Ongo Review

February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you can’t start your day without reading your favorite publication and catching up on the latest happenings in sports, business, entertainment, politics, and other topics, you’re probably using an RSS reader. It’s even worse if you have your favorite sites bookmarked and you visit them one by one every single day. Both these practices are fine if you only have a handful of sources on your plate, but what if you want the best content available anywhere and you don’t have the time to comb through every single article of every single publication to get to it? This is the dilemma that Ongo hopes to solve.

What is Ongo?

Ongo is a service that offers you the best content that professional editors have picked. It collects all these stories in one place, giving you the easiest and fastest way to read what you need to read without wasting time in rummaging through dozens of content and sources everyday. The content presented by Ongo is without advertisements, which means you get to read your daily news without the clutter of ads.

What kind of sources are used by Ongo?

Ongo does not just get content from leading newspapers and publications from all around the world. It also gets content from popular magazine publications, blogs, and news wires. With over 100 newspapers and online sources, Ongo offers a comprehensive library of sources for you to choose from.

Do I always have to rely on Ongo’s professional editors to pick my content for me?

No. While you can enjoy the convenience of having professional editors giving you the best content out there, you can also customize your subscription according to your taste and preference. You can choose which publications you are subscribed to if feel you need to read entire publications. It’s all up to you and your preference.

What kind of stories do the editors actually pick for me?

The professional editors over at Ongo pick the best stories from the top publications so you can read all the stories you need to read at the moment, all from one place. The editors also collect the most popular stories and topics from around the world so you can get up to speed on what people are talking about at the moment.

What are some of the most notable publications available through Ongo?

When you sign up for a subscription for Ongo, you will get a default set of sources:

  • USA Today
  • The New York Times
  • The Washington Post
  • Associated Press
  • Reuters
  • Financial Times

You can add more sources to this base set of sources if you want. Other sources include Chicago Tribune, Engadget, ESPN The Magazine, Techcrunch, and more.

What are Ongo’s features?

Aside from giving you dozens of publications to choose from, Ongo also offers a comfortable reading experience thanks to its clean interface, which we have mentioned earlier that contains no ads. It has search, share, and save functions that enhances the reading experience further. There’s no need to browse endlessly to find the story you want thanks to the Search feature. You can easily share your favorite stories with your friends, colleagues, and family. Finally, if you don’t have the time to immediately read the story that has caught your attention, you can save it so you can read the story later.

What makes Ongo so special?

Unlike most services where you can read your news, Ongo makes sure that your reading experience is as comfortable as possible. This explains the absence of ads which makes most sites, blogs, and newspapers noy intuitive to read.

Ongo focuses on delivering content from the most popular and most trustworthy publications via a clean and intuitive interface. Customization and convenience rounds out the reasons why Ongo is the new and better way to consuming stories from different publications.

How do I access Ongo?

You have several options in accessing your Ongo stories. First, you can go to Ongo’s website and access your stories from there. For people on the go, Ongo’s mobile site offers the same convenient access to current top stories. All you need to access the mobile site is a smartphone. If you have an iPad, you can access Ongo through its iPad app. Whether you’re at home in front of your desktop computer or you’re enjoying the great outdoors, you can get access to the latest news at any time.

How do I subscribe?

Ongo offers a straightforward and intuitive subscription process that involves filling out account information and payment information. Just fill out the required fields, read the terms of service, pay, and you’re done.

How much is the subscription?

A one-year subscription for Ongo has the regular price of $49.99. Sometimes, they offer it for much less. As this article is being written, the 1-year subscription is on sale for only $0.99. The payment options are Credit Card and PayPal.

The Bottom Line

Ongo is recommended for both casual readers and people who can’t live without starting their day reading about the latest happenings in the world. Ongo claims that it is “One Smart Read” and from all angles, it is indeed.

Filed Under: ipad Tagged With: ,

Cyberlink Review

February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Cyberlink aims to be the leading company in the fields of digital entertainment as well as multimedia solutions. With products infused with innovative technology and ingenious creativity, Cyberlink offers the entire world an entire line of multimedia solutions like media players and media editing applications that do not just look good, but they perform well too.

What are the products being offered by Cyberlink?

Cyberlink products include Blu-ray disc software solutions, 3D media solutions, touch-enabled applications, and digital home entertainment solutions. Perhaps its most popular product is PowerDVD, an application that lets users play DVDs on their computers.

Where do Cyberlink’s solutions run?

Aside from the desktop computer and the laptop computer, there are Cyberlink applications that also run on TV sets, TV servers, media centers, and other parts of the digital home. While Cyberlink focuses on complete solutions that can run on different types of platforms, they also offer plugins to enhance your media experience in such platforms such as Media Center PCs.

For media playback, there’s PowerDVD and PowerCinema. For media editing and conversion, there’s, PowerDirector, PhotoDirector, PowerProducer, MediaEspresso, and more. For web cam effects, there’s YouCam. For media backups and burning, there’s Power2Go, PowerBackup, PowerRecover, PowerDVD Copy, and LabelPrint.

Cyberlink also offers applications for smart devices like PowerDVD Mobile and PowerDVD Remote, as well as touch applications like YouMemo and YouPaint. Anyway you look, Cyberlink has you covered in terms of multimedia viewing and editing whether you are using your trusty old desktop computer or your shiny new mobile smart device.

Where can I purchase Cyberlink products?

Cyberlink has a convenient and efficient online store where you can purchase its range of products. These products are grouped into appropriate categories according to their purpose so browsing and finding the right product for your needs is as easy as pie.

Can I try these products out first before I buy them?

You absolutely can. There are free trials for Cyberlink’s applications as well as free download to enhance your media consumption and creation experience such as tutorials and free software like BD Advisor which you can use to test your PC for Blu-ray compatibility.

What are the recommended products offered by Cyberlink?

While Cyberlink has a wide range of applications available, some of its most popular software include PowerDVD, PowerDirector, and Power2Go.

PowerDVD is the number 1 media player for DVD, Blu-ray and other types of media. You can experience different types of video content in stunning 3D and HD quality. This software features Auto Sync which lets you enjoy your media content all over your house whether you want to watch your videos on your computer, on your tablet or on your smartphone. It also has the media conversion feature which lets you convert videos, music and photos into formats that are compatible with mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

If watching videos is not enough for you and you want to create your own content, PowerDirector is here for your editing needs. With the TrueVelocity 2 rendering engine at its disposal, you can experience speeds that is considered the fastest in the world. 200,000 free effects can help you find the perfect mood and visual flair for your work while more than 2,000,000 members of DirectorZone can offer insight, samples, and valuable advice in creating your masterpiece. It includes pro-quality tools that make your creations look as though they were created by professionals, so whether you are a video professional or a budding student of the game, you have high quality videos at your disposal if you’re using PowerDirector.

When you are done getting inspiration from your favorite movies using PowerDVD and creating your own video masterpiece, you can then use Power2Go to burn it into CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and BDXL. Cyberlink Power2Go does not just let you burn media into storage devices, you can also use it for data recovery purposes. With the ability to back up your data onto discs, this application uses its system recovery tools to help you recover not just your data, but your entire system as well.

How much are these products?

When you’re done trying them out via their respective free trials, you can purchase PowerDVD 12, PowerDirector 10 and Power2Go 8 in different versions.

PowerDVD 12

  • Standard – $49.95
  • Pro – $79.95
  • Ultra – $99.95

PowerDirector 10

  • Deluxe – $69.95
  • Ultra – $89.95

Power2Go 8

  • Deluxe – $49.95
  • Platinum – $69.95

The Bottom Line

There are a multitude of free alternatives out there if you are looking for basic applications that will let you view and experience media, create your own works and back up your data. Some of them can even perform better than Cyberlink products in some ways, but if we’re talking about the total package and the quality you can expect, paid solutions are known to be the better option. Cyberlink may not be ideal for casual use, but if quality and speed is highly essential, its range of products is a keeper.

Filed Under: media players Tagged With: , , ,

12 New Apps for Your Facebook Timeline

February 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Facebook has announced their second wave of media apps that integrate seamlessly with the relatively new Facebook Timeline. The first wave of media apps that include Yahoo! News, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and The Independent has experienced success in the number of people using them. Quick adoption from other media companies followed suit thanks to this success. This new wave of apps include a combination of small and large businesses from all over the world. And now, let’s take a look at the new kids and see if which ones will eventually become regulars on our Timelines.

1. Buzzfeed

Buzzfeed has always been a source of content that we regularly see on Facebook so it’s a natural fit for the Timeline.

2. CBS Local

CBS Local New York and CBS Local Los Angeles provide local news for two of the most popular cities in the world.

3. Country Music Television

Country Music Television, or simply CMT, showcases the latest news and generally the best and brightest in Country music.

4. The Daily Show

Jon Stewart and his Daily Show crew never fail to make us laugh or at least chuckle, so having The Daily Show appearing regularly on people’s Timelines is a welcome development.

5. GetGlue

Aside from letting users announce which TV show or movie they are watching, which book they are reading, or which topic they are thinking about, GetGlue also rewards users with stickers, discounts, and the latest news on new releases. We can expect to see more of that on our Facebook Timelines in the coming months.

6. Huffington Post

As the self-proclaimed Internet Newspaper, we all know that Huffington Post news articles always litter our News Feeds, so it’s no surprise that it has joined the media apps brigade as well.

7. Mashable

For people who are into tech and social media news, one of the top content providers they rely on is Mashable. No surprises here either.

8. MSNBC.com

Like the Huffington Post and Mashable, MSNBC.com has always been a popular source for the latest news.

9. MTV News

It would be fun to get news about the actual music videos or at least music in general from MTV these days, but we can settle for general celebrity and entertainment news from their app.

10. Pixable

Pixable is not an app that you often hear about but with this Timelines integration, it’s possible that you will never stop hearing about it soon. It brings together the photos and videos from your Facebook friends’ profiles, so if you’re into that sort of thing, Pixable will make your day.

11. Sporting News

The aptly named Sporting News offers news, analysis and other exciting information related to — you guessed it — sports.

12. TODAY Show

It’s content from the gang over at the TODAY Show.

This bunch of content providers is a combination of entities looking to continue their already tight relationship with Facebook users and entities trying to find a new audience. The question, though, is if these social apps will actually make the Facebook experience better or more exhausting.

Filed Under: facebook Tagged With: ,

MOO Business Cards Review

February 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Business cards is the best way to tell people who you are and what you do in an efficient and effortless manner. You simply hand them out and just like that, you get the chance to introduce yourself to people. However, not any kind of business card will do. If you want to make an impression on people using your business card, you need a service like MOO to produce elegant and visually interesting business cards. MOO business cards are printed in a quality that tells people that you mean business and you’re not just there to simply hand out pieces of printed paper.

What can I do with MOO?

You can create MOO business cards using pre-made MOO designs or you can use your own to add a personal touch to your business cards. MOO designs range from simple and elegant designs to dynamic and unconventional ones. It’s all up to you to choose what design your business cards will use.

MOO offers an intuitive web interface that makes designing and ordering your business cards as effortless as possible without sacrificing quality and creativity. If you want to try out the service first without shelling out some cash or if you simply want to find out if you will like the quality of paper that MOO uses, you can order a free sample pack which will also be shipped for free.

How do I create and order MOO business cards?

You can create and order your own set of MOO business cards in three easy steps:

1. Choose your design. You can either pick from the large library of MOO designs or you can upload your own images or designs. How your business cards will look depends entirely on you.

2. Personalize your design. Personalizing your business cards involve providing your personal or professional details and picking the type of paper stock you want. You will have the chance to review your design and details before you order so you can be sure that your MOO business cards will turn out the way you wanted.

3. Purchase. Once you have finalized your design and details, you can now make your order. Your business cards will then be printed, packed and shipped by the fine folks at MOO.

What can I do with MOO business cards?

Aside from leaving a lasting impression, not to mention your contact details, you can also use MOO business cards as a form of a portfolio or a simple and elegant way to start conversations. Because you can use your own images like photographs, you can turn your business cards into a mini-portfolio if you’re a photographer or graphic artist. Your business cards can help you show off your work while also providing your contact information that will increase the chances of people hiring you.

Using your own design and images is also a great way to show people your personality along with your profession. This means you’ll always have a great conversation starter during parties, meetings and other types of gatherings.

Does MOO offer other printed products?

Aside from MOO business cards, you can also create and order postcards card holders, stickers, labels, and more. All of these products are printed on high quality paper and you can customize all of them creatively to reflect your personality and profession just like business cards.

MOO’s website also gives you design inspirations to you can get ideas if you are running out of good ones. It is designed to not only let you create and purchase business cards, but also to inspire you to explore other possibilities in terms of print, design and using both to display your personality and profession for all the world to see.

What are the paper stock options available?

You can have MOO business cards printed on either MOO Classic, which is 16pt thick stock with a smooth satin feel, or MOO Green, which 15.5pt thick paper that is perfect for color reproduction, not to mention it’s very eco-friendly.

What are the dimensions available?

MOO business cards come in final trimmed size, which is 3.30” x 2.16” or 84mm x 55mm, and full bleed size, which is 1039×697 pixels or 3.46” x 2.32” or 88mm x 59mm. The full bleed size is perfect for finished artwork.

How much are MOO business cards?

The rates for MOO business cards depend on how many business cards you want to order and the paper stock you want them printed on.

50 cards – Classic = $19.99, Green = $22.99
100 cards – Classic = $39.98, Green = $45.98
150 cards – Classic = $59.97, Green = $68.97
200 cards – Classic = $69.99, Green = $79.99

The Bottom Line

MOO business cards are created out of MOO’s quality paper stock and printing technology, and users’ creativity. The range of designs and types of business cards from MOO make the service an ideal place for people who need business cards whether they are regular businessmen or dynamic artists.

Filed Under: ecommerce Tagged With: ,

eFax Review

February 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

For years, we have relied on fax machines to send and receive documents. But as the years go by, we rely more on digital solutions like email and mobile applications to share on different types of documents. This digital revolution has made document-sharing faster, easier and more efficient, but fax technology is still widely used especially in office settings. To get the best of both worlds, you can rely on the online fax service called eFax.

What is eFax?

eFax lets you send and receive fax messages through your computer or mobile device, allowing you quick and easy access to fax messages in your office, home, or anywhere else. It also has the ability to archive faxes digitally, making it easy for you to keep records of your faxes efficiently and securely. This completely digital solution only requires you to have an email account, eliminating the need for paper, toner and fax machines. That means you no longer have to spend precious seconds waiting for your fax to go through.

How does one send faxes through eFax?

All you need to do to send a fax through eFax is compose an email, attached the document you want to fax and address it to the recipient’s fax numbers followed by “@efaxsend.com” and send. That’s it. The fax will now be sent to the recipient’s fax machine and you will get an email notification so you will know if it has been sent or not. The file formats supported by eFax are the following:

  • PDF
  • EFX
  • TIFF
These formats are also your options for receiving faxes. You can set which format you want to receive incoming faxes in by changing your account settings.

How does one receive faxes through eFax?

Receiving a fax through eFax is easier than sending it, which means it is as effortless as things can be. It only involves receiving an email in your inbox and opening the attachment. That’s all there is to it. Whether you’re receiving a fax from someone using a fax machine or someone who’s also using an online fax service like eFax, all you need to access the fax is to open your email inbox.

Does it require a fax number like normal fax machines?

Yes it does but you don’t have to worry about complicated procedures to acquire a fax number for eFax. The service actually includes your very own fax number which you can keep as long as you want as long as you’re signed up for the service. Clearly, eFax is a step up from traditional fax machines in every aspect.

How long does the fax archive last?

All the faxes you receive are stored online in your eFax account. This means you don’t have to rely on paper, folders and bulky storage areas to keep your faxes safe and secure. All your faxes are online and accessible from anywhere in the world as long as you have Internet access. The best thing about this is that this feature is available for as long as you are subscribe to the service.

How many incoming fax pages do users get?

Users can receive up to 150 incoming fax pages in a month, which is enough for average daily use in work environments. What makes this deal even better is that it’s free, so you get up to 150 incoming fax pages per month without paying extra.

Are users only allowed 1 email for this service?

No, users are allowed more than that. eFax allows 1 account to use up to 5 emails. This means at any given time, incoming faxes can be routed to at most 5 different emails at the same time. This is very useful in a team environment where multiple recipients means higher productivity.

How much is the subscription?

The monthly subscription for eFax is $12.95 per months which includes 150 free incoming fax messages and 150 free outgoing fax messages. Before you pay monthly for this service, you can try it for free. You can use eFax complete with 150 incoming and 150 outgoing fax messages for 30 days for free.

What if I need more than 150 outgoing fax messages?

You can still use eFax even if you require more than 150 outgoing fax messages per month. You can go to the eFax website to see the rates for each additional page that goes beyond 150. The rates rely on the destination country and how large the fax message is as long as they take less than 60 seconds to transmit. If the message is larger than that, the you will then be billed on a per minute basis regardless of how large the message is as long as it takes more than 60 seconds to transmit.

The Bottom Line

It make take some time before the fax machine is totally replaced by alternative means of document-sharing, but in the meantime, we can experience a quicker, more secure and more efficient way to send and receive faxes with eFax.

Filed Under: online fax Tagged With: ,

Hulu Plus Review

February 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

There’s a reason why there’s a “Plus” in Hulu Plus. It’s not the Hulu you’re used to. It gives you more movie and TV show selections as well as more ways to watch your favorite content. More and more people are depending on online services for their daily entertainments fix and we are seeing more and more content available online. This is why the bigger and better Hulu service of Hulu Plus is a very attractive option for entertainment fans.

What is the difference between Hulu and Hulu Plus?

While Hulu offers the 5 most recent episodes of hundreds of TV shows as well as thousands of movies, Hulu Plus goes further as it offers all current season episodes of hundreds of TV shows and thousands of movies, most of which have no commercial interruption. In terms of content, Hulu Plus offers more with less ads to interrupt your viewing experience.

In terms of quality, while Hulu Plus still offers standard quality content, it also offers some content in high definition when available. Quality is not the main difference between the two services, but it definitely sets one apart from the other especially if you are an HD afficionado.

While the number of available content is a major difference, the most notable one is how users can watch content. In standard Hulu, users can only watch content via their computers. For people who prefer to stay at home when watching their favorite TV shows or movies, this is not an issue. However, for users who want to get access to their content from almost any kind of device, Hulu Plus is the better choice.

Hulu Plus content can be accessed through computers, smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes, Blu-Ray players, smart TVs, gaming consoles, and more. This means whether you are in your living room or your bedroom or even at the park enjoying the nice day outside, you can enjoy a vast collection of content whenever and wherever you want.

What do I need on my computer to watch content from Hulu Plus?

In order to enjoy Hulu Plus videos on your desktop or laptop video, you need to be running any of the following operating systems:

  • Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or above
  • Macintosh OS X 10.4 or above
  • Linux

Your system must also have Adobe Flash Player installed (version 10.1.53.64 or above) and you should have a web browser with Javascript and Cookies enabled. Any of the following web browsers will do:

  • Internet Explorer 7.0 or above
  • Firefox 2.0 or above
  • Safari 3.0 or above
  • Google Chrome

Which TV shows are available on Hulu Plus?

Hulu Plus offers hundreds of shows from TV channels such as ABC, NBC, Fox, MTV, Comedy Central, and more. There are more than 400 TV shows available through this service and in total, there are more than 16,000 episodes just waiting for you to watch them. These shows range from the classic to the most popular current TV shows such as Modern Family, Glee, Family Guy, Community, The Colbert Report, The Office, and more.

Which movies are available on Hulu Plus?

Aside from hundreds of the usual movies you can watch on network and cable television, Hulu Plus also gives you access to exclusive titles from the Criterion Collection. The Criterion Collection is a series of important classic and contemporary films published in a higher technical quality than you can usually get from usual mediums. Having access to this series of movies is having access to some of the greatest films ever created.

Are all the videos in the Hulu Plus library available on all devices?

Unfortunately, no. Some content that are accessible through the computer are still not availble to be accessed on other devices such as smartphones and tablets. This involves licensing issues that the folks at Hulu are still trying to resolve. For now, the content you may want to watch on your smartphone may only be available on your desktop or laptop computer.

Is Hulu Plus ad-free?

No, Hulu Plus is not ad-free. Advertisements can be seen on Hulu Plus because they are a means to bring down the subscription cost for users, as well as compensate the content providers that contribute content to the service.

How much is the subscription fee?

Hulu Plus is $7.99 per month. You can start with a 1 week free trial and from there, you can move forward to a paid service or quit and stay with the free but limited Hulu service.

The Bottom Line

Hulu, as a free service, is enough to give users the chance to catch up on their favorite TV shows and enjoy movies during their recreation time. But for people who want more content that includes movies in high definition, Hulu Plus is a recommended upgrade.

Filed Under: streaming media Tagged With: ,

HootSuite Review

February 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you’re using social media simply to have fun, connect with old and new friends, or stroke your ego, there’s no problem in using the default interface for the most popular sites such as Twitter and Facebook. However, if your job requires you to go deeper into the social media experience, you would need something more efficient and powerful. You would need a social media client that lives on the web or on your desktop. One of the most popular ones is HootSuite, the leading social media dashboard.

What makes HootSuite ideal for using social media professionally?

Whether you are working for a big marketing or advertising company, or you’re running your own social media-related business, it is essential that you have the tools to monitor, analyze and of course use social media sites. HootSuite covers all of that with features that involve collaboration, engagement, analytics, and security, all built on top of social media services and platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

To help you in enhancing your audience engagement, HootSuite offers such tools as bulk scheduling, drafts, message assignments and search streams. This series of tools makes posting updates and messages quicker, easier, and eventually, much more effective compared to simply using the default features offered by social media sites.

In terms of collaboration, HootSuite is actually designed to address that need of teams to efficiently execute social media battle plans. Social efforts can be enhanced by adding members to a team and managing campaigns from a single dashboard with multiple users contributing content. This is what makes HootSuite ideal for companies with a dedicated social media team who do not want to consolidate individual efforts which can take a lot of time.

All your efforts would be for nothing is you can’t see and analyze results, which is why HootSuite offers a variety of social analytic report modules, including Google Analytics and Facebook Insights. It’s not just about executing campaigns by posting content as a group; HootSuite is also about tracking your campaigns and presenting reports in a clean and attractive manner.

Finally, with potentially several people working on a social media campaign on HootSuite, one of your primary concerns will naturally be security. You don’t have to worry about that since this web application offers different permission levels for team members, secure login, and a profile protection tool. This set of tools allow you share access to your social media assets without surrendering complete control over your most precious social media properties.

Which social media networks does HootSuite support?

While the core functionality of HootSuite lies on Twitter, it supports several other social media networks and services including Facebook, LinkedIn, Ping.fm, Foursquare, Mixi, WordPress, and MySpace.

Can I use it on mobile devices?

Absolutely. HootSuite has mobile versions which you can use on your iOS, Blackberry, and Android devices. You will still have total control over your social media campaign even if you’re not in front of your desktop or laptop.

Not all of these mobile HootSuite apps share the same set of features, though. The iOS version, for example, lets you check in to Foursquare and save geo-located searches. This duo of features can’t be found unfortunately on the other mobile apps for HootSuite.

What are the other nifty features of HootSuite?

HootSuite goes beyond the basic tools you need for running social media campaigns. It has RSS integration that lets you feed your blog content directly into your content streams on HootSuite. It has a customizable dashboard that lets you drag and drop columns of streams and tabs to better suit your needs. You can even change how HootSuite looks with themes. And finally, HootSuite has a built-in custom URL shortener that includes link stats and summary stats. These features make the whole HootSuite experience more comfortable, more efficient and even more fun.

Can I still use some of the Twitter features from the web interface that I love?

While not all Twitter features are available in HootSuite, this app still offers some of the most popular and useful features found on Twitter’s web interface such as Twitter Lists, Twitter Search, the ability to follow and unfollow users, viewing of user profiles and timelines, and of course, posting tweets. In fact, HootSuite adds a whole new layer of usability in terms of posting tweets as it allows you to save drafts of your tweets and even schedule them to be posted at a later time or date.

How much does it cost?

Everyone is welcome to use HootSuite for free but it does have limitations. The Basic plan, which is free, only lets you use 5 social profiles and 2 RSS/Atom feeds. You will also only get access to Quick Reports. This plan is supported by ads. If you want more power and control over your campaign, there is the Pro plan.

The Pro plan includes unlimited social profiles, unlimited RSS/Atom feeds, a free Enhanced Analytics Report, a free team member (additional team members are $15 each per month), Facebook Insights and Google Analytics integration, archive tweets, and the ability to opt out of ads. The Pro plan is $5.99 per month.

The Bottom Line

HootSuite offers casual social media users a set of tools that make their everyday social media conversations more engaging, but these people can live without the app. But for companies and social media teams, it offers way too much as a collaboration and social media campaign tool for them to simply pass up.

Filed Under: social media Tagged With: ,

Tribler: The File-Sharing Client That Will Never Die

February 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Back in 2009, a file-sharing application burst into the scene with little fanfare. Tribler was nothing more than another way to share files with friends and strangers, something that a host of other applications with a lot more users already offer. However, 3 years later, with file-sharing sites folding one by one thanks to increased anti-piracy efforts by the government and the giant corporations who claim to be losing millions of dollars thanks to online piracy, Tribler is looking to be the future of sharing files legally and otherwise.

How does Tribler work?

The researchers at Delft University of Technology developed Tribler as a decentralized BitTorrent network. Being decentralized means this peer-to-peer file-sharing application does not rely on torrent sites to search and download content like music files, videos, applications, e-books and more. It is a pure peer-to-peer network, which means users can skip the process of going to torrent sites, searching those sites’ indexes, and acquiring torrent trackers and download directly from their peers.

Can I still search torrents without torrent search engines and directories?

Yes you can. Tribler still lets you search for particular torrents but it does not get results from a centralized index of torrents. Instead, it searches directly in available peers for the content you are looking for.

Is it stable?

Since its debut in 2009, Tribler has never experienced downtime due to the simple fact that it does not rely on a central server or search portal. While its website can show limited capacity (as this post is being written, Tribler’s website is on minimal mode due to high traffic), the application itself lives on. For file-sharing aficionados, this eliminates the fear of losing the power of freely sharing files online. Even if all the file-sharing-related sites and services go down, and even if every torrent index in the world gets shut down, Tribler will still work. “The only way to take it down is to take the Internet down,” says the lead researcher working on the project.

What else can it do?

On top of being a peer-to-peer network completely independent of a torrent search portal, index or directory, Tribler also offers other useful features for download freaks including media playback powered by VLC. Other features of Tribler include the following:

  • Content recommendation based on collaborative filtering
  • Limited social networking
  • Upload capacity donation
  • Video-only searching
  • Video streaming (experimental)

While Tribler has a bunch of useful features geared towards building a community to enhance the file sharing experience, it is designed to be simple and easy to use, hence the basic user interface.

Which platform does it run on?

Tribler runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X machines.

The Bottom Line

With traditional file-sharing sites coming under threat of being shut down, people are starting to look for an alternative. Tribler, relying only on the community of file sharers itself, presents the most viable option today. While it is far from perfect, Tribler’s development team promises to constantly make improvements on the application, ensuring all of us that free exchange of information will indeed not die unless the Internet itself dies.

Filed Under: file sharing Tagged With: , ,

What’s New in Chrome 17?

February 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you’re a Google Chrome user, you probably love it for its speed, security and overall clean look. You’ll probably love it more with its new stable release, Chrome 17. The most notable improvements in this release involve security, which is always nice, and speed.

Speed Demon

You probably already know that one of the best things about Chrome is its speed whether its about starting up, loading pages or running applications. Search and navigation are two more elements where speed is noticeably fantastic.

In Chrome 17, speed is further improved thanks to page prerendering. This means even if you’re not done typing the website URL you want to go to on the Omnibox, Chrome is already loading some pages that you are likely to visit in the background. This happens when the URL you are typing autocompletes. Basically, once you hit Enter, there’s a great chance that you will see the page you want to go to instantly.

Security Savant

Chrome’s Safe Browsing feature has been protecting us from malware, phishing sites and harmful downloads since it was introduced. Now with Chrome 17, we get more security features. In addition to Safe Browsing’s continuously updated list of harmful websites, this feature now has the ability to scan the properties of webpages you visit and gives you a warning if it thinks the website is harmful. This means there is now a level of protection for harmful sites that are still not in Google’s list of websites with dangerous content.

Magnificent Mainstays

Of course, a lot of the good stuff users love about Chrome are still there like the relatively new feature that lets users sign in to Chrome. This feature allows users to store their bookmarks, themes, passwords and other information to the cloud so they can easily access them on another computer when they sign in to their Chrome account. Basically, you can use multiple computers in different places while still enjoying the comfort of how your Chrome web browser is set up.

Old favorites like the Incognito mode, the super useful Omnibox, Themes, tabs stability, easy access to the Chrome Store and integrated machine translation are still there. Aesthetically, it’s still your good old Chrome web browser but faster and more secure. This does not come as a surprise since Chrome is already praised as a very intuitive and really pretty web browser.

The Bottom Line

There may not be a lot of flashy new features and groundbreaking changes in Chrome 17, but we can all sleep soundly at night because of the fact that this stable release brings with it improvements in speed and security. At the end of the day, those are the two most important elements in a web browser that we all want and need.

Filed Under: chrome Tagged With: ,

PC Health Advisor Review

February 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

For PC users, it doesn’t matter how careful and smart they are in using their computers. They can hold off on installing unnecessary programs and they can use their computers as rarely as possible, but they can’t escape the inevitable — all PCs eventually slow down. Luckily for everyone, tools like PC Health Advisor satisfy all kinds of maintenance needs. Other maintenance tools focus on different elements of your PC and most of them are very good at what they were designed for. However, if you’re looking for a complete solution for every problem that may slow down or even worse, completely shut down, your computer, PC Health Advisor is a solid choice.

What can this program do for me and my ailing PC?

The main feature draw for PC Health Advisor is its ability to optimize your PC’s speed and performance. Everyone wants a fast PC so this is obviously the core feature you would want to see in your maintenance software. This feature is actually a set of tools that let users do all kinds of maintenance tasks such as monitoring running processes, managing Startup items, defragging the computer, and optimizing the Windows registry.

Another feature aimed at improving your PC’s performance is geared towards optimizing your hardware. This feature monitors your installed drivers and tells you when you need to update them. In addition to that, tit also assists you in applying the updates, making sure that your device drivers are always the safest and the latest available.

There are also tools that let you do more maintenance tasks such as cleaning browser history and adjusting Windows settings for optimal performance. There is even a tool for finding the right program to open files with certain file extensions. It’s not just a set of tools and features to speed up your PC using hardware and software solutions, but it’s also a set of assistant applications that lets you use your PC in a more efficient manner.

Can it also remove malware that is slowing down my PC?

Yes it can. As a complete PC maintenance software, PC Health Advisor is also capable of removing malware running in your systems processes. Your Internet privacy files are also cleaned by this program to ensure that your PC is secure as well as in a state of peak performance.

What are the minimum system requirements for me to install PC Health Advisor?

These requirements, while capable of letting you install and run PC Health Advisor, are the minimum. Higher system specifications will give you better performance and and responsiveness.

  • 20 MB of hard disk space for installation
  • Internet connection
  • Administrator privileges
  • A web browser like Internet Explorer 6.0

Each version of Windows from XP to 7 has its own set of requirements. For details, you can check out the complete list of requirements for operating systems at ParetoLogic’s website.

Won’t it be confusing with all the different tools?

Even with several tools available for different tasks, users can still easily access and use them whether they are new to PC maintenance or experts in the field already. The user interface of PC Health Advisor is designed to give users easy access to all the major features and tools of the application from a clean and intuitive home screen. This means once you have the program up and running, you will have a straightforward way of using the tool or feature of your choice without going through several sub-menus and doing several clicks.

How easy is it to use?

Aside from the intuitive home screen, PC Health Advisor is designed to be used in the easiest way possible. Notifications will be generated if the application detects something that needs your attention. It scans your computer for errors and threats with as little effort from you as possible. You can use it as a simple and straightforward tool in keeping your PC healthy but you can also dive into the different Windows settings through PC Health Advisor’s interface to tweak and adjust all the settings you want to change to achieve a faster and better performing PC. Basically, you can use it whether you’re a beginner or an expert.

What kind of support can I get if I purchase it?

Purchasing PC Health Advisor comes with free technical support that you can call upon whenever you hit a snag or whenever you just have questions about using the software. In addition to technical support, you can also sit back and relax when it comes to program updates as the program database is always updated with free program updates.

How much does it cost?

A 1-year subscription to PC Health Advisor is $29.97.

The Bottom Line

When your PC has already slowed down to a crawl, you have only 2 options: buy a new one or try to salvage it by optimizing its performance. While the second option sounds too much work especially for people who aren’t really technically inclined, it is actually not because of applications like PC Health Advisor. This application isn’t just for saving slow computers, though. It can also be used to maintain the current speed of your new PC.

Filed Under: pc Tagged With: ,
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