Category listing for

Software

Microsoft Opposes Apple’s ‘App Store’ Trademark Claim

The title says it all in truth, Apple has tried to claim the words ‘App Store‘ as a trademark, and Microsoft has filed a motion to prevent it being cleared. It’s simple really, but why?

Well, Microsoft claims that the term is too generic, and that Apple shouldn’t be able to prevent the use of the term as a result.

Recently, news has emerged around the web that no less than four major companies are developing their own ‘app store’ for Android, which is an example that Microsoft uses in its case, citing that Steve Jobs himself has labelled these new projects as ‘App Stores’ in their own right.

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All iPhones To Get Personal Hotspot / Wireless Tethering Functionality?

If you currently reside in the US, or you’re just someone like myself who tends to keep up with the news from afar as well as on our own doorstep, you will be aware that US cellular network Verizon Wireless yesterday announced that they would be carrying the iPhone 4 from February.

If you weren’t aware of this, the chances are it has no relevance to you anyway, or you just don’t care. However, there was one interesting development yesterday, and that was that the Verizon iPhone would support personal hotspot functionality! Which is essentially the same as what you’ve been able to do on an Android mobile phone tethering for quite a while now, sharing your 3G network to Wi-Fi capable devices.

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Zipline Review (Desktop News Ticker For Mac OS X)

Whilst scouring through the new Mac App Store, I stumbled across an interesting looking £11.99 application called Zipline. It’s basically a news feed for your desktop, with a little extra spice, but I just felt that it was a little too expensive to be a justified purchase. So I left it.

That there outlines the single biggest problem with the App Store itself. Had there been a trial version, I could have justified it, but there wasn’t. So, in my infinite wisdom I quit the App Store, went straight to the developer, Stuffed Iggy Software’s website and looked for a demo. What do you know? I found one, so I downloaded it and as it turns out the demo is fully functional, though you get the occassional reminder to purchase.

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Microsoft ‘My Server’ App For Windows Phone 7 Allows You To Browse Your Home Server Anywhere!

When Windows Phone 7 was released I made a point of outlining my fury at the lack of SkyDrive integration. I mean, Microsoft so generously give you 25GB of free online storage with Windows Live, and then don’t let you do much with it on the go. It’s frustrating, but now they’ve gone at least some way to rectifying that, not with SkyDrive, but with Windows Home Server, the new version, ‘Vail’.

Any users of Vail will soon be able to download a mobile app called ‘My Server’ which essentially lets you access the media on your home server on the go and stream it to your Windows Phone 7 handset.

Not only that, the app gives you a great example of how the metro UI should be done, and categorises your media into videos, music, pictures etc. so you can browse through your collection as you would locally through the music+video and picture hubs on the phone.

Microsoft demoed the app with a series of screenshots on the Windows Team blog, and if that’s anything to go by, set up looks pretty simple and aesthetically, it’s outstanding.

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Did You Purchase Tweetie From MacHeist? You Can Unlock A Ton Of Cool Features In The New Twitter!

Any customer who purchased the Tweetie Mac Desktop App from the last MacHeist bundle was promised a free upgrade to Tweetie 2 at the time. Fast forward a good few months, and the newly named ‘Twitter’ app is available in the Mac App Store, free for everyone.

Don’t worry though, if you bought Tweetie from MacHeist, you can still take advantage of some super cool features, and here’s how…

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Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS To Support ARM Chips For Tablets & Other Mobile Computing Options

Microsoft and Intel are two of if not the biggest companies in the tech world, both of which have played large roles in bringing us to where we are today in the 21st century, but today’s surprise announcement at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) could spell the beginning of the end of the dominance that these two companies have had over the market.

Described as “Unthinkable” by the former manager of Nokia this announcement made by the head of Microsoft Steve Ballmer stated that the next version of the company’s Windows operating system (Windows 8 if you will) will run on chips made by the little known (at least in the world as a whole) company Arm.

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Mac App Store Debuts With One Million Downloads In A Day! How Many Apps Did You Get?

In probably the most unsurprising news of the day, Apple has announced that it’s Mac App Store is doing quite well.

To the tune of a million downloads on launch day! Why is it unsurprising? Well, as we reported earlier, the App Store is home to a game that we have all grown to know and love: Angry Birds. With casual gaming titles such as this and over a lots of others, how could it possibly fail?

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Amazon Kindle App For Windows Phone 7 Launched

The Amazon Kindle App has already strutted it’s stuff on the major mobile platforms as well as the desktop and of course, the Kindle eBook reader itself. Now, though, it has launched on Windows Phone 7, the latest in a line of mainstream mobile operating systems.

In terms of features, the application is identical to Android and iOS Kindle App, though navigation is a little different making use of the Metro UI, and I have to say it works well.

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Apple Mac OS X App Store Review

As the title so indiscreetly suggests, the Mac OS X App Store went live on 6th January 2011, and millions of Mac users worldwide now have access to an organised catalogue, á la iOS, of applications for the platform. A comprehensive library of quite reasonably priced software and, we’re guessing, developers are rejoicing too.

So what exactly does it entail after updating your Apple computer to Mac OS X v10.6.6 and a reboot? Well, in truth, not a lot more than the iOS App Store, or the Android Market for that matter.

Apart from the fact that not all applications are available, it’s looking pretty good. Ratings, reviews aplenty, the app store gives Mac users a great opportunity to find new software and find out what other users think before they part with their cash.

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Windows Phone 7 To Get Copy/Paste With First Software Update This Month?

I like Windows Phone 7. So much, in fact, that I bought a Samsung Omnia 7 just days after the original line up was released here in the UK. However, there are a few quite blatant flaws in the fresh-faced mobile OS, namely the lack of copy/paste functionality and and multitasking.

Whilst the latter is yet to be addressed by Ballmer & Co. at Microsoft, the whole copy + paste debacle is set to be resolved with the platform’s first official update this month.

First of all, as you may have guessed the update will add the vital copy and paste functionality that has been quite frustrating at times during the past couple of months with my WP7 device.

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How To Subscribe To Your Spam Folder Using IMAP & Thunderbird/Postbox – For When You Can’t See It!

I recently switched e-mail clients from the default Mail application on Mac OS X to Postbox, which I will be reviewing in the coming weeks.

Based upon Thunderbird, Postbox works great for my needs, but one things really annoyed me: I couldn’t get to my spam – obviously an issue in case any important emails find their way in there by mistake.

At this point, it’s worth noting that you need to connect your mail server using IMAP for folder support, as POP will just forward emails in your inbox to you.

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Skype Video Calling Coming To iPhone 4 In 2011?

Skype has already announced that it will be revealing some new plans for video calls at CES next month, and there has been a fair amount of speculation as to exactly what it will be.

Of course, the natural assumption is that video calling will be arriving on the major smartphone platforms much like Skype 3G mobile VOIP calls are possible with the current apps, but up until now it has been nothing more than rumour.

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Nuance PDF Converter Professional 7 Review (Windows)

PDF is the mainstream standard for transferring documents between people online, and many programs such as Microsoft Office 2010 now have the ability to export documents and other files to PDF.

If you really wanted to get down and dirty with the format though, one of your only choices would be Adobe’s own Acrobat X. With a cost of over £500 direct from Adobe, I think we can agree that it may be out of the price range of most people.

Enter Nuance PDF Converter Professional 7. It’s priced at £50 – much more reasonable than Adobe’s pricing of Acrobat X – and packs a lot of the same features as its more expensive counterpart. How does it match up? Let’s find out.

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Guinness World Records iPad App Now Available – Will You Be A Record Breaker?

Everyone loves browsing the Guinness World Records book when given the chance; it’s full of the most obscure, cool and creepy facts you ever wanted to know. It seems a logical progression, therefore, for it to be available on the world’s most popular tablet device, the Apple iPad.

For just £2.99 from the UK App Store, you can take a look at the brand new Guinness World Records iPad App, which features interactive content that hasn’t been available in print versions of the book, and attempt to break some iPad-related world records for yourself, too.

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CopyTrans TuneSwift Review – Get iTunes Library Transfer Software Free With Zath!

You remember CopyTrans, don’t you? We’ve taken a look at a few of their products in the past, including their iTunes music and photo alternatives as well as their iPod backup utility. Now they’re back with the latest addition to their line-up: CopyTrans TuneSwift.

TuneSwift has been created to help you transfer your iTunes library to a new computer, and is capable of preparing a PC to PC transfer as well as a PC to Mac transfer. The whole process is so simple, anyone can do it without a hitch, so let’s take a closer look!

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TrainLine Android App Review (Train Times & Ticket Buying)

The TrainLine website is one of the best train ticket services in the UK, allowing you to purchase tickets ahead of time and save money on future journeys. You can get to the station on the day that you’re travelling, pick up your ticket from one of the machines and be on your way.

It couldn’t get much simpler, but it’s just got a bit more convenient with the introduction of the TrainLine Android App – it’s also currently available for iPhone, Blackberry and Nokia.

Being a frequent user of thetrainline.com on the internet, I have been looking forward to the launch of this Android mobile phone application for a long time, ever since we compiled our best android apps list and grabbed it at the first opportunity I had.

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Updated Android App Market Review

The Android Market was recently updated, with a view to providing a fresh interface for all the Android tablet devices that are going to be arriving in their droves next year, and offering new features for existing devices. Not only does it provide a fresh coat of paint, but it also adds some new features that you may not like so much. Let’s take a closer look!

As soon as you open the new Android Market app, you will notice that the theme has been entirely changed. It can be viewed either vertically or horizontally so that it looks better on the device that you’re using, whether it’s a smartphone with a large screen such as the HTC Desire HD or a 10 inch tablet. On the top – or left depending on which way you use it – of the screen is a carousel-style cycle of all the featured applications containing links to their product pages.

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Opera 11 Web Browser Now Available For Download, But Is It Really A Viable Alternative?

When it comes to web browsers, probably more than half of us just think of Internet Explorer, but those who are a bit more clued in may have visions of a flaming fox or a compass.

Of course, an increasing number of us are using Google’s Chrome browser, but one competitor which doesn’t quite get the recognition it arguably deserves is Opera.

I reviewed Opera 10 last year and actually found it pretty functional and it delivered over and above my expectations. Maybe because it was my first experience with Opera and my assumptions were blackened by the lack of press coverage.

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Mac OS X App Store Set For Launch On 6th January – A Better Way To Buy Computer Software?

It’s been a couple of months now since we witnessed Apple’s ‘Back to the Mac’ event, and apart from the latest rendition of the MacBook Air, not a lot of the stuff announced has actually hit the market in any way, shape or form.

That was to be expected, though, as particularly when it comes to new software Apple traditionally enjoy keeping us all in suspense.

So, whilst we may be waiting a good while yet for the next version of Mac OS X, Lion, it won’t be long before all OS X 10.6 users can have access to the Mac App Store. January 6th is the official date, so with it sitting nicely alongside CES in my 2011 calendar already, I have to say I am almost looking forward to seeing the back of Christmas (Well, not really).

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Reading On The iPad Review: PROJECT & The Economist Magazine Apps

The series of posts we’ve been doing this week about reading on the iPad all started with the release of Virgin’s brand new digital magazine, PROJECT, last week. Since taking a look at the magazine, we’ve covered the best apps from comic books and newspapers.

For today’s post, we’re going back to the magazine, taking another look at PROJECT, and taking a look at the Economist too.

PROJECT

Don’t worry, I won’t give you a whole review of PROJECT; I already did that one! You may remember that I loved PROJECT’s first edition when I took a look at it last week, despite a few initial hurdles such as the stability of the download and mastering navigation between pages.

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