Catch (version 3.11) is a free mobile note-taking app for iOS and Android devices along the same lines as Evernote (for iPhone) (4 stars, free or $45 per year for Premium). Catch lets you type text, record audio, and snap photos of anything you want to remember and annotate these files with tags, making it easy to find them later by searching or sorting by tags you've implemented. Catch is uncomplicated, coherent, and straightforward, and as a result, fairly uninspiring. With almost no visual fanfare, Catch makes note-taking feel like an industrious if somber task.
Catch takes minimalism very seriously (too seriously). Paired down settings and options keep the app clean and clutter-free, but also strip away the playfulness and creativity that more vibrant apps evoke. Far-flung in the other direction is Awesome Note (+Todo) (for iPhone) (4 stars, $3.99), an attractive and joyful app, with the ability to color-code notes and folders, and a calendar that helps more visually-oriented people stay organized.
Catch's main competitor, Evernote, has faced criticism from some users for feature bloat (although we at PCMag disagree, finding Evernote's options and customization helpful and quite restrained). Nevertheless, I can see the logic behind designing Catch to be even more reserved. Like Evernote, the app itself and a basic Catch account are free, but users can pay $5 per month or $45 per year to upgrade to a Pro account for a few extra perks. At this point in time, if you're going to use Catch on the iPhone, stick to the free account, as the perks are minimal.
Set Up and Sign In
Catch is a very simple app, and getting set up with it is equally uncomplicated. After downloading the free app and launching it, new users have three choices for registering an account: 1) provide an e-mail address or username and password, 2) log in using your Google ID, or 3) log in using your Facebook account. The only real benefit of using your Google or Facebook account to log in is that it removes a step or two from the registration process. You'll see other areas of Catch where this one-step method is used to try and streamline user actions. It's all part of Catch's vision of a shipshape world.
Specifications
Features and Use
Much like Evernote, Catch supports notes as text, audio, and image files. From most any screen, you can create a new note by tapping the plus sign in the upper right corner. A blank note appears with four icons overlaid:
2. a hash symbol to associate pre-existing tags (which appear in a little strip) or designate new ones,
3. a microphone to record an audio memo, and
4. a camera for taking or uploading a photo.
After you've created a few notes, you'll realize that Catch is a folder-less system. Notes get grouped and sorted by hash tag instead. According to Catch.com, the idea was to create a Twitter-esque experience. Rather than make disorganized people feel their failings even more acutely by asking them to arrange their notes into a resourceful folder system, people can quickly jot down whatever keywords that come to mind and throw a # in front of them. Organization done.
When you look at a tag stream in Catch, you can see at a glance what the note contains, whether text, images, and audio files. Open the note, and whatever tags have been included are hyperlinked so that you can quickly find other notes with the same tag by simply tapping it.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2382838,00.asp
Canadian software house Corel seems to be stuck playing second-fiddle to its competitors to the south. In office apps, it shadows Microsoft. In illustration and photo editing, Adobe's number one. Though VideoStudio Pro X4 doesn't quite match our Editors' Choice, CyberLink PowerDirector 9 ($99.95, 4.5 stars) in the speed of some operations or number of tracks allowed, Corel can stand tall and proud: VideoStudio is a well-designed, easy-to-use, fast, and capable consumer digital video editor. A couple of its new tools are even class-leading, such as its stop-motion importer.
Interface
When you first run the program, you'll see the Corel Guide, which offers, help, video tutorials, and downloads. The overall interface approach is modal, in the sense that three main modes govern all your actions—Capture, Edit, and Share. These are accessible from prominent buttons always visible at the top of screen.
VideoStudio X4's pleasing dark gray interface uses the familiar three-pane view with content and effects in the upper left, video preview in the upper right, and timeline along the whole bottom portion of the screen—but there's a difference: Unlike other video editing apps such as Avid Studio ($169.99, 3.5 stars), VideoStudio Pro X4 lets you move these panels around wherever you want, and even pull them out to separate windows of their own. So if you really want to spread out, you can even run each window on its own monitor! One interesting thing about the interface is that it's only full-screen-there's no resizing except to minimize it, which actually makes sense when you think about it. You really need the full screen for everything going on in a video editor, though it can make multitasking tough.
The editor limits you to six overlay video tracks in addition to your main video track, along with two title tracks, a voice track, and three music tracks. Sure, that's not much, compared with CyberLink and Adobe's 100 tracks and Avid's lack of any limitation, but I can't really see a consumer video production needing more. The timeline can be zoomed in and out using the mouse wheel, which works well. It also displays frame time codes, for fine-grain control. You can also switch the timeline to a Storyboard view, which lets you drag transitions between clips but otherwise offers little benefit. Some apps like Avid and Sony have dispensed with storyboards entirely.
Specifications
More
The Capture mode, which you enter by clicking the large Capture button at the top, lets you record from a connected camera, scan a DV source, import from Digital Media, or mobile device. The behavior with simply trying to get a video on disk into VideoShow was not a simple as with Avid Studio. The File | Insert Media File into Library menu choice adds folders to the source panel.
Probably the coolest import option is Stop Motion, which opens a window from which you can capture clever animations from your webcam. Corel's implementation of this is class-leading: It can even snap the images at set intervals, and an "onion skin" view shows you an outline of your last capture. This goes beyond what Avid offers, and most other consumer video editors, including PowerDirector, don't offer a similar feature. The feature let me easily create an amusing video of a moving superhero toy.
Getting media into VideoStudio is simple, but, once it's there, the app offers no tagging or search capability like you get with Avid Studio or Premiere Elements, let alone the latter's face detection. This can make finding a clip troublesome at times, as can the inteface's lack of a search box, whether you're looking at clips or effects. You can, however, sort source content by name, type, or date.
Instant Movie Making
Corel's Instant Project feature is different from the "magic movie maker" features in most consumer video editors. It's more of a template tool with some prefab effects for you to manually build out with your own content. You can insert an Instant Project template either before or after whatever's in your timeline, but it's up to you to populate the template with content manually. From the timeline, you can split all tracks at once if you need to insert media or move a section.
Sound, Instant and Otherwise
Another "instant" option is the Auto Music feature. This lets you select from Corel's included canned music, choosing things like mood and variation so that the sound track fits with your movie. It also fits the length of the track to your clips. You can alternatively use your own music files or buy more sound files from Corel directly from within the program. A nifty sound mixer lets you choose any track and adjust its volume relative to the others, and you can graphically drag a line in the timeline representing the audio up and down to raise and lower its volume. The voiceover tool makes narrating any section of your movie simple, adding another sound track.
Basic Video Editing
As with all modern video editors, in VideoStudio you simply drag and drop a clip from your source tray to add it to your timeline. If you double click on a clip in the source tray, it opens in the Single Clip Trim window. This provides a handy way to set the start and finish markers of the section of the clip that you want to display, including precision to the individual frame level.
For real editing power, I chose the Multi-trim Video tool. This let me set multiple in and out points, so I didn't have to create a lot of separate clips if I just wanted to remove some dead space in the middle of a clip. It also let me detect Ads in TV content. PowerDirector matches this multi-trim capability, but most others, like Avid Studio, lack it. Both Corel trim tools offer easy, clear navigation, including a jog wheel, and zoomable selection scrubber.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2330787,00.asp
GarageBand '11, the latest version of Apple's amateur musician software, builds on an already impressive, easy-to-use app, with more ways to help your band play better together, more amp and pedal styles, and better tools for teaching you how to play instruments. It was already a bargain as part of the $49 iLife 'll suite that comes free with brand-new Macs, but now that you can cherry pick suite members on the Mac App Store, you can snag GarageBand for just $14.99 as a standalone—of course, that's after you've paid the Apple tax of a high-priced computer. While it's no match for pro-level studio software such as Reason, Ableton Live, or Pro Tools, those apps cost hundreds of dollars instead of just $15, and they don't offer GarageBand '11's well-designed instrument lessons.
Interface
Let's face it, nobody does interface better than Apple, and GarageBand '11 is no exception. You start from the welcome screen by choosing whether you want to create a new project (which can be a piano, electric guitar, voice, acoustic instrument, loops, podcast, or movie), learn to play, buy lessons at the online store, indulge in Magic GarageBand virtual combo, or create an iPhone ringtone.
GarageBand '11's recording and editing screen shows the typical timeline view, with tracks running in the center, track adjustments along the left, and sources and effects in a right-side panel. Double-clicking a track brings up a detailed edit view in which you can see the waveforms for recordings and piano roll or score for MIDI tracks. It's at once more capable and far more intuitive than the interface of Audacity 1.2 (Free, 3.5 stars), but that's a free, multiplatform program.
Recording and Mixing
When you start a new project, you choose a template based on the source—an instrument, voice, loops, or the built-in piano, or on its output purpose—podcast, movie, songwriting. Next you name the project, and optionally set a tempo, key signature, and meter. Any loops you add, either from those include with GarageBand or separately purchased, will match the key you choose.
To connect my Yamaha keyboard, I first had to install its driver from its maker. After this, the program let me control all its software instruments from the keyboard. After recording, I could correct mistakes from the Track Editor either in piano role, or, even more helpfully, in score view. I could also record another take: The takes will be accessible from a dropdown menu, but you can't see them all at once, as you can on more sophisticated recording software.
I like how you can easily set any duration to repeat, so that you can decide which sounds to add to the flow, but there's nothing comparable to Ableton Live's session view, which lets you mix and match tracks on the fly. But, again: $15.
After creating a song with input from my keyboard and joining Apple loops to it for bass and drums, I recorded a vocal track, again taking advantage of multiple-take capability. I could then have GarageBand automatically fix both the pitch and timing of my singing, which didn't always align perfectly with the underlying rhythm. A slider let me choose how much of either correction to use. I found it simple to limit pitches either to the nearest chromatic scale note or restrict notes to the song's key. If I added too much pitch correction I started sounding excessively auto-tuned (like Finn on Glee, for example), but about 50 percent correction yielded a good effect. It was also neat to see the waveforms realigned when I chose to quantize the note rhythms, with choices from whole notes down to 64th notes. Right sidebar options let me apply some striking special effects, like helium voice, R&B, and onion vocals.
One of GarageBand's coolest features is Flex Time. This lets you drag waveforms around to align or stretch sounds without losing the pitch. This let me extend a note cut short when I ran out of breath, thus making it work better in my song. For this to work, I had to enable "Follow Tempo & Pitch." Luckily I could undo the sound stretching, since I got some ugly results with it with a choral track. Even with a vocal track, it was hard to get clean sounding results when dragging the waveforms to match a beat; extending a note worked well, however. Flex Time also lets bands sync their performances to the most rhythmic member, rather than to a strict metronome beat, which gives a performance a more life-like feel.
To get the full complement of samples and loops, I had to download 1.2GB of extra content, which took a half hour on my cable Internet connection. To expand your sonic possibilities even more, Apple offers JamPacks, which add loops and software instruments in bundles including voice, drum, orchestra, and world music. Each of the five available JamPacks costs $99.
Learning an Instrument
GarageBand has had instrument lessons in the past couple versions, but '11 adds some useful tools for keeping track of your progress and a bunch more lessons. There are now 40 lessons for piano and guitar, and for $4.99 a pop, you can download video lessons by famous performers like Sting and Norah Jones showing you how to play one of their hits. I counted 23 of these in all.
Most of the regular lessons have to be downloaded, usually at a sizable half gig or so. After a video lesson, it was my turn to play, and GarageBand kept a real-time percentage of my accuracy while playing—in sort of a Guitar Hero motivation. For this to work, my instrument had to be directly connected to the computer—it won't use the computer's mic to detect acoustic playing accuracy.
Once I made a few attempts at playing lesson songs, I could easily view my progress by clicking the history, which showed a line graph of the accuracy of my attempts. While these tools can never completely replace an experienced musician-teacher, they can get autodidacts surprisingly far. The only competition I saw in the Mac App Store cost $50 for each instrument, and though that included over 180 lessons, it didn't have the polish of GarageBand's lessons.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2376719,00.asp
ife '11, the latest version of Apple's consumer media suite, includes several apps, but only the three tentpoles—Garageband, iMovie, and iPhoto—were updated for the 2011. Since the advent of the Mac App Store, those three apps are now available as standalone programs for the first time, at the incredible value price of $14.99. The suite comes free on new Macs, of course, and it's Mac-only. Though the equivalent suite from Microsoft—Windows Live Essentials—is always free and runs on Windows PCs, it falls a bit short of iLife's power and polish.
Aside from the three biggies, the full suite price of $49 also gets you the iWeb site design software and iDVD for authoring disc content. But it won't get you the suite's online component, MobileMe, which will set you back another $99 per year.
iPhoto '11
$14.99
Probably the most-used member of the suite, iPhoto '11 has been improved in this version with a full-screen view that I wish the other suite members were capable of. Its integration with Facebook galleries, too, is unmatched—you can view your online Facebook galleries within the app, and even see Friends' comments alongside the pictures. As mentioned, you can also sync photo galleries with MobileMe galleries, and, while those are beautifully presented, they don't offer face- or geo-tagging. For basic photo organizing and editing, iPhoto is more than capable, and the '11 version's face tagging feature has been greatly improved. It's already had excellent retouching and red-eye reduction tools, but for real power in both photo correction and organizing, look to Apple's Aperture 3 ($79.99, 4.5 stars, Mac only) or Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 ($299, 4 stars, Mac and Windows).
In addition to the Facebook sharing mentioned, iPhoto '11 adds attractive formatting for e-mails that you can send directly from within the program. Also new are more professional-quality greeting card and book choices. You also get new slideshow themes, the most impressive of which is the Places theme that utilizes the software's rich map integration.
iMovie '11
$14.99
iMovie broke new ground with its unique, combined timeline-storyboard editing view, and continues to be a marvel of ease and power among consumer video editing apps. The '11 version adds more powerful audio editing, one-step effects like slo-mo replay, and even the ability to detect scenes with people in them. But probably the most impressive—and fun—new feature is its Hollywood-style trailer creation. Just drag your own clips into a template, and their joined into a cinematic tour de force, timed to an emotional soundtrack performed by no less than the London Symphony Orchestra.
And iMovie is no slouch at standard video editing techniques, such as picture-in-picture, voiceovers, green-screen chroma keying, transitions, and even image stabilization. Once you've got the movie just right, the app lets you easily share it on Vimeo, YouTube, MobileMe, Facebook, or CNN iReport. You can also send your production to iTunes to watch on your iPod, iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV.
Garageband '11
$14.99
It's not a complete professional music studio like Ableton Live, Pro Tools, or Reason, but unlike those high-end apps, Garageband doesn't cost hundreds of dollars. For your 15 bucks, not only do you get respectable and intuitive recording and mixing software, but you also get a full set of piano and guitar lessons that rival a living teacher and a Magic Garageband that lets you try your chops with a virtual band. The mixing software can be augmented with downloads of more samples, loops, and tools, and you can buy lessons taught by pop stars who show you exactly how to play their hits. There are also 18 new basic lessons, and now you can track lesson progress with a history chart showing your performances' accuracy over time.
Garageband's Flex Time feature lets you correct or improve performances by stretching or compressing waveforms to better fit your tune. Groove Matching aligns all members of a group's tempo with that of the most rhythmic member. New virtual amps and stomp boxes give guitar players more acoustic possibilities and effects.
As with the other suite members, output options included sending to iTunes, creating an iPhone ringtone, or producing a podcast. For some upward mobility, you can open projects in Apple's pro-level Logic app, but not with the more widely used Pro Tools, Reason, or Ableton Live.
iDVD
Included with $49 iLife package
Though no longer a focus of Apple's media suite, you can still create beautiful DVD productions with iDVD, which offers an appealing selection of themes appropriate for most occasions. The integration with other Apple apps such as iMovie and iPhoto, too, make this a valuable suite member. A couple of drawbacks are the inability to author or burn Blu-ray discs, and the fact that you can't easily combine iMovie movies onto one disc project.
iWeb
Included with $49 iLife Package
This very simple-to-use WYSIWYG Web site design software not only allows hosting by MobileMe, but you can now publish to any host that accepts FTP. You choose from 28 well-designed themes and add widgets. You can't directly edit the HTML, but you can add widgets for things like RSS feeds, maps, and YouTube videos, and compatible HTML snippets. Many of these offer an excellent way to showcase content from your other iLife apps. You can also set up your site to automatically generate a Facebook update for site changes, but there's no Facebook widget to add to your iWeb page.
For casual drawing on an iPad, Penultimate ($1, direct) is second to none. It's fast, friendly, flexible, and a bargain. If you've ever doodled in a notebook, using the app should be second nature. When it comes time to share, you can e-mail a sketch or an entire notebook without leaving the app, or pipe your pad through a projector for group collaboration. While the app's touch-based sophistication will no doubt impress consumers, but when paired with a touch stylus like the Kensington Virtuoso ($24.99), Penultimate can scale to the professional demands of engineers, architects, and industrial designers.
Broad Strokes
Penultimate's interface looks familiar, though if there's any uncertainty, an interactive walkthrough takes just a couple of minutes to complete. You'll write in a virtual notebook, filled with blank, grid, or lined pages. The tools, a pen—fine, medium, or broad tipped, in six shades—and eraser follow your finger across the page. New pages appear when you flip forward by touching the top corner of a page. This feature showcases the app's speed: I found flipping between pages nearly as smooth as thumbing the pages of a physical book.
Finger Painting
I created several projects, what Penultimate visualizes as and terms them as "Notebooks." Accessing different notebooks is as easy as returning to "My Notebooks" and swiping through the covers. Inside a notebook, I could create as many pages as I wished. One notebook, for work, had 22 pages; another, for friends, had 5. Unlike a notebook that comes in one style—blank, lined, or grid—with Penultimate you can alternate between the three: I took some meeting notes on a lined page, switched to grid for a product sketch, and brainstormed on blank.
Also adaptive is the stylus: Clicking the pen button, I alternated between the three tips and six shades. Certainly, I wish there was more: More styluses and color controls would render Penultimate a more capable artistic companion, akin to SketchPad HD ($.99) or Adobe Ideas (Free). At first I made plenty of mistakes, and my tendency was to use the eraser; however, I soon realized that the "Undo" button inflicted considerably less collateral damage on my sketches.
I'm certainly not an artist, and the only thing worse than my doodling is my penmanship. That said, I found the iPad display didn't make my handwriting any worse (if that were possible). Writing with an index finger proved remarkably similar to—and equally atrocious as—using a pen. Penultimate is fine for quick notes, but I wouldn't recommend it for heavy writing. Without Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Penultimate is a less apt note taker than an app like Underscore Notify ($1.99).
I also wish the app supported multiple points of input. I understand that one doesn't, after a certain age, use more than one pen simultaneously. However, a setting to activate Multi-touch sensitivity—akin to Wrist Protection—could enable users to create richer canvases.
Some might argue that the netbook's heyday is over, but there's still a growing number of them finding the market. In fact, we'd argue that the netbook may be on the rebound, thanks largely to AMD's
The Inspiron M102z laptop has started to appear on Dell's international sites, which usually means that a North American debut is only a few days out. The M102z is thin, light and Fusion-packed, with two main models being available. There's a version with a 1GHz Fusion chip, as well as a model with the 1.6GHz Zacate E-350 APU. Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) is the OS of choice, with 2GB or 4GB of memory being selectable. There's also an 11.6" HD WLED display (1366x768), two 1.5W speakers, and a hard drive with up to 500GB of storage space. If you need an optical drive, you'll have to rely on an external DVD-RW drive. As for battery life? The 6-cell 56WHr Li-ion battery offers up to 9 hours of life, while an optional 9-cell battery can last nearly 14 hours. That's a lot of life, but of course, we suspect real-world use will drain 'em faster than Dell expected.
Other specs include a 1.3MP built-in webcam, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a starting weight of 3.44lbs. You'll also get audio jacks, a 7-in-1 media reader, AC adapter connector, HDMI output and integrated Ethernet jack. It's shipping now in places like Singapore and New Zealand, and we suspect U.S.-based consumers will see it touch down shortly. It remains to be seen if it's up to the challenge of taking on the other Fusion-based machines that have shipped thus far, but we're digging the form factor, for sure.
The complete parts list and breakdown for this custom MAINGEAR SHIFT gaming rig are listed below:
Chassis: MAINGEAR SHIFT w/ Advanced Vertical Heat Dissipation
Exterior Finish: Brushed Black Aluminum with Acrylic and Matte Black Accents
Motherboard: Intel DP67BG Extreme Series Featuring USB 3.0 and SATA 6G [B3 Stepping]
Processor: Intel Core i7 2600K 3.4GHz/3.8GHz Turbo 8MB L3 Cache GT2
Processor Cooling: MAINGEAR LiquidX 1750 Supercooler
Memory: 16GB Patriot Division2 G2 DDR3-1600 Enhanced Latency (4x4GB)
Graphics and GPGPU Accelerator: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580
Monitor: Asus VG236H 23” 3D Vision Ready 120Hz LCD
3D Glasses: NVIDIA 3D Vision Active Shutter Kit
Power Supply: 850 Watt Seasonic X-850 80+ Gold
Storage: 120GB Intel 510 SSD SATA 6G (w/ TRIM)
Memory Card Reader: All-in-One Integrated USB 2.0 Flash Card Reader & Writer
Misc: Integrated 7.1 Channel HD audio, 802.11b/g/n Wireless, andBluetooth Module
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
And as an added bonus, how about some free copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, HAWX 2, and Shogun 2: Total War? Yeah, we’ll be throwing those in too!
1) - First: Make sure you're registered at HotHardware.com. You can also login with Facebook or Twitter accounts.
2) - Be active in the discussion and community here at HotHardware.com to get noticed
3) - Become a fan of HotHardware’s official Facebook fan page
4) - Become a fan of NVIDIA's official Facebook fan page
5) - Become a fan of MAINGEAR's official Facebook fan page
6) - Comment on the contest post on each of the respective facebook fan pages
7) - Share either post on your personal Facebook page--Spread the word!
8) - Take a screenshot of your facebook page with the shared story
9) - Submit the screenshot to contest@hothardware.com with the subject “HotHardware Giveaway”
The contest will run through April 25, 2011, at which point we'll announce the winner. Get in early and post here in the HH news discussions often! ** Please note, this one is for U.S. residents only.
This is a great chance for to you to win a custom, ultra powerful new gaming PC. Good Luck!
As an interesting aside, we'll also be taking a tour of the MAINGEAR facilities soon and will show you all how they roll when building a custom PC. Should be lots of fun!
Hardware Roundup
Video:
Processors:
- Zotac GTX 570 2GB Review - XSReviews
- HIS Radeon HD 6870 IceQ X TurboX Video Card Review @ Tweaktown
- Sapphire FleX HD 6950 2Gb @ LanOC Reviews
- MSI GeForce GTX 580 Lightning 1536 MB @ techPowerUp
Memory and Storage:
- [Tech ARP] CPU Performance Comparison Guide Rev. 5.0
- TechwareLabs Review: Intel Core i5-2300 CPU/Processor
Power:
- G.Skill SNIPER Series 1600MHz CL9 8GB Review @ Vortez
- OCZ Vertex2 60GB SATAII Solid State Drive Review @ eTeknix.com
Cases, Cooling & Misc.:
- SuperFlower SF-700P14XE Modular PSU preview @ XtremeComputing
- Thrustmaster T500 RS Force Feedback Wheel with Pedals Review @ Madshrimps
- RAZER TRON Gaming Mouse and Mat Review @ Madshrimps
- Rosewill Thor Full Tower Chassis Review @ Tweaktown
- Epson WorkForce 635 Review @ TechReviewSource.com
- Antec Kuhler H2O 620 CPU Water Cooler Review @ Legit Reviews
- Thermaltake Level 10 GT ATX Case at Modders-Inc
- Prolimatech Super Mega CPU Cooler Review @ Vortez
http://hothardware.com/News/Hardware-Roundup596/
Over the years, we have consistently been impressed by cutting-edge dual-GPU powered graphics cards, not only for their relatively high performance, but because of the engineering involved to design, build, and bring the cards to market, in form factors not much bigger than their high-end, single-GPU based counterparts. From the GeForce 7950GX2 to the GeForce GTX 295, or the Radeon HD 3870X2 to Radeon HD 6990, top of the line (for their time) dual-GPU cards have offered performance that’s head and shoulders above rival single-GPU cards of their generation. There have always been some specific issues to contend with, with dual-GPU powered cards, namely power and software support, but by and large they have been the more drool-worthy component level hardware to come through the lab.
A couple of weeks ago, we showed you AMD’s latest dual-GPU powered graphics card, the Radeon HD 6990. Sporting a pair of Cayman-class GPUs, 4GB of RAM, and foot long PCB, the Radeon HD 6990 proved to be one heck of a performer. Today, it’s rival NVIDIA’s turn to unveil their latest dual-GPU powered flagship, the brand new GeForce GTX 590.
We’ll dig into the GeForce GTX 590 in the pages ahead, but much can be deduced from the couple of pictures and specifications below. The GeForce GTX 590 is built with a pair of fully-functional GF110 GPUs, the same used on the GeForce GTX 580, each with 512 CUDA cores and 384-bit memory interface linked to 1.53GB of GDDR5 memory per GPU, for 3.07GB total. Those specs alone allude to the GTX 590’s high performance, but there’s more to the story.
The Surprisingly Sleek NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Reference Card
This little keychain is really good for people who like to be prepared for the unexpected. The universal keychain can be great in many situations and can make you even more lazy. The bottle opener and the flashlight can be really great in an emergency.
I use mine all the time when I forget to bring my remote to the sofa and I just want to watch the news. It is so nice to always carry a remote control in your pocket. Another thing I use it for is to tease the guys at our local sports bar. When they watch an important game I like to switch the channel and then I am the first one who yells, hey whats going on?
The best thing about this little gadget is that it is so small. I hate to carry lots of stuff in my pockets and I hardly notice this keychain in my pocket. It is powered by a small battery that lasts very long if you don’t overuse the flashlight.
This keychain can be found at Sourcing Map for $6.
The wireless router vase combines the technical with the esthetic and will make sure your guests will turn their heads. One problem could be when you are watering the flowers. It might feel a bit uncomfortable to pour water into an electronic gadget. I just picture myself getting electrocuted when watering the plats in the evening.
The company behind this product is Saudi Arabian corporation (STC). I have not been able to locate this product yet, but I am sure it will be available within a month in US and we’ll see if this becomes a hit
Licensed by Porsche Lizenz- und Handelsgesellschaft mbH, the Fanatec Porsche 911 Carrera Racing Wheel features an interchangeable gear stick (6 + 1 Speed) that can be mounted on either side of the wheel, realistic clutch pedal with declining resistance, a powerful Mabuchi RS 550 force feedback motor, an adjustable turning angle (up to 900°), a tuning function that allows gamers to change force feedback during gameplay, and an extra large wheel rim of 300mm in diameter crafted from high-quality TPE rubber. Add in unique mechanics for each pedal and an authentic metal Porsche logo and it’s just like being on the road…gamers truly get the feeling they are playing with the real thing!The Fanatec racing wheel is not very expensive as you can see below, however not all game support the hardware yet. Not many people own anything with the Porsche badge on it and this cool racing wheel got it. If you want to experience authentic car racing experience this is the deal for you.
You can find more information about the Laptop Flip at New Pc Gadgets. The cost for this little gadget is right now $18.95. Take your time and watch the video below for ideas on how you can use this new cool gadget.
This is a device that combines safety and convenience of a hands-free phone with the ability to disguise your voice. The cell phone voice changer can come very handy if you want to remain anonymous or if you want to joke around with someone. You can get this cool gadget for around $20 so it’s not very expensive.
This cellphone voice changer got 4 voice change options. That means you can make 4 different voices if you want to call the same person and appear as two different persons calling.
Some of the key features of this voice changer are:
- Small size and easy to use
- On / off switch that makes it easy to switch to your real voice whenever you want
- Call using a male or female voice
- Good for prank calls, anonymous calls and annoying your friends or enemies
- Complete with an earphone
1. Use One-Time passwords
Using Facebook on the go, such as in hotels, cafes or airports, jeopardizes your account's security, whether it's a public PC or wi-fi hacking that leaves you and your account vulnerable. To combat this, Facebook is offering one-time passwords if you're concerned about the security of the computer you're using.
To receive your one-time password, text "otp" to 32665 (FBOOK) on your mobile phone and you'll receive a password that can be used only once and expires in 20 minutes. This feature is rolling out gradually and will be available to everyone in the coming weeks. This is only available in the U.S.
2. Sign out remotely
If you forget to log out of Facebook at the office or at a friend's house, you can now do so remotely. From your Account Settings, you can see where you're currently logged in on other devices, and log out if necessary.
From "Account" choose "Account Settings," then "Account Security." Here, you can choose to get notified via SMS or e-mail if a new computer or mobile device logs into your account.
Gather more Facebook security intelligence - Read the ITBusiness.ca Facebook Bible
Another good feature: You can also view the latest activity--the time, location and device that accessed your account. If these locations are suspicious, you can choose "end activity" to log out of the location.
3. Be wary of games
Yesterday reports surfaced that several of the most popular Facebook applications--FarmVille, Texas HoldEm Poker and FrontierVille, to name a few--broke Facebook's rules and transmitted identifying information to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, affecting tens of millions of Facebook app users.
While one data-gathering firm says it didn't purposely transmit the Facebook IDs it obtained to a dozen other firms, the breach still raises flags in Facebook's efforts to tighten up security and privacy. Although some progress has been made in making Facebook more secure, users still need to be wary and practice caution when using its games and apps.
The latest Internet Explorer news is both good and bad for Microsoft. First, the good: IE9, the newest version of Redmond's browser, seems to be gaining favor with Web users. A post yesterday on Microsoft's Windows Blog cites usage-tracker Net Applications' latest browser statistics, which show IE9 with 3.56 percent of worldwide market share for March. For a browser that officially launched just over two weeks ago--albeit one that's been available in beta form for months--that's not too shabby.
"It's obviously very early but we are pleased with the reception," writes Microsoft's Ryan Gavin in a blog post. "The adoption rate of IE9 is about five times higher then what we saw for Internet Explorer 8 in the same time frame."
A big-picture view of Net Applications' data, however, paints a less rosy picture for IE. The firm's over 60 percent for the same month a year ago.
Google Chrome, meanwhile, is gaining users at a breakneck pace. Praised for its speed and simplicity, Chrome had 11.57 percent of the worldwide market last month, nearly double its 6.13-percent share in March 2010.
In April 2009, Chrome had a tiny 1.79 percent share, while IE's slice of the browser pie was slightly below 68 percent, according to Net Applications.
How Are the Competitors Doing?
And IE's other competitors? In March 2011, Mozilla Firefox's share was nearly 22 percent, down from 24.52 percent in March 2010. Apple Safari was at 6.61 percent last month, up from 4.65 percent for the same period a year ago.
IE9 is getting favorable reviews and Microsoft appears to have silenced its critics, who knocked the sluggish performance, weak security, and lack of support for Web standards that plagued earlier versions of the browser. But does version 9 have the right stuff to slow IE's long-term slide? The company suggests that users of competing browsers are very interested, or at least curious, in IE9. "As we mentioned on Tuesday, all of our early downloads (through March 27) were user-initiated , with over 90% of the downloads coming from non-IE9 RC or Beta users, including over a quarter that came from Chrome and Firefox users," Gavin writes.
If IE9 does help reverse Microsoft's market-share slide, its impact will likely be tempered by Redmond's aggressive campaign to rid the world of Internet Explorer 6, the company's notoriously insecure, 10-year-old browser that still had an 11.6 percent global share in March. While less than 3 percent of Internet users in the U.S. run IE6, the browser remains popular in Asia. In China, for instance, IE6 has a 33.8 percent share, according to Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 Countdown site.
"Friends don't let friends use Internet Explorer 6. And neither should acquaintances," Microsoft states.
Burning questions: Will the ambitious privacy standard for Web surfers be effective? How will it work? What will it affect? And who should use it?
Users concerned with online privacy have been struggling for years to come up with a solution to being tracked on the Web. Such users either want to avoid irritating, targeted ads based on browsing history or are concerned about businesses having too much access to our personal information.
Historically, each new workaround to escape tracking online--such as deleting cookies or enabling private browsing modes--is met with new and more effective forms of tracking, such as the much-harder-to-delete flash cookies. The situation may be changing, however, with a new standard that has been making some significant headway in the past few months.
The Do Not Track standard, created by researchers at Stanford University, is a simple solution that has found its way into new browsers--Mozilla Firefox 4 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 9. The promise of Do Not Track is the hope that users could opt out from all online tracking with one click. The concept has been under discussion in Congress and by the Federal Trade Commission.How Does 'Do Not Track' Work?
By checking a box in Firefox's preferences, Do Not Track adds a message to your http: headers confirming that you don't want to be tracked. These headers are already sent with each request for information you make to any site, thus ensuring that any site that tracks you gets the message. The hope is that Do Not Track will let users quickly and easily opt out of all online tracking at once, instead of forcing them to find solutions for each type of tracking individually.Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Do Not Track's current flaw is also what makes it so easy to use. Once you've flagged yourself as unwilling to be tracked, it is up to individual Websites to honor your request, and that creates quite a few problems. Hardly any site is complying with the Do Not Track requests--but new federal legislation proposed in Congress in the wake of the FTC's call for a Do Not Track system promises to change all that. However, predictions abound that Do Not Track could have larger, undesirable consequences.
The End of the Free Web?
Advertising makes up a significant revenue stream for plenty of sites on the Internet that provide free content (including PCWorld.com), and Do Not Track throws a serious monkey wrench into a certain type of targeted advertising. Exactly how serious a problem Do Not Track could cause depends on who you ask: Industry trade groups are very critical of Do Not Track legislation, and you'll find no shortage of doomsday scenarios suggesting that the passage of this type of legislation will destroy the advertising revenue that funds most free content online and put an end to the Internet as we know it.The idea is that--without the financial support provided by targeted advertisements--ad-supported sites will no longer be able to sustain themselves, and that the buffet of free content that has been available to users online will therefore disappear.
Jonathan Mayer of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society.While Do Not Track is likely to have some economic consequences, these predictions seem seriously overblown. Jonathan Mayer of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society has suggested that Do Not Track's effect on advertising will likely be far smaller than predicted. The behavioral advertising that the Do Not Track law would affect constitutes only about 4 percent of advertising online, according to Mayer--which makes the odds rather low that the content you like to read online would be targeted. In addition, if a site really depended on such behavioral advertising for a large proportion of its revenue, it would be relatively simple for the site to request, or even require, users to allow tracking before they entered the site.
Online tracking is an important tool for advertisers, but it's hardly the only one. Rainey Reitman, Activism Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, thinks Do Not Track might let users who are concerned with privacy but who want to support advertising-based sites have it both ways. "The way things are today, the only reasonable method a consumer has to protect her online privacy is to block most of the advertisements on the Internet," Reitman says. "Do Not Track offers a way for users to protect their privacy in a meaningful way without just blocking all advertisements."Would Tracking Move Underground?
A second, less hyped concern with Do Not Track legislation is that we might be targeting the wrong people. As PCWorld.com blogger Jared Newman noted in "Do-Not-Track in Chrome and Firefox: Different Approaches, Same Fatal Flaw," Do Not Track, even with legislation in place, affects only those sites that play by the rules. Users could end up punishing sites like Google that traffic solely in comparatively harmless advertising, while giving free rein to sites that have fewer scruples about using your online information.
This is a real concern with systems where compliance by trackers is voluntary. But it's also important to remember that Do Not Track doesn't exist in a vacuum. Microsoft's IE 9 offers a tracking protection list, that lets users manually exclude content from suspicious sites and actively excludes those sites that don't play by the rules.It's also important to remember that Do Not Track isn't an all or nothing solution. If you want to support more reputable sites that still engage in tracking, the standard lets users manually allow some sites to track them. So, if you feel that a site like Amazon or Google actually provides value to you when it tracks, you can let it do so without losing your protection against other sites.
What Will 'Do Not Track' Change for the User?
If we get national Do Not Track legislation, what changes are end users likely to experience? The EFF's Reitman says that most users probably won't notice much at first. "What you have to remember is that Web tracking as we know it today is insidious in large part because it's invisible. [...] So, just as the problem is in itself hard to spot, the solution will be subtle--most people who enable Do Not Track won't notice a huge difference in their online reading experience."Do Not Track is far from a perfect solution to online privacy, but it's an important step in the right direction for concerned Web users. When combined with other solutions--like tracking protection lists--it promises to help protect your privacy without seriously affecting your browsing online.
Google is the dominant force in EuropeSeznam—there is no other search engine which even comes close to Google’s market share. I think everybody will agree when I say that Europe could use some competition for Google. Bing should be the designated search engine to become that big competitor, but for now that is not the case. Even the recent launch of the “new” Bing in France and the years of Bing in the UK haven’t made most people switch away from Google.
But despite its dominance, there are alternative search engines in Europe, and they can be worth looking at. With Europe’s more than 800 million people, of whom about 60% spends time online, even a small percentage using alternatives to Google offer attractively large numbers, and targeting users of those search engines could be very profitable. Lets take a look at some of the alternatives.
Bing (UK and France)
As in almost every country Google is the dominant force in the UK, but here we see that Bing is more popular than anywhere else. That is not surprising since the UK has been the only European country until recent in which Bing showed its full potential. Bing now accounts for about 4% of the search market share in the UK. Adding Yahoo’s Bing-powered results can add another 4% making Bing a very good alternative to Google. Bing also is the “runner up” in many other European countries with France leading the way with a 2.8% share.It therefore makes sense to optimize for Bing in Europe, but be careful: in many countries Bing is nothing more than Live Search with a Bing logo.
Yandex (Russia)
Going from Western Europe to Eastern Europe you can’t overlook Yandex. This search engine is the dominant force in Russia where it even outranks Google with a 64% market share. This is extra special because Yandex is one of the few non-English-language search engines which is able to beat Google at its own game. Yandex is growing rapidly, not just in search, but it also adding lots of other features to make it a bigger competitor in Eastern Europe. And Yandex will be aiming at Western Europe soon too. They recently launched an English-only search engine, so Google beware!If you are targeting Russians, optimizing for Yandex is the best choice, not just because it has the biggest market share but also because it gets closest to how the Russians think. Yandex is able to recognize Russian inflection in search queries, which means that you can really understand the intent of the Russian user. Therefore, take extra care when it comes to keyword research. Get a native speaker to help you out here because Russian really differs from other languages.
Seznam (Czech Republic)
Its not far from Russia to the Czech Republic, where Seznam is dominant. This search engine was originally a web portal but today is used primarily as a search engine. In the Czech language they beat Google in numbers when it comes to dominance in search. If you want to target the Czech Republic this is one search engine you cannot leave aside. Seznam, which means “list” in English, is the only real force to reckon with in the Czech Republic—perhaps not the biggest audience, but one of the most active ones in Europe.Conduit (Germany & Spain)
In Germany the second biggest search service after Google is T-Online. This really is a portal with Google-powered search engine. Therefore you can see it as an alternative but you will still be using Google. A real alternative is Conduit. This search engine, which also has quite the market share in South America, has a bigger market share in Germany than Bing or Yahoo. In Spain Conduit even has a larger market share: 2.9 percent.Vinden.nl (The Netherlands)
The Netherlands has a huge Google culture. No other engine can even come close to the market share of Google (94%). If you have to name one it is probably Vinden.nl. Vinden (“finding”) is said to have a 3% market share but also relies on some Google technology. Vinden.nl, as well as “startpagina”, however also do it the old fashioned way: offering browsable lists, the good old directories so to speak.These search engines are a few examples of alternatives for googe in Europe. For each specific country there are of course more alternatives. For example, Onet.pl in Poland, Ask.com in the UK and the Nordic countries, Orange in France and even more local search engines in other regions. I’d love to know what your favorite local search engine is, so let us know and we might just take a closer look at them!
