Software & Apps - Page 194

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.

Yes, you read that right. Apple have been sued over the startup process for Mac OS X. Florida-based company, Operating Systems Solutions recently sued Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, claiming Apple's desktop operating system violates a patent they own for quickly booting an OS. The patent reads:

"a method for fast booting a computer system, comprising the steps of: A. performing a power on self test (POST) of basic input output system (BIOS) when the system is powered on or reset is requested; B. checking whether a boot configuration information including a system booting state which was created while executing a previous normal booting process exists or not; C. storing the boot configuration information from execution of the POST operation before loading a graphic interface (GUI) program, based on the checking result; and D. loading the graphic user interface (GUI) program."

Operating Systems Solutions does not cite a specific version of Apple's Mac OS X in the suit. But they do claim that "Apple sells or offers to sell within this district, computer systems, including but not limited to the MacBook Pro, that utilize the Mac OS X operating system that infringes" its patent.

At the end of July, Windows XP fell below 50% OS market share. Between June and July, Windows' market share in general dropped 0.63 percentage points (from 88.29-percent to 88.76-percent), whilst Mac OS games 0.22 percentage points and Linux gained 0.03 percentage points. Mobile operating systems have also, most obviously, gained market share. In the same period, Windows 7 gained 0.74 percentage points whilst Vista slipped 0.28.

By the end of 2010, Windows 7 nabbed 20% of the market and by the end of April 2011, it had 25%. Last month Microsoft reported they had sold over 400 million licenses in 21 months which means they're selling no less than 20 million per month. Back to school season is approaching which should see these numbers stay solid until at least 2012.

Reports are out that the new version of Apple's most popular media player on Windows and Mac, iTunes 11, will feature a UI overhaul as well as deeper iCloud integration. The new UI will be cleaner than the current one and the iTunes Store will not just be a contained web browser anymore. It will instead be properly integrated into iTunes.

The source of this story, iDownloadBlog says:

Based on user feedback from its June beta release, Skype has now rolled out the final 5.5 build of its software which is available for download immediately.

Skype 5.5 adds deeper Facebook integration in that you can view which of your FB friends are online from it directly as well as being able to instant message them from the new 'Facebook Contacts' tab. The ability to view and update your Facebook status is also possible as well as being able to view and 'like' posts from your wall directly from Skype Home.

Focusing more on Skype specific functions, there has been a number of updates made to improve general Skype calling with better controls for video and group video calling in Windows as well as more solid video calling reliability and some design changes to help make things a little easier in all.