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Official Microsoft OneNote Mobile Client Released For Android

A. Rehman — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:30:14 +0000

Today seems to be a good day for Android fans with a couple of big announcements coming from tech giants. First, it was news of the release of Google’s Chrome browser for Android, and now it’s Microsoft bringing its trusted note-taking and sharing tool, OneNote, to the Android Market. Initially released as an iOS-exclusive app, and then released for Windows Phone 7, Microsoft’s official OneNote client is now available to Android users with all the note management features it is known for, including remote access to your SkyDrive account for syncing notes and notebooks in real-time (with support for offline access), enhanced text formatting (with built-in spell check tool), in-app photo capturing and attachment, option to add hyperlinks, images and bullets to notes and plenty more.

To access all aforementioned features, you must log in to the app using your Windows Live ID. New users can easily sign up for a fresh account from within the app for free.

OneNote Mobile for Android focuses on keeping things simple; a feature that is translated not just throughout its interface, but also in the manner in which it goes about its job. Your personal OneNote Notebooks are presented on the app’s homescreen. Tapping the clock icon at the top of this screen reveals your Recent notes whereas doing the notes and camera buttons let you start editing a blank note, or one that has a freshly captured image inserted in it respectively.

Multiple notes can be added to a notebook, multiple images can be added to each note, and each note can be edited using any of the aforementioned tools, including checkboxes, checklists and numbered list. The camera button at the top-left of the note editor can be tapped to capture a new photo, or import existing ones from local storage. As soon as you finish editing a note, it automatically gets saved to your SkyDrive cloud. The app keeps you apprised of sync progress through status bar notifications.

The Settings screen of the app (Menu > Settings) lets you enable/disable the Sync on Wi-Fi only option, and manage your Windows Live account.

It must be mentioned here that OneNote for Android only lets you create a maximum of 500 notes, after which the app can be used only for viewing, deleting and syncing them. To lift this restriction, you may purchase the upgrade from within the app for $4.99.

Also, currently, there is no support for adding audio, videos or doodles, and apparently, no support for creating a new notebook. It would be safe to assume that, in its current form, Microsoft OneNote Mobile for Android isn’t as big a threat to Evernote and other popular note-taking Android apps as one would think. Still, if you prefer sticking with your Windows Live ID to access and sync your notes/notebooks, and are content with whatever editing tools OneNote Mobile has on offer, you may grab the app via the Market link or QR code provided below. OneNote Mobile for Android requires Android OS v2.3 (Gingerbread) or higher to run.

Download Microsoft OneNote Mobile for Android

Let Microsoft Know What You Want In WP7 Using The Suggestion Box App

Hamza — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 07:43:59 +0000

Looks like Microsoft has really stared to take the improvement of Windows Phone 7 pretty seriously. A few days ago, WPDev Feedback was released, which was an app focused on gathering suggestions from developers of the Mango OS, so that WP7 can get features which can prove helpful in making it more attractive as a development platform. As mentioned in our review of that app, a similar service of Microsoft already exists, which is for non-dev WP7 users. So, it doesn’t come as a big surprise that, now, the WP7 user Suggestion Box has got an app, too. Read on to find out what the app is all about.

The app is laid out in a pretty similar fashion as the WPDev Feedback app. The sections are almost the same, with the biggest difference being the way to log in to the app. You can sign up from within the app by just entering an email ID, but a lot of people have been complaining that the Suggestion Box app refused to accept the account info if it was already used to sign up from the web version of the service, Hence, you will need to use another account to sign up. Once you are past that glitch, the app is pretty cool. You can vote for ideas which have already been submitted by other users, or if you want to add something to them, just post a comment. To view the ideas, you can see them sorted on the basis of top, hottest and new.

The list of submitted ideas and concepts is pretty comprehensive as it is, so you might want to search the forums before making a new submission. The app, like the web service, is moderated, and irrelevant material is removed pretty quickly. If you want, you can view suggestions related to a particular category, for which there is a separate page. If you still can’t find the feature you want in WP7, you can add a new suggestion. There are set parameters for submission, the most important one being the limit of 25 characters. You don’t need to explain the desired feature, just mention its name.

Suggestion Box would be more useful if Microsoft really added the requested features quickly to WP7. Unfortunately, it seems none of the requests have been added to Mango until now, despite the service being a few months old. Take screenshot support, for instance – it is second on the list of most requested features, but still no sign of it in WP7. One can only hope that things will take a turn for the better soon.

Download Suggestion Box

Microsoft Releases Official SkyDrive App For Windows Phone 7 & iOS

Noor Sabah — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:35:56 +0000

Almost every smartphone these days has its own cloud solution. Google has cloud services for its Android platform, while iCloud exists for iPhone users. Microsoft, however, has gone an extra mile, and has released its official SkyDrive cloud storage service app for both Windows Phone 7 and iOS. With Microsoft SkyDrive app installed on your Windows Phone/iOS device, you can view existing files in your SkyDrive account, upload photos, or create new folders on the go. SkyDrive app demarcates your personal and shared folders in your files collection view. Details after the break.

You can feel a slight difference in the user interface of the SkyDrive app for WP7 and iOS, where ease of access has an edge in the Windows Phone version over the other. Take the thumbnail view option, for instance, which can be readily accessed with a tap at the thumbnail button at the bottom menu in Windows Phone 7, whereas in iOS, you have to tap the share button at the top right to do so.

However, the scales are set even with iOS supporting video uploads to SkyDrive, something that is amiss in WP7, where only photo uploading is possible. You can delete a folder in SkyDrive by pressing an icon long enough, or swipe over it, as WP7 and iOS (respectively) natively operate. SkyDrive also lets you make any folder or file public, or share with friends through email, in both platforms.

The fact that SkyDrive is available on both iOS and Windows Phone 7 can definitely bridge some gap between these two distinct smartphone platforms, particularly for cloud sharing and storage. Hopefully, users of both these platforms shall benefit from it. It is available for free in the Windows Phone Marketplace and iTunes App Store, as the links below direct.

Download SkyDrive for WP7

Download SkyDrive for iOS

Microsoft HealthVault For WP7: Track Your Fitness & Medical History

Noor Sabah — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:49:21 +0000

Keeping records of medical tests, appointments and medication is never easy, especially in case of some chronic ailment. Simple charts for small things like temperature and blood pressure can become hard to manage, once they grow in size. Wouldn’t it be a relief if we could take care of all our health issues in our Windows Phone 7 on the go? Microsoft HealthVault has just released its mobile client for Windows Phone 7, where you can constantly consult and update medical information about yourself, and your loved ones, with just a tap of your finger.

To use HealthVault, you can either sign in with your existing account for the service, or create a new one. Logging in through Facebook is also supported, but that’s hardly a surprise, considering how the social giant is deeply-integrated with most platforms these days. Start charting your medical profile, along with profiles of your loved ones. You can create categories for your medical conditions, from allergies to immunizations etc. Tap add a new person to store medical records of your friends and family, or see all people whose health is of importance to you.

You can track your blood pressure on daily, as well as monthly basis to see how your cardiovascular system has been faring lately. Views supported include a graphical chart of blood pressure, along with a tabular record, which shows details of the the time and dates you took your blood pressure on. Apart from hardcore medical data, you can also track your general fitness with Microsoft HealthVault by storing your weight/height, and the increase or decrease in it over a period of time. You can also store details of all the medication you are taking, or had been taking in the past, which can be a great help if you start suffering side effects from some pills you just started taking. Search is also available for medications on the internet, along with their potency.

Microsoft HealthVault is available for download at the Windows Phone Marketplace for free at the link below.

Download Microsoft Health Vault

Microsoft Releases iPad Client For OneNote

Noor Sabah — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:00:43 +0000

Whether you are out shopping for groceries or making a list of the buddies you want to invite for a Friday night bash, you need a handy note-taking tool to store information anywhere and anytime. We don’t have a database with SQL running in our brains, and it’s only natural to go blank about even the most important tasks, whether they are of a personal or professional nature. Microsoft’s virtual notebook OneNote serves that purpose pretty effectively. The OneNote mobile client for iPhone has been around for quite a while, and now, an iPad version of the app is also available on the App Store. For those of you who aren’t familiar with what the app does, it allows you to create notes and checklists, share them via email, attach photos to notes, and sync all with your SkyDrive account on the go.

Microsoft OneNote offers an easy-on-the eyes yet simple interface. Just tap the Create Note button to start a new note, and the app displays three options right above the on-screen keyboard that let you create a checklist within it, add bullets or photos to it. You can take a new snapshot from within the app or import an existing one from your Camera Roll. To delete a photo, simply place the cursor in front of it and hit backspace; the app will automatically ask you whether you’re sure you want to delete the photo.

From within the Settings page, you can specify whether you want all your notes to be synced with your SkyDrive or not.

The free version of Microsoft OneNote only allows 500 notes at a time. To create new notes after you’ve reached this limit, you will have to delete existing notes. Alternatively, you can upgrade to the full version for $14.99 to do away with the restriction altogether. The link provided below will take you to the OneNote’s App Store page.

Download Microsoft One Note for iPad

Microsoft Releases Lync 2010 Client For Windows Phone 7

Noor Sabah — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:00:14 +0000

Good news for professionals who own Windows Phone 7 devices: Microsoft has released a mobile client for their remote conferencing service Lync 2010 to the Marketplace. With Lync 2010 for WP7, you can hold instant message conversations or VoIP calls with your professional colleagues with just a tap of your finger. Lync 2010, like its desktop version, follows a solid security protocol to protect your confidential conversations.

Once you have installed Lync 2010 on your Windows Phone 7 device, you can sign in with your existing Office 365 account, or your account with the Microsoft Lync server installed on your desktop. Once that is done, you can view all the people in your address book who are using the service, send them instant messages or call them on their listed numbers.

You can only make calls with Lync 2010 using your Enterprise Voice number. The Transport Layer Security feature in Lync 2010 ensures that your conversations remain secure even while your device is connected to a public network. You can also set your status as Available or Busy from within the client.

The Lync mobile client is excellent for businessmen and professionals who move around a lot and need to stay in touch with colleagues on the go. The app is absolutely free, of course. The link below will take you to its Web Marketplace page.

Download Lync 2010

Microsoft Tag Reader – Render And Save Microsoft Tags In Image Formats

farshad — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 10:20:26 +0000

High Capacity Color Barcode (HCCB) is a Microsoft developed procedure for encoding data in a 2D “barcode” using clusters of colored triangles instead of the square pixels associated with 2D barcodes. Microsoft Tag is an implementation of HCCB using 4 colors in a 5 x 10 grid. This can be used as for example, a Tag on a company insignia which might be printed large enough to be read by a reader. Microsoft Tag Reader is an open source application, which is designed to render Microsoft tags while allowing you to convert tags in various image formats, including PNG, JPG, BMP, JPEG SR and SVG.Just drag and drop a Microsoft tag file to the main interface of Microsoft Tag Reader and select an image format and width to save it. Microsoft Tag Reader will recognize the tag and save it in your selected format after rendering it. What makes Microsoft Tag Reader quite handy is the fact that unlike Microsoft TAG Manager, it renders tags in image formats instead of RAW and PDF format (which is currently the only format available for Microsoft TAG Manager). This can be useful for reading application codes, company insignias, etc.

Microsoft Tag reader works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Download Microsoft Tag Reader

How To Troubleshoot Facebook Texting In Mango

Hamza — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:31:23 +0000

Microsoft promised that Windows Phone 7’s latest version Mango will come up with about 500 new features. Well, we don’t know about that yet, as the version is still only in its beta testing phase. But what we can confirm is that Mango does have a bunch of really cool and helpful new features that weren’t there in any previous version of WP7. Seeing the emergence and continuous rise of social networking, an organization as adaptable as Microsoft is bound to go with the flow. That’s why Facebook chat is now integrated with the stock messaging app for Mango. This means that you can now interact with your Facebook friends just like you were texting them. But not all is going according to the plan, and there are a few glitches with these feature. If you are experiencing some of them, here are the solutions.

Some of you might find the procedure too simple, but trust us, people have been having a lot of trouble with this. So here’s what you have to do to get Facebook texting perfectly working on your WP7 Mango.

Instructions:

Delete your Facebook account that is already set up on your phone. This step has been the main reason for giving a lot of users a nagging headache. If there is already an account integrated with your device (even if it is your own), you will keep having trouble connecting to Facebook texting while setting it up for the first time.
Now go to your Live ID account and navigate to “Connect”. Then hit Manage.
Tap on Facebook in the “Social Networking” tab and check all the options in the dialog box that will open.
Save the changes you have made.
From the Facebook app or browser go to your account and set your chat status to Available.
Now open the Messaging menu in your phone and go to its settings. You simply have to toggle your “Facebook Chat” button to ON, and you are done!

This is quite a nuisance for an average user, and hopefully Microsoft will have it fixed when the real Mango comes out.

[Source: Mobility Minded]

Fix Laptop Power Consumption And Extend Battery Life With Microsoft Fix it

farshad — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:50:05 +0000

Microsoft Fix it solutions are meant to provide Windows users with easy and automatic solutions for troubleshooting and resolving Windows issues. One of the major issues for laptop users is often the excessive power consumption of battery power which reduces battery life. Microsoft Fix it Solution has just released the latest tool which fixes this problem. This portable tool will detect your laptop’s battery issue, and when detected, will automatically fix it.

Once you run the Microsoft Fix it tool, it prompts you to accept the terms and conditions, click Accept to continue.

This will display two options which can be used to either apply the required changes automatically or to detect problems and let the fixes to be selected by the user. Select your desired option to proceed further.

Microsoft Fix it will check your system for battery issues and automatically fix issues if you have selected the former option or provide you with recommended solutions in case of the latter.

If you select the option to check for fixes before applying them, then you will be redirected to a list box containing the available solutions. If you find some of the recommended settings to be unsuitable (e.g. altering sleep options), you can uncheck them and select the desired fixes. Hit Next for the changes to take effect.

This will fix your battery issues and provide you with a feedback option to send your comments to Microsoft about the usefulness of this application and to confirm if your problem was resolved.

Microsoft Fix it works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Download Microsoft Fix it (to resolve battery issues)

[via ghacks]

How To Jailbreak Samsung Omnia 7 On Windows Phone 7.5 Mango [Guide]

Hamza — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 09:07:49 +0000

Windows Phone 7.5 Mango beta has caused quite a buzz in the smartphone community straight from its release. Developers are scrambling to get their hands on this latest OS update by Microsoft. If your phone is running on WP7 and is developer unlocked, you are free to get a taste of this almost-ripe, delicious-looking mango. But if you are a developer or even an advanced user, you have got to be thinking that what’s the point of having Mango when you don’t have root access on it. Without jailbreaking it, the OS must be feeling like a treasure in your hands but with a guardian serpent slithering vigilantly over the box. However, Samsung Omnia 7 users do not have to contend with such despairing thoughts any more.

The method to jailbreak Mango on Omnia 7 has been revealed on the XDA forum and can be viewed on this thread. If you haven’t yet updated to Mango, then that will make the method even more convenient. But if you have, don’t worry, revert back to 7392 or any version older than that. This is done to unlock your device as Chevron does not work on versions later than 7392. To learn how that is done, you can seek help from our article.

Once you are done doing that, go to the thread link given earlier and download the file named “Omnia7 mango JB.zip”. Make sure that you have an updated version of the diagnostic tool on your device. If you haven’t, dial ##634# before updating to Mango. This will do the trick for Diagnosis.

Now you are all set to apply the jailbreak.

Disclaimer: Please follow this guide at your own risk. AddictiveTips will not be liable if your device gets damaged or bricked during the process.

Instructions:

Connect your phone to the PC via USB cable.
Access the device using Wp7UsbStorageEnabler.
Go to the downloaded zip file and from among its contents copy unlock.xml and language.xml.
Go to rootfolder/picture/ and paste both the copied files there.
Access the root folder and create a new subfolder in it named as provxml/ (if it isn’t already there).
Run WP7RootTools 0.5 alpha.xap from the zip file and copy the generated xml files to the provxml folder.
Exit the running tool.
Go to the dialer and input ##634#. This will lead you to the diagnostic mode.
Next navigate to GPRS settings by entering *#9908#.
From the resulting options choose Select GPRS.
Save settings without touching any of the files shown.

Now you can finally upgrade to Mango. Once you are done with that, repeat steps 8 to 10, but this time instead of ignoring the xml files, choose unlock.xml and then save.

This leaves you with a Samsung Omnia 7 that has jailbreak on it and you are free to do all you want with it.

Download And Install Skype 2.0, Cracked To Work On All Android Devices

Hamza — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 07:43:35 +0000

Android users can now enjoy Skype 2.0 (complete with video calls and SMS support). Just hours ago Microsoft released this new version of the interactive app to the Android market. The new Skype 2.0 has quite an improved UI which keeps functionality and convenience in a perfect balance. Android users have long clamored for the ability to make video calls via Skype, and now they have finally got it. But wait a minute, there’s a big disappointment in the official release. The app only runs on 4 predefined Android phones. Google Nexus S, HTC Desire S, Sony Ericsson Xperia neo and Sony Ericsson Xperia pro make up the list. Your phone not on the list? Don’t worry, read on.

It just took a few hundred minutes for developers at VillainROM Official forum to develop a crack for the app and make it work on other phones too. The crack they found out was simple enough. In the lines of a code there was a matrix containing the names of the phones which will be able to support Skype 2.0. Modifying the array and adding more Android devices was all it took to solve the issue. The cracked version of the app seems to be working on most of the phones including Samsung Galaxy S II, Evo 4G with claims that it should work on all the devices. The app is certainly worth a try as Skype is said to be one of the most useful IM utilities available, add the cool new features to the mix and you might just be in for a treat.

For further details you can go to the official thread by VillainROM user pulser.

Here’s the download link. Enjoy!

Microsoft Download Manager Enables Quick Download Of Large Files

farshad — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 13:01:10 +0000

Microsoft RTM builds can often take forever to download. This is mainly due to frequent errors during the downloading process. Even common download managers like Orbit can suffer from download errors when downloading a Microsoft ISO file. Microsoft Download Manager is a download management application released by Microsoft to enable quick download of large files, such as application and media files. It is mainly designed to help users download files from Microsoft supported websites, nonetheless, you can also use it like any common download manager.

Using Microsoft Download Manager is simple, select New download from the main interface, and paste a download URL.

Just like a common download manager, it will grab the files from the specified download URL.

It is worth mentioning here that copying a link address from the context menu will be more suited for grabbing the accurate download URL (as shown in the below screenshot) so that Microsoft Download Manager can identify the download link. Otherwise, you are likely to end up with an invalid URL error.

You can specify maximum number of downloads which can be queued, re-try intervals and default download location by going to Settings. If your internet connection runs through a proxy, you can configure connection settings from the Proxy tab.

Microsoft Download Manager works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. Windows Server 2003 has not been specified as a supported operating system on the Microsoft website and supported browsers currently mentioned include Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Download Microsoft Download Manager

MS Standalone System Sweeper Is Recovery Tool To Remove Malware And Rootkits

farshad — Tue, 31 May 2011 12:10:44 +0000

Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper is a malware removal utility by Microsoft. It can help you create a bootable USB, CD or DVD for reclaiming a system from viruses and other malicious agents. This can be quite handy for people who might not be able to boot from their system due to a malware infection. System Sweeper thoroughly scans and removes viruses from such computers by booting itself (from a media device) at system startup. To use it , you will require saving the app on a media device such as a USB, CD or DVD. Just Launch System Sweeper, select a media device (CD, DVD or USB) and click Next. You can also choose the ISO option to create an ISO image of the app which can be burned to a CD or DVD later on.

System Sweeper will be automatically downloaded and saved on your selected media device or in the form of an ISO image (as selected).

The next time your PC is infected and your anti-virus fails to locate the malware or you are unable to login due to an infection, simply boot the PC from a device containing System Sweeper.

This will allow you to perform a full scan to remove the malware. It must be noted that Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper is not a replacement for an antivirus, instead, it is meant to be used in situations where you are unable to start your PC due to malware infection.

Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Download Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper

Pros And Cons Of Using The New Firefox 4, Chrome 11, IE9 And Opera 11

farshad — Mon, 16 May 2011 12:17:24 +0000

The recent browser wars between internet titans like Microsoft, Google and Mozilla has left users out in the cold. While these giant companies compete to upgrade their browsers to meet the latest technology requirements, they seem to be leaving their end users in a mess with lots of browser compatibility problems. If the Firefox 4 beta was not frustrating enough, the so called stable version has its own set of issues. Likewise, despite the fact that Internet Explorer 9 has received more than 10 million downloads, yet it requires being fast tracked to meet the user habits changed by Firefox and Chrome extensions. Even the light weight Opera seems to be following the Beta disaster of Firefox 4 by alienating its market niche of legacy hardware users. In this post, we will take a look at the pros and cons of using these browsers and provide you with a comparison of the advantages and possible issues you may face by using them.

Important Note: The opinion expressed in the post is based on my personal experience as an end user and an IT professional. We do not mean to bash any browser based on personal bias opinion or to vouch for a particular group. The objective of this post is to provide our readers with feedback based on documented facts and user experience. In order to help them identify the best choice of browser for their desktop. It is quite likely that many of you might not agree with the opinion expressed in this post. We respect the opinion of our readers, however, kindly do not start a flame war in the comments section.

Firefox 4

I have been a loyal Firefox user for many years. Despite that, I tried many of the post Internet Explorer 6 versions but found them inadequate to meet my needs. I still remember that once I was having problem opening a webpage in Internet Explorer and resorted to my backup browser (Firefox), only to be amazed with the difference of page loading speed between the two. That was the moment I fell in love with Firefox (due to its better performance) and didn’t look back, until now. Before I jump to the disadvantages of using Firefox 4, lets look at its positive features, which still make it worth using.

Pros

Firefox no doubt has some brilliant extensions. You can get anything from an effective video downloading extension like DW Helper, to session managers and even extensions to help IT professionals (such as Firebug). Firefox is coming up with some fast changes to tune itself with the latest technological requirements like HTML 5, which is suppose to be as the next major revision of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), the core markup language of the World Wide Web. The new Firefox 4 has also made it easier to synchronize passwords, bookmarks, preferences, etc. These features were earlier explained by our review of Firefox 4, which you can check out here.

Cons

Despite spoiling user habits with its convenient extensions, Firefox seems to be losing its charm like an old wife. I find it quite frustrating to deal with the frequent compatibility issues being experienced even with the so called stable Firefox 4 version. First came the HTML 5 issue which resulted in page loading problems of website like Windows Live Mail, then came the add-on compatibility problems and now I’m frequently experiencing issues with excessive memory consumption and page loading (Firefox unable to load page). It appears that some pages aren’t displaying pictures and videos in Firefox. Some of you might have had a better experience (I hope), however, I must assure you that I have experienced this problem on multiple computers with Firefox 4. The same website or web page opens just fine on another browser. Coming to the memory issues, suffice to say that Firefox is currently consuming 356MB of memory on my system as I conclude my day’s work.

Conclusion

Firefox is fast running out of air in the wake of cut throat competition from Chrome, Internet Explorer 9 and Opera. The time has passed when Firefox provided exclusive extensions, the same can now be acquired in Chrome and Opera without any hindrance. Instead of working on Firefox 5, Mozilla should rather try cleaning up their act before a large number of users begin to switch browsers.

Internet Explorer 9

Internet Explorer has been the browser giant since the beginnning. There was a time when Windows users could not even consider switching to an alternative. Back in the day the best alternative was Netscape, before it succumbed to Internet Explorer’s deadly blow of unmatchable market share. Then rose Firefox from the ashes of the dead Netscape Phoenix, to devour the Internet Explorer troll.

Pros

The new IE9 arguably starts quicker than any other browser. The launch time is much better than what it used to be and at least that’s one place where you can get some convenience. The new graphic capabilities and improved performance in IE 9 can not be ignored. It supports hardware-accelerated text, video, and graphics. It has sub-system enhancements like the new JavaScript engine. To meet the changing needs of modern browsers, IE9 has changed its default tab space and provided a more efficient browsing experience with arguably lower memory consumption than its predecessors. It can also be argued that IE9 installs much quicker than Internet Explorer 7 and 8, which used to take an awful amount of time even on broadband connections (such as 1-4 MB connections). To some extent the browser compatibility issues can be resolved with the help of its compatibility mode which is undoubtedly a most useful feature which has carried on to the new IE 9.

Cons

Did I tell you that IE9 loads in a flash? Unfortunately, this might just be the feature after which its utility ends. IE9 still needs to do a lot of work before it can match the add-on quality of its competitors. Likewise, despite being lighter than previous versions, it “arguably” takes longer to load most webpages than other browsers. Despite its recent enhancements, Internet Explorer 9 needs to match the changing habits of end users, in order to acquire a greater market share of the browsing market.

Conclusion

One thing I must admit is, that when it comes to providing a “stable” application, Microsoft is indeed the king of the software market. Despite the lack of resources which IE9 offers to spoil its users, it is perhaps one of the most stable browsers at the moment. With upcoming changes and buzz of IE10, Internet Explorer might just become the ruler of the browsing market again.

Chrome 11

To be very honest, I have never been a fan of Chrome, as I often faced problem of being unable to load certain websites. It appears that for some reason the pages used to remain blank, despite the fact that Chrome appears to be attempting to connect to them. But in the wake of Chrome 11, my opinion seems to be changing in its favor.

Pros

Chrome arguably matches its competitors in every field. Whether it be lower memory consumption, fast page loading, useful extensions or a sleek and stylish look. I personally prefer using Chromium in Ubuntu as compared to its alternative browsers due to the smooth browsing experience that it provides. Like Firefox and Opera, Chrome also has the advantage of reaching out to a wide array of users across multiple kinds of operating systems like Windows, Linux and Mac. This is one ability that Internet Explorer has been greatly deprived of. When I tested Chrome 11 a few days back, I didn’t expect much, however, I found it surprisingly more efficient than previous versions with a better browsing experience than I hoped for.

Cons

Having said the above, Chrome 11 is not free of issues. The page loading problem which requires frequently refreshing pages (as is the case with Firefox 4) seems to have followed Chrome as well. It appears that Chrome too often leads to the need of reloading pages on Windows. Interestingly I haven’t seen this problem to be very frequent in Ubuntu.

Conclusion

Chrome 11 seems to be standing at the brink of eventual success or failure. If Chrome is able to iron out some of its recent flaws, it is likely to beat its competitors. The choice between Chrome and other browsers seems to be much dependent on habits and some improved performance which it is currently offering.

Opera 11

Before I bought my Intel Core i3 laptop, Opera served as a good companion for my single core system. Opera was the reason because of which I got addicted to the speed dial feature, (which I later installed with the help of extensions), in Firefox and Chrome.

Pros

Opera is quite a lightweight browser and quite useful for people using legacy hardware. In fact, I once saw a comment on a forum that a man still using Windows 95 (hard to believe) was using Opera because other browsers just didn’t work out for his inferior hardware. Opera has also begin to match Firefox and Chrome with its equally useful extensions which users of these browsers are quite addicted to. It has not lagged behind in providing support for new technology and features such as HTML 5 and bookmark sync.

Cons

There was a time when Opera occasionally did not open a few web pages and suffered from the same blank page problem which Chrome suffers from. One such example includes its inability to load the Facebook application known as Arena. Unfortunately, Opera 11 has made Opera even more redundant. It often is unable to display pages and adding an extension leads to significant reduction in performance. To summarize it, despite formerly being quite a promising browser, Opera is far from becoming the market leader in the browser market.

Conclusion

Opera requires fixing its performance issues to become a viable alternative to its competitors. I would personally not recommend Opera 11 due to recent performance issues.

Which browser to use?

I will not end this post in a diplomatic way and would rather prefer giving an out right conclusion (based on my experience). I strongly believe that the most stable browser among the four mentioned above, is Internet Explorer 9. Having said that, you might not be able to adjust to it due to its lack of features (particularly lack of useful extensions). The only viable alternative is Chrome, with some functionality issues which still need to be ironed out. Hence, you can use IE9 if you are fine with a minor delay in page loading and can do away with the use of extensions. Otherwise, Chrome seems like the only alternative. Obviously, it is not fair to recommend installing four browsers like I have, since my needs are for more professional purposes and constant analysis of the technology world. But keeping IE9 and Chrome might be a reasonable option to do away with the lack of performance from Firefox and Opera. It is worth mentioning here, that the new updates to any of these browsers may improve their performance further and increase the utility of a browser more than it currently is.

If you are wondering why Safari is not mentioned in this post, try using it in Windows and see what it does to the Aero effect. I know Safari is basically a Mac browser, however, our aim was to focus on more universal browsers.

An Introduction To Modern Mobile Operating Systems

Haroon Q. Raja — Fri, 13 May 2011 23:56:33 +0000

Over the past decade, smartphones have taken the world by storm and recently, tablets have entered into the arena as well. These mobile devices are having a significant impact on our lives and are in fact redefining the way we access information and communicate with others. This is due to not only the hardware but the specialized software that these devices run and most importantly, their operating systems. In what follows, we will take an informative tour of modern mobile operating systems, their different types and usage across smartphone and tablet platforms.

Just like a PC can run different operating systems (like Windows, Linux, BSD etc.) or different versions of the same operating system (like Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 etc.), most smartphones can also run different versions of the operating system they were made for and in exceptional cases, they might even be able to run operating systems they weren’t made for. In general however, an Android phone will only run a version of Android while an iPhone will only run an iOS version.

To give you an idea of what we will be covering in this guide, here is the table of contents:

Manufacturer-built proprietary operating systems
1. Apple iOS
2. RIM BlackBerry OS
3. HP WebOS
Third party proprietary operating systems
1. Microsoft Windows Phone 7
2. Microsoft Windows Mobile
Free & open source operating systems
1. Android
2. MeeGo
3. Symbian
Which smartphone OS is the best

Manufacturer-built Proprietary Operating Systems

Some device manufacturers use their own proprietary operating system for their phones and tablets. A good example is Apple, with iOS being the operating system developed by them for their iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad devices. Other examples include RIM who use their proprietary BlackBerry OS for all BlackBerry phones and tablets, and HP, using their proprietary Palm Web OS for their Palm series of smartphones and tablets. A characteristic of such operating systems is that they have a very consistent look and feel across all devices that they run on, the way Mac OS X appears and behaves the same way on a Macbook Pro as it does on an iMac or a Macbook Air.

Let’s now take a look at some popular operating systems in this category.

- Apple iOS

iOS is the operating system used by Apple in all variants of iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. While smartphones have been around since the 90’s, it was Apple that successfully managed convincing masses to switch to them with the release of the first iPhone in 2007 running the first version of iOS. At the time of its release, iOS wasn’t even capable of performing what most other smartphones operating systems had been doing for almost a decade – things such as true multitasking, data connection tethering, task switching, Bluetooth pairing, PC-like application installation using installer files, and dozens others – yet the first iPhone was received with immense enthusiasm by the masses, perhaps for not knowing any better.

The key to this success lay in an interface we would call ‘idiot-friendly’ that was targeted primarily at the least smart users to enable them to use a smartphone that was only a pseudo-smartphone back then. Other factors contributing to the success of iOS included smooth graphics, consistent user interface elements across apps, built-in iPod application, iTunes integration, an App Store for buying and installing apps and perhaps most importantly, a multi-touch finger-friendly capacitive touch screen that eliminated the use of a stylus while offering finger based gestures such as pinch-to-zoom, twist-to-rotate etc. These, coupled with the similarity with the hugely popular iPod Touch, resulted in the iPhone going viral and ended up in most people buying it as more of a status symbol of owning an iPhone, than for the utility of having a smartphone.

The introduction of the iPad in 2010 only added to the popularity of iOS. Much like the case of smartphones, tablets had been widely available for over a decade but it was again Apple that built upon the success of iPhone to bring them to the masses in form of the iPad, creating a modern tablet boom and leading to other competitors joining the market. With the iPad and the iPad 2, Apple still leads the tablet market share by a huge margin.

Due to its restricted nature, iOS limited users to only the features Apple decided appropriate. That’s when the development community decided to intervene and came up with Jailbreaking. This allowed power users to install additional apps not available in the official App Store and customize their iPhones beyond the standard features provided by Apple.

By now, iOS has improved a lot and as of the current version 4.3.3, it supports multi-tasking, audio and video playback to AirPlay devices, data tethering and several other enhancements, in addition to the above-mentioned features. Jailbreaking continues to play an important role in iOS devices and enables users to take their iPhones beyond the often ridiculous limitations set by Apple.

- RIM BlackBerry OS

This is the operating system used in all BlackBerry devices. Despite having been popular in corporate sector, BlackBerry devices are losing market share to Android and iPhone. However, they still have a loyal following of users who are used to the signature hardware keyboard of BlackBerry devices and the convenience of the built-in corporate features of BlackBerry OS. RIM’s attempts at entering the touch screen smartphone market haven’t been too successful due to the limited number of quality apps available, though their recently released tablet called BlackBerry Playbook appears promising. Playbook is the first BlackBerry device to ship with their latest OS called QNX which is set to replace the older BlackBerry OS. Future phones by BlackBerry are also expected to ship with QNX.

A recent development that might change things for the better for RIM is the Android App Player that promises to bring support for running hundreds of thousands of Android apps on BlackBerry OS devices, as demoed at the recent BlackBerry World 2011 keynote.

- HP WebOS (Previously Palm WebOS)

Palm – despite being one of the initial players of the smartphone market – experienced declining market share and dropping revenues due to their old PalmOS devices not being able to keep up with iOS and Android. Palm tried to counter it by replacing its dying PalmOS with an entirely new operating system built from scratch – WebOS. Although WebOS was built by Palm as a pretty solid and feature-rich operating system having a killer interface to match, it wasn’t enough to keep the company’s lost reputation. Eventually, at the verge of bankruptcy, Palm ended up getting acquired by HP in 2010. The acquisition was followed by HP’s announcement of continuing development of the Palm devices as well as WebOS under HP’s brand name.

At its core, WebOS derives heavily from Linux and uses several open source components, maintained at the Palm Open Source website. HP is heavily promoting Palm OS and releasing several devices running it, including HP Veer & HP Pre 3 smartphones and HP TouchPad tablet. While WebOS doesn’t have a prominent market share at the moment, things seem promising for this platform’s future.

Third Party Proprietary Operating Systems

Another scenario is proprietary operating systems built by companies that do not manufacture devices, but license their operating system to manufacturers for running it on theirs. The biggest examples are Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7, built by Microsoft and found running on smartphones by HTC, Samsung, Dell and LG, amongst others. These operating systems also have usually a consistent appearance and behavior across all devices, just like Windows 7 appears and behaves the same regardless of what brand of computer you are running it on.

Let’s take a look at these operating systems in detail.

- Microsoft Windows Mobile

You might be wondering what this now-obsolete operating system is doing in an article on modern mobile operating systems. However, no discussion on mobile operating systems can be complete without the mention of Windows Mobile. Back when PalmOS devices featured a grid of icons offering only the most basic built-in apps, BlackBerry OS and Symbian devices didn’t even have touch screens. and iOS wasn’t even around, Windows Mobile devices did almost all that modern smartphone operating systems do, and then some.

Windows Mobile devices were called Pocket PCs and were true to their name! The operating system had true multitasking, installation of apps using cab files, full file system access, registry access, options for replacing the entire user interface with another, integrated data tethering support, personal information synchronization and a complete office suite.

The platform enjoyed a loyal following amongst enthusiasts and lead to the creation of the famous XDA-Developers community where developers and power users from the whole world gathered to share their customizations and hacks for Windows Mobile devices. Later on, this community expanded to Android devices and is today the largest smartphone customization community online. Installing a heavily customized version of Windows Mobile to a device was as simple as connecting it to the computer via USB and running a standard software installation wizard on the computer, no ridiculous jailbreaking/rooting/recovery/commandline use required.

The primary reasons behind the fall of Windows Mobile were the inability of Microsoft to market it to the masses, little-to-no focus from Microsoft on developing an app ecosystem that would encourage developers to build apps for the platform, and the popularity gained by Apple’s iPhone, which Windows Mobile couldn’t compete against due to an interface that wasn’t finger-friendly and required the use of a stylus.

In 2010, Microsoft decided to abandon Windows Mobile altogether in favor of Windows Phone 7. It’s legacy however, remains. HTC Sense – hugely popular on Android – was initially made for Windows Mobile devices. Furthermore, Android’s default interface involving multiple home screens, home screen previews and widgets on each screen derives heavily from the interface of SPB Mobile Shell – a third party Windows Mobile interface that innovatively introduced users to this concept.

- Microsoft Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 was Microsoft’s answer to the flourishing smartphone world. With Windows Mobile left abandoned, Microsoft built Windows Phone 7 from scratch, and presented users with an interface like no other. Given the name of Metro, this user interface takes a break from the conventional icon grids used by most competitors and brought the concept of live tiles on the home screen, focusing heavily on the presentation of information to users in a fluid, unobtrusive way. The result looked impressive, to say the least. However, many of the signature features of Windows Mobile such as true multitasking, app sideloading etc. were dropped, drawing heavy criticism by loyal Windows Mobile users.

Although Windows Phone 7 hasn’t gained a major market share by now, things look very promising as Microsoft has announced a major update for fall 2011, bringing true multitasking and several other important features to the platform in a few months. Developments on bringing app sideloading are also under way. Apart from this, Microsoft is concentrating heavily on the app ecosystem in cooperating with developers and the Windows Live Marketplace has become the fastest growing app market today. Furthermore, Nokia has decided to switch from Symbian/MeeGo to Windows Phone 7 as its smartphone platform, and this alone promises to boost the market share of this operating system to a significant extent across the globe.

At present, there are over a dozen Windows Phone 7 devices available in the market, built by manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung, Dell and LG. Several other manufacturers including Nokia have also decided to join in, and many new Windows Phone 7 devices are expected to be released this year.

Free & Open Source Operating Systems

Last but not the least, there are open source operating systems built by a company, a group of companies or a community of developers and made available for everyone to modify them in any way they choose, and install them on their choice of devices.

Examples of these operating systems include Symbian, the upcoming MeeGo and most importantly, Android. Device manufacturers fine-tune such operating systems to best suit their devices and often add additional features or interfaces to set them apart from other versions of the same operating system, and this often becomes their selling point. HTC has had a history of customizing Android for its phones and including a graphically enhanced interface called HTC Sense in an effort to enhance user experience.

Furthermore, such operating systems have a lot more customizations available in form of installable software that changes their look, feel and behavior, providing different entirely user experiences. Being open source, these operating systems also offer independent developers the opportunity to modify them from scratch and run them on devices not supported officially, or to bring an entirely new user experience to officially supported devices.

Let’s now individually examine major operating systems in this category.

- Android

When an operating system is open source, based on Linux, owned by Google, backed by all major mobile device manufacturers including HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Dell, Sony Ericsson, LG and countless more, and allows for endless customization, it is bound to make an impact. Initially developed by Android Inc. and purchased by Google in 2005, Android has become the leading smartphone OS in the world today, and is our smartphone platform of choice here at AddictiveTips. While it appeals more to the techies amongst us, Android has been received well by the non-techies as well, and with an app market boasting over 200,000 apps, there’s plenty to do with it as well.

Android runs on literally hundreds of devices including smartphones and tablets. With multiple new releases each year, the operating system is continuously evolving. At present, the latest version for smartphones is 2.3.4 Gingerbread while that for tablets is 3.1 Honeycomb. The upcoming major release scheduled for Q3 or Q4 this year is called Ice Cream Sandwich and aims to bring both phone and tablet versions together.What truly rocks about Android is the level to which it can be customized. With different launchers and widgets, the entire way in which a user interacts with the device can be changed. If you are an Android user or plan on switching to it, you must check out our Android customization series to see how to personalize it beyond recognition!

Android has already beaten iOS to become the most widely used smartphone OS in the world, though its app Market still lags behind the Apple App Store in terms of the number of apps by roughly 100,000 apps, plus iOS apps in general tend to be more refined than Android apps, and this is the only reason we can see for any rational person to choose an iOS device over an Android device, but that’s our personal opinion.

- MeeGo

A few years back, Nokia and Intel decided to merge their Linux-based Maemo and Moblin operating systems to form MeeGo, and several other high-profile companies also joined in to contribute to the open source project. Things seemed to be promising, smartphone and tablet enthusiasts – including us – were eagerly anticipating developments to bear fruit in form of another Android to bring competition to the market and provide a further incentive for innovation, when all of a sudden a key player i.e. Nokia decided to abandon it and switch over to Windows Phone 7 as its primary smartphone platform.

While Nokia has still announced to stick with its promise of releasing one MeeGo device this year before abandoning the project entirely, things aren’t looking too well for the platform and unless Intel and the other companies involved really give it their level best, MeeGo might end up like one of those obscure Linux distributions that only the developers and their six friends use or worse, it could be entirely abandoned, though we hope that isn’t the case.

- Symbian

There is a saying, “If you don’t succeed at the first attempt, skydiving isn’t for you!”, and it applies too well in Symbian’s case. Symbian – in its various forms – has been the operating system of thousands of devices by dozens of manufacturers but despite its commercial success, it has failed to achieve any critical acclaim in the smartphone arena despite Nokia’s repeated efforts of trying to get it right. We are including it here only due to the number of smartphones running Symbian globally, despite a negligible share in the United States. In all other aspects, it doesn’t even come close to any of the other smartphone operating systems mentioned in this guide.

Nokia finally decided to let go of Symbian along with MeeGo to switch to Windows Phone 7 as its smartphone platform but without entirely abandoning it, as the company will continue to use it for its feature phones (phones that aren’t smartphones).

The future of Symbian in the smartphone world is practically over. With Nokia’s abandonment and more and more users switching to Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7 globally, it is safe to conclude that Symbian no longer has a place in the smartphone world.

Which Smartphone OS is the best?

Now that you are acquainted with all major smartphone operating systems out there, it’s time for this important question. The answer is: whichever works best for you! Here at AddictiveTips, we are all for Android and I personally don’t even like iOS one bit, yet I recommend iPhone to many people as it appears to suit them better. We would love to see MeeGo get released on a few high-end devices, HP WebOS gain more attention as well as apps and Windows Phone 7 become more open. Till then however, considering the development, the app ecosystem and the customization options, for most users, Android is currently the smartphone OS to go for.

Free PC Safety Scan With Microsoft Safety Scanner

farshad — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 07:43:43 +0000

For long, Microsoft’s Windows Live OneCare Scanner has been an excellent resource to check for malware on systems. It has been particularly useful during important dates such as April 1. For instance, once a malware infected PCs, it was only detectable with Microsoft’s Security Scanner. It was widely telecasted on news channels like BBC that the malware agent had infected systems months back and was to initiate according to a set date. Many common anti-malware software failed to detect this threat, so Microsoft launched a warning to use the OneCare Scanner to identify and remove this threat. It has helped people avoid the inconvenience of keeping their systems at a back date to avoid malware initiation after a large scale threat warning.

Microsoft has recently launched Microsoft Safety Scanner. It is a free downloadable security tool which scans and remove viruses, spyware, and other malicious agents from your system. It does not conflict with your existing antivirus software and is not meant for its replacement. It is pretty much as useful as the OneCare Scanner, i.e. for on-demand scanning and removal of malware. As in the case of the OneCare Scanner, it can be useful to perform a scan near dates when malware are widely released, such as, April and May (almost every year).

To perform a scan launch Microsoft Safety Scanner and select a scanning mode. The Quick Scan performs a blazing fast scan of your system by checking areas that are most likely to be infected. Whereas, the Full Scan is more comprehensive and searches the entire system for infections. You can also choose what areas of the system you wish to scan via the Customized Scan option.

After you have selected the scanning mode, click Next to continue. The Microsoft Safety Scanner will launch a scan and remove malicious agents from your system.

Please note that Microsoft Safety Scanner is not meant to be a replacement for a common antivirus and expires after 10 days of being downloaded. To run the scan again with the latest anti-malware definitions you should download and run the Microsoft Safety Scanner again. However, since it provides enhanced scanning and removal like the OneCare Scanner, it is an effort worth making periodically, specially when a major virus threat is launched near known dates of malware mischief.

It works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Download Microsoft Safety Scanner

Get Google Maps On Windows Phone 7 (WP7)

Zayed Rehman — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:23:29 +0000

So YouTube has been reported to be crummy on the Windows Phone 7 platform, and Microsoft blames Google for pulling a bully on the freshmen, just like any high school. That’s not it, imagine life without Google Maps on your phone? Well, that’s what Windows Phone 7 users feel like right now with no app made available by Google for that platform. But then again, necessity is the mother of all inventions. Thank you vrassouli for putting together this wonderful piece of app that allows us to use Google Maps on our Windows Phone 7 while Microsoft and Google argue it out. For more on this App, read on!

The App called GMapPro is out as the version 2.1 now and while it is not totally perfect, it’s still better then using Bing Maps while outside the UK or USA and having no maps at all. The latest version has the following features to offer:

Use Google Maps which is the most complete mapping solution available in the world.
Download the maps of desired area, and use them while you are offline.
Provide a list of downloads so you can delete them in future.
Use the phones internal GPS, to find you on the map.
Markers: Tap and hold a location to put a new marker. | View the list of markers and easily jump to the marked location. | Shows your location with a different marker.
Addresses (Requires Internet Connection): Shows the address of your location | Jump to a desired address.
Preferred zoom level for My Location feature. Now, if you tap on My Location button, it will show the map whit the pre-configured settings.
Track me, Shows you your location and tracks your movement on the map. It even shows your movement speed.
Calculate the direct distance between to points in km or miles.
Known and reported bugs are fixed.

See below a few screenshots courtesy of the developer.

Now before you decide to install this wonderful app, there’s a requirement at hand:

A developer unlocked WP7 device. See our guide on how to gain developer unlock on your WP7 device.

Instructions to install:

Download GMapPro 2.1.
Simply install the App via XAP Installer. That simple!

For updates and queries, visit the forum thread at XDA-Developers.

How To Install ‘NoDo Update’ On Windows Phone 7 (WP7) Manually

Zayed Rehman — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:13:40 +0000

Although, the official NoDo update have started rolling out to Windows Phone 7 owners, some users are not getting it and have now become impatient. So for those of you who want to update their WP7 right now, this guide will help you do just that, manually.

Now before you get all excited, this method has been both successful and a complete disappointment for some users. However, the method involved, poses no risk to your device as far as bricking is concerned, so it is worth a shot. We tried it on our Orange Samsung Omnia 7 outside US but couldn’t get much far with it. The requirement and instructions are below. Let us know if it worked for you.

Requirements:

Download USAIP.pbk. This would allow you to remotely connect to a server.
Registry file. This is incase the above remote connection doesn’t open.
Zune installed on your PC.
Registry Unbranding applied.

Instructions:

To begin, make sure your WLAN and Flight Mode are disabled on your phone.
Make sure Use cellular data connection to check for updates is active on your phone.
Run the USAIP.pbk file you downloaded from the link above and connect to EUROIP PPTP Hungary using ’demo‘ as the Username and Password. (The connection remains active for 7 minutes after which it hangs up automatically.)
Connect your phone to the PC and manually search for an update within Zune. Settings > Phone > Update.
After a few seconds (10-15) of searching, disable the data transfer on your phone.
Hopefully if you’re a few of the lucky ones, the update will show up. Just hit the update, and re-run USAIP.pbk and close the connection by hitting the Hangup tab, so that Zune can download the update package.

Voila! That simple, but for those of you with unbranded phones and still unable to update through this process, keep trying, some users tried it like 50 times and were finally successful!

[VIA: MOBILETECHWORLD & XDA-DEVELOPERS]

Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse Review And Giveaway

Nakodari — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:23:32 +0000

The Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse is the successor to the original Arc Mouse with a new sleek and flexible design. The most prominent change is the use of touch to scroll instead of wheel and BlueTrack technology which allows it to be used on any surface. Check our full review (and giveaway) after the jump.

Design And Basics

The first thing you will notice about Arc Touch Mouse is the unique design. There are no buttons to switch the mouse on or off, you curve it to turn on and flatten it to turn off. This is a good thing since users who want to carry the mouse around don’t want to move that pesky little button under the mouse to switch it on or off repeatedly while travelling.

Since the design is new, it takes some time getting used to. The touch to scroll is difficult to handle in the beginning because we are using scroll wheel for almost a decade. Using it on a hard surface is easier and the grip is stronger when compared with soft surfaces. People with large hands will find it a bit challenging to use due to its small size. After playing around with it for 3 days, I am perfectly comfortable with it. Check out the size comparison below with HTC Desire HD.

The mouse runs on 2 AAA alkaline batteries which can be inserted from the bottom of the mouse.

There is a small magnet below the mouse where one can attach the USB Receiver to ensure that both the mouse and receiver are in the same place and ready to be used anytime. The USB Receiver is tiny and if you are carrying your laptop around, you can let it stay plugged in (like I do).

Microsoft Arc Touch mouse is the first travel mouse that can actually fit in all pockets due to its flat size. The design also makes it lighter than other mice.

Usability and Performance

When you first plug in the device, it will automatically install the driver. It works on Windows XP (32-bit only), Windows Vista (both 32-bit and 64-bit), and Windows 7 (both 32-bit and 64-bit). The sensitivity will be a bit higher and can be changed from Mouse Properties (Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Mouse).

Don’t expect it to replace your desktop mouse. The performance and options that come with a desktop mouse can’t be found in Arc Touch. However, if all you need is some basic functionality then you can use it as a desktop mouse replacement. While testing, it worked seamlessly on different surfaces, carpet, tables, floor, and so on.

The middle click button is still there and can be used by double tapping the middle touch scroll. If you are one of those people who eat and browse at the same time, forget it. The plastic becomes slippery and difficult to use with slightly wet or oily hands. This is the second major downside, the first being too small for large hands.

The great part is that Arc Touch is not a racist, it is made for both left and right handed people. So if your co-worker or friend needs to show you something and is different handed, then this mouse will do the trick.

MS Arc Touch Mouse vs. Apple Magic Mouse

I was reluctant to touch this topic because of Microsoft vs Apple fanboy flame war, but many people have asked us how they compare. In short, they don’t. Comparing Arc Touch with Magic Mouse is like comparing Turtle with Tortoise. Both are nice but have a very different purpose. Arc Touch mouse is a travel mouse (which you may use as a desktop mouse), while on the other hand, Magic Mouse is a desktop mouse (which you may use as a travel mouse, if you wish to).

Conclusion

Pros: Compact, sexy, lightweight, and an all-round winner when it comes to portability. The movement is surprisingly smooth, making it a must-have travel mouse for web designers.

Cons: Difficult to control in the beginning, small for large hands, and buttons are slippery with slightly wet and oily hands. Not good for gaming (OK, this is not a downside but still).

Giveaway Details

Microsoft has partnered with us to give away one Arc Touch mouse to a lucky reader. Sadly (very sadly), the giveaway is for US residents only due to the terms and conditions of this contest. To win the device, here is what you need to do:

Method 1: Leave a comment on our Facebook Fan page and tell us why you need this mouse. Obviously you will have to Like us before you can leave a comment.

Method 2: If you don’t use Facebook, you can tweet this post using the Tweet button at the bottom of this article.

We will select one lucky winner after 2 days (48 hours) and contact him/her directly. This post will also be updated to congratulate the winner.

So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and win a free Arc Touch mouse.

Update: The Giveaway has ended. The winner will be announced shortly.

Winner: The winner is Tony Peavler. Tony is a traveling teacher for the deaf and hearing impaired. Thank you for participating. More giveaways coming soon!

Exchange Health Monitor Checks Health Of Microsoft Exchange Server

farshad — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:48:54 +0000

Exchange Health Monitor is a mail server monitoring tool for Microsoft Exchange Server which provides an overview of the mail server in graphical format and provides a snapshot of the real time functionality of the Exchange Server(s).

The main interface provides general help options (? icon) and change Settings option. These are the two basic options on the main interface, whereas a button at the bottom provides a link to other tools from the developers website. Click the Change Settings option to connect your Exchange Server to the tool.

To start monitoring the health of your mail server, simply add the Domain name, server name, username, password and click Connect after selecting your desired parameters. This tool currently provides health monitoring for Exchange Server 2003/2007. Therefore, a downside is that it currently does not support Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.

With the help of this tool server administrators can get information about the following details:

Server Health Details

CPU usage
Memory usage
Disk space
Disk read/write rate

Mailbox Details

Messages Sent/sec
User Count and active user count
Send and receive Queue Size
Active Connection Count and client logons

Transport Details

Active, retry Mailbox Delivery Queue
Active, remote Delivery Queue

POP/IMAP

POP3 Current Connections
IMAP4 Current Connections

It is capable of deployment on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 provided you have .Net Framework 2.0 or higher installed.

Download Exchange Health Monitor

Bypass Microsoft Smart Screen Filter In Chrome With Microsoft SmartScreen Bypass

farshad — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 10:44:46 +0000

Microsoft Smart Screen Filter is a feature present in Internet Explorer and other Microsoft products such as the Windows Live Messenger. It is a meant to protect users against web and social engineering threats. This Filter scans links that are accessed in a Windows Live application and opens them in the default browser. One reason that this warning pops up so frequently is because Microsoft reminds its users to protect their passwords and that they are leaving Windows Live to visit a website. However, it can be quite annoying when one comes across the SmartScreen filter after clicking on a link sent by a friend via a Windows Live application. Microsoft SmartScreen By Pass is a Google Chrome extension that gets rid of this warning message and takes you directly to the desired webpage.

All you need to do is to install this extension and it will bypass the SmartScreen filter by default. However, it is worth mentioning here that Chrome needs to be your default browser, as any links from a Windows Live app opens in the default browser.

Microsoft SmartScreen Filter By Pass Extension for Chrome

Identify Security Threats On Your System With Microsoft Attack Surface Analyzer

farshad — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:10:00 +0000

Many programs alter the operating system during installation. Some of these changes can be hidden security threats and can lead to devastating effects for your system. Microsoft’s Attack Security Analyzer is a program specially designed to identify such issues. It is the same tool that is used by Microsoft’s internal product teams to identify alterations made by to the operating system by the installation of a software. This can be helpful for developers to identify the attack surface result due to the addition of their codes. It can also assist IT professionals to analyze changes to the operating system as a result of corporate software usage, to help Security Auditors to examine the risk of a a specified software and allow IT security responders to asses the state of a security system.

To get started, select a destination to save the scan report to and start the scanning process.

This will thoroughly scan the system for and generate a report in XML format in a .cab file which can be obtained from the pre-selected destination path. Attack Surface Analyzer takes a snapshot of the system after and prior to the installation of a software and displays the changes (if any) after the scan result.

You can then extract the .cab file with a de-compression software (e.g. with winrar) and view it in XML format in your browser. The baseline or first scan should be run on a clean system without the product (under scrutiny) to be installed. Whereas, the product scan should be run after installing the software under review.

MS Attack Security Analyzer works on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R1/R2, provided you have .Net 3.5 Sp1 installed. It was tested on Windows 7 64-bit system.

Download Microsoft’s Attack Surfer Analyzer

Joulemeter Measures Power Consumption Of Your System

Usman — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 09:06:54 +0000

Joulemeter is a free utility from Microsoft Research which is designed to determine the power consumption of your system. It tracks HDD, monitor, motherboard, CPU power consumption by calibrating each unit strength. The process includes a complete check of computer resources which primarily includes CPU utilization and display brightness.

For calibrating the resources with precision, it is recommended to run your system on battery (in case of laptop). Run the calibrator to find out the related information. Input requirements are minimal, you can specify the monitor setup and server.

Once Calibration test is finished, you can now run the Joulemeter application that lists down the test results depending upon different scales. Power Consumption section refers to Base Power, CPU, Disk, Monitor and accumulative power that needs to run the system. The Statistics section displays Time Slept and Time Awake.

The application serves in finding out the minimal power resources that you need to run your system. It sits in the system and updates the statistics along with other power consumption relevant information. It runs on all Windows based OS, our testing was done on Windows 7 x86 system.

Download Joulemeter

Troubleshoot Office Add-ins With AddInSpy

Usman — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 04:18:29 +0000

Throughout the SRLC (Software Release Life Cycle) process of MS Office, Microsoft development team & other third parties begin creating small utilities for providing extra features to complement the official product. These add-ins helps get work done in easier way along with providing either missed out or advance functionality, if you are a power user of MS Office you might have came across hundreds of add-ins for different Office applications. Despite the fact that they provide extra utility, they can also contains code-anomalies and compatibility problems, thus eventually causing app crash, halt or lagging.

It may become irksome sometimes to find out the DLL or library file due to which add-in prevents application to start properly, or cause program halt, and so on. As Office native User Interface is unable to give out complete details and never reports the genuine problem, AddInSpy may come helpful for this sole purpose.

Rather than a tool, it’s more like a package from Microsoft containing AddInSpy & AS (Add-in Scan), for facilitating developers and users concurrently. As name implies, it looks for installed Add-ins in Office applications and populate the list carrying detailed information in multiple columns.

It’s usage is pretty straightforward, launch AddInSpy and from Hosts list, enable Office applications’ checkboxes for which you need to inspect installed add-ins.

Click Refresh to start the add-in scan, it will start populating the list, which holds multitude of add-in-relevant information such as;

Host (running or loaded)
Type (VSTO, managed, non-VSTO [Visual Studio Tools for Office])
ProgID (Program ID)
CLSID (Class Identifier Version),
Manifest (info about manifest Visual Studio Tools for Office),
DLL Path,
RegHive,
CLR (Add-in Common Language Runtime version),
Interface.
VSTOR.

You can also use Scan combo-box to filter down the scan results. Just check/uncheck the respective scan options in the list to filter the scan result.

The list is spread out wide across the screen, find out OK field in the list and check for specific add-in status in column, that if it is working/running properly or not.

You can exclusively check add-in having OK status with warning sign by double clicking the add-in record. This will show all the information packed in columns in it’s exclusive dialog.

We consider it as a great find, as it provides the complete report on problems users can face while using an Office add-in. It runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Testing was done on Windows 7 system (32-bit) running Office 2010 (32-bit).

Download AddInSpy

PowerPoint 2010 Viewer

Usman — Fri, 07 May 2010 11:37:20 +0000

Unarguably PowerPoint stands out when it comes to creating intriguing and appealing presentations, thus, it is widely used everywhere. Considering the fact that it is abound but there are still many users out there who can’t shell out to purchase the product. To cope up with this, Microsoft recently released the latest version of PowerPoint Viewer which allow any user view presentations without requiring PowerPoint installation.

As name implies, you wont be able to edit the slides but can view even password-protected presentations. It offers a simple IDE to view the presentations and to navigate through the slides, but the one huge downside is that it is not portable app, so you wont be able to carry it.

In the bottom right corner, you will see navigational buttons to go through the Presentation slides. Click the Menu button (in the center of navigational buttons) to Print the slide, Copy it, View the Presentation in Full Screen, and for ending the Show. For advance help, click Help to bring up Slide Show Help dialog which includes Slide show navigation shortcuts, PowerPoint Viewer shortcuts, and Media info, etc.

PowerPoint Viewer supports multitude of presentation formats; ppt, .pptm, .pot, .potx, .potm, .pps, .pptx, .ppsx and .ppsm along with the latest PowerPoint 2010 and 2007 format .pptx.

It works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Download PowerPoint Viewer

Docs.com: Create & Share MS Office Documents via Facebook

Usman — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:30:38 +0000

Microsoft and Facebook recently gushed forth Docs.com which will allow Facebook users to share and create Office documents on the fly. Docs.com, the web app is more like a stripped down version of upcoming Microsoft Office 2010, letting you to create and share Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations with your friends and peers. It is a brainchild of Microsoft FUSE labs, which has been focusing on creating online web app providing best social experiences.

To get started, just upload a document by clicking the Add a Doc tab, and start uploading or creating Word, Excel and PowerPoint docs. As it is still in beta, which means available for limited users only, you will need to sign up and enter the invitation code to test it out.

For privacy control, you will be provided with an option to choose your Facebook friends which can edit, view and share uploaded docs, therefore, you don’t need to worry for the any privacy issues. Adding more, to keep your friends and acquaintances updated with your uploaded documents, you will also be able add Docs to your profile.

So how will it effect Google Docs? Our opinion is that Microsoft, having investment in Facebook, will do its best to promote Docs.com to millions of users. Only time will tell how effective this technique will hurt Google Docs on the long run.

Microsoft Fix It Center Fixes Common Windows Problems

Nakodari — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:18:28 +0000

There are plenty of 3rd party tools to fix Windows problems, offering promising results. Microsoft Fix It Center is the first official tool from Microsoft to fix errors and problems in Windows. We would highly recommend fixing your problems with this official tool before using any 3rd party utilities. After all who can know Windows better than Microsoft themselves.

Instead of having to troubleshoot the problems yourself, you will see different categories on the main interface which you can automatically fix. When clicked Run, it will open a new dialog window to find and analyze the problem before downloading the correct fix which you can Install.

As for now, the program is still in beta and fixes only limited number of problems. In case your problem is not fixed, you can create an account or login using your existing Windows Live ID in Windows Fix It Center Online website.

When started for the first time, it will automatically detect the version of Windows your system is running. It works on Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, Windows Vista, Windows 2008 Server, and Windows 7. Both 32-bit and 64-bit OS are supported.

Download Microsoft Fix it Center

Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Packs

Nakodari — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 07:04:11 +0000

Microsoft Office 2010 includes Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010 and lots of other apps such as OneNote 2010, Visio 2010, Publisher 2010, etc. The contents of these apps are not indexable. This is where Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Packs come in.

Microsoft has released the Office 2010(Beta) Filter Packs, which provides a single point-of-distribution of Office IFilters. According to Microsoft, “IFilters are components that allow search services to index content of specific file types, letting you search for content in those files”.

They are intended to be used with Microsoft Search Services(SharePoint, SQL, Exchange, Windows Search). Please note that MS has released the filter pack for for free to be used with Office 2010 beta only.

The filter pack includes:

Legacy Office Filter (97-2003; .doc, .ppt, .xls)
Metro Office Filter (2007; .docx, .pptx, .xlsx)
Zip Filter
OneNote filter
Visio Filter
Publisher Filter
Open Document Format Filter

Download Microsoft Office 2010(Beta) Filter Packs

Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are available for download. It works with Windows XP(SP2 and SP3), Windows Vista(SP1), Windows Server 2003(SP2), Windows Server 2008 RC2, and Windows 7.

Save Word Document To SkyDrive – Office 2010

Nakodari — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:26:15 +0000

Back in September we first uncovered a new feature in Office 2010 – ability to upload documents straight to Windows Live SkyDrive service. This features is available in MS Word 2010, Excel 2010, and PowerPoint 2010.

The latest version of Office 2010 includes the long awaited Save To SkyDrive feature which can be found in the Share tab under File Menu. For the sake of convenience we will show you the steps required to save a Word document in SkyDrive.

Go to File > Share and select Save To SkyDrive option.

Now go ahead, click Sign In and login with your Windows Live ID. Once inside, it will display all folders in your SkyDrive account with an option to create a new folder. Now select the folder where you would like to save the document and hit Save As button.

Now it will contact the server and after some time show the Save As dialog window from where you can select the format you want to save it in. When you hit Save, it will begin uploading the document to the server.

The Save To SkyDrive feature in Office 2010 is the final confirmation that Microsoft is transforming SkyDrive into a central destination for storage. You should expect to see more features in and around SkyDrive in the future.

Before you give Office 2010 a shot, make sure to read what’s new in Word 2010, Excel 2010, and PowerPoint 2010. Enjoy!

Uninstall .NET Framework From Windows 7

Nakodari — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:08:49 +0000

Before you proceed, you should know that we are reviewing this tool for advanced users only. We do not recommend that you should uninstall .NET Framework from your system. Most apps that run on Windows require .NET framework, without which they are rendered useless.

Before Windows 7, removing .NET Framework used to be easy since it could be done from the Add/Remove Programs. But in Windows 7 it is now included inside Turn Windows Features On or Off. To turn it off, you will need to uncheck the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.1 checkbox.

Doing it won’t uninstall it completely, rather it is simply disabled. To uninstall it you will need a 3rd party portable tool called .NET Framework Cleanup Tool. Simply run this tool, hit Cleanup Now button, and .NET Framework will be completely uninstalled from your system.

Download .NET Framework Cleanup Tool

Enjoy!

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