Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Review of Windows Vista






A small improvement with a big price






Windows Vista looks better than Windows XP.  That's its only major advantage.  Apart from that, searching for files and programs with a mere click on the Start button is nice, and Microsoft also throws in the ability to search from any window.  The only other notable thing about is its price: $120 and up for versions featuring the better looks.



Rated 2/5 on Jun 27 2007 by Coleman Foley

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Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Review of Windows Media Player 11







Good media player with a touch of style








Windows Media Player 11 matches iTunes' key features--such as search results appearing as you type your query, and album art-- but puts them in a more intuitive package.  The play/pause button is the size of a coin.  The close, maximize and minimize buttons are larger too.  These little touches make the program a little more enjoyable to use.  It arguably looks a little better than iTunes, too, rounding out its set of slight improvements to Apple's winning formula.




Rated 4/5 on Jun 26 2007 by Coleman Foley

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Review of Mozy Remote Backup







Slow online storage








Mozy automatically backs up files and folders you choose, at times you would like it to--such as when you are not using your computer.  It is fairly easy to set it up for the first time, as it automatically selects the My Documents, My Music folder, and others for backup, but you have to navigate a Windows Explorer-like file tree to choose other files and folders you want backed up. 

Then the wait begins.  Mozy moves your files to a safe location--but very slowly.  Sometimes the process fails altogether. You can pay nothing to back up 2 GB, or $5 a month for unlimited space.





Rated 3/5 on Jun 26 2007 by Coleman Foley

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Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Review of Google Desktop






Solid Overall; A Boon to Widescreen Users








Google Desktop gives you a sidebar, an area at the edge of your screen where you can place a clock, a calendar, and more. The analog clock makes checking the time easy. The calendar is what you would expect, and it also displays upcoming events you have scheduled (using Google Calendar) in a list. You can search your computer using the search box. If you don't want to use the sidebar, you can tuck the search box at the bottom of the screen and get rid of the rest of the gadgets. The search returns results faster than Windows' Find feature does. This is useful for finding and playing an mp3, or finding a program without searching through the Start menu. Overall, the program is very useful, especially if you have a widescreen monitor, because then you can take advantage of the extra space at the edge of your monitor to view data you choose.




Rated 4/5 on Jun 20 2007 by Coleman Foley

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Monday, June 18, 2007

Review of Google Reader







Top-of-the-line Feed Reader








Google Reader aggregates RSS feeds.  Adding feeds is easy, and navigating them is a joy. You can view all items, or only those from a specific website.  While viewing an item (a summary of a story) in a feed, you can press j to move on to the next item, k to return to the previous item, or s to star the item.  Starring is handy; it's like bookmarking, but doesn't require a toolbar, so you can use it at any computer.  You can share items, too, by emailing them or putting them at a URL Google Reader provides.  This URL will display all items you share.  You can also embed your shared items in a blog.  

Google Reader is a lens to view the Internet through.  I do most of my reading on the Internet through Google Reader and find it an efficient way of browsing the news in any browser, from any computer.





Rated 5/5 on Jun 19 2007 by Coleman Foley


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Review of Google Calendar







Quick and Easy Calendar Software








Calendars are handy.  Web-based calendars are extremely handy, as Google Calendar shows.  Google Calendar is easy to use and simple, but one feature stands out; you can add events to the calendar by typing them in natural language.  For example, you could schedule walking your dog at 5 PM tomorrow by typing in "walk dog 5 PM tomorrow."  The event would then show up on your Google Calendar on the date you indicated, at the time you specified.  You could also set it to remind you by email and by text message. 

Additional options include adding public calendars, such as baseball teams' season schedules, to your calendar.   You can do this quickly.  Finally, if you use Google Desktop, you can download a Google Calendar gadget that shows your calendar, your agenda (your upcoming events) and allows you to add events using natural language as mentioned before.  This program is convenient, and a boon to web users.





Rated 5/5 on Jun 19 2007 by Coleman Foley

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Saturday, June 16, 2007

Review of Nokia N800




Nokia N800





Big-screen browsing on a pocketable device.








The Nokia N800 has a 4-inch touch screen, which enables you to do almost everything by touch. Just a few keys populate the left side of the device, including a back button and an application switching button. These are handy when you put the browser in full screen. Even when using this mode, though, text is sometimes too small, so you can press a button on top of the device to zoom in on a page. Next to that button is another one that toggles full screen mode. Another button allows you to zoom out from pages.
You will be zooming and scrolling for hours because the battery lasts a long time. You can also burn the battery up calling people, because the free Gizmo Project software, which you can download, allows calling, even to landlines and cell phones. Another useful service available on the N800 is Rhapsody, the subscription-based music streaming service. You must download and install the program to find and play music. The software is reasonably well-suited to use on a small touch screen-only device. The buttons are big enough to thumb through.
The touch screen experience is more frustrating on the browser, where it can be hard to aim your thumb well enough to land on links you want to hit. Pressing links is another issue altogether. You have to tap them quickly or they won't open. Otherwise, this device performs beautifully. Thumbs up.




Rated 5/5 on Jun 17 2007 by Coleman Foley

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