Software & Apps - Page 95

Ah, Windows Live Messenger. How I've loved thee. But, after more than ten years as an instant messaging client (and over the years, much more than that) it looks as though Microsoft is ready to give the application a much needed sleep and let Skype take over.

The Verge has reported according to multiple sources, that Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger would be retired in the next couple of months, but the technology behind it will continue to beat on. The backend of Messenger will be shuffled over to the Skype client, letting users login to their accounts, see their contacts and more, but from the Skype interface.

Microsoft began the transition months ago and already have around 80% of all IMs sent on Skype reportedly being handled by Messenger. This all started with Skype 6.0, which greeted users with the option to log in using a Microsoft, or Facebook account. The Verge says that Microsoft will announce the retirement of Windows Live Messenger before the end of the year.

Android is by far the most popular mobile operating system, very likely due to the fact that the phones vary so greatly between manufacturers. This means there is a phone available for nearly everyone that runs the Google-crafted operating system. Big or small screens, multicore processors, whatever your desire, there is an Android phone to meet your needs.

I'm sure this is why Android's market share came in at exactly 75 percent for the third quarter. This large number comes as no surprise to me at all, just like the market share numbers for Windows comes as no surprise. Apple's iOS market share is just one-fifth of this number, coming in at a tiny (by comparison) 14.9 percent.

BlackBerry and Symbian are still doing horribly. BalckBerry managed to grab just 4.3 percent of the market, falling 34.7 percent year-over-year. Symbian did even worse, capturing a tiny 2.3 percent and falling 77.3 percent year-over-year. Windows Phone 7 is still the biggest loser in terms of market share, but did the best in year-over-year change.

Amazon has jumped into yet another market by producing their own mobile game for Android and iOS. The game, called Air Patriots, seems like an interesting take on the whole tower defense type game that has proven popular on the mobile platforms. I know I love TowerMadness and play it constantly on my iPhone.

Air Patriots has the player control a squad of planes to defend your territory and defeat the enemy. Users draw a path on the screen with their finger, which the planes then follow and use as attack paths. Amazon is offering up 13 different types of planes, 28 levels, and 7 different maps, 3 of which are free.

"When we created Air Patriots we wanted to make a game that was easy and engaging, and the simplicity of drawing paths for planes was something we thought would appeal to players," Ernie Ramirez, executive producer at Amazon Game Studios, said in a statement. "We think customers will find Air Patriots both familiar and fresh, with a degree of challenge that keeps them engaged and enthused to play more."

We're getting closer to the release of Angry Birds Star Wars and Rovio has indulged us with yet another trailer, this time featuring Han Solo and Chewie. The trailer also shows off some in-game play and it's rather interesting how the game appears to be taking shape. More on that in a moment, for now, take a look at the trailer:

The game appears to feature some really unique forms of birds and they take the Star Wars theme to the max. For instance, Han Solo is firing a laser gun as he flies through the air, and the beams then ricochet around the level, something we haven't seen out of Angry Birds as of yet.

Chewie, too, offers a unique play style as it appears Rovio has mixed the previous land-based Angry Birds with Angry Birds space. This is rather fitting, considering Star Wars takes place on both planets and in space. It really is a culmination of the many games that Rovio has produced in the Angry Birds series.

Google Drive users, who also happen to use Google's social network service, Google+, will be pleased to hear the company has now made it much easier for users to share their documents with their friends by allowing your files to be viewable in Google+, to which you can choose who you'd like to share them with.

The process to share your Google Drive documents on Google+ isn't as simple as clicking on a "Google Drive" option in Google+ to then choose which document you'd like to share with your friends. Instead, as of now, it's a multi-step process:

Back in early September, Kim Dotcom revealed he was working on an "ultimate" version of his widely popular MegaUpload website, which was brought offline earlier this year. Last week, it was reported Megaupload's successor would launch on January 20, 2013, and it looks like things are going according to plan as Kim Dotcom's successor to MegaUpload, simply called "Mega," has been soft launched today.

The new Mega is completely free of the U.S. as hosters, domains and backbone providers have all been taken overseas, which will make it nearly impossible for it to suffer the same fate as MegaUpload. What also helps is having the burden of hosting unlawful content focused squarely on the user as they're the ones who are in complete control of what content they store in the cloud.

One big improvement Mega will have over MegaUpload is it will be free of any software required to be used in order to upload or access a user's content. Instead, everything will be taken care of within the Mega website itself as it will encrypt and decrypt your data in real time. Cross-account folders will also be available which will make collaborating between multiple users a breeze.

Windows 8 users rejoice! For those of you who feel that little bit missing from the Windows 8 desktop, by which I mean the start button, you now have some choices to replace it with. Win8 StartButton is a free program which replaces the old start menu in the bottom left-hand corner of the Windows 8 desktop view.

Not only does it bring back a familiar interface, it allows for loads more customization. For instance, you can choose many different styles of start menu, such as the classic version, Windows XP version, or Windows 7 version. The application will also allow you to bypass the normal Windows 8 start screen and boot straight to desktop.

Furthermore, you can choose to disable Windows 8's hot corners and many other features. There are also a couple of other programs available that replicate start menu function, though none look quite like the official Microsoft implementation. Pokki for Windows 8, StartMenu7, ViStart, and ClassicShell are all options.

Google have just released the new Google Search app for both the iPhone and iPad, which sports enhanced voice search that answers just about any question you have, with Google's comprehensive search results.

Thanks to Google's fast and accurate voice recognition technology, the new app understands exactly what you're saying. All you have to do is not use Siri, load up this app and tap the microphone icon asking a question such as "is United Airlines flight 318 on time?" As you speak, the words appear on screen and you'll receive your answer immediately. If the answer is short, such as asking the time, Google will tell you the answer out loud.

Google's Knowledge Graph is also another great piece of this app, giving their search technology an understanding of people, places and things in the real world. Here are some examples of what questions Google can answer:

Android 4.2 was just announced, but you'll need to have the skinny on those features, right? Well, I'm an avid Android user and there's a bunch of new features that look great, so let's go through a few of them.

Android 4.2 is going to arrive on the freshly announced Nexus 4 smartphone and Nexus 10 tablet, and should be quite the OS from Google. Android 4.1 really ramped it up with Project Butter, but there are some features in Android 4.2 to be quite excited over, so here we go.

5.) Daydream - This is something that will have its specific users, who want to use this feature, but it is something nice to see as a tiny feature on an otherwise huge release from Google. Daydream will allow your tablet to display photos, news and more while the device is idle, or docked.

Microsoft have been kind to Android users, providing SmartGlass integration on the Google Play store. The companion app is a bit of a change from the My Xbox Live app for Android, which let you control some of the Xbox 360's features from Android-based devices.

Windows Phone-based users get the best integration of all the OS', but it's good to see Microsoft not letting Android users cry in the dark alone. The Android app lets you look through the Dashboard, input text, browse the web (with zooming), search for local content, and control media playback.

The app requires an Android device sporting a resolution of at least 800x480, and a full list of features can be found below:

Here's a study I'm sure Microsoft will be extremely happy to see. It seems like people do believe that Microsoft has gotten better over the years at making Windows a safer operating system, something that people previously despised Microsoft for. Avast AntiVirus ran a survey of over 350,000 computer users who installed or re-licensed their software and found some really interesting results.

In the study, Avast found that Microsoft did a great job of promoting the new operating system as 56 percent of respondents new that Windows 8 would soon be released. Of the respondents, 65 percent were using Windows 7, 22 percent XP, and 8 percent on Vista. Curiously, 3 percent didn't know which they were using.

18 percent of respondents said that Windows has "definitely gotten safer over the years." 46 percent thought that it probably had and 30 percent weren't sure. 4 percent said probably not and 2 percent said definitely not. A combined 46 percent said either probably or definitely yes that Windows 8 would be safer than previous versions.

I have to admit, I absolutely love SwiftKey. It's one of the first apps I install on any new Android-based device I use, personally or for reviews. The developer behind the application has just announced something new, SwiftKey Flow.

SwiftKey Flow infuzes the power of SwiftKey's predictive algorithms, and puts a new spin on continuous input, offering real-time prediction as you begin to "flow" a word on the keys. Sounds amazing, eh? Check out the video above!

There are already apps like this out, such as Swype, but SwiftKey's prediction engine is very, very powerful. From the start of your finger touching the screen, SwiftKey Flow begins offering you predictions based on the movement of your finger - as soon as you let go of the screen, SwiftKey Flow will enter your word onto the screen. The application has been "engineered to simultaneously support both typing by 'tapping' on the keys (SwiftKey as you currently know and love it) and gliding across the keyboard".

More and more companies are releasing apps for Windows 8. Amazon has just joined the party with the release of their Kindle app for Windows 8. The app will allow users to read their collection of Kindle eBooks on both Windows 8 and Windows RT. Of course, the app comes with all the features you've come to expect from Amazon and Kindle.

This means the app supports Amazon's Whispersync technology, which "automatically syncs your furthest page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across all your devices that have the Kindle app installed and across any Kindle device." It even comes with the ability to pin your favorite Kindle books to the home screen.

This is great! No longer will I have to wait those extra few seconds to start reading Fifty Shades of Grey. Joking aside, this is a nice feature of the app, and a Kindle app should be well received and welcomed on the new Windows 8 and Windows RT platform. After all, there will be many more potential customers for Amazon with all of these new Windows 8 tablets shipping.

Here's reason enough to switch to Apple's walled garden: less chance of malware. Malware is increasingly becoming a problem for the Android operating system, no doubt due in part to its openness and the ability for anyone to post an app to the Play Store. Also sideloading apps furthers this problem.

Don't believe me? Well, a new study shows that Android malware grew by 580 percent in the previous year. An incredible 175 million downloads were of apps deemed "High Risk." And these app downloads came from Google Play's Top 500. Let's stop the scare tatics, though, and focus on reality. For the most part, Android users will be safe from malware.

That 580 percent statistic is misleading. Malware samples grew from 4,951 in September 2011 to only 28,707 in September 2012. So while the 580 percent statistic is true, it's highly misleading. Looking at it in terms of total apps, roughly 1.69 percent of all Android apps are malware, though most of those are not in the Play Store.

Microsoft's biggest launch of pretty much any product they've ever released is here, Windows 8. But, a new operating system isn't the only thing launching with Windows 8. We're looking at the Surface tablet running Windows RT, Windows Phone 8, a slew of Windows 8-powered notebooks, Ultrabooks, tablets as well as countless Windows 8-compatible accessories, and hardware.

5.) Windows 8-powered notebooks and Ultrabooks - One of the most exciting thing about the launch of Windows 8 is that there are going to be countless new products for everyone to choose from. New notebooks with Windows 8, touchscreen notebooks with Windows 8, new Ultrabooks, new touchscreen Ultrabooks with Windows 8. There are exciting new products like ASUS' TAICHI, which sports dual 1080p screens, one on the normal side like a standard notebook, and on the rear, another 1080p screen, but touchscreen-capable.

Before Windows 8, we never saw bold moves like this by players like ASUS, but now we are seeing dramatic shifts in the market as companies try new things. It's exciting.

This is something I kind of expected to happen, and in around the same time frame, but it looks like Android could turn into a huge powerhouse for Google. Bigger than the powerhouse it already is now with over 500 million Android-based users across the world, that is.

Traditional PC shipments are on the track to reclining for this year, marking the first time in over ten years that PC shipments have dipped. Gartner Research's latest numbers point toward Google's mobile OS, Android, being baked onto more devices that Microsoft's Windows OS.

By the end of 2016, the total number of computers, smartphones and tablets running Android is estimated to hit around 2.3 billion units, compared to [just] 2.28 billion Windows-based devices. Microsoft may have waved the flag of OS victory for the past 20 years, but its time for another champion, in robot form.

Currently, it would appear that Microsoft does not have any plans to release a second service pack for their widely popular operating system, Windows 7. XP, on the other hand, received three such service packs, and has lasted longer than any other Microsoft Windows operating system.

People close to Microsoft's sustained engineering team, the team who would be responsible for building and releasing a service pack, confirm that there are no plans for a second service pack. This breaks the cycle that Microsoft has traditionally kept in regards to updating the Windows operating system.

It's likely that Microsoft is doing this in part to drive people to Windows 8. It also takes time and effort to build these service packs, time and effort that could be going into Windows 8, or even 9. Monthly updates will continue to be pushed out. Users will just have to individually update all of the security updates, which is a hassle, but can be done.

AMD might Never Settle, but it doesn't mean NVIDIA will settle, either. NVIDIA have a new batch of beta drivers out which offer up to 15% more performance on certain GPU and software setups, as well as offering some new and updated profiles.

When compared to the GeForce 306.89 WHQL drivers, the new GeForce 310.33 beta drivers offer some improvements in most of the latest games, as shown in the table above. On top of these performance improvements, the new 310.33 beta drivers also include new or improved ambient occlusion support for Cross Fire, Dragon Nest, Meng San Guo, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Darksiders 2, and MechWarrior Online.

New or updated SLI and 3D Vision profiles are also included with GeForce 310.33 beta including Assassin's Creed III, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Dishonored, FIFA 13, Hitman: Absolution, Need for Speed: Most Wanted XCOM: Enemy Unknown and more. The new beta drivers also include some Windows 8-specific fixes, the first of which caused a forced reboot on pre-release versions of Windows 8, with the other causing a "Hardware Test Failed" error when running the 3D Vision Setup Wizard on Mitsubishi's WD-6039 monitor.

AMD aren't taking the graphics war sitting on their hands, with the release of their Catalyst 12.11 driver set which the company are calling the "Never Settle" driver, and rightly so by the looks of things.

These new drivers carry support for the AMD Radeon 7000 series of GPUs, with specific GPUs in mind based on the Graphics CoreNext architecture, such as HD 7750, HD 7770 GHz Ed., HD 7850, HD 7870 GHz Ed., HD 7950, HD 7950 BE, HD 7970, HD 7970 GHz Ed., and HD 7990; and mobile Radeon HD 7700M series, HD 7800M series, and HD 7900M series.

The new Never Settle drivers sport performance improvements of up to 15% in most of the latest games including Battlefield 3, DiRT Showdown, Sleeping Dogs, Medal of Honor: Warfighter and much more. AMD is now able to claim the performance lead for all of their top-end products, with the HD 7970 GHz Edition seeing a 20% performance gain over NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680.

I remember the days of the original versions of WinZip, I was a huge, huge user of the software and I still use it to this day. Well, WinZip Computing have just launched WinZip 17, which is the industry's first singel application that is designer to "give users a better way to manage, protect and share files across all the ways we connect today - the cloud, social media and email".

WinZip 17 now features direct integration with cloud-based storage options like SkyDrive, Dropbox and Google Drive. This is great as you can zip your files up, saving space on your cloud storage, as well as offering 128- or 256-bit AES encryption making your files safer than ever in the cloud. WinZip 17 also allows you to both manage and share your files directly from the slow, where WinZip 17 can automatically create links to the files you want to send to friends or family over email.

WinZip 17 also ships with an updated UI, and more intuitive zipping and unzipping of files. WinZip 17 also allows you to send large files or even entire folders, quickly and securely. You can send up to 50MB with a free ZipSend Lite account or up to 2GB with a ZipSend Pro account. WinZip 17 also sports an enhanced compression and encryption engine which lets the software crunch numbers for zipping even quicker than before. WinZip is the only file utility software designed to harness the power of graphics processing units (GPUs) like Intel's third-generation Core processors, AMD A-Series APUs, AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce GPUs.