Category listing for

Software

CleanMyPC Review (Windows)

Just over a year ago we took a look at CleanMyMac, a utility from MacPaw that removes any unnecessary language files and universal binary files from your OS X drive and leaves you with more space to play around with for more important things, like your music.

Coming from a company named MacPaw, I never expected the utility to make its way over to Windows, but sure enough the developers have decided to venture into a world already containing free software such as CCleaner. Is it likely to be a successful move, or should MacPaw have stayed on Apple’s side of the fence? Let’s check out CleanMyPC for Windows!

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Sidefolders Review (Mac OS X)

Sidefolders for Mac OS X is a simple utility that’s available from the Mac App Store – it positions a drawer-style pane on your desktop, in which you can store links to any files and/or folders you currently have on your Mac. The premise of the app is extremely good, offering quick access to those hard to reach places that you have to dive into fairly regularly.

You can decide whether you want Sidefolders docked on either the left or right of the desktop, which may depend on your preference regarding the OS X dock. Down the inner tab of the pane, you have a few controls. ‘+’ and ‘-’ are pretty self explanatory, in that they allow you to add or remove directories to your Sidefolders pane, and underneath that there’s a typical settings icon. Clicking it opens a simple context menu, which allows you to quickly hide or show the default directories, switch the position of the pane to the other side of the screen, check out what Sidefolders is about, or quit the app. You can also set it to open on startup, which is helpful as ever.

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Account Tracker iPhone & iPad App Review

If you’re like me, or the millions of other ordinary folk on this wonderfully rewarding planet of ours, then you need to keep a track of your finances. There are any number of tools about that can help you do this, some even provided by the banks, but I’ve been reluctant to take the plunge and spend a great deal of my hard-earned money on an all-inclusive finance management package just to keep track of a few outgoings here and there.

But, then I came across the Account Tracker iOS app, and on the face of it, it’s the ideal, simple solution for just noting down what you’re spending and producing a few forecasts here and there so I know how much to spend and save each month. Well, I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now so here’s the full review.

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Microsoft Buys Skype For $8.5bn – What Now For The VOIP Service & Its Users?

Almost a decade ago, a small group of relative unknowns from the relatively unknown nation of Estonia developed what would later become known as Skype. From a diminutive background, the Internet Telephony software has endured a turbulent history, a series of name changes and an ‘interesting’ takeover by eBay back in the latter end 2005.

As a result, the growth of Skype has been exponential, and it’s branched onto all manner of platforms, and the end product is a gargantuan buyout by software behemoth Microsoft. A wise move? Certainly from Microsoft’s point of view, but is it in the interest of the consumer? And will it have any knock on effects for the loyal user base? All questions that need answering. Urgently.

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Paperless 2 Review (Mac OS X)

Almost every office in the world has a collection of computers, yet paper seems to be as stubborn as Windows XP: it just won’t disappear. The hunt for a truly paperless office is still ongoing, and it doesn’t look like we’re going to get there anytime soon. If you’re a Mac user, though, you may be able to take the first step with Paperless.

Paperless for Mac does exactly what it says on the tin: helps you to get rid of all those messy collections of paper and digitalise your life; it can take care of everything from receipts to the electricity bill. The developers of Paperless kindly gave us a review copy of the application, so let’s take a look at how it performs!

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CloudApp Review (Mac OS X)

We’re slowly transitioning in to a more cloud orientated computing world, where our files are stored on Dropbox, our documents managed in Google Docs and our social lives managed on Facebook (or something along those lines). However, one very common scenario for me is the frustration of wanting to quickly share a file with someone over IM, only to find that their client doesn’t support the transfer protocol, or that they are using Facebook chat and can’t accept incoming files.

Sure, you could put a file in your shared Dropbox folder and copy the URL, but it isn’t very seamless. CloudApp takes a different, far simpler approach to file sharing on the net. You can simply take a file on your hard drive, drag it on to the icon in the menu bar, et voilà! The URL to the file is put in your clipboard ready to share. Simple huh?

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MPlayerX Review (Mac OS X)

Every Mac now ships with QuickTime X, which has been re-built for 64-bit compatibility, looks great and has a few nifty features thrown in for good measure. The only problem with QuickTime is that, well, it doesn’t exactly play a lot of formats. In fact apart from the odd .mov or .mp4 video file, it won’t play anything! At least not without some third-party from Perian.

On the flipside of that coin you’ll find VLC Media Player. It’s a powerhouse in terms of the formats that it can handle; throw anything at it from .mkv to .avi and beyond, and it will find a way to give you video playback. So what’s the problem then? For those that care about aesthetics VLC isn’t exactly up there with the best, especially compared to QT.

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Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Review

It’s been a while since we last took an in depth look at Linux – we had a Linux training week early last year – and a lot has changed since then. Gnome 2, the default desktop environment on many distributions since the first time I dabbled with Linux, has been replaced by both Ubuntu and Fedora. Ubuntu now runs on a desktop environment previously only available on Netbook editions called ‘Unity’ and Fedora 15 is the first major distribution to come with Gnome 3 out of the box.

It’s for this reason that the new version of Ubuntu is so crucial in the future of the distribution. This isn’t just another 6-monthly update, it’s a completely different direction for both the developers and users alike. Switching to an entirely new interface is risky for any piece of software, but when you’re one of the most popular Linux operating systems out there it can be a dangerous move. If people don’t like Unity then they can easily switch to a different distribution — after all, there are more than enough out there.

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Sparrow E-Mail Client Review (Mac OS X)

One could argue that with social networking and IM services freely available across the internet, email has lost some relevance in the past few years. However, 107 trillion emails were sent in 2010 with an average of 294 billion emails being sent every single day. That’s a lot of email being sent from one end of the globe to the other (or from one room to another… people are so lazy these days!), so you need a client that you can rely on to manage everything going on behind the scenes for you.

Many clients such as Thunderbird and Postbox follow a similar formula: give users a big window full of awesome tools that not many people know how to fully use, fill it with lots of dialog boxes and panes and let people manage their email as well as they can.

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Is Microsoft Heading In The Right Direction With The Windows 8 App Store?

Considering how long it took many of us to be wrestled away from the clutches of Windows XP – the 2001 operating system has only just succumbed to Windows 7 in US market share last month – it may surprise users to learn that Windows 8 is just around the corner.

Rumours are still mounting up across the internet following the leak of an early version of the new operating system, and a series of screenshots supposedly showing an App Store in Windows 8 have flamed speculation that Microsoft is moving towards a more controlled app model for its new operating system.

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Skype 5 For Mac OS X Review

When it comes to user interface design, the vast majority of Mac developers create stunning interfaces for their applications that blend in to OS X and make it really user for the user to get around. Just take a look at Things for Mac or iStudiez Pro for a examples of how a Macintosh user interface should be designed.

Now, take a look at Skype 5 for Mac OS X. This, folks, is how NOT to create a user interface on the Mac. In jumping two whole version numbers from Skype 2.8 straight up to Skype 5 the development team has seemingly forgot the platform for which it is developing, leaving Mac users with a Windows-like interface that looks clumsy, wastes space and moves in the wrong direction from the previous version.

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Instapaper vs Read It Later Review

When I’m quickly doing the rounds on the Interweb, I often stumble across articles that seem interesting at the time, but seldom have time to read them in full over breakfast or a quick coffee, for example. When I go back in the evening, I’ve more often than not forgotten all about it. Yes there are services such as Google Reader, and even Twitter, which allow you to ‘favourite’ such posts for later reading, but particularly in the case of the latter, it’s not exactly that ideal in any sense.

Enter Instapaper and Read it Later. Two, ultimately very similar, services which aim to put an aim to these woes of the web. But the question is, which should you choose?

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Stuffit Deluxe 2011 For Mac OS X Review

Apple includes a lot of software with Mac OS X to ensure that you don’t need to fill up your hard drive with needless utilities where bundled software can serve the same purpose – you can also see further improvements coming in our Mac OS X ‘Lion’ screenshot preview tour.

When it comes to compressing and uncompressing archives, the built in Archive Manager usually suffices, but if you download a lot of files off the internet or transfer files between colleagues then you’ve probably encountered files beyond the standard ZIP archive that sends Archive Manager running away like Shaggy after he’s seen a monster.

For those times where Archive Manager just doesn’t cut it, I went on the hunt for a piece of software that could handle most of the things I care to throw at it, and Stuffit Deluxe 2011 caught my eye thanks to its wide range of file compatibility and great design. How does it stack up to the competition, though?

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Windows 8 ‘Portable Workspace’ To Let You Run Windows From A USB Memory Stick?

Since the leaked image of an early Windows 8 build was leaked onto the Internet earlier this week, there have been a steady flow of both rumour and observation from users who decided to illegitimately grab the OS early.

Of course, by no means is it the finished article, but one most interesting feature to have been spotted so far is the ‘Portable Workspace’, which brings to the fore what some of us have been doing for quite a while now.

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How To Make FaceTime Calls From Safari In Mac OS X

Ah, FaceTime. When Apple released the new video calling protocol, it seemed that no one in Cupertino had ever heard of Skype the way they kept on banging on about how futuristic and awesome the technology was, even though desktop users had enjoyed the same abilities for quite some time before anyone even knew what FaceTime was.

Even so, like many things that Apple releases, it’s has caught on pretty quickly with a lot of people who like to be at the leading edge of technology. Facetime is now out for Mac OS X as well as the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and runs in the background on a Mac in case anyone wants to call you.

Now if you want to place a FaceTime call straight from Safari without having to open the application first, it’s easily done. Here’s how!

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Mover Connect for Mac & Mover+ for iOS App Review

Until Airdrop arrives with the update to Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) and hopefully what will be an update to iOS 5 for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, there is no simple way of wirelessly transferring files between one Apple device and another. Enter Mover.

Whilst it comes under different names, the application works in tandem between your Mac and iOS devices, with dedicated apps for OS X, iPad and iPhone helping to organise and synchronise your files.

Of course, with the iOS edition comes a neater, more touch friendly user interface, but the premise of the app is still the same, and works perfectly in almost all cases.

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Windows Phone 7 To Get Multitasking In Next ‘Mango’ Update

Windows Phone 7 users have been rejoicing over copy and paste for a while now, so Microsoft is starting to look at what’s next for the platform in the upcoming ‘Mango’ update. The MIX11 show proved to be the perfect stage for the Redmond based company to talk to developers about what will be coming in Mango, and although many people expected to see multitasking arriving after copy and paste, it’s always nice to hear it from the horse’s mouth.

Standing under the slogan “Delivering happiness”, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore took to the stage to announce that multitasking on Windows Phone 7 will allow for background processing and audio playback, file transfers and fast switching between open applications.

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MIUI Custom Android ROM Review

With Android being skinned left, right and centre by every phone manufacturer under the sun these days, some experiences are going to be better than others. Fortunately, with the versatility that many Android phones offer, it’s simple to root your device (check out or guide to rooting the Nexus One if you want an idea of how it’s done, although each phone has its differences) and load custom ROMs such as the popular Cyanogen, on to it instead.

Cyanogen isn’t the only custom ROM knocking around though, there are literally hundreds of tweaked images of Android running around on the internet. One such option is MIUI, a ROM from China, that adds a number of unique additions to stock Android, and is soon updated to the latest version unlike many custom skins that are applied from manufacturers; the latest version of MIUI is running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). Let’s take a look at what it has to offer!

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iStudiez Pro For Mac OS X Review

As a student, organisation is key when you’re dealing with multiple assignments from multiple classes all due on multiple days. I’ve never been very good at organising myself with a physical planner, so I thought I’d try out the high-tech route when I saw iStudiez Pro in the Mac App Store.

iStudiez has been an iOS app for a while, so to see it available for the Mac is great. The question is can it help you stay organised for school, or is it just another piece of software getting in the way of your productivity?

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How To Make Your Mac Boot Up In 64-Bit Mode

When Snow Leopard came out, it brought with it promises of a 64-bit transition, with almost all included applications completely re-written in 64-bit and support for a theoretical 64TB 16 EB (yes, exabytes!) of RAM.

One thing that most people don’t know, however, is that most 64-bit Macs don’t boot up directly into a 64-bit mode. This doesn’t affect applications, which are still capable of running in 64-bit, however, you will be booting by default in to a 32-bit kernel. Fortunately, this is easy to fix…

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