Try this Task Manager alternative in a spreadsheet
If you believe your PC has been infected by malware then you’ll probably try to launch Task Manager in an effort to find out more. But of course malware authors are well aware of this, and in some cases they’ll try to protect themselves by disabling Task Manager and similar tools.
As long as you can launch Excel 2010, though, you do have another option in Didier Steven’s TaskManager.xls. It’s a basic Task Manager alternative in a spreadsheet, which not only lists the processes running on your PC, but also enables you to close or suspend any that you don’t need.
PC shipments rally for big (cough, cough) 2% growth
Well, if fourth quarter PC shipments were bad (and they were), Q1 was not so bad, according to preliminary data Gartner and IDC released today. Woohoo, break out the sparklers, IDC put year-over-year growth at 2.3 percent, but only 1.9 percent by Gartner's estimates. Somebody cue up "Nearer My God To Thee", because the Titanic tragedy's centennial anniversary feels timely. Is the PC market suddenly sinking?
IDC already called 2011 the worst year for PCs since 2001, when recession robbed manufacturers and retailers of Christmas and set off a chain of profit warnings, including Apple and Microsoft. There are no profit warnings this time around, just plenty of misery. Well, unless your business is selling so-called Post-PC devices, like smartphones and tablets.
With the states suing over ebook price fixing, Apple needs to surrender
Attorneys General in 16 states filed suit against Apple and three publishing companies Wednesday, following a similar suit filed this morning by the US Justice Department. Unlike the federal suit, the states action also looks for monetary compensation in addition to the end of the collusive agreements between Apple and the publishers.
Connecticut and Texas lead the action, and are joined by Attorneys General in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont and West Virginia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
Google+ redesign generates wicked #whitespace meme [slideshow]
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People have too much time to waste, and I'm not one of them. But occasionally I have fun and write about others goofing off. Waste away, baby, because today's Google+ redesign has generated strange reaction to a sudden amount of white space to the right of the friend feed. People are posting with hashtag #whitespace.
InstaHam app for smartphones, an idea worth $1 billion [video]
Some really strange stuff (I want to use the other "s" word, but content filters) comes into the BetaNews Tips box. I'm paying more attention to what's in it this week, given my 7-day Google Reader fast. Weirdness knows no bounds, nor my perplexity to embrace and share it. I swear to debating for 10 minutes about sharing this video. It's strange. Topical. From a vlogger with 26,664 subscribers (now I'm one of them). And, sheepishly confess, made me laugh.
Hell, I even liked the text of the email before the video link and made it the headline. If Instagram is worth one billion bucks... You got me Khyan Mansley. Commenters don't be cruel.
Google+ makeover is much more than a pretty face
Just as Facebook forces users to adopt a more cluttered, confusing appearance, Google+ simplifies and provides social networkers more control over the layout. Much as I've tried to use Facebook more, because that's where my family hangs out, Google+ is inescapable. It's a gravity well too strong to resist. For 170 million, the number of users Google revealed today, Plus perhaps is irresistible, too. That's a lot of people for a service less than a year old.
Google+ is more than a social network. It is the future of Google. Like it or not, the company has embarked on a strategy around social search, and Plus is a pillar. Competing against Facebook clearly is one of Google's goals. But there also is realistic appraisal that social is the web's future -- and why shouldn't it be with gregarious humans? Additionally, Google+ is the sun around which the company's other products will revolve -- even search -- defining a digital lifestyle empowering connections, communications and commerce.
TextWrangler 4.0 wrestles up new OS X features -- auto-reload, full-screen
Bare Bones Software has released TextWrangler 4.0, a major new version of its free OS X text-editing tool. TextWrangler offers both basic text-editing capabilities for general users as well as a number of powerful tools for programmers and system administrators.
TextWrangler 4.0 introduces a major new streamlined editing window for simplifying access to all open documents, plus automatically reloads all previously open documents when relaunched. It also introduces switchable syntax color schemes.
DOJ accuses Apple, five publishers of colluding to fix ebook prices
In December 2010 I asked: "Is someone fixing ebook prices?" Google's digital bookstore opened for business, and I started comparing prices only to find them fairly consistent across all retailers. I expected to see huge variances, not pricing consistency, which shouldn't be in a competitive market but is systematic of one where businesses conspire to "fix" prices.
I wasn't alone wondering about this abnormal consistency. After weeks of rumors, today, the US Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Apple and five publishers. The antitrust enforcement agency accuses them of colluding to fix ebook prices, thus impeding competition and, more importantly, consumer choice.
As Nokia transforms into a smartphone company, performance disappoints
Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia on Wednesday issued an update on its financial performance for the first quarter of 2012, and lowered its outlook for the devices and services category, citing a few negative factors it is currently encountering.
Nokia's Lumia series, christened by the Lumia 800 which launched in November in Europe, and the Lumia 710 which launched in the US in December, has been performing quite well so far. Nokia says it sold more than 2 million Lumia devices since November at an average price of EUR 220. With the popularity of these devices steadily rising, Nokia says it is seeing sequential growth in Lumia sales.
Peek inside executable, archive, image and other file structures
Analyzing file structures can be a complicated business, and definitely isn’t for the technically faint of heart. It can be useful for troubleshooting or security analysis purposes, though, or even when trying to identify a mystery file you’ve found somewhere on your PC. And whatever it is you’re trying to do, FileScanner is an interesting Java-based tool which just might be able to help.
The analysis process starts simply enough. Click File > Open File, or just drag and drop the target file onto FileScanner and it’ll automatically check the contents, before giving you a detailed report.
Geekbench 2.3.0 supports Ivy Bridge, dumps Power Mac
For anyone that is interested benchmarking the performance of their computer, be it a Mac, PC, Linux machine or a mobile device, Geekbench is a simple, low-cost tool that provides you with all of the tools you need. Benchmarking tools are often used by fans of overclocking and tweaking to see what difference can be made to performance, but they can also be helpful for revealing helpful information about the hardware in mobile phones and tablets.
If you are interested in benchmarking performance, it is likely that you are running recent hardware. As such, it is little surprise to find that the latest version of Geekbench drops support for PowerPC Macs. The fact that this is hardware that is no longer supported by Apple and the ever dwindling numbers of remaining users mean that this was really inevitability, and the day has now finally come.
Is your Lumia 900 Windows Phone defective? Nokia has a remedy
Late today, Nokia confirmed the Lumia 900 suffers from an Internet connectivity problem, confirming reports first seen on its own message boards earlier this week. The company's US arm blames a software glitch for the problem. What is stunning, however, is the company's mea culpa: it makes Apple's response to "Antennagate" look stingy in retrospect.
"Software update coming soon to Nokia Lumia 900 addressing memory management", a tweet from Nokia US reads. "Customers receive automatic $100 credit". The update is due April 16, with the $100 credit valid through April 21. Affected users will be able to switch their device out for no charge instead if they prefer, and any new customer will get the device for free, since it retails in store for $99.
I traded iPhone 4 for Lumia 900
I recently purchased the much-hyped Nokia Lumia 900 and no longer have cellular service on my iPhone 4 and this is my story. (VH-1’s "Behind the Music" dramatic sound effects here).
Reason for switching: My 8 year old accidentally dripped water on my iPhone 4, and the Apple geniuses said there was nothing I could do to fix it. Everything worked but the volume -- wouldn’t ring and Netflix just isn’t the same without any sound. Of course I never have to tell my kids to turn down the weird sounds coming from Angry Birds as they hurl to their impending doom.
Chrome 19 beta syncs tabs everywhere -- get it now!
Most of us now use at least two devices to connect to the Internet and while this freedom of connectivity is great in many respects, there are also problems associated with it. One of the most infuriating aspects of moving from browsing the web on one computer to using another device is that you will lose the web sites you were looking at. This is something that is addressed in the latest beta version of Google Chrome 19, which features the synchronization of tabs between devices. The feature extends to other devices a capability available with Chrome for Android Beta.
If you are working on your computer at work and then head home, there is no longer any need to send yourself an email with links to the websites you have been looking at during the day. Instead, assuming that you have the beta version of Google web browser installed on both machines and you are signed into your account, when you get home you need look no further than the ‘Other devices’ menu on the new tab page.
SAP moves to acquire mobile enterprise app maker Syclo
Enterprise software company SAP on Tuesday announced it plans to expand its presence in mobile applications by acquiring enterprise app developer Syclo for an undisclosed sum. Syclo provides field service and mobile asset management solutions to industries like utilities, oil & gas, manufacturing and biomedical.
Syclo's SMART family of enterprise mobile applications already integrate with SAP's ERP and CRM products and include a dozen different categories: Work Management, Service Management, Inventory, Auditing, Inspecting, Scheduling, Task Managment, Asset Management, Sales, and so on.
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