this because OS X is more secure due to its UNIX back-end though, or is Windows simply a more tempting target for virus creators due to its mammoth market share?

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YouTube 5 For Safari Converts YouTube Videos To HTML5 On The Fly

There’s nothing worse than watching the CPU usage on your computer zoom to 100% when you load a YouTube video, before you spend the next 10 minutes cranking up the volume to drown out the sound of your fan going crazy.

Since Flash plays havoc with my Mac when watching video I tend to avoid YouTube, but when Apple released Safari 5 with extension support something wonderful happened. HTML5 happened in Safari via a wonderful extension called YouTube5.

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How To Install Mac OS X From A USB Memory Stick

I recently had a bit of a Mac-related disaster when I decided to upgrade one of my Mac OS X computers to Snow Leopard, only to find that the optical drive decided to be stubborn and spit out discs right left and centre. Not one to be defeated, I tried a different approach: USB installation.

MacBook Air owners will know how painful it can be to use remote disc install for various installations, so to be able to install not only applications, but also operating system updates, via USB is a big advantage.

The MacBook Air isn’t the only Mac now without an optical drive either; the Mac Mini server edition sacrifices the optical drive for an additional hard drive.

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5 Things I Want To See In Apple iOS 5.0 (iPhone 5)

You already know five things that I’d love to see in Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), but what about the next version of Apple’s iOS? Admittedly, it will only arrive with the iPhone 5 in 2011, but it’s never too early to start thinking, right?

1. A More Functional Lock Screen

We’re at iOS 4, and we’re still using the same lock screen that we had in the original version of the iPhone OS when the iPhone was first introduced to the world. It serves it’s purpose as a lock screen, but it becomes incredibly tedious when you have to unlock your phone before you can see how many messages or emails are waiting for you.

I’ve been using Element on a jailbroken iPhone for all my notifications, and to go back to a stock version of iOS is pretty painful where the lock screen is concerned. Apple could take a lot of cues from this app and implement them in a future lock screen.

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Sophos Releases Mac Malware Statistics, Should OS X Users Be Worried?

Security firm Sophos, who has developed a free anti-virus for Mac OS X, has just released some interesting figures that give some indication of where the Mac is at where malware is concerned.

Cult of Mac reports that the data was collected from 50,000 malware reports generated by 150,000 users of Sophos anti virus for Mac in the first two weeks of November.

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Ubuntu Could Move To Daily Downloads, Replacing Six Monthly Release Cycle

Every six months, Ubuntu fans around the globe become increasingly excited at the prospect of a brand new version of the popular distribution to play with, such as recently when we saw the release of the Ubuntu 10.10 “Maverick Meerkat” download appear in October, with the next version, Natty Narwhal, due for release in April of 2011.

This may soon be changing though; according to The Register, Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical, the company which develops Ubuntu, recently told the press that in moving to daily downloads rather than a six monthly cycle Ubuntu would be better placed to keep up with developing platforms and software.

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Acer Alive Digital Distribution Platform & App Store Announced

They’ve finally moved away from the horde of hardware announcements at Acer’s event in NYC today, and with the shift to software announcements comes an interesting piece for sure. We have already heard news of Apple’s plans for an app store on Mac OS X, as well as Intel planning to slap an app store on ASUS netbooks at some point in the future, but this has comes as a bit of a surprise. Acer is launching its own app store on its future PC’s.

Developers from Intel and Adobe as well as others will be providing content for the app store, which although bigged up as more than a simple application distribution tool, really isn’t. It is unclear whether it will be loaded on to the new range of tablets announced today, or whether it is simply for desktop machines at the moment, but with five main sections separating the different aspects of the store: Listen, Watch, Read, Play and Applications. This does hint perhaps at the more mobile device, perhaps for their newly announced Acer Android tablets – I am referring more to the ‘Read’ section here I guess, but nothing is concrete.

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5 Things I Want To See In Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)

In the past month, we’ve been given promises from all over the blogosphere that Android 2.3 is coming. First, we were told Gingerbread was coming to the Nexus One over a whole week ago, then we saw it RUNNING on the Samsung Nexus S for a precious few moments at the Web 2.0 summit, but as of yet, we haven’t been able to try it out for ourselves.

All is not lost though, as the more time we wait for it, the more time we have to rack up an absurd amount of rumours and wishes for the new mobile operating system. Of course I’m no exception, and here are five things that I would love to see in the next version of Android.

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Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2011 Review (Windows)

Trend Micro’s Titanium Maximum Security 2011 suite promises lots on the surface. One program that handles spam, parental controls, data theft prevention, smartphone protection and more. However, it’s competing in a seriously saturated market, facing competitors such as Norton, Bit Defender and PC Tools, so can it stand out, or is it just another internet security suite?

Titanium Maximum Security boasts a quirky interface, not too dissimilar to that of PC Tools’ internet security program. It’s easy enough to get around, if not slightly unconventional, and somehow manages to fit in more features than one can shake a stick at. Seeing as there are so many features to cover, let’s drill through them one by one.

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Top 5 Windows Phone 7 Games (Xbox Live)

Whether you’re buying into Windows Phone 7 as a credible smartphone platform right now, it is difficult to deny that the quality of Xbox Live integration is quite special.

Although there are nowhere near as many games available yet as the leading platforms, the whole environment in which you can play games on your Windows Phone 7 handsets is arguably a better experience than simply booting up an app as you do in Android or iOS when you consider the social aspect of Xbox Live.

So, what are the best games available for the platform as of a month post-launch? Well here they are!…

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Trend Micro SafeSync For Windows Review

Trend Micro SafeSync is a backup service which allows you to make backups of your home computer online, and keep everything synchronised so that you know where you’re at with your files. We’ve taken a look at a few online backup and sync services in the past, such as EASEUS, Cloudberry and Carbonite, so I was interested to see how SafeSync would stack up against the competition.

Before you can download SafeSync, you will have to register for an account. At this stage, you can download the trial version free of charge so there isn’t a need to enter any payment details, just your email address and a few details. By default, you will be sent SafeSync related emails to your registered address, so it may be a good idea to uncheck this option if you don’t want any commercial e-mail filling up your inbox.

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Facebook for Windows Phone 7 App Review

Facebook already has a great deal of integration into several aspects of the Windows Phone 7 platform, but where there is an internet connection and a compatible app, there is a Facebook app. The icon is a pretty generic Facebook logo so nothing nasty there and it slots right in to the start screen.

Upon loading the application you’re immediately faced with a new menu listing links to your news feed, photos, inbox, events, friends, profile, requests, notes or a logout button.

The first criticism I would have of this, is it would be nice for some sort of notifications for each section so you know where attention is needed. However, that is lacking so you have to navigate through the app to find out whats going on. A simple swipe to the left will take you to your notifications menu, though, so you can keep up with statuses or likes etc. as you would on the normal site.

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