Software & Apps - Page 192

An announcement from Adobe today lets us know that significant new versions of its Flash Player and AIR platform are on the verge of release, Flash Player 11 and AIR 3; these both scheduled to become available to the masses early next month.

The new browser plug-in of Adobe Flash promises massive performance improvements over the 10 release using full hardware acceleration. Adobe also rolls in full, native 64-bit web browser support which should make the switch over to 64-bit web browsing less of a problem with there already being HTML5 and Java 64-bit plugins available.

Here's a detailed rundown on all the new goodies coming with the new versions :-

Microsoft's BUILD conference in Seattle is well underway and every tech site in the world has been throwing news up like there's no tomorrow, so instead of rewording the news, I'll provide some links and some thoughts on Windows 8. Windows 8 has not only myself excited, but most of the tech-related community. It seems like an utter overhaul of the Windows UI as we know it, with a smash-up of the Windows Phone tile-based UI and something new.

"Something new" is what seems like a million new ideas and features built-in to Windows 8. The major changes are [of course] the UI, but Windows 8 brings performance increases, a new lock screen, an entirely new home screen, a new task manager, cloud-syncing and so many others things it's hard to tell you a handful. Instead of this, check out a bunch of screenshots, videos and links to preview thoughts below.

If you want to try it out, download the developer preview here.

Microsoft is preparing to show off their upcoming flagship operating system, Windows 8, at their Build developer conference in Anaheim, California next week. Microsoft have said they want an operating system that feels at home whether home means an 8-inch tablet or a powerful desktop computer connected to large-screen monitors.

Window President, Steven Sinofsky says "It's 'no compromise' and that's really important to us". Commitment like this is great to see, especially in a changed battlefield against companies like Google and Apple.

Microsoft have signalled at much faster boot times as well as introducing Office's "ribbon" interface into the Windows desktop. Microsoft are also aiming at not just having an Intel show this time, but letting a wide range of companies come in for attention from the press and developers. With Microsoft saying at CES in January that Windows 8 will run on ARM-based processors from Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and NVIDIA as well as traditional x86-based chips from Intel and AMD.

While many have anticipated its presence in Windows 8 through several reports for a while now, Microsoft has just confirmed that the virtualization technology popular on Windows Server, "Hyper-V" will in fact be a part of its next-gen consumer level OS. This is not a feature the majority of folks using Windows 8 will be singing sweet melodies about, but for some it will no doubt be a true god send. If you're not even sure what it means or does, but are quick to sit forward in your seat and learn more, you can head over to this link for a detailed rundown.

Another interesting addition to Windows 8 talked about via the source is that of MinWin, which is essentially just the core kernel and operating system components of Windows, making it the most stripped down version of Windows possible. While it has showed up in Windows 7 and started when Vista came out, apparently for Windows 8 its role will be much more significant and purposeful, especially when combined with the powerful virtualization features of Hyper-V.

Today brings reason to celebrate for Google, marking Chrome's third anniversary since the open source web browser was first launched. This is a browser that needs no introduction with it being a widely favoured choice across the globe, in businesses, at home and on the go.

Things have certainly come a long way even in the three years since Chrome graced the web, making significant strides in speed, simplicity and security.

At this special time, to give insight to the evolution of major web technologies and browsers, Google has also put together a fantastic interactive infographic built using HTML5 that looks at all things web/browser wise as far back as the early 1990s when Netscape was king.

Microsoft are finally adding native ISO mounting support to their upcoming OS, Windows 8. Microsoft have said that in Windows 8, double-clicking an ISO file will automatically mount it as a virtual optical drive. This works in the same way Daemon Tools and Power ISO work, which I have used for the better part of my life. Microsoft will also built in support for Virtual Hard Disk files that are used with virtual machines.

It is in the same fashion with a double-click, it will mount the image automatically. Instead of coming up as an optical drive, it will detect as a separate hard drive, with an eject button. I'm not only surprised, but I'm also so very happy that Microsoft are finally supporting ISOs in Windows. I have a NAS at home and for years now (5+) I have not used an optical disc. When I do, I'll get it to my HDD and make it an ISO. It's much easier to manage, much, much easier and Microsoft have impressed me by adding this support.

How will game companies react? Only time will tell... piracy still does, rule. Even though game revenue is higher than ever, I'm sure people like Cevat Yerli from Crytek will... cry about this news.

Apple has seeded iTunes Beta 6.1 to developers in the US, it includes a new feature you should be on the look out for, iTunes Match. iTunes match allows users to upload music to Apple's beta service of iCloud. This will allow users to store their entire collection online in the iCloud for $25 per year. It also has something quite nifty, say you own an album and it's on your computer - but this album is also on the iTunes servers, it will shift it from the servers to your iCloud account. This saves valuable time and most importantly, bandwidth.

This also allows you to get access to the 256kbps AAC version from within the iCloud, even if your copy was in lower quality. Does this mean people can rip Apple off? How would you do that? Well, if you had an illegally obtained album of music, you could sync it with iTunes and iCloud and have it in your account. How would Apple tell between your illegal music and purchased music? Considering they're making $25 per year from potentially hundreds of millions of customers, are Apple supporting piracy?

If you want to get your mits on iTunes 10.5 beta 6.1, you'll need to be an Apple developer which is a $99 per annum fee.

Microsoft are pumping away at Windows 8 and it is not only bringing big UI changes to Windows 8 but another area they've put their magic on is the file management and this should make copying, moving, renaming and deleting files easier than ever before. One improvement in Windows 8 is the ability to view all copy tasks in a single window. This is a much more efficient design and will be welcome on all desktops.

From the single window a user will be able to pause or resume copy operations and will also get a detailed rundown of speeds achieved in each individual task and what the task is up to at a particular time (compete, paused, etc). Another feature exposed today is the redesigned Conflict Resolution dialog window, this window pops up on the event of file name collisions. The revamped window shows [in a much clearer fashion] where everything is located, the time/date and size of the file and gives check boxes and options of what to keep and what action to take.

On top of this, you can hover the mouse cursor over the thumbnail image to see the file path or double-click to open the file itself. Windows 8 is set to remove much of the confirmation dialogs such as "are you sure you want to move this file to the recycle bin?' or "are you sure you want to merge these folders?' which is set to streamline your experience even more.

Firefox 5 only came out a short while ago and Mozilla are not slowing down. Firefox 6 final is now available for download on Mac, Windows and Linux via Mozilla FTP servers. It's not available "officially", but will be available anytime next week. Firefox 6 does not introduce any UI changes, but the new version of Mozilla's ever-so-popular web browser does include some speed improvements while using the browser, almost 20% faster in some cases verses Firefox 5.

As always, because this isn't the "official" release, the final build may be updated before it gets released to the public next week. The welcome page does still say "Firefox 6 Beta" but don't let this stop you, Mozilla just hasn't updated the page yet. Go forth and grab Firefox 6! If you'd like to get your download on, I've linked to the 3 flavours of Firefox 6 below.

Firefox 6 for Windows

NVIDIA have just released the first major WHQL approved software suite for August, designed for all GeForce cards from the 6-series up as well as the ION platform.

The new 280.26 drivers include updated builds of the Physx system software (v9.10.0514) and HDMI audio drivers (v1.2.23.3) as well as implementing support for SLI on AMD's 990FX, 990X and 970 desktop chipsets (on certified boards).

One of the biggest changes however is in relation to the 3D Vision component, with its controller driver now included in all GPU driver installations. 3D Vision Monitor support has been extended to include some of the latest compatible monitors, including the ViewSonic V3D245 as well as 3D Vision compatible projectors including the Acer X111, BenQ W710ST and NEC NP-V300W.