Sublight finds subtitles for your movies or TV shows
Some people find watching foreign films with subtitles hard work, but it's even harder if the movie in question has no subtitles at all and you're not fluent in the relevant language. It's not just those with an inability to speak in tongues who benefit from subtitles either; they also help the hard of hearing, and there's the added benefit of being able to watch a video with the sound muted to avoid disturbing others too.
If you've got a movie or TV show you're desperate to watch, but there's no subtitle track included, don't fret. Sublight is a program for searching and downloading subtitles, simplifying and speeding up the process of both finding the right file and linking it to your movie.
The 2011 Pwnie nominations are in!
The premier event on the software vulnerability research calendar is the Pwnie Awards ceremony (it's pronounced "pony"). The 2011 nominees include critical vulnerabilities in Microsoft ASP.NET, iOS, Google Chrome, Java, the Linux kernel, and an award for special achievement in insecurity to Sony.
Read the nominations page for the full list. Here are my selections:
Qualcomm picks up gesture recognition tech for Snapdragon devices
GestureTek, a company which we first noticed three years ago for its Wii-like motion controller technology for smartphones, has sold some of its motion control and gesture recognition technology patents to chipmaker Qualcomm. This acquisition is a signal of the importance of inputs in mobile devices beyond the touchscreen.
Qualcomm will integrate GestureTek's technologies into its popular line of Snapdragon smartphone mobile processors, giving equipment manufacturers the option to enable their devices with natural user interfaces.
Need better Windows file management? Try xplorer2 2.0
London-based ZABKAT Software has released version 2.0 of its Windows Explorer replacement tool. xplorer2 2.0 includes a number of notable new features and improvements, including support for dockable and floating panes.
xplorer2, which costs $29.95 and is also available as a 64-bit build, also utilizes the native preview handlers found in Vista and Windows 7 to deliver improved document previews, notably with PDF and Office files. Also new in version 2.0 are dual bookmarks, tab locking, context menu extensions and faster file browser operations.
Google is right to demand people use real names
Google, don't cow before riffraff demanding that you allow Google Plusers to use pseudonyms or to be anonymous. The policy of using real names is sensible and best approach long term.
While I was at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, there was a big row about suspended Google+ accounts -- so I'm playing catch up on this one. Well, thank you, Google! I mean that without the slightest hint of sarcasm. That's a sincere thank you.
RIM begins round of 2,000 employee layoffs in America this week
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion will be cutting nearly 10% of its global workforce as it struggles to keep its piece of the smartphone market against the avalanche of Android-powered devices.
RIM will be laying off a total of 2,000 employees globally, and layoffs will begin in North America this week. The rest of the reductions will happen at an unspecified later date due to "local laws and regulations." The company says all employees who lose their job will receive severance packages and job placement assistance.
Take control of your PC resources with Kiwi
It doesn't matter how much RAM you pack into your cutting-edge PC running off a SSD disk -- programs have a habit of gobbling up all the resources they can get their hands on, resulting in sluggish performance and a sudden desire to take a pickaxe to your digital companion.
You can often diagnose problematic programs simply by opening Task Manager to review which ones are currently swallowing up all your RAM and CPU cycles, but it only works in real time. If you want to be able to monitor selected applications and processes over a more extended period of time, try Kiwi Application Monitor 1.4.6.
The roles we play
Today, Comic-Con 2011 wraps up here in San Diego. It's family day, where the halls fill up with locals -- following three days of celebrity panels, costume contests and other festivities. The event is all about people, whether someone comes to see a celeb, meet the authors of favorite books, games or movies or to do role play.
Many attendees have come here as someone else. For a day, or even a few, they take on another persona. They become someone else -- perhaps whom they would rather be, but most certainly not who they are. They can be heroes and even stars, for most anyone well-costumed will be repeatedly stopped for photos. Comic-Con lets them be not just someone else but someone special.
Are you one of the 20 million Google+ users?
Google+ has done in about three weeks what took Facebook years -- reach 20 million (presumably) active users.
In May 2006, Facebook opened to the public, already with about 6 million active users (mainly from schools). The service reached 20 million active users 11 months later. Google announced the G+ service -- invite-only during early testing phase -- on June 28. But those invites trickled out at first. Three weeks later, Google+ already had 20 million subscribers, or so claims Pluser Leon Håland.
Browser blowout: Which is fastest, most standards compliant [benchmarks]?
The browser wars are back, not least due to hectic and ever shorter release schedules, just about every other week there seems to be some new build promising that it's the faster way to get around online.
But which browser really delivers the best performance? We decided to pit the leading contenders against each other in a gruelling set of benchmarks to figure out the truth for ourselves.
Evidence builds that Google+ will soon get social games
For those of us who like the fact that Google+ remains free of the clutter that games on Facebook cause to our news feeds there, we may soon find that reprieve short lived. More evidence surfaced Friday that Google does indeed plan to add some type of gaming functionality to its social network.
Tech blog Slashgear discovered evidence within Google+'s help files that make reference to a 'Games Stream.' This likely means that Google plans to separate those incessant game status posts from the standard stream, but is eventually planning to add some type of social gaming to its platform.
I'll tell you something about Windows
Microsoft must move beyond Windows, as clearly seen in fiscal 2011 fourth quarterly and yearly results, announced late yesterday. The operating system remains a pillar of the company's revenue stream and will long be the identifying brand. But its relevance is diminishing, in developed markets for now. Emerging markets will come much later.
For the third quarter in a row, sluggish PC shipments diminished Windows & Windows Live revenues -- and there is little sign anything will change anytime soon. Revenues fell by 1 percent and operating income by 4 percent during fiscal fourth quarter. Global PC shipments grew by 2.3 percent, according to Gartner, and 2.6 percent, according to IDC. US PC shipments were disastrous, falling 5.6 percent year over year, according to Gartner, and declining 4.2 percent by IDC's reckoning. Microsoft estimates global PC shipments grew by 1 percent to 3 percent. Windows actually underperformed, by comparison, with OEM revenues declining by 1 percent for the quarter and growing by a tepid 2 percent for fiscal 2011. OEM sales accounted for three-quarters of Windows revenue during fiscal Q4.
Finally, VirtualBox 4.1 brings Aero support, VM cloning
Oracle has announced a major update to its open-source, cross-platform virtualization software. VirtualBox 4.1, which allows users to run different operating systems in virtual environments through a window, boasts a number of major new features, including support for VM cloning and an experimental WDDM graphics driver providing Windows Aero support in Windows guests. There's also a networking mode (UDP tunnel) that's designed to allow VMs running on different hosts to connect easily and transparently.
In addition to these new features, VirtualBox 4.1 sports some user-interface improvements, including the ability to keep the aspect ratio scaled in Windows and Mac OS X hosts when manually resizing the guest window. In addition to this it features numerous bug fixes and other minor tweaks.
Todo Backup 3.0 beta is now available
EASEUS has released a public beta of its Todo Backup 3.0 software. Version 3.0 adds a number of major new features to this versatile backup application, which is capable of backing up and cloning entire disks and partitions as well as offering file-based backup tools.
EASEUS Todo Backup 3.0 Beta adds support for dynamic disks while improving compatibility with SSD drives, and adds one-click options for system backup and restore as well as migrating a drive image to new hardware.
Americans buy nearly 3 out of every 10 iPhones
Yesterday, I posted a quick stub about AT&T's contribution to the overall proliferation of iOS-powered devices for the last quarter: 3.6 million iPhones (both 3GS and 4) and an indeterminate amount of iPads less than 545,000 in total. AT&T's iPhone sales alone, I concluded made up 10% of all the iOS devices sold for the quarter.
One commenter complained that the article lacked context, and I'll give him that… But it was meant to serve as a single piece of a larger puzzle that will hopefully present a more complete picture of where Apple products are going, who's using them, and what it means to the mobile device market as a whole.
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