Lee Mathews
The Pas, MB, Canada - http://
Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Troubleshooting
Teamviewer 5 beta gets faster, adds voice and video conferencing
by Lee Mathews Nov 27th 2009
Version 5 is now ready for beta testing, and it looks like Teamviewer is once again set for some solid new features and yet another boost in speed.
In addition to getting quicker, Teamviewer 5 now includes a major communications improvement. You're no longer limited to text-based chatting - v5 supports voice and video chat. Quality is good - about on par with Skype in my testing. It's still at the mercy of your ISP, of course, so the more bandwidth you have at your disposal, the better it will work.
Besides being a great app for remote support, Teamviewer evolved into an excellent screen-sharing and presentation tool in v4 and has just got even better with v5.
You can download the TeamViewer 5 beta right now and take it for a spin. As with previous releases, you can expect version 5 to be free for personal use, and there will be a portable version available as well.
Filed under: Microsoft, Browsers
Internet Explorer 8's SmartScreen blocks 2 million malicious URLs per day
While you might not be a fan of Internet Explorer 8, there's no denying it's a better browser than its predecessors. One key upgrade in IE8 is its improved security and safety features - like SmartScreen.
In case you haven't heard about it before, SmartScreen is designed to keep IE users from wandering onto malicious websites. Sites like those which repeatedly turn up in Facebook scams. And it certainly appears as though SmartScreen is helping, based on what Microsoft's Dean Hachamovitch posted on the MSDN blog.
According to Dean, SmartScreen blocks more than 2 million malicious URLs every day.
If you have friends or family who swear by IE but still haven't upgraded to version 8, this might be just the thing to change their mind. After all, is there anyone who doesn't want a little added security when they're browsing the web?
In case you haven't heard about it before, SmartScreen is designed to keep IE users from wandering onto malicious websites. Sites like those which repeatedly turn up in Facebook scams. And it certainly appears as though SmartScreen is helping, based on what Microsoft's Dean Hachamovitch posted on the MSDN blog.
According to Dean, SmartScreen blocks more than 2 million malicious URLs every day.
If you have friends or family who swear by IE but still haven't upgraded to version 8, this might be just the thing to change their mind. After all, is there anyone who doesn't want a little added security when they're browsing the web?
Filed under: Commercial, Holiday Gift Guide
Black Friday software deals you can score online
This weekend signals the beginning of holiday shopping craziness in the U.S., and there's no shortage of deals to be had. We're scouring web sites around the 'net to find discount prices on games, apps, and operating systems - if you've found some, share them in the comments!
Be sure to check back, we'll be updating this post as we find more savings to pass along!
Applications and Operating Systems
- AVG Internet Security 2 year protection for 3 users - Free after MIR at NewEgg.com
- Microsof Office Home and Student for 3 pcs - $59.99 at TigerDirect.com
- Microsoft Office 2008 Home and Student for Mac - $109.99 at Bestbuy.Com
- Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade - $109.49 at Amazon.com
- Windows 7 Ultimate x64 OEM - $164.99 at ZipZoomFly.com
- 5-day long one day only sale - tons of games at half price at Steam
- LucasArts premier pack - 7 games for $49.99 at Steam
- THQ Complete pack - 18 games for $49.99 at Steam
- Fallout 3 GoTY edition for $29.90 at GoGamer.com
- Unreal Tournament 3 for $5.90 at GoGamer.com
- World of Warcraft for $4.90 (Friday/Saturday 11/27-11/28 ONLY) at GoGamer.com
- Popcap Complete pack feat. Chuzzle, Peggle, Bejeweled, Bookworm (44 games total) - $99 at Popcap
- Crysis Maximum Edition for $19.95 at Direct2Drive.com
- The Sims 3 for $29.95 at Direct2Drive.com
- 30% off all downloadable games from the EA Games online store
Gameloft is offering the following titles at $0.99 each - pick up $25 worth of games for $5!
- Castle of Magic
- Real Tennis 2009
- Blades of Fury
- Terminator Salvation
- Brothers in Arms – Hour of Heroes
- Shrek Kart
Steam's THQ game pack: get $400 worth of games for 50 bucks
by Lee Mathews Nov 25th 2009
It's loaded with excellent titles like Red Faction, Warhammer, and Company of Heroes - 18 titles in all. If you bought them separately, it'd run you just shy of $400. Right now, however, you can score the whole bundle for $49.99.
$2.77 per game? Come on, the energy drinks you down while staying awake for an all-night session will cost you more than that.
Don't want to shell out the fifty bones yourself? Email a subtle hint to your pals and maybe one of them will gift you the pack. Chances are good they'll end up buying for themselves, but you never know.
Filed under: Text, Utilities, Windows
Automatically disable your touchpad while you type with TouchFreeze
by Lee Mathews Nov 25th 2009
One thing about laptops that drives a lot of my customers nuts is the touchpad. If I had a nickel for every time someone brought a laptop in complaining that their mouse pointer suddenly jumped somewhere else on the screen and messed up their typing, I'd have at least $10.15. Hey, I'm in a small town - that would nearly count as an epidemic.
TouchFreeze is a tiny, open source program designed to fix this problem once and for all. Once you install it, TouchFreeze sits your in your system tray and waits for you to begin typing. When you do, it temporarily disables input from your touchpad.
Be forewarned: TouchFreeze may not work with your laptop's touchpad. It worked on my two Acer test systems just fine, but certain brands may be a bit less cooperative.
You can download TouchFreeze over at Google Code.
[via Addictive Tips]
Chrome OS security will make Google's ads inescapable
We've all gotten a good look at the very, very early stages of Chrome OS. While there's been plenty of "meh" going around, truth is that it's really much, much too early to pass judgement. It's going to be about a year until we see something finished, after all, and Google has already said things will change quite a bit by that time.
One feature of Chrome OS that has been praised is its ...Locationbar² adds breadcrumbs, domain emphasis to your Firefox address bar
Firefox's Awesome Bar is definitely a more powerful tool than it used to be. It's still got room for improvement and tweaking, though - and fortunately there are plenty of nifty add-ons available to do just that.
One worth checking out is Locationbar². You can see one of the add-on's features in my screenshot. Hold down your control, shift, or alt key and directories in the URL become ...Chrome Extensions gallery taking shape, landing page now invites devs
If you're trying to get an extension gallery for your web browser off the ground, it's important reach out to developers. After all, they're the ones who will be creating the snazzy addons you plan to showcase. So it's not surprising to see the change which took place in the Chromium nightly build recently. When you visit your extensions page and click the link to browse the gallery, you won't ...AdSense on your desktop: Google starts embedding ads in Google Earth
by Lee Mathews Nov 23rd 2009 {3 comments}
Everyone cringed when Microsoft announced that Office 2010 Starter would be partially ad-supported, and it looks as though advertising in desktop apps may be something we'll just have to get used to. As Amit Agarwal at Digital Inspiration found out, Google Earth is now showcasing sponsored links as you search for destinations.
While the ads aren't all that intrusive, they're still there. ...Auslogics Disk Defrag buffs up, adds disk optimization in v3
by Lee Mathews Nov 20th 2009 {3 comments}
Defragmentation (like backing up) is one of those chores I don't think about doing all that often. And I really should, since my desktop at work is a cluttered mess of downloads, screenshots, temp files, and other digital flotsam. When Auslogics mentioned they've got a new version of their Disk Defrag tool available for download, I figured why not take it for a spin? My drive could use the TLC, ...
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
