Hulu beams up free Star Trek for the rest of March
The tech news these days seems filled with stories of piracy, security flaws and every company trying to push its latest software and hardware releases. Then, every once in a while, something truly fun and enjoyable comes along to save us from our otherwise overwhelming tech world.
Today is the birthday of Captain James Tiberius Kirk, who also goes by the alias of William Shatner. To celebrate the Captain's birthday, online TV streaming service Hulu wants to open up the Star Trek world to even more viewers.
Who will buy the BlackBerry Z10?
The question is top of my mind as the smartphone arrives in the United States today from AT&T and next week from T-Mobile and Verizon. Did I miss something, or is this an atypical debut? AT&T usually starts sales on Sundays. This is Friday, right? The phone, which launched January 30, could be yours today for around $200 with two-year contractual commitment.
Way back then I asked: "Will you buy BlackBerry Z10?" The responses aren't as interesting as the lack of them. Less than 700 as I write, which is a surprisingly low number for one of my buying polls and for such a hotly-anticipated device. One-third of you say, yes, by the way, "as soon as available", which for Americans is today. Nearly an equal number of respondents will buy immediately or within three months as won't buy at all -- around 43 percent for each.
Adobe reminds Photoshop.com users to move or lose their content
Back in February Adobe announced plans to kill the storage portion of its seemingly popular Photoshop.com web service and migrating users' content to Adobe Revel. The move seems painless on the surface -- all of your images will be exported to Revel automatically. Except, that is not entirely the case.
In fact, all of the JPEG images will be moved. Only. Other formats, including video, PSD, RAW, ACR, PNG, TIFF, must be archived by the customer or they will be lost. Those file formats are not yet supported.
Best Windows 8 apps this week
Twenty-first in a series. Several things happened in the past seven days with regards to Windows 8 and its apps. Microsoft launched a temporary program that rewards developers with money for apps they produce for the operating system. If you have followed this weekly series you know that the app growths is relatively stable. A monetary incentive may convince some developers to spend some of their resources on the production of apps for Windows 8 or Windows Phone.
Several apps received updates this week, including the OneNote app for Windows 8. It ships with pen and ink improvements, and support for Office 365 notebooks.
Debenu PDF Tools Pro drops its $59 price tag, goes free for the next few days
Debenu PDF Tools Pro is a powerful set of PDF tools which can help you to merge and split PDFs, convert them to text or images, edit properties, add or remove passwords and a whole lot more.
Normally $59, the package available for free -- but Debenu says this is only for "a few more days", and the offer could expire at any time, so if you’re interested then we’d grab a copy now.
Microsoft gives a 'free welcome gift' to Messenger users who embrace Skype
In early January, Microsoft announced that starting from March 15, users would no longer be able to sign into the aging, but still popular Messenger service, because Skype would be replacing it. And, to give users an incentive to embrace its replacement, Microsoft is giving away a "free welcome gift".
This gift can be redeemed by Messenger users who sign into Skype with their Microsoft account details and promises "calls to landlines and mobiles around the world, group video calling, group screen sharing (and more) absolutely free for a month". Or at least that's what the text says.
Foursquare video reveals the twin pulses of New York City and Tokyo
Millions of people around the world use Foursquare to check into places they visit. The company has taken a year’s worth of these check-ins at two of the planet’s largest cities -- New York and Tokyo -- and plotted them on a map.
The result is a video that runs from 4AM right round the clock and up to 2AM, showing the cities pulsing as they come to life and then die back down again.
Makeover Windows 7 with Modern UI
Windows X has released updates for its skinning tools, Windows 8 UX Pack 7.0 (for Windows 7) and Windows 8 Transformation Pack 7.0 (for Windows XP, Vista and 7). The programs bring much of the look and feel of Windows 8 to earlier desktops.
One notable change this time around is the inclusion of WinMetro as an alternative Start Screen for both packs. Windows X says the program is stable and not resource hungry, which perhaps is why they’ve made it the “Immersive UI” alternative, but if you prefer the older Newgen, just the charms bar, or nothing at all, then all those options are still available.
Overhauling a home network, part 5 -- Back to the future
With last week's installment, this little series largely came to an end for now, but it doesn't mean that I am not actively planning for future improvements to the digital lifestyle in our home. In fact, my list of ideas for improvements is a rather lengthy one, though the expenses are enough for now and I have no desire to incur the wrath of my wife with more deliveries showing up on our doorstep.
But, where exactly do I want to go from here? The ideas are endless, but for the sake of brevity I will list only a few here. These are the ones I have prioritized at the top of that future list. The ones I consider most important to make everything work quicker and more smoothly.
JumpListsView tracks PC activities
NirSoft has announced the release of JumpListsView, a new tool that displays details of the jumplist records stored on Windows 7/ 8 PCs.
And the end result is a detailed report on many of the files and folders opened on your PC, perhaps going back months.
Accidental Empires, Part 14 -- Software Envy (Chapter 8)
Fourteenth in a series. We resume Robert X. Cringely's serialization of his 1991 tech-industry classic Accidental Empires after short repast during a period of rapid-fire news.
This installment reveals much about copying -- a hot topic in lawsuits today -- and how copyrights and patents apply to software and why the latter for a long time didn't.
Break your bad web habits by going Cold Turkey
You’re at the PC, with lots of important work to do. And you’re going to get started on it -- once you’ve checked Facebook. And Twitter. Then watched a YouTube clip someone mentioned earlier, checked what’s happening on eBay, and worked your way through a host of other online distractions.
Sounds familiar? Then you might like Cold Turkey, a simple free tool which can temporarily block access to your favourite web destinations.
I'm puzzled by Chrome World Wide Maze
You'll never guess what you gave up Google Reader for? The tried-and-true makes way for a few, ah, experiments. Newest: Chrome World Wide Maze. Geekdom is abuzz about the oddity this evening. I'm simply baffled, although I see the benefits as a technology preview, which surely must be the point.
Essentially your mobile device running Chrome becomes a remote control for a 3D-maze makeover of any website. I couldn't help myself. I chose bing.com. The setup is a bit convoluted, using -- and therefore showcasing -- tab sync. The process involves opening the site from tabs already available on the other device and completing a handshake using a six-digit number. Then the fun begins, or would have if Chrome Beta for Android hadn't crashed and disconnected while my wife took photos. (Hey, every story needs art.)
Have you noticed more ads on your Mac?
If you are on a Mac and using either the Apple-supplied Safari browser, or one of the popular alternatives like Firefox or Chrome, then you may have begun noticing some unexpected ads in the browser lately. Hopefully not, because it spells bad news for you, and that news is Trojan.yontoo.1.
Security firm Doctor Web is credited with the discovery of this latest attack on the Apple ecosystem. Like many Trojans though, it requires the user to make mistakes in order to get a foothold on the system. In fact, the cardinal mistake, clicking on a pop-up plugin message, is the culprit.
Lose something on you PC? Recent Files Scanner has your back
You’ve lost that important document you were working on yesterday; you’re wondering which files a program is accessing; or maybe you’d just like to know what someone else has been doing on your PC. There are many reasons why you might want to know which files have been created, modified or accessed on your PC -- and Recent Files Scanner is just the tool to help.
To get a feel for how the program works, just launch it and click the green Scan button. By default it will scan your Documents folder and any subfolders, and you’ll quickly be looking at a report listing everything you’ve modified recently.
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