Anti virus protection with H1N1 Destroying UV Wand

While panacea from known by whole world virus of H1N1 is not found, we have to be careful and to keep our watchful eye in order to avoid it. Though some producers declared certain success in vaccine creation, new useful gadget can help us to prevent this specific virus spreading and affecting our and our family. This new gadget that fights against H1N1 virus, is named as UV Wand was recently released by Hammecher, and I extremely useful in many cases.

First of all it destroys many known and very dangerous bacteria and viruses. Second that is important that during laboratory tests UV Wand showed great result - after 5 seconds nearly 99.98% of the H1NI virus was destroyed. Everybody can agree that in usual life to wear protective mask is not comfortable solution.


New created Wand was made especially for it - to protect us and to make comfortable our living in tough environment conditions. This gadget with use of save UV-C light eliminates viruses from different structure surfaces. It also easily kills different molds, dust mites, different harmful microorganisms, bacteria - by penetrating into their DNA and destroying them easily.

The H1N1 UV Wand is made for use not only in medical institution, but rather for daily use of modern busy people. Now is so easy to sanitize the gadgets that might be in use by infected people and also as well as a preventive tool for keyboards, phones, other big and small gadgets. This wand is very practice and easy in use. If to describe it by few words - I can say that it comes as a stick shaped gadget, that easy to hold, user friendly and easy to operate.

Cordless and handy, switches off automatically when light is turned upward. When fully charged - (eight hour charge by AC. 24" L x 5" W x 2 1/2" D) operates 1.5 hours. Overall it is an easy and comfortable way to do something worthy in order to be healthy, save money on hospital bills and to continue active life.

VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware

Sunbelt Software, known best for its award-winning CounterSpy antispyware, came very late to the antivirus table, only creating its own antivirus engine from the ground up within the last two years, while its rivals boast more than 20 years of antivirus experience. Arriving late has its advantages, however. Traditional antivirus engines have been slow to adapt to emerging threats, especially the blending of antispyware threats with antivirus threats. To bridge the best of traditional antivirus with new cutting-edge thinking, Sunbelt Software hired veteran antivirus expert Joe Wells for a one-year stint to help design a "hybrid" antivirus antispyware engine.

Product summary

The good: Vipre combines antivirus and antispyware in one engine; offers secure deletion of files and browsing history; exposes hidden processes running on your computer; fully functional, 15-day, free trial.

The bad: Vipre does not yet include firewall protection.

The bottom line: Vipre combines antivirus and antispyware technology in a fast and light application that also includes a worthy set of security tools.

While other standalone antispyware vendors merely added antivirus to their existing offering, Sunbelt Software created an entirely new product, Vipre. Ordinarily new antivirus products, such as Microsoft's Windows Live OneCare, suffer through a few years of "getting the code right." We don't see that here; in our opinion, Vipre has vaulted to the upper third of the antivirus products on the market today. While it remains to be seen how Vipre holds up against the 2009 antivirus offerings, our initial impressions are very good, and should hold up when more established antivirus vendors start releasing their products later in 2008.

Installation
Vipre costs $29.95 for a single user license, $39.95 for a three-user license, and $49.95 to license all the computers in your house. If you are a current CounterSpy v2 customer, you can upgrade for $9.95. There is a 15-day, fully functional, free trial available. Vipre requires Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Vista; it is not compatible with Windows 95, 98, or ME, Macintosh, or Linux.

The Vipre installation took us a few minutes and did not require a reboot. After the files were installed, a wizard asked a few predictable questions on the following topics: Internet and proxy settings, automatic updates (default is every two hours), active protection setting (High, Medium, Low), joining the Sunbelt threat community to report new threats, scan schedule (default is 1 a.m.), adding Vipre to Windows Security Center (default), disabling Windows Defender (default), and activating and registering for technical support (name and e-mail).

The Vipre interface is one of the cleanest we've seen on any antivirus product. It's intuitive and easy to use. Your system status is displayed along the left-hand window, while the right side displays current worldwide threats and the latest local scan results for your machine. Four tabs across the top take you to Scan, Manage, Tools, and the overview page.

Should you want to remove Vipre, you will need to use the Windows Control Panel's Add and Remove Software feature; Sunbelt Software does not provide an uninstall function. After a reboot we found no traces of Vipre in our system registry or file directory on our test system.

Features
Much of what we like about Vipre is beneath the hood--which is where it should be. The scanning engines are fast and, in our limited testing, accurate. What we like most about Vipre, however, is that it packs a lot of extras--extras that other antivirus products should have but often do not.

In addition to antivirus and antispyware protection, Vipre features other useful tools such as a secure file eraser that writes 1s and 0s over deleted files, a history cleaner that goes beyond just what's in your Internet browser cache, and something called PC Explorer, which reveals processes and services running that are suspect or known to be malicious. Many of these tools are also featured within Sunbelt Software's standalone antispyware product, CounterSpy v2.

Missing from Vipre is firewall protection, which is available in some antivirus software.

Performance
Vipre scored well in both our CNET Labs' Windows XP performance tests, however, there are no public third-party tests that we can point to at this time. On our iTunes test, Vipre was in the leader of the pack at just 1 second above our test system. On our Microsoft Office test, Vipre came in near the middle at 1,378.67 seconds. For scanning a single folder with multiple files, Vipre came in first at 122 seconds. And in boot speed, Vipre again came in first place, with a speedy 28.73 seconds. To find out how we test, see CNET Labs' How we test:software:antivirus.

In terms of protecting your PC, Vipre is too new for us to be able to cite results from independent antivirus testing organizations at this time.

As for antispyware results, CNET Labs tested CounterSpy v2 in November 2007; in March 2008, CNET Reviews named it our Editors' Choice. Vipre uses the antispyware technology found within CounterSpy v2.

Support
Sunbelt Software provides a wealth of support options. We like the contextual Help files--when you are on the Tools page, Help opens to the sections on tools. There is also a list of online help URLs, e-mail help addresses, and a toll-free telephone support available on every Help page, so that if you still can't find the answer, you are welcome to try other areas of support. You can even send feedback on the Help file itself. Unfortunately, telephone support is only available Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST, so if you have a critical problem on the weekend, you'll have to send an e-mail.

Conclusion
Vipre is a worthy addition to a crowded antivirus field. Sunbelt Software says it will continue to develop CounterSpy as a standalone antispyware product. Future releases of Vipre will probably include Sunbelt Personal Firewall code. However, Sunbelt Software is shying away from calling the resulting product a security suite.*

Microsoft announced system requirements for Windows 7

Microsoft announced system requirements of the Release Candidate for Windows 7. Also the system requirements for RC will be the same as for final versions of the Windows 7.

The system requirements for Windows 7 are not so high. For example, users who have already upgraded to a Windows Vista-tailored machine will not need to accommodate for Windows 7.

So if you want to install newest operation system from Microsoft your computer should be powered by 1GHz or faster 32-bit(x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor. Also you should have 1 GB of RAM (32-bit)/ 2 GB of RAM (64-bit), 16 GB free space of available dick space. Your machine must support DirectX 9 graphics device with Windows Display Driver Model 1.0 or higher.

But if you want to install Windows 7 XP Mode you should have really powerful machine. It includes powerful processors, a big capacity disks, powerful video cards and 4 GB of RAM.

Forex Trading Software will help you make both ends meet

Looks like on-line gamers are moving to different, more serious stuff these days because of the financial crisis that is going on. If seriously they probably don’t but anyway it could be the truth that Forex Trading is so popular these days because of the tough economic conditions. Why have gamers emerged in my mind? Probably because on-line currency trading via Forex is not any less exiting or thrilling than a quest scenario. Forex Trading Software in hands of a person who has even a smallest insight into world of financing becomes a powerful tool not mentioning professionals or even teams of benefit aimed enthusiasts.

The reason why Forex Trading Software gains popularity is that it does most brokers’ work. Forex charts alone can give a solid piece of information. But currency trading is not limited with charts of course. There are plenty of other features in the CMS. For instance the most powerful are availability of all technical indicators, risk manage, Dow Jones news, etc. Most of user’s helpers are customizable so one wouldn’t suffer from a flow of irrelevant information.

The software package itself is easy to install. 5.5 MB download was flawless and the system requirements are incomparably humble. All this makes me think that with all the knowledge resources hidden in the Web more people will be better off with Forex.

Trend Micro AntiVirus+AntiSpyware Review

Trend Micro's bread-and-butter security package provides protection from both viruses and spyware. AntiVirus+AntiSpyware is designed for home users and comes with a 100% money-back guarantee. Trend Micro says their software is quick to install and easy to use; read on for our take.

PRODUCT OVERVIEW
Trend Micro AntiVirus+AntiSpyware provides no-frills protection for the home user. The software is advertised to block unwanted changes to your computer and prevent computers from becoming infected with viruses. AntiVirus+AntiSpyware provides real-time protection by scanning files that are transferred, downloaded, or attached to email. The software updates itself automatically.

Trend Micro’s installation starts with double-clicking the installer file from the company’s website. After accepting the license agreement, users must enter the serial number provided to them; directions are provided to locate it.

The next prompt allows users to choose from a regular or custom install; we chose the former, since that is what most will opt for. After clicking next, the software is installed; this took about five minutes on our test PC.

Next is activation, which requires navigation through several prompts.

Users must create an account with Trend Micro in order to activate their software. Trend Micro is the only anti-virus software package I tested that requires users to do this.

Installation and activation are now complete. The process takes about ten minutes to perform, which is slightly longer than other suites I tested due to the lengthier activation process.

PROGRAM INTERFACE
Trend Micro AntiVirus+AntiSpyware has a simple interface; there are relatively few options that can be changed, which is a positive from the average user’s point of view. Information is displayed very clearly without any unnecessary statistics. A navigation bar on the left displays categories and the selected category is displayed in the larger right pane. I did not care for the “Upgrade to Pro” button in the navigation bar – I already purchased a product so seeing an ad for another is like getting a new computer loaded with unwanted software. It is a minor detail only, however.

It was easy to see the software wanted my attention when I opened it for the first time; the “Not yet updated” information message at the top was quite obvious. Clicking on “Update Now” brought up the manual update window and started the process:

Trend Micro updates itself automatically and without user interaction; I performed this process to see how it was done.

After the update, the “Not yet updated” message was replaced with “Protected”:

In the Controls category, users can change protection settings and manage exceptions. Custom scans can be set up and scheduled and files in quarantine can be viewed here.

The Settings category displays additional settings; this is where non-protection related preferences can be set, such as those pertaining to updates and security warnings.

One setting worth noting is the "Trend Micro Data Network"; this is Trend Micro’s version of what other anti-virus providers have – a worldwide network of computers running the software. Trend Micro does submit information to a central network, but none of it is personally identifiable and is used for protection purposes.

Trend Micro’s interface has only one display mode; there are no basic and advanced versions as with other anti-virus products. The software designers did a good job of including all the necessary information and settings yet keep the interface clean and simple.

IN USE AND EFFECTIVENESS
Trend Micro AntiVirus+AntiSpyware remained in the background and did not interfere with Internet browsing or email. Updates are performed silently and in the background.

I tested the effectiveness of AntiVirus+AntiSpyware by using several virus files from Eicar.org, an IT security website. The four files provided for download, which have different extensions including .com, .zip, and .txt, contain viruses. Please see the test description for extensive information on the tests. Good antivirus software should detect the files as threats.

I downloaded the files to a location and then scanned them; Trend Micro AntiVirus+AntiSpyware successfully detected all four as malicious and promptly quarantined them with no further action required by the user.

Information on the threats is found in the Quarantine section of the program, under the Controls category.

While Trend Micro detected and dealt with the threats, I would have liked to have seen the software take a more aggressive stance on protection. Other anti-virus solutions we tested detected the files immediately and denied us from even downloading them.

PERFORMANCE IMPACT
We evaluate the performance impact and system resource usage of using antivirus software in three ways:

1. Overall system performance measured before and after installation using PCMark05, a system benchmark suite
2. Memory footprint
3. Time it took to perform a full system scan

Our test system is an Acer Aspire 5735-4744; it has the following specifications:

* Intel Pentium Dual-Core T3200 (2.0GHz/1MB L2/667MHz FSB)
* 2GB DDR2-667 RAM
* 160GB 5400RPM Fujitsu hard drive
* Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit, stock install with all updates and Search disabled
* Atheros 802.11 Draft-N wireless

Overall System Performance Impact measured with PCMark05
Prior to installing Trend Micro AntiVirus+AntiSpyware, the notebook had the following performance:

After installing the software, I ran the benchmark again:

The performance decrease is relatively small, only 6.25 percent. This is slightly more than other anti-virus solutions we tested, but the difference is not significant. A performance decrease of 6.25 percent would be unnoticeable during daily use; our test PC felt just as snappy with Trend Micro as without.

Memory Footprint

The Task Manager reports Trend Micro using only 2MB of memory; I was unable to determine exactly how much memory it used. However, our system memory usage did not change much at all so it is safe to conclude that Trend Micro is light on memory, which is a good thing.

Time it took to perform a full system scan

A full scan of our test system’s hard drive containing 37GB of data took 29 minutes. This is significantly longer than Kaspersky at 15 minutes 40 seconds, but faster than McAfee, which took over 30 minutes.

CONCLUSION
Trend Micro AntiVirus+AntiSpyware provides satisfactory protection for the home user. It successfully detected viruses in our testing and promptly quarantined them. I do wish the protection offered was more pro-active; some anti-virus solutions we tested detected the test virus files before they were even downloaded; Trend Micro did not. On a positive note, I liked how the software was non-intrusive and remained in the background; updates are automatic and silent. The program’s interface is simple yet attractive and easy to navigate. System performance impact was negligible and did not noticeably slow our test PC down. Overall, we find no reason to fault the software since it performs as advertised, and give it our recommendation.

Pros:

* Successfully detected and dealt with threats
* Simple interface
* Non-intrustive, remains in the background
* Automatic updates
* Minimal system performance impact

Cons:

* Not as pro-active as other anti-virus solutions
* Virus scans take longer than competing anti-virus solutions

Easier to Work With File Extension PPS

Four associations, including Microsoft PowerPoint, ESRI's ArcView, Corel's Paint Shop Pro, and Personal Producer Storyboard have known the File Extension PPS. PowerPoint software is the most often used to display a slide show. format of this file only applies to Office 2003 and previous versions. File Extension PPS identical with the format. Ppt, such as. And Ppsx. Pptx the same

File Extension PPS can also open the damaged file. such as Office 2003 that contains the bug so that can not be used to open the project that contains the Office 2000 clip art, including a slideshow. Microsoft has now issued updates to fix this error, so that users who find this error should visit the official company website and apply all updates. PowerPoint presentation is also very vulnerable to viruses. the user is recommended to always scan the files PPS obtained from sources outside before opening it.

Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer is a free software that can play File Extension PPS, almost the same with software PowerPoint slideshow. OpenOffice.org, a free and open source from Sun Microsystems and the company can edit the File Extension PPS. there is also another program that can view it. File Extension PPS including PowerPoint slide show Viewer ActiveX Viscom Software, PowerPoint Viewer OCX, and others.

program is a package geographic information to create, analyze, manage, and display geographic information. File Extension PPS ArcView in a file that is associated with the process of determining the code that is used to manage different types of data available on the project. Paint Shop Pro also use the File Extension PPS program, in this format for exclusive pictures. Paint Shop Pro is a vector-based graphics program that acquired by Corel from JASC software.

unfamiliar with the new file extensions that are installed on the operating system ?

At this time have many files that appear extensions diverse, too many of us who do not know the file type. Software that one can help us cope. File Extension M4V is a software file that you can find out the file, we often find that the film even extensions DivX, Xvid, and Nero Digital.

File Extension M4V are part of the MPEG-4 audio and video coding standard, made by the ISO / IEC Moving Picture Experts. features standard MPEG-4 compressing without reducing the quality of the file. File Extension M4V Part 2 standard and serves as a container file format for MPEG-4 raw, just focus on video compression. While representing only the low-definition video such as television broadcasting. In addition to video, File Extension M4V format files can also contain other visual data.

Video companies such as the library or movie theater to use the normal file DivX, Xvid and Nero Digital. File Extension M4V can also be played in media player software such as Apple iTunes and QuickTime Player, RealPlayer and Media Player Classic. Many portable devices are also available that can play File Extension M4V format , including the Apple iPod, iPhone and Microsoft Xbox 360 video game console and Zune portable media player. Very easy to use and simple in the running.

Save Your File While Sent Message Via Email

Hai all my friends, I was here and I was bring god info to you, I m sure it will useful for you all. Do you ever hearing email encrypted? If you never hear it I will tell it for you. If we wan sent file via email that secret actually we can do it. Know we should knew File Extension P7M, because with it we can sent file encrypted via email. It is very needed for business world. The encrypted email will show the header info but only the blank page. We can sent any data via email which encrypted and it is can be encrypted there are standard text, images, databases, PDF documents etc. we should set up your email client properly, or use a web mail service which supports smime.p7m. In order to we can send or read file that encrypted.

With File Extension P7M or on generally it call smime.p7m we can save our file that secret, example if you have connection with some company and you want sent file secret so use smime.p7m is very god. After you receive file massage so you a copy of their certificate to import into your email client. When you receive an email from your contact, your email client will compare the information in your certificate with the one used to send the email. If they match you'll be able to see the text of the email along with any other attachments.

Actually creating encrypted email is not too difficult, although you will have to either obtain or create your own certificates. service like the Personal Mail, Thawte Certificate, you can download With File Extension P7M a certificate free of charge after answering a few simple questions. After downloading, import the certificate into your mail client. Now you can easily sent emails and compose them encrypted to whomever you will sent.

A Faster Web Browser - Safari 4 Beta

This month is full of launches and there is one more pleasant release: now Internet resources have become available much faster than earlier with the new Safari 4 Beta from Apple. Its launch was announced on Tuesday, but this web browser has gained controversial opinions. I want to share with you my own experience. It should be mentioned that Safari 4 downloads sites much faster than its predecessor Safari 3. As the manufacturers claim, it is due to the new Nitro Engine. While it shares some features with other web browsers, Safari 4 has some outstanding characteristics that I liked mostly.

Firstly, Top Sites, additional option of the browser, allows seeing the most frequently visited sites and, moreover, presents up to 24 of them just on one page. The most interesting feature of the Safari 4 is that you can easily find out which sites have changed since your last visit. If there is a star on the upper corner, it means there have been made modifications. The shortcoming of the Top Sites is that it is designed for mouse and you will not be able to use your keyboard to open a site page.

Another feature I liked, is Cover Flow, which enables revisiting and presenting sites as they looked when you viewed them for the last time. A related option, Full History Search allows finding any visited website by just typing a few words from the page looked for. I tried it and received the desirable result.

In general, Safari 4 Beta is not much distinguished from other web browsers. Of course, it has features that are not characteristic to Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, but one of my friends, who uses Safari 4 Beta, has been unsatisfied with its Chrome-like design and he does not like that the tabs are on the top. However, it is not a problem with everyone if you remember that you can create new tabs by clicking the + button in the upper-right corner of the Safari window and manage tabs by dragging them to the new place.

I am satisfied with the work of Safari 4 Beta, even despite its several shortcomings. I use it on Windows XP and Safari has a familiar look featuring accustomed title bar, borders, and toolbars.

TuneUp for your iTunes

TuneUp is an iTunes software that uses Gracenote database to fix incorrect music meta data. It plugs right into iTunes to automatically clean your incorrectly labeled music. It finds your missing album cover art, it lets you know when your favorite bands are performing in concert, and provides you with the best music content on the Web.

"Your music's new best friend" Available for both Mac and PC.

After you've installed TuneUp and logged in / registered, you'll notice it has 4 tabs : Clean, Cover Art, Now Playing, and Concerts.
Clean Tab:
Drag and drop 'dirty' tracks from iTunes onto TuneUp to start cleaning them. What qualifies as a 'dirty track'? Anything with missing metadata or artwork.
On average, TuneUp will correctly identify about 85-90% of your music library. Here are a few strategies to quickly find your most troublesome tracks:

- Sort by track name, artist, or album and then scroll to songs that are missing that information
- Search for tracks labeled "Track", "Untitled" or "Various"
- Switch to cover flow/grid view and drag anything that's missing cover art into TuneUp

"Matches" are 99% correct. "Likely Matches" are 80-90% correct on average. For each album, click the drop down arrows at left to see a track-listing and album art options.
Not sure about the song’s original info? Click the play button next to a track to hear it and see its original info in iTunes.
When you're happy with it, hit save.

Cover Art Tab:
Cover Art displays possible matches for every song missing cover art in your library.
Hit save next to any cover art you want to keep.
Click an album to see 4 possible matches, select your favorite one, then hit save in the top box to save that cover to your album.

Now Playing:
Now Playing presents the web’s best content for any playing track. Find your favorite song in iTunes and hit play; TuneUp automatically displays related music videos from YouTube (click the video play button to watch them within TuneUp), upcoming local concerts by that artist, artist news, Amazon song and album recommendations, and eBay merchandise.

Concerts:
Use concerts to see which bands in your collection are coming to town and buy tickets to the show.

Additionally, TuneUp has analyze, undo, and purchasing functionality, but the simple steps above are the easiest way to get on your way to a much cleaner music collection...

Amazon launches Kindle 2

Amazon, one of the largest online shopping companies, made an interesting release November 2007. It was an electronic reader device, made using new technology for text display - E-Ink. At the time of its launch, amount of electronic reader devices based on E-Ink was not as big as of today, and this type of display had a great WOW factor. We have already reviewed first generation of Amazon Kindle, so if you're interested you can read about it here. Why would we remind it? Because it is time for Amazon to launch the new, improved version of its E-Ink reader - named Kindle 2. What should we expect from the second iteration of Amazon's portable book reader?


While first model was pretty innovative for the times it entered the market, you would expect the same situation with its successor - and you will be totally right! Kindle 2 looks and feels much more modern than its predecessor. It is almost unbelievable thin - its thickness is 0.36 inches, which is almost as thick as most magazines. It has a rounded edge design and tapered back like iPhone and iPod Touch use - new design fashion, or just a move towards better usability? Anyways, it feels much more slim and comfortable to use from now on. Overall, design was greatly improved. Kindle 2 now looks like a slim and modern tablet device, not like a white behemoth from the 90's with many rough edges like the first one. The button placement is also a great step forward; 5-way navigation controller makes this navigation a lot easier and intuitive. Battery life was also improved; it now has 25 percent more capacity - which means approximately two weeks of reading on one battery charge. Of course, it all depends on how often you read, so these numbers may vary.

On the hardware side, there also are many improvements. While Kindle supported only special EVDO wireless networks, Kindle 2 can use widely growing 3G networks for connectivity. In less than 60 seconds you'll have ordered book right on your device and no need for searching Wi-Fi hotspots. Of course, books must be purchased on the Amazon online book shop first. Speaking of this shop, they have over 230,000 of books in different genres, many newspapers and magazines - all this variety of literature can be easily accessed via 3G network. Amazon's politics on wireless service include no wireless bills at all - Amazon pays for your 3G connection (maybe price of unlimited wireless plan is included in the Kindle 2 price). All of the purchased books are stored at the Amazon's servers, so you don't need to have them all on the Kindle - you can always re-download them later. However, why would someone delete a book when with 2GB of internal capacity Kindle 2 can hold up to 1,500 books at a time?

Some can ask, why would they need space for 1,500 books loaded? 2GB is a huge amount of capacity for text books. But it makes sense when the new feature of Kindle 2 comes in - audio books support. It has 3.5mm headphone slot, so any headphones will do. Audio books can be quite big, so 2GB will not be enough for storing 1,500 of them - however, if you can always re-download them from Amazon, why you'll need for storing them all in one place? Another interesting implementation of audio-out feature is Text-to-Speech function. It gives a choice between reading text by yourself, and listen how Kindle 2 reads it for you. Of course, automatic text reading cannot be better than usual human-made recording, but if you want to listen to your favorite book while on a go, or your eyes need some rest - it will be the best option.

Of course, this device has its flaws. Due to its strict dependence on Amazon services, it can be used only in USA. Emerging from the first sentence, almost all books available on Kindle is in English, so this device will be useful to the English-speaking audience only. Another downside of this device is inability of using storage cards to expand its internal memory - some users will have 2GB of internal memory not enough for their tastes. However, taking in consideration that first Kindle was a successful product, its successor has all chances to become a bestseller. It is announced to launch in 24 February, 2009, estimated price 359 dollars.

Windows 7 Beta review

Shortly after Windows Vista launch, first gossips about intensive work on a new OS appeared - codenamed Windows Vienna. Seeing the blast that Windows Vista made in delivering completely new user interface, compared to XP, everybody thought that next Windows will have even more differences and will be completely revolutionary. Years passed, Microsoft released first Service Pack for Vista, renamed Windows Vienna to Windows 7 and we all started to wait for the first information about new OS. Now, when Windows 7 Beta is publicly available, we must say that it IS a big step forward: not revolutionary (like Vista after XP), but evolutionary.

After all piles of garbage that were thrown at Vista during its lifespan, it is pleasing to see that Windows 7 is not a completely new OS - it is Windows Vista made how it was meant to be. In this review we'd like to describe some new features, compare it to the previous version, and warn users about possible bugs and glitches in Beta.

After Windows Vista launch, so-called "first screenshots of upcoming OS from Microsoft" appeared. Majority of them were fakes, some of them were just concepts. People started to think that Microsoft will totally revamp User Interface so it will be completely different, and many of them were shocked when first real screenshots hit the web. They were completely indistinguishable from Vista - UI was almost completely the same! There were many differences in the inside, but on the outside it wasn't different from Vista. To prevent people from disappointment, Microsoft launched big press conference, dedicated to the upcoming Windows 7, where all the features were carefully presented and explained. It created big rise of interest, many were anticipating announced "feature complete" Beta. Microsoft plans for admitting only 2.5 million of Beta testers were overthrown with huge amount of users interested in trying new OS, so they stopped the counter and released their Beta for everyone who wants to test it. Of course, we got interested in it too, so we installed it on our spare HDD. Configuration of our test machine is:

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 @ 2.53GHz
2 GB DDR2 RAM @ 1033 MHz
NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT 256 MB
Samsung HDD 230 GB SATA2

So, let's begin our test.

First impressions

After the installation process, which was fast (approximately 25 minutes), we noticed that Microsoft at last made an attractive Boot Screen. After the poorly done Vista loading bar, Windows 7 animations during the boot time are very pleasing. Modern OS must be modern in anything, so this change, while not so significant, shifts the impression from the OS to the positive side. After attractive animation, desktop showed in. After Aurora theme in Windows Vista, made in green / yellow colors, Microsoft shifted to the blue theme. Logon screen looks like water, with rays of light shining from the surface. Thoughts about water confirmed when default wallpaper showed in - it got a pretty fishy in its center. Famous SuperBar, one of the most hyped features of Seven is here, we'll return to it later. Aero effects are the same, same transparent glass window borders, same Windows Flip 3D animations. Icons look a little refreshed; they seem somehow less glossy and more serious. Overall, the UI speed was increased, Windows 7 feels much more responsive than Vista, on the same machine and in the same conditions. But what's new in the next installment of Microsoft OS compared to Vista?

New features

One of the most hyped and anticipated feature is Microsoft's evolution of Windows taskbar, where all open windows minimized to. Now it is called Superbar and it works similar to Mac OS dock. For better understanding, imagine that quick launch panel got combined with taskbar. You still have big application launch buttons, but when you open application, it minimizes into its button. If that application has several minimized windows, they will all minimize to one button, making button look like a pile of icons. Clicking on that pile will bring menu, very similar to that window thumbnails that was shown in Vista while hovering an item in taskbar, with a significant difference - you can close and activate windows by clicking on them. Hovering the mouse over one of them will bring that window to the front, making other windows fully transparent, and it will return to the previous state when mouse pointer leaves thumbnail's position. This feature is called Aero Peek and is very useful in deciding which window must be maximized, or, as name tells, for brief look on the page contents.

Other interesting function of Superbar is Jump List, quick menu that is accessed via right clicking an icon. It is unique to every application, and contains some useful elements, which can be selected before launching application. It can be the "recently opened" file list, or some special functions like history of visited web pages or quick access to bookmarks in IE8. Unfortunately, at this moment such jump lists are available only on the built-in applications like Internet Explorer, but it is only a matter of time before such lists will appear in other applications. Some of the applications, like Internet Explorer or Windows Explorer can display progress bars right on the icon, so user can always see the progress of downloading or copying. These functions improve the friendliness of user interface and greatly increase effectiveness of work.

System tray was also greatly reworked. From the pile of unneeded and useless icons it became a fully customizable panel. From now on, user can configure behavior of every icon, show it always or show only notifications. Unneeded icons hide in handy box menu, which is way more comfortable to use than old "arrow-styled" method.

In Windows 7 Microsoft introduced new way to organize windows on the desktop, which is called Aero Snap. It includes many functions, which make window management much more efficient. When user drags a window to the edge of the screen, transparent borders will show what position that window will take, if dropped. Dragging window to the right side maximize it to the right side of your screen, same with the left, dragging to the upper side maximizes window to full screen. Very handy when you need to compare something or when working with several open documents! Shaking the window while dragging it will minimize all other windows to Superbar - an interesting function, when you need to quickly hide all other windows except the one you work with.

Windows Sidebar, while keeping its name, is no longer a sidebar - gadgets are now a part of desktop, and can be placed everywhere on it. Of course you could do that in Vista too, but now they are completely standalone, and can be accessed by right clicking the desktop. Also, very useful feature of new gadgets - they are no longer minimized when you press "Show desktop" button or WIN+D. Unfortunately, not every Vista gadget will work in the new OS, some of them experience unpleasant graphics issues while some are not working at all.

Windows Vista added useful option for virtual folders in User folder - in Windows 7 they moved even further. Microsoft introduced Libraries, so every virtual folder is not a single folder anymore, but a compilation of folders you like. At last they do not limit user to using only one folder for music and one for video - now you can make compilations from whatever folders you like, which leads to greatly increased content management.

Other convenient feature of Seven is Home Group, tool that simplifies network sharing of media files. With it enabled user can easily manage what content should be accessible from other network computers, and what permissions to give. Of course, it can be done manually, however it is much easier with automated tool. It also protects user from accidentally leaving security holes in his network, so only multimedia folders will be shared. Speaking of network features, Windows 7 also simplifies selection of Wireless networks, which are now easily accessed right from network tray icon.

Another hugely hyped feature of Windows 7 is Device Stage, a useful tool to manage external devices. Unlike to previous Windows versions, where external devices needed some third party applications to be recognized in Windows, this time all that work should be done inside the OS. With the especially designed drivers, it should be possible to work with every of your devices in one especially designed for that device window. Microsoft representatives gave an example with mobile phone, which was recognized by Device Stage and had its own control window, which showed basic information about the device (battery state, signal strength) and all the actions that can be made with it, i.e. synchronization etc. Let's hope that every manufacturer will support this feature, because it seems very useful and interesting.

One of the most annoying features in Windows Vista was User Account Control, aka UAC. It was announced like one of the main features of Vista, but it turned out to be a real pain for the users. It asked your permission for doing almost everything, including going to Control Panel or installing / uninstalling applications. It was intended for security purposes, and it indeed helped to make working with PC safer, but many users turned it off because it annoyed them. Folks in Microsoft understood that, and improved UAC a bit. Instead of on / off switch as before, it has a slider that adjusts the "security meter" from total paranoia to complete shutdown. There are four positions, so you can carefully adjust this level for every user.

Interesting option appeared in the User Management, called Safeguard PC. It can be used on simple User accounts by checking the appropriate checkbox. After that, if this user makes some changes during his session, after log off all files and settings will be restored to initial state - very useful for small children that may mess up your computer accidentally changing some options.

Interface and appearance improvements, while some are major, like redesigned taskbar, others are minor, but noticeable. Menus in Control Panel are sliding in and out, which makes it feel way smoother than on Vista. "Computer" screen has an useful option to hide all empty drives, so multi-format card readers will not make a huge list of empty drives - they will appear only if card is inserted. At last that useful Remaining space colored bar show the remaining space on removable drives too, not only on hard disks - very strange that they haven't done it earlier, now it seems much more logical. Other minor improvements were made to the Customization menu, which now is tuned to make customization way easier than on Vista. Some will find useful new wallpaper slide-show feature, which can change wallpapers from selected list in a set time intervals. Good side of all this is that all customization functions, like theme, wallpaper, screensaver and sound scheme settings are brought in one place. Overall the looks of new OS feels much more polished than on the Vista, and this is a very positive sign - Microsoft at last gave attention to the small details, which, when combined together, influence the overall impressions about the OS.

Found bugs

In the process of our testing we found several bugs and glitches, some of them are simply annoying, some were a little more serious. Amazingly, no critical bugs were found - system showed very good stability for the first Beta. In any case, we would list them, to warn all possible users of Windows 7 Beta about them.

The most significant bug is hidden inside the Windows Media Player. If your MP3 files have images written in tags, such as Album Art, WMP chops the first 5 seconds of the file. Unfortunately, this change cannot be undone, so backup your library before synchronizing it with Media Player. Shortly after first reports about this problem showed in, Microsoft released the KB961367 hotfix for this problem, so it is already fixed.

Fortunately, other bugs are much less critical as never so destructive as the first one. If UAC is disabled, gadgets are not working - they work only in Administrator account. So if you use User account and you hate UAC, the only solution is to adjust the UAC level so to the second position, leaving it working on the lowest setting possible. Or wait for MS to fix it in final version; it's all up to user.

Another small and insignificant issue is the size of context menu, which sometimes gets very wide if some context menu options have images. Customization menu sometimes hangs when opening folder with many pictures in it, and sometimes themes are "stuck" so only system reboot will fix them. There exist some other small glitches, but they don't deserve to be reviewed as they are very insignificant.

Conclusions

It is amazing that the amount of critical bugs in Beta is minimal, previous Betas from Microsoft suffered from many critical errors and were very unstable. This time Microsoft did a good job in releasing polished Beta version that is working faster than stable version of Vista - even in the same conditions. Of course, not all software is compatible with Windows 7, however due to it using the same kernel as Vista, almost every program that worked in Vista can be launched in Windows 7 - directly or with help of Compatibility Wizard. In the process of testing we found that almost all software worked, problems occurred with drivers and hardware-based applications only. Developers will need some time to release Windows 7 compatible drivers and programs, and this is normal - all the hard work will be done before the public release of Final RTM version. It is curious that Windows 7 will work on every PC that supported Vista and won't ask for an upgrade, it works better than Vista on the same hardware - amazing results, Microsoft! For now, we have an excellent example of how people should learn on its mistakes - Windows 7 looks and feels like a very polished Windows Vista. It delivers many new features that make the work with OS pleasant quick and comfortable. So let's wait until the end of 2009 to see the final version of this interesting OS.

A new iPhone case & app or a gadget for handicapped as a New Year gift from InVision?

The month of December is a part of year when everyone seems to loose their minds more than anywhen. Remember the recent Black Friday tragedy at the Wall-Mart when people got so horny about fancy commercials and discounts? Well, firms do try to attract customers before they spend their money on New Year gifts and presents. But not all of vendors try to be as trendy as possible in this part of year. InVision is the one who has just finished probably the most generous gadget for Apple iPhone. iPhone now has become more then ever available for use as a smartphone for people who have eyesight disabilities.

Literally it is not a gadget itself and is not even a device so to say. What InVention made for sight handicapped people is a iPhone app that works in tandem with a special case for iPhone 2.0. The case covers all the iPhone very neatly so the engraved letters of the Moon Type were just in the place. And iPhone software from InVision makes it switch the buttons from their usual place to more comfortable one for Moon Typing. The app doesn't effects any of iPhone functions even with the latest firmware 2.2 as far as we know.
But there still is a room for doubt in how successful this particular app would be. I mean if it really works, it will have its certain demand, but developing this sort of apps for iPhone isn't that easy because of the considerable changes in interface and several changes in operating system, which is not what Apple likes to be done to their smartphone.

Bit Torrent downloader gadget

If you are connected to the Internet and use it often, you probably heard of Bit Torrent technology. It makes downloading big files, such as movies or games, much faster: you download file not from server, but from every user who already has this file. It became very popular, and almost any recent movie or TV episode can be found in Bit Torrent network right after its appearance. Still, you will need to reencode downloaded files and burn them to aDVD to watch them. But this nuisance can be avoided now, with help of this cool gadget!

MyKa is a nice looking white boxy, which is capable of removing the need in reencoding videos you downloaded to watch them - you will be able to watch them on TV right after they finished downloading! It has a full set of AV out ports from composite and S-Video to HDMI, and users can connect to this gadget via Wi-Fi or LAN either. Two USB ports at the back give you the ability to expand its storage capacity, if built-in HDD of 80, 160 or 500 GB are not enough for you.


Bit Torrent software is already installed, and the box runs completely on Linux. Moreover, of course it can hook up with the PC to be able to access downloaded content from your computer.

This gadget can be used not only for video playing function, it can do a huge help when you want to download a whole season of "Lost" or "Prison Break" but don't want to sleep with your PC on. It will quietly do its job, and will be able to broadcast it when it is finished downloading. In addition, you will never have to worry about your share ratio - just keep MyKa working and your ratio will always be in good state.

The only question left is legitimacy of Bit Torrent networks, but let us leave it out of this article. The price for this gadget is set from 299 dollars to 459 dollars