Internet Explorer 8 is most likely the best web browser that Microsoft has developed in a very long time. It beats its predecessors Internet Explorer 6 and 7 fair and square and comes closer to the other popular web browsers than ever before. While it still lacks behind in comparison against Internet browsers like Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Opera or Google Chrome it closed the gap to these other web browsers and it is likely that the next Microsoft browser – that will most likely go under the name Internet Explorer 9 – will close it further.
- Author: Martin
- Published: May 10th, 2009
4 Internet Explorer 8 Annoyances
- Author: Martin
- Published: May 9th, 2009
Video To DVD Conversion
One of the best programs for video to DVD conversions is the Shareware ConvertXtoDVD which was part of our Christmas Giveaway. It is one of those programs that are easy to use and produce great results. Users who do not want to pay for a video to DVD conversion software can pick several free software programs that might not provide the same level of comfort and ease of use but produce decent results as well. One of these applications is Avi2DVD which can turn avi, ogm, wmv and mkv files into DVDs, SVCDs and VCDs.
- Author: Martin
- Published: May 9th, 2009
Nokia Map Loader
Nokia Map Loader is a software program for the Windows and Macintosh operating system that has been designed by Nokia. The application can download maps for the Nokia Maps service directly to the cell phone. This could for example be used to download maps of cities or regions before traveling there. The other available option would be to download the maps directly to the cell phone without preloading them on a computer system first. The first option is obviously the less expensive and faster one as downloads directly to the cell phone are usually quite expensive and slower.
- Author: Martin
- Published: May 9th, 2009
Mozilla Prism 1.0 Beta
Mozilla Prism 1.0 Beta has been released yesterday. The developers at Mozilla Labs have raised the version of Mozilla Prism to 1.0 beta. The launch was celebrated with a shiny new website. Mozilla Prism can be used to move web applications to the computer desktop. It basically displays a selected web service like any other desktop application. The update to Prism 1.0 beta adds several new features and improvements including new Api functionality, application specific settings, the ability to clear private data on demand and automatic application updates when Prism gets updated, full OS X 10.4 support plus support for SSL exceptions.
- Author: Martin
- Published: May 9th, 2009
Firefox Custom Builds
Custom builds of the Firefox web browser are created by third parties. They usually optimize Firefox (compiler and code) and sometimes add new features to the web browser as well. Not many Firefox users know of the existence of custom builds and probably lesser know that there is a third party builds forum at the Mozillazine website that is only dealing with custom build announcements. There are however two areas of concern about custom builds of the Firefox web browser: The first is a security concern as third party builds might contain hidden malicious code that would run in the web browser itself. The second are program updates which usually are created later than the official Mozilla builds meaning that security patches and other improvements can only be applied with delays.
- Author: Martin
- Published: May 8th, 2009
Data Storage Software Gladinet
the data storage software Gladinet allows Windows users to mount cloud storage as local folders in Windows Explorer. Supported are not only online storage services like Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Google Picasa, Windows Live SkyDrive, Google Docs and Folders from remote PCs but also online applications like ThinkFree. A later to be released premium edition will add new applications including Picnik, SnipShot or Zoho to the mix. The services are integrated into Windows Explorer with one drive letter that builds the root of all online storage services, applications and remote PC connections that are configured in the Gladinet data storage software.
- Author: Jack Wallen
- Published: May 8th, 2009
Get to know Linux: Xfce 4
In this most recent series of articles I have been higlighting various Linux window managers and desktops. Most of them are old school and still very relevant. We’ve examined Fluxbox and Window Maker so far. Both of these are very lightweight and fast. Some of them are more modern than others. This time around we are going to examine a desktop that is more integrated than the others, therefore garnering the title “Desktop Environment” instead of “Window Manger” (Read up on the difference between the two in my article “Get to know Linux: Desktop Environment vs Window Manager“.
Xfce 4 is a fine example of how a full-blown Desktop Environment can be both feature rich as well as light weight. Xfce 4 is based on the GTK+ toolkit which immediately puts in in the same category as GNOME. Xfce started in 1996 and stands for XForms Common Environment (because of the original toolkit it used.) Most users will find Xfce surprisingly on par with most modern PC desktops. Let’s take a look.