Software

CCleaner Review: Windows Optimisation And Privacy Freeware (90%)
A long time favourite in Chez Digi Lifestyles, CCleaner is a superb system optimisation and privacy tool that comes with the best price of all: nothing!
A featherweight 1.42 meg download, CCleaner is short for ‘Crap Cleaner’ – a perfectly appropriate name, with the program doing an excellent job of turfing out unused and temporary files from your system.
Although the program is freeware and comes with no lurking steenkin’ spyware or adware, it does invite you to install the Yahoo toolbar on installation – just tick no if you don’t want it (we didn’t).
Cleaning out your dutty PC
Once fired up, a click on the ‘analyse’ button will get the program racing through your machine’s folders looking for files that can be removed.
CCleaner takes a high speed shufti in your Internet Explorer Cache, History, Cookies and Index.dat; as well as rummaging about in your recycle bin, temporary files, log files and lists of recently opened URLs and files.
Unlike some similar commercial products we’ve tested, CCleaner proved to be incredibly fast in use, with a full system scan taking a matter of seconds. Very impressive.
Once the program has completed its scan you’re given the option of deleting the files or going back and fine-tuning your scanning options.
Third-party application temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) can also be vamoosed from a long list of applications, including Firefox, Opera, Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, Office XP, Nero, Adobe Acrobat and WinZip.
We managed to clear up over 1.5 gig of space when we first ran the program, and it continues to clear out junk at an impressive rate with each scan.
Registry
There’s also a powerful built in Advanced Registry scanner which helps you get rid of unused and old entries cluttering up your system.
Bashing the ‘scan for issues’ button will produce a list of problems with File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons and Invalid Shortcuts, with the option to individually fix them or just let CCleaner work its magic automatically.
Wisely, the program prompts you to make a registry back-up before it takes off its gloves and starts sorting out the errant entries.
There’s also a handy ‘tools’ interface letting users uninstall programs or simply remove programs from their start up menu, with an ‘options’ menu allowing more advanced functions like user-defined cookie removal.
Conclusion
This is a fantastic program for quickly and effectively zapping unwanted and private information from your PC.
The program’s easy to use interface and support for a wide variety of applications surpasses many of the commercial offerings we’ve seen, and regular use should help you get Windows running faster and more efficiently, while grabbing back precious hard drive space.
Although the program is freeware, those who donate £10 ($20) or more get new releases in advance of regular punters and they can also enjoy the warm glow of knowing that they’re contributing to the continued development of this fine product.
Features: 85%
Ease of use: 85%
Value For Money: 90%
Overall: 90%
CCleaner.com
13 October, 2006
Writely and Spreadsheets Combined By Google
docs.google.com is the new destination for Google’s Web-based Writely word processor and their companion spreadsheet.
Given both of the apps are Web-based, anyone with a Web browser can use these apps, no matter where they are. It’s not surprising that Google also offers extensive searching within the documents that are created.
Just how long the Writely name will survive, now it’s being referred to as Google Docs?
Google bought Writely back in March and got to work with bringing it into Google-dom.
Back in June, Google let it be known that they’d matched Writely with a spreadsheet, causing waves of discussion as to them treading on Microsoft’s toes.
One of the nifty features is the ability to collaborate with other people in your Google address book and choose to share the documents in an area created with anyone on the Web. Once created, the authors can attach tags to the content to locate them again.
This is great for Google, not just because they are knocking one on the chin for Microsoft, but because they’re giving people tools to generate content … for them to search on Google. Pretty cyclical init.
Google Docs & Spreadsheets
12 October, 2006
Microsoft Vista Reaches Final Beta
It’s been a long, long wait, but it looks like the release of Microsoft’s new operating system, of Windows Vista is finally set to happen soon.
The company has just released Release Candidate 2 (RC2) – or build number 5744 if you’re counting – and the Redwood boys are sounding chirpy that this will be the last beta version of Windows Vista before the product is unleashed for manufacturing.
The previous test release of Vista, RC1 was tested by no less than three million users, with the company claiming that it received “excellent feedback.”
With Microsoft now saying that just has to add the finishing touches to the overall quality and performance of the eagerly awaited operating system, the company looks set to meet it targets.
Vista has a scheduled roll out date for business customers next month, with consumers getting to play with the new desktop in January 2007.
Microsoft has already missed several release deadlines, although leading financial analysts like Rick Sherlund of the Goldman Sachs Group reckon that things are looking good for an on-time release:
“We had been sceptical of the launch schedule after Beta 2 shipped with problems in May, but the team seems to be making great progress in addressing issues of performance, reliability and compatibility,” he wrote in a research note.
Sherlund also noted that he expects Microsoft to start dishing out Vista discount coupons to customers who buy new PCs capable of running the OS in the run-up to the release.
Already, fanboy websites are buzzing with screen shots of the shiny, sleek new OS and we have to say the new desktop looks mighty purdy to our eyes…
You can check to see if your system wil be able to handle all the whizz bang glitz here: windowsvista.com/getready
11 October, 2006
Microsoft Vista Upgrade Advisor:Our Experience
With Windows Vista steaming over the horizon at a rate of knots, users are being encouraged to see if their steam-powered Windows machines will be capable of running the new bells’n’whistle bonanza of the new OS.
We thought we’d check out how our three year old Athlon XP2800+ PC loaded with a once-impressive 1GB of RAM would fare under the new OS, so headed off to the Vista Upgrade Advisor website.
The page told us to plug in any regularly used USB or other attachable peripheral devices (like printers, external hard drives, or scanners) before clicking on the ‘download Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor RC’ link.
No .Net, no chuffin’ install
Our first attempt to run the install program was greeted by a curt insistence that we had to first install Microsoft Net framework before the program would play ball.
Unchuffedly (or perhaps that would read better as, “in a less than chuffed manner”), we dutifully shuffled back to the Microsoft site and downloaded the user-unfriendly sounding “Microsoft .NET Framework Version 1.1 Redistributable Package” installation – all 22 meg of it – and tried again.
This time the program deigned to install itself and after a little hard drive grinding, presented a ‘scanning system’ interface, resplendent in a shiny faux Vista look.
The Advisor quickly set about rifling through our PC, with the interface offering a set of five info pages, all telling us how great Vista was (huzzah!) and outlining the differences between the various versions (Vista Ultimate, Home Premium, Business and Home Basic)
The program insisted that it “might take a few minutes” to complete the scan, but time must have stood for a bit because it sure seemed more like 7-8 minutes had drifted by before the hard drive finally stopped grinding .
Computer says yes
However, it was good news at the end with the Advisor telling us that the PC was all ship-shape to run Windows Vista, and even went as far as recommending that we use the Business edition.
But it wasn’t all good news as we caught sight of some yellow warning triangles further down the page.
The first told us that we needed to create a ton more hard drive space as the great bloated beastie that is Vista demanded 15 GB of hard drive space (yes, 15GB!) before it would flop its elephantine ass on our system.
It went on to suggest alternative system drives that we could install the OS onto – if only they had acres of free space too.
Vista also got sniffy about our graphics card, warning us that the “current video card will not support the Windows Aero™ user experience.”
Drivers
The second warning tab banged on about missing drivers, instructing us to scuttle off to the Windows Update website for new drivers for two listed items once we’d upgraded.
There then followed a list of seven items it claimed to know nothing about, and these included our Epson Perfection 1200 scanner (a fairly mainstream component, we would have thought), our UltraMon display drivers and NetDisk XIMETA external network drive.
For these items it seems we were out on our own or, more accurately, at the mercy of the software developers.
Happily, Vista liked the cut of our ViewSonic VP191s monitors – good job too because they’re quite new.
Looking down to the final warning tab entitled ‘programs,’ we were presented with a refreshingly short list considering that our machine is stuffed to the brim with programs old and new.
Despite the huge popularity of the Norton Systemworks utilities suite, the Advisor reported the likelihood of running into problems when running the program on Vista and it didn’t like WinZip 8.0 much either.
It also disliked Adobe Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC 1.0 so much that it simply wouldn’t allow it to run under Vista.
Task list
Finally, the Upgrade Advisor wrote out a ‘Task List’ of things we needed to attend to before, and after, installing Windows Vista.
At the final tally, this amounted to forking out for a new graphics card, freeing up more hard drive space (or, more realistically, buying a new drive), downloading some new drivers and dumping Norton if they’re not forthcoming with a fix.
All in all, we expected to find a lot more problems so we’re kind of impressed this far, but the real test will come when we get to (finally) install Vista.
With Vista still in beta, we’ll be sure to run the Advisor again when we’re closer to the OS release date.
Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor RC
11 October, 2006
Microsoft Vista Reaches Final Beta
It’s been a long, long wait, but it looks like the release of Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows Vista, is finally set to happen soon.
The company has just released Release Candidate 2 (RC2) – or build number 5744 if you’re counting – and the Redwood boys are sounding chirpy that this will be the last beta version of Windows Vista before the product is unleashed for manufacturing.
The previous test release of Vista, RC1 was tested by no less than three million users, with the company claiming that it received “excellent feedback.”
With Microsoft now saying that just has to add the finishing touches to the overall quality and performance of the eagerly awaited operating system, the company looks set to meet it targets.
Vista has a scheduled roll out date for business customers next month, with consumers getting to play with the new desktop in January 2007.
Microsoft has already missed several release deadlines, although leading financial analysts like Rick Sherlund of the Goldman Sachs Group reckon that things are looking good for an on-time release:
“We had been sceptical of the launch schedule after Beta 2 shipped with problems in May, but the team seems to be making great progress in addressing issues of performance, reliability and compatibility,” he wrote in a research note.
Sherlund also noted that he expects Microsoft to start dishing out Vista discount coupons to customers who buy new PCs capable of running the OS in the run-up to the release.
Already, fanboy Websites are buzzing with screen shots of the shiny, sleek new OS and we have to say the new desktop looks mighty purdy to our eyes…
You can check to see if your system wil be able to handle all the whizz bang glitz here: windowsvista.com/getready
9 October, 2006
Scrabble for Palm/Pocket PC by Handmark: Review (90%)
Currently sending our productivity levels downwards at a worrying rate is the hideously addictive Scrabble for the Palm OS by Handmark.
Looking – and playing – just like the classic board game, the program offers the familiar Scrabble board layout, with drag and drop tiles which are stored at the bottom of the screen.
Just like in the real world, you can shuffle the order of these around so you can plan and prepare killer words, but -sadly – you won’t be able to ‘find’ blank squares under your foot.
The game offers two player modes: Friendly or Tournament.
Friendly mode is like playing against drunken mates where you can try and insist that ‘Zyptq’ is actually a real world, and force the program to accept words that aren’t in the included Official Scrabble Player’s Dictionary.
There’s also a “Suggest Move” option for those times when you can’t think of any words bigger than, err…um….”to.”
In the Tournament mode you play by the standard Scrabble rules, with challenges being automatically checked by the built-in Dictionary.
The game offers four levels of automated computer opponent: Beginner, Novice, Intermediate, or Expert.
We arrogantly waded in at Expert level, and after being totally humbled repeatedly by an onslaught of obscure words we still don’t believe exist, we slunk down to Novice level where we still only managed to win about half of the games at first.
If you get bored having your sorry ass whipped by the computer, you can also take on real life chums, either by passing the Palm PDA around (the game will hide your tile rack from opponents) or via IR beaming and Bluetooth.
Conclusion
Although this game has been around for a very long time on the Palm OS, it’s still a hugely playable classic and easily holds its own against modern games.
The interface is attractive, simple and easy to use, with the computer opponent tough enough to keep you coming back for endless humiliations.
Even in expert mode, the computer was able to come up with challenge-destroying words almost instantaneously, so the only thing slowing the game down was our own ineptitude.
Since we installed the game on our Palm Treo 650 (it works fine straight off the card, by the way), we’ve been more or less addicted to Scrabble, having quick games whenever we find ourselves in a Post Office queue, waiting for friends or, err, going to the smallest room.
The game is also available on the Pocket PC and although both versions are a tad pricey at $19.95, we reckon they’re worth every penny.
Features: 85%
Gameplay: 90%
Ease of use: 85%
Value For Money: 80%
Overall: 90%
Handmark Scrabble for Palm OS
Handmark Scrabble for PocketPC
5 October, 2006
Unlimited Learning Report: Video Games In Learning Released
A new report examining the role computer and video games can play in education was released today by ELSPA (the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association), in association with the UK Department for Education and Skills’.
Entitled ‘Unlimited Learning: The role of computer and video games in the learning landscape’ it uses a number of exclusive case studies on the benefits of games when used in learning. An example is a college in Nottinghamshire who results appear to be near unbelievable. They’ve seen key skills increase to a 94% success rate, compared to the national benchmark of 22%. They attribute much of this to incorporating the commercial game ‘Neverwinter Nights’ into its teaching plan.
Lord Puttnam of Queensgate CBE summarised, all be it at length, the major points, highlighting the strengths of the method, “Increasingly video games are being recognised as a powerful tool for learning. Yes of course they are entertaining and a lot of fun, but they’ve also the ability to inspire and motivate. They hold out the tantalising prospect of personalised, responsive and thoroughly enjoyable learning experiences, irrespective of age, or ability. They can promote ideas, they can stimulate conversation, challenge thinking and, critically for the future of our highly skills-dependent economy, they can encourage problem solving.”
Some will find it surprising that it’s not just young joystick twitchers that are benefiting from learning through games. E-learning expert, Professor Stephen Heppell, who has been studying this area for years explained, “The curious thing is that we’re seeing people playing games and challenging themselves with their computers right across the age range, literally womb to tomb. (We take our hat off to him for being the first person to use the ‘Womb to Tomb’ phrase, which, from this point forward, we will never tire of using.)
Of course there will be many cries of education being dumbed down, but I clearly remember chatting to friends at school about how much easier it would be if what we needed to learn could be set to music – given that we knew the lyric of every song that we liked.
Report: ‘Unlimited Learning: The role of computer and video games in the learning landscape’(PDF)
4 October, 2006
PICNIC06 Review: A Very Biased Report
So, there I was at the first ever PICNIC – a cross media conference taking place in Amsterdam last week…
Highlights included John Underkoffler, Minority Report advisor, demonstrating his gestural interface technology. You had to be there to appreciate it…
Craig(slist) Newmark came across as really caring about his users and not wanting to sell out. He answers customer service emails and takes down unwanted content. He’s more interested in making his website run faster than Web 2 point doh!…
Marc Canter told us about OpenID – an open standard that will enable Net users to have one login account for all the websites that use OpenID. Cool! He also vigorously pushed his new, open source, Digital Lifestyle Aggregator software. He’s a performer.
In a break, Marc and I talked around my (Kendra like) pet subjects of ‘service clouds’ and ‘user-centric computing’. If you can have an open API for IDs then why not have one for dating or addresses or photos or anything? Hence we see more ‘mashups’ using these open APIs. Doesn’t it seem that many websites will end up being portals to these ‘service clouds’?
The ‘Web 2.0’ travel session promised much but was really a ‘let’s save the posterior of KLM’, the sponsor (ahem). If we add a blog, wiki, forum or whatever Web 2.0 thingy to our site, will you buy more tickets from us? I proposed that people just wanted the best deal and are using price comparison websites to find them and, oh, that brands were dead. I think that last part was the hardest bit for the panel to swallow – the Dutch are very loyal to their national airline.
Tune in for PICNIC06 Review: concluding part on Friday.
Picnic06
Kendra
2 October, 2006
Stolen Mobiles Get The Screaming Abdabs
Pesky phone thieves may get more than they bargained for if a new anti-theft system proves a hit with punters.
The Remote XT system renders stolen phones useless by emitting a screeching, high pitched electronic scream and disabling the phone.
Launched in Britain today, the system is aimed at smartphone-toting business users who may need to carry around confidential information on their handsets.
The Remote XT software is loaded on to the smartphone, with the system storing personal info like phone numbers, text messages and e-mails on a secure remote server – so even if a phone is nicked, the user can get their data back later.
As soon as the owner realises that some light fingered Fagin has just picked their pocket, they can dial a 24-hour call centre, have it registered as stolen and let the screaming begin.
Panicking thieves can, of course, take out the battery to silence the racket, but as soon as they try to use it again, the noise starts up.
Moreover, the Remote XT software disables the handset itself, so even if a resourceful tea leaf removes the internal SIM card and tries fitting another, the phone’s still a dead duck. And a noisy one at that.
Mark Whiteman, managing director of Remote XT, said: “Theft-proof phones spell disaster for the huge criminal industry that has profited from mobile theft for too long”
“By making mobiles unusable to anyone but the rightful owner, the phones become worthless and we’ll see the market for stolen handsets stamped out once and for all,” he added.
We’d love to agree with the fella, but with the service costing upwards of £9.99 a month, we suspect that many will find it too pricey.
The idea of ‘screaming’ phones isn’t new either, with another UK firm, Synchronica, recently announcing their own version supporting Windows Mobile 2003, Pocket PC Phone Edition, and Windows Mobile 5.
However, Remoter XT claim that their software will work on most phones and not just Windows based handsets.
Meanwhile, Palm Treo users concerned about keeping their data safe can use software like Butler and Warden to remotely lock and or delete the contents of their phone and memory card (although they’ll have to do the screaming themselves).
2 October, 2006
Tesco Launches Range Of Cheapo Own-Brand Software
The all-conquering uber-supermarket chain Tesco has announced plans to take on Microsoft with the launch of its own-brand software.
The company, started by East End market boy Jack Cohen in 1919, is aiming to offer a range of cut-price software titles which directly competes with Microsoft products.
The titles – all retailing for less than twenty quid – will include an office suite, a personal finance program, two security/anti-virus products, CD/DVD burners and a photo editing product.
The announcement follows Tesco’s decision to sell computer hardware earlier this year, and the company’s own-branded software will start appearing in more than 100 of their stores from this month, with full UK coverage expected over the coming year.
Happy shoppers getting confused between opening a program and opening a can of beans can access a support website, TescoSoftware.com, which will also offer the software for sale.
Tesco buyer Daniel Cook said: “With more people working from home, and schools encouraging greater use of IT, the demand for home computing equipment is bigger than ever.”
“When it comes to software, there is little choice and prices are high. Our new range of software changes this, bringing choice and value to a market that has offered little of either,” he added.
The software comes from a Cambridge company called Formjet, with the range being centred around their well-regarded Ability Office suite.
Of course, many home users will already have equivalent Microsoft products, like Word, installed on their computers, so we suspect that Tesco is looking to score a hit with its Internet security products.
Meanwhile, the company is expected to announce tomorrow that it has raked in half-yearly profits totalling more than £1 billion for the first time.
Fact! Tesco’s name comes from the first two letters of the founder’s surname (CO) and the initials of a business colleague (TES).
TescoSoftware
2 October, 2006