I have finally gotten around to picking the winners, and here are they:
Shahab
P Fulano
SteveO
Sorry for the taking so long to out the winners. The winners will soon receive their key via mail. Thanks to Crystal Rich for sponsoring the giveaway. Zentimo is a fantastic utility that makes managing USB drives a breeze.
The final build of Opera 11 was released a few days back. New features include extensions, tab stacking and on-demand plugin load. I couldn’t cover it over here as I was extremely busy with my seventh semester project. However, I did do an in-depth review over at Techie Buzz. Check it out for a quick overview of the major new features in Opera 11.
For me the best new feature is support for extensions. In my honest opinion, Opera Software made a big mistake by not incorporating extensions earlier. In fact, I have bitched complained about the lack of an API on multiple occasions in the past (over here, here and here). As you might expect, I was over the moon when Opera Software revealed its plans to support extensions in Opera.
Continue reading “Opera Extensions: A Closer Look”
Scroll down to win one of the three licenses of Zentimo (worth $35 each) that I am giving away.
Zentimo is a new(ish) product from Crystal Rich Limited, the folks behind the popular USB Safely Remove tool. Zentimo describes itself as a “Swiss army knife for your external drive needs”. I would describe it as an evolved version of USB Safely Remove that is better suited for external hard disks.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with USB Safely Remove, its major benefit is being able to eject external drives safely and easily. Windows has a safely remove feature that allows you to unmount devices so that they can be removed without any data loss and disk errors. Unfortunately, Windows’ safely remove feature fails, if any process is accessing files stored on the drive. On such occasions, USB Safely Remove can identify the offending process and unlock the drive, before safely removing it. Moreover, unlike Crystal Rich’s application, the built-in safely remove feature is slow, and makes it really hard to correctly identify a device, if there are multiple external drives.
All of these advantages are present in Zentimo. However, it offers several advanced features to make management of external hard drives easier. Some of the major benefits of Zentimo are:
Enhanced Device Menu: The improved device menu not only lists every plugged-in storage device, but also creates separate entries for individual partitions. You can directly open a partition, or even launch portable apps stored on the device from the menu itself. As visible in the screenshot embedded below, the menu also offers other useful information like amount of free space remaining and the name of the partitions.
Improved Safe Removal: Like USB Safely Remove, Zentimo can identify and unlock or close processes preventing a device from being ejected. However, it goes a step further. Zentimo can actually power-off the hard disk to ensure that it is not spinning when you unplug it. However, I am not convinced there are any real benefits to powering off the device. It seems that unless you have a really old device, (at least theoretically) you shouldn’t need to do this. The official explanation of this feature acknowledges as much.
When you safely remove the device in Windows XP it powers the device off – in case off a flash drive its led was switched off and in case of a portable hard drive it was spun down. But Microsoft changed this behavior in Vista and it still exists in Win 7: after you stop the device on these OSes the hard drive continue spinning and flash drive continue lighting. All modern hard drives park theirs heads automatically when you unplug them so in theory this behavior shouldn’t lead to data looses or drive damages. But in practice the hard drive usually sound strangely when you unplug them on run and this makes a hard drive owner being a bit nervous when he hears that.
Enhanced Device Management: Zentimo has some nifty device management settings. You can change the name of the device, as well as assign it a custom icon to make it easier to recognise. Additionally, you can assign it a fixed drive letter, or even mount it as a folder. As in USB Safely Remove, you can automatically run certain applications when a USB device is inserted or removed. Zentimo also claims powerful integration with TrueCrypt. However, I didn’t test this aspect.
Benchmark: Zentimo has a single click benchmark option for external disks, which tests read/write speeds with small as well as large file to give you a comprehensive idea about your device’s performance.
Portability: Zentimo saves the settings in the device itself, so if you plug it into another system running Zentimo, all the customisations will be carried over.
Ideally, we shouldn’t need an application to safely remove devices. Unfortunately, the truth is that Windows’ default implementation is overtly simplistic, and can be extremely frustrating on occasions. USB Safely Remove is amongst my favourite applications, and I regard it as a must have. Zentimo is a significantly improved edition of USB Safely Remove. If you already own USB Safely Remove, take the trial edition of Zentimo for a spin to find out if you really need the additional features. Zentimo is pricier than USB Safely Remove, but a 50% discount is available to the owners of the latter software. If you have never used any of the products from Crystal Rich, I highly recommend trying them out. Zentimo is obviously better than USB Safely Remove, but not everyone will appreciate the advantages offered by it. Go for it, if the extra fifteen bucks doesn’t bother you, or you need the additional features. The benefits of Zentimo are a lot more than skin-deep, and it’s still early days for the product.
Download Zentimo (2.9 MB)
Platforms Supported: Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7(x86 and x64)
License: Shareware (30 days trial)
Cost: $35 (1 Year Upgrade License)
Version Reviewed: 1.1.4.1012 Beta
As promised, I have another contest for my blog readers. Zentimo is sponsoring three licenses worth $105 (each license is worth $35). The license will entitle you to unlimited use of the software along with one year of free updates. Here’s how you can participate in the giveaway.
Comment on this post. Make sure you use a valid e-mail address. (compulsory)
Follow @indyan and retweet this message to get a bonus entry into the lucky draw. You must post the status update URL in the comments section to be considered. (optional)
Subscribe to my e-mail newsletter to get a bonus entry into the lucky draw. After subscribing, you must let me know by leaving a comment. (optional)
You can also blog (post in a forum) about this contest to get 2 additional entries. Once again, you must leave a comment with the URL of the blogpost. Please don’t spam, or violate rules of the board to promote the contest.
The contest will end on December 18, 2010 at 12:00 Noon IST.
* Under all circumstances my decision shall be final and binding.
The System Mechanic 10 giveaway is over. Once again, many of you expressed interest in winning this excellent software. Here are the lucky three who have won a System Mechanic 10 license worth $39.95 each.
siddharth
Jakub
Cosme F
Thanks to everyone who participated. Don’t be dissapointed if you didn’t win. I will have another giveaway soon. In the meanwhile, subscribe to my RSS Feed or email newsletter to ensure you don’t miss out on the next awesome contest.
Scroll down to win one of the three licenses of System Mechanic 10 (worth $39.95 each) that I am giving away
Last month, I reviewed TuneUp Utilities 2011, which is regarded as one of the best Windows system optimisation suites around. Today, I will take a look at System Mechanic 10, which is quite possibly TuneUp’s biggest challenger.
In terms of features there is a lot of overlap between System Mechanic and TuneUp Utilities. Like Tuneup, System Mechanic is a powerhouse with several dozen tools. All the standard tools like Registry Cleaner, Registry Defragmenter, Disk Defragmenter, Start-up Optimiser, Disk Cleaner, Broken Shortcut Remover, Disk Scanner and File Shredder are present in both these utilities. However, there are quite a few differences too.
System Mechanic has been designed to be suitable for both novices and experts. Inexperienced users can simply run a system analysis to identify the areas of concern. On the other hand, experts can go to the Toolbox section to manually exploit the various tools.
From the Problems section you can get an overview of the issues identified and fix them. Here’s what System Mechanic came up with after I ran a deep scan.
The first problem identified by System Mechanic was a false positive as Kaspersky Internet Security Suite includes a Firewall (Anti-Hacker). It’s surprising that System Mechanic failed to realise that, as even Windows Activity Centre can differentiate between Kaspersky Antivirus and Kaspersky Internet Security. Thankfully, the other advisories were more accurate.
The first tool I tried was the Security Vulnerability Scanner. It scans your system settings to identify potential weaklings that can be exploited by malwares. This includes checking hosts file and Windows file associations.
Next up I tried the Disk Defragmentation (Drive Accelerator) tool. This is one area where System Mechanic is head and shoulders ahead of TuneUp Utilities. Not only does it support boot time defragmentation (offline defragmentation) like Raxco Perfect Disk (and other commercial defragmentation tools), but it also has a unique Program Accelerator tool that realigns programs and their files on the hard disk to decrease launch time and increase performance.
Another unique features in System Mechanic is CRUDD (Commonly Redundant or Unnecessary Decelerators and Destabilisers). Don’t be fooled by the unnecessarily complicated name. This tool simply alerts you about overlapping applications (i.e. utilities that perform same/similar function) installed on your system. I didn’t find this to be particularly useful though, as pretty much every installed application on my system serves a specific purpose.
Unlike TuneUp Utilities, which relies on scheduled runs of the 1-click optimiser, System Mechanic uses ActiveCare to automatically monitor your system health, and apply fixes when your computer is idle.
Besides providing a gazillion of tools for repairing and optimising your system, iolo System Mechanic also includes some handy tools for generating reports about your system status. There is the System Information tool that jots down your hardware and software configuration. There is DriveSense to monitor your hard disk’s health (based on SMART). And, there is even a System Change Tracker to identify changes made by program installations and other activities.
On the whole, System Mechanic 10 is an extremely impressive package. Since my previous trust, it has improved vastly. Unlike TuneUp Utilities, it doesn’t aim at being a Swiss-army knife. It won’t help you change icons, install themes or modify your logon screen. However, when it comes to optimising and repairing Windows, System Mechanic is pretty darn exhaustive. In PCMag’s GeekBench benchmark, System Mechanic 10 returned the best results and succeeded in improving file copying speeds as well as Windows boot time significantly. In fact, System Mechanic 10 edged out others like TuneUp, and went on to win the Editor’s choice award.
Download System Mechanic (18.03 MB)
Platforms Supported: Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7(x86 and x64)
License: Shareware (30 days trial)
Cost: $39.95 /year
Version Reviewed: 10.0.0
Watch out for the automatic renewal option. Use this only if you are certain.
Iolo has generously agreed to sponsor 3 System Mechanic 10 Standard Licenses for my blog readers worth $119.85 (each license is worth $39.95). Here’s how you can win a license key of System Mechanic 10 for yourself:
Comment on this post. Make sure you use a valid e-mail address. (compulsory)
Follow @indyan and retweet this message to get a bonus entry into the lucky draw. You must post the status update URL in the comments section to be considered. (optional)
Subscribe to my e-mail newsletter to get a bonus entry into the lucky draw. After subscribing, you must let me know by leaving a comment. (optional)
You can also blog about this contest to get 3 additional entries. Once again, you must leave a comment with the URL of the blogpost.
The contest will end on November 27, 2010 at 12:00 Noon IST.
The contest is over and the winners have been announced.
Last month I reviewed the new TuneUp Utilities 2011 and offered two full licenses to two lucky readers. Obviously, there are quite a few TuneUp fans around. The contest drew a lot of interest, and many of the participants were existing TuneUp Utilities users. As always, I used Random.org to pick the lucky winners. And they are:
vhick
Asriel
Congrats to all the winners, and thanks to everyone who participated. Don’t be disappointed if you didn’t win this time around. I have loads of contests lined up. The next contest should be up in a few days. Subscribe to my RSS Feed or the email newsletter to ensure that you don’t miss out on future giveaways.
Opera Mobile 10.1 Beta is now available for Android handsets. Use the QR code given below or Appbrain to grab it. I have been using Opera Mobile consistently for the past week. I wrote an in-depth review for Techie Buzz. Check it out if you want a low down on the newest Android browser. Here’s a quick summary:
Continue reading “Opera Mobile 10.1 Beta Released for Android”
Earlier today, my friends were raving about JJ Cale and the soulfulness of his music. Unfortunately, I had no clue regarding who the heck JJ Cale is. So what did I do? I whipped out my phone, and ran a Wikipedia search for Cale using Opera Mobile. Wikipedia might not be accurate enough for academic purposes, but its utility as a reference site is unquestionable. However, reading up an encyclopaedia article spanning several thousand words is neither the most efficient nor the most natural way to get an overview of any subject. Enter Qwiki.
Some of you might have already heard of Qwiki, since it got a lot of press coverage for winning TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco ’10. Qwiki describes itself as a new information experience. It wants to tell a story, a quintessentially human way to experience information, instead of just dishing out a collection of facts. TechCrunch described it as a “movie highlight reel of Wikipedia pages”, and that’s what it is. Enter a topic you want to know more about, and Qwiki will present the basic facts in a neatly put together slideshow of images and text accompanied by a computer generated voiceover. Qwiki is currently in closed beta, so the embedding of the videos is currently disabled. However, you can get an idea about the service from the video embedded below.
Update: I just realsed that can actually view a Qwiki without logging in. Here’s a Qwiki on M. K. Gandhi.
Each video or presentation itself is called a Qwiki, and for now, there are just over two million of them. The breadth of topics covered is quite impressive. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Qwiki even had information on Asansol, my home city. Although a Qwiki won’t make you an expert on any topic, most of them have enough depth to help you gain a meaningful overview of the subject matter. Even better, the Qwikis are interlinked. So, you can keep hopping from one Qwiki to another Qwiki, in Wikipedia style.
A snapshot of the Qwiki on J J Cale
I am amongst those who were rooting for CloudFlare to win the TC Disrupt, and after having used Qwiki for a couple of weeks, I still maintain that CloudFlare should have won. Qwiki is intuitive, entertaining, addictive and fun. However, it’s hardly disruptive in the manner Soluto can become with its PC Genome Technology, or CloudFlare can become with its CDN for everyone approach. I would have also liked to have Qwiki as an app on my phone, as it is a fun and useful way to pass time while travelling. However, for now it’s a web only service. Worse still, it utilises Flash, which puts it beyond the reach of iPhone and iPad users (and even a majority of Android users, since Flash requires at least Android 2.2).
Qwiki is currently in closed alpha. This means that there might be some bugs (I noticed that some of the Qwikis refuse to load), and you will need an invitation to get in. If you want to take it for a spin, I can help you out with an invite. Here’s what you need to do:
Either, subscribe to my newsletter and leave a comment using the same email address.
Or, follow me on Twitter and let me know by leaving a comment.
(Doing any one of the above is sufficient)
I don’t want to keep doing this forever, so just make sure that you get in your invite request before 14th November.
Scroll down to win one of the two licenses of TuneUp Utilities 2011 (worth $49.95 each) that I am giving away
If you are an old reader of this blog, then you are probably aware that I pretty much swear by TuneUp Utilities. Unlike most of the other system utilities, TuneUp mostly delivers on its promises and has saved my back on more than one occasion in the past.
The 2011 edition of TuneUp Utilities was released a couple of days back. As always, TuneUp Software is promising dramatic improvements with the latest release. I took it for a spin to find out what’s new and what’s changed. Here’s a quick summary:
Revamped Interface: Once again, TuneUp Utilities has re-skinned itself. The new interface is a mash up of the old interface and the interface introduced in TuneUp Utilities 2010. Tabs are back. However, the overall look and feel resembles the 2010 edition.
I praised the previous edition for getting rid of tabs, as it facilitated one-click access to pretty much all the TuneUp tools. However, it also made the interface appear more daunting to new users. With the new interface, it’s often easier to find exactly what you were looking for, but it might require a few additional clicks.
TuneUp 2011 also features a new Tuning Status indicator that gives you a quick overview of the optimisations that have been performed, and the amount of optimisation that is still possible.
Program Deactivator: This is quite possibly the biggest improvement introduced in TuneUp Utilities 2011. One of the biggest causes of system slowdown is installed applications. They often add new startup entries, background processes and services that consume resources even when not required. TuneUp Utilities always allowed you to remove unnecessary applications from system startup. With Program Deactivator they are taking this concept a step further.
When a program is disabled (deactivated), the services that it continuously runs in the background are turned off. However, if you ever need to use this program, TuneUp Programs-on-Demand Technology will automatically reactivate it.
TuneUp Utilities 2011 automatically identifies programs that can be disabled safely and those that can’t. Not only that, it also displays the impact that each of these programs is having on system start, operation and shutdown. Additionally, you can also view ratings from other users of TuneUp 2011. This ratings system is a new feature of TuneUp Utilities 2011 and is present throughout the application.
Improved Turbo Mode: TuneUp 2010 introduced a Turbo mode, which basically extracted every ounce of performance from your system by disabling aero and a gazillion of other non-essential services, and putting your system in the performance mode power plan. This is quite similar to what Game Booster does. However, I have found that TuneUp always manages to deliver a more marked improvement than the aforementioned freeware.
The already impressive, Turbo Mode has been improved further in 2011. TuneUp isn’t revealing what has changed behind the scenes, but there are a few improvements on the frontend too. There are a lot more options to configure, and now you can even put your system permanently in Turbo mode.
When it comes to improvements, that’s about it for TuneUp Utilities 2011. The list is actually quite short, when you compare it with the previous editions. I guess, TuneUp Utilities is already quite mature and there aren’t loads of new features that can be added. It already features a memory optimiser, registry cleaner, registry defragmenter, disk cleaner, disk defragmenter, disk space explorer, system tweaker, secure file shredder, deleted file recoverer (undelete), process explorer and more.
Earlier this week, PC Mag reviewed TuneUp Utilities 2011, and they noticed significant improvements in both system performance and startup after using TuneUp Utilities. Hopefully, the PC Mark Geekbench test will convince the sceptics that not all system suites are junk. However, to my surprise, Iolo’s System Mechanic 10 snagged the Editor’s choice award by the virtue of better performance and a more liberal license. Typically, one aspect of TuneUp Utilities that has always been unsatisfactory is the Drive Defragmenter. I suspect that this might be the case here too. The inadequacy of TuneUp’s defragmentation software is even more apparent to me as I use Raxco’s Perfect Disk, which is the best tool in its class.
If you haven’t used TuneUp Utilities before or have a really old version, I would whole heartedly recommend TuneUp Utilities 2011 to you. However, if you have already paid for TuneUp Utilities 2010, it might not make sense to upgrade to the latest edition. Program Deactivator is an interesting feature, but that alone cannot justify shelling out 30 bucks.
Download TuneUp Utilities (19.56 MB)
Platforms Supported: Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7(x86 and x64)
License: Shareware (30 days trial)
Cost: $49.95 (Upgrade license: $29.95)
Version Reviewed: 10.0.2011.65
TuneUp Software has graciously agreed to sponsor 2 licenses. Here’s how you can win a TuneUp Utilities 2011 serial key worth $49.95.
Comment on this post. Make sure you use a valid e-mail address. (compulsory)
Retweet this tweet and post your status update URL in the comments section to get a bonus entry into the lucky draw. (optional)
Subscribe to my e-mail newsletter to get a bonus entry into the lucky draw. After subscribing, let me know by leaving a comment. (optional)
Blog about this contest, and leave the URL in the comment section to win 3 bonus entries (optional).
The contest is open to everyone and will close on November 10, 2010 at 12:00 Noon IST.
* In case of dispute my decision shall be final and binding.
The contest is over, and the winners have been announced.
Google Reader is the big daddy of all RSS Feed readers out there. It has become the de-facto choice of voracious readers, and is almost a standard bearer for the segment. However, Google Reader’s presentation does leave a lot to be desired. If you are looking for something that looks great, but is flexible enough to tackle scores of feed at the same time, NewsBlur is a new service that will probably interest you.
NewsBlur is the creation of a single developer – Samuel Clay. If you already have a Google Reader account, getting started with NewsBlur should be a breeze, since it can automatically import your Google Reader feeds. You also have the option of manually importing feeds through OMPL files. However, be warned, importing an OPML file will delete all your existing feeds. The developer tells me that this will be fixed in the coming months. In the future, NewsBlur will be automatically able to identify duplicate entries and add new entries from an OPML file.
As mentioned earlier, the interface is tidy and efficient. Normally, Google’s the one that gets the kudos for keeping things simple; however, somewhere along the line they sacrificed simplicity in favour of functionality for Google Reader. NewsBlur supports three view modes –
Original: This is NewsBlur’s unique selling point. It captures a snapshot of the website and displays your RSS feed in-context of the website. This makes it appear as if you are surfing through the original website.
Feed: In this mode NewsBlur displays a feed as a continuous stream of articles in a consistent interface.
Story: Almost same as above. However, in this mode only one article is displayed at a time, instead of the entire stream.
The biggest challenge modern RSS Feed readers have to tackle is to make discovering news that matters simple and straight-forward. NewsBlur supports nested folders, which allows you to organise your feeds into categories. Additionally, NewsBlur also supports filtering of stories. To get started, you will be asked to rate (like/dislike) selected authors, tags, websites. Based on this initial training, NewsBlur will automatically curate a list of stories you are likely to find interesting.
You can also rate stories, or even highlight keywords from its title while using NewsBlur to constantly improve the suggestions offered by NewsBlur.
NewsBlur is a freemium service. The free version allows you to follow up to 64 feeds. If you want to track more feeds, you will have to shell out $12/year, which is quite reasonable. Since the source code is available, you can also install it on your own server, if you are so inclined.
All in all, NewsBlur is an interesting service. It looks great and is a joy to use. The filtering feature seems interesting; however, I haven’t used NewsBlur long enough to make an educated judgment on its accuracy. Additional features currently in the pipeline include an iPhone app, ability to sort stories, and account management. For me the biggest drawback of NewsBlur is that it doesn’t always update a feed. The frequency with which a feed is updated depends on its popularity. Thankfully, you can manually update a feed using Insta-Fetch. NewsBlur also lacks any sort of social features. If you enjoy reading and sharing stuff with your friends, you should stick to Google Reader. NewsBlur also lacks some elementary features, like being able to quickly check all unread items.
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