Spelr is a spell checker for any Windows program
There’s a common view online which says that spelling doesn’t really matter, mistakes are no big deal, and anyone who says otherwise is An Evil Grammar Nazi Who Can Safely Be Ignored.
There’s a fragment of truth in that, at least in some situations, but if you want to get your point across effectively in an email, a forum post or anywhere else, it’s still best to avoid distractions like spelling mistakes.
Sony pays out to customers after deceptive PS Vita ads
Sony has started to make settlement payments to PlayStation Vita owners, six months after the Federal Trade Commission found that the company had run misleading ads about the handheld console. If you bought a PS Vita before June 1, 2012 -- and haven’t already returned it for a full refund -- you are in line to receive $25 cash back.
Alternatively, a voucher that can be exchanged for merchandise worth at least $50 is also available. Despite the FTC's findings Sony still "neither admits nor denies liability", the payouts offer some compensation for gamers who feel they were misled.
Need a wireless mouse? Try the Logitech M320 [Review]
The wireless mouse isn't new -- the technology is growing fairly old now, actually.But in this case that doesn't make it obsolete, as many of us still use them on a daily basis, and we aren't going back to wired. There's also no shortage of them on the market, but finding a good one can be a painstaking task, as everyone's needs are slightly different.
There's the gaming mouse, the travel mouse and plain old utilitarian daily-use mouse. We've reviewed many of the tiny peripherals here, but they never get old. Tolday we're looking at the Logitech M320, a simple wireless mouse. It isn't gaming and it's not considered travel size, but it's quite decent for daily use, which I'm doing as I type this from my laptop -- I hate toucpads.
Microsoft stops Kinect for Windows production... because it's so popular
Yes, you did read that headline correctly. Microsoft has announced that due to the popularity of Kinect for Windows, the sensor will no longer be produced. While an increase in demand would normally lead to an increase in production, Microsoft is taking something of a different approach.
Rather than maintaining two Kinect product lines -- a model for Xbox One and a model for Windows -- the company will instead sell an adapter that allows the console sensor to be connected to a PC. Microsoft says that this will help to keep things simple and create consistency for developers.
Save Text To File is a handy research tool for Firefox
If you find something interesting while researching online, your first instinct will probably be to bookmark the page for reference later. And that’s just fine, as long as you can find the bookmark later. And remember why you saved it. And don’t mind re-reading the entire page to locate the fragment you need.
Save Text To File is a Firefox add-on which could make this much easier. If you’re only interested in a paragraph or two of text, forget bookmarks, just select what you need with the mouse, then right-click, Save Text To File > Save, and your chosen words are saved directly to a local file.
Sling goes international with new language support
Though channels and shows can vary greatly, television is international, with each country having its own broadcasts and favorite things to watch. New kid on the block, Sling TV, recognizes this and is making efforts to go after a more international audience. Hence its latest offering -- "content that speaks your language".
In total there are 18 new languages being added, including Arabic, Bangla, Bengali, Brazilian, Cantonese, Filipino, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Mandarin, Marathi, Punjabi, Taiwanese, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and Vietnamese.
Government should not control access to hardcore porn sites
Children's access to the internet can be a very emotive issue, particularly when subjects like pornography crop up. In the UK, the General Election is just around the corner and the current ruling party, the right wing Conservatives, are pledging to introduce legislation that enforces age restrictions on access to hardcore pornography sites.
The legislation would be dependent on the party retaining power after the May election, but Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Sajid Javid says the Conservatives "will age restrict online porn" offering "safety for children and peace of mind for parents". There are just two problems. Firstly, it is completely unworkable, and secondly it is not the government's place to restrict access to the internet using legislation.
Mac recovery tool Disk Drill comes to Windows
It's been undeleting Mac files since 2010, but CleverFiles’ Disk Drill is now also available -- for free -- on Windows XP and later.
The Mac heritage brings some immediate benefits. The program can recover data from HFS+ drives, as well as FAT, exFAT, NTFS or Linux EXT2/3/4 drives. And it's able to back up drives to a DMG image, handy if you're worried about files being overwritten before they can be restored.
Surface AMA reveals all about Surface 3 and nothing about Surface Pro 4
Microsoft's Surface team took to Reddit to answer a barrage of questions in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on the site. Although the team was available for probing for just one hour, scores of questions were fired at them and while nothing ground-breaking was revealed, shrouds of mystery were swept aside.
The upcoming Surface 3 has already managed to generate quite some interest. This is the first non-Pro Surface model that will ship will a full, non-RT version of Windows and it should come as little surprise that many of the questions related to this tablet. If you don’t have the time or inclination to read through the entire thread on Reddit, here are some of the edited highlights.
OnePlus One gets Android Lollipop-based OxygenOS -- here's how to install it
OnePlus today released the much awaited OxygenOS update for its flagship One smartphone in India. The said Android-based operating system brings a Lollipop update in addition to a set of features from the Chinese smartphone manufacturer. Whether or not this is what you prefer, the OxygenOS bestows “pure Android experience”. The update is meant only for the OnePlus One smartphones sold in India.
OnePlus One global variant runs on Cyanogen’s Android KitKat-based CM 11 software. Days ahead of One’s launch in India, Cyanogen partnered with Micromax to give it an exclusive right to ship Cyanogen’s software in the country. The move spoiled OnePlus’ plan to debut in India with a bang. Cyanogen made it clear that it won’t be providing any software updates to OnePlus’ Indian variant.
Amidst the controversy, OnePlus announced that it will soon release an Android 5.0-based operating system for devices by the end of January. The company missed the deadline, but the software update is finally here. And so are a couple of other confusions.
Malicious Pirate Bay clones scamming pirates
When The Pirate Bay was taken down in late 2014, IsoHunt announced the Open Bay Project, a way for internet users to collaborate and make sure the torrenting service was always available on a domain.
Now that The Pirate Bay is back online, it looks like some of these pet projects are being used by hackers as a way to steal users’ bank information. The hackers are using the iFrames plugin for WordPress to embed malicious content on WordPress sites without the current update.
Microsoft at 40: More open, bold, goes where users are
On April 4, 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft. The small firm used to develop and sell BASIC interpreters. Little did they know that in the next 40 years, their company will become the biggest software firm in the world, and also bag the title for one of the most valuable companies.
Today, there is a little bit of Microsoft in everybody’s life. Whether it is the desktop computer where Microsoft’s Windows has about 90 percent market share or the company’s Office which is unarguably the best productivity suite available. Maybe you are into gaming and own an Xbox One, or your company relies on Azure cloud services.
South Korea looking to scrap ActiveX payment requirement -- bad news for Internet Explorer
In 1999, South Korea pushed a law that forced online vendors to adopt Microsoft ActiveX, in order to utilize the SEED cipher developed by the Korea Information Security Agency (KISA) for online transactions.
Even though at the time it seemed like a good decision, the government is now looking to scrap the system and create new online encryption that works with all browsers and supports SSL.
FileSeek is a fast and flexible search tool
FileSeek is a portable free-for-personal-use search tool for Windows XP-10, a fast and flexible way to locate the files you need.
The program's familiar interface means you’ll be using it right away. Select a path to search and an "Include" pattern – like *.txt – to find files of a particular type, say, and optionally enter text to locate within those files.
Windows 'could' go open-source, but is that a good idea? [Update]
Today, a Wired article proposes that Microsoft could open-source Windows, quoting Azure chief technology officer Mark Russinovich who says "it's definitely possible". Well sure, anything is possible, I suppose. But it's certainly not probable.
A Microsoft spokesperson tells me the company has "not made any open-source policy or business model changes for Windows". Still, if nothing else, it does provoke thought. The ultimate question, for me, and hopefully you, is does it make sense? Is an open-source Windows a good idea?
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