Posted on 30 January 2012.
The Bat! mail client has a lot of vital benefits and useful features that make your email experience simple and convenient. All these features perfectly fit any Windows OS. Moreover, The Bat! is the first and only email client Certified for Windows Vista by Microsoft Corporation. “Certified for Vista” logo guarantees the highest level of compatibil…
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Posted on 10 January 2012.
The Bat! mail client has a lot of vital benefits and useful features that make your email experience simple and convenient. All these features perfectly fit any Windows OS. Moreover, The Bat! is the first and only email client Certified for Windows Vista by Microsoft Corporation. “Certified for Vista” logo guarantees the highest level of compatibil…
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Posted on 06 January 2012.
Zoom Player is a very fast media player. Prior to Zoom Player, playing media files on the PC was either overly simplistic for the Power User or overly cryptic to the common user. Zoom Player tries to both simplify the playback experience for the common user, while giving the Power Users all the tools and interfaces they may require to manipulate th…
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Posted on 29 December 2011.
The Bat! mail client has a lot of vital benefits and useful features that make your email experience simple and convenient. All these features perfectly fit any Windows OS. Moreover, The Bat! is the first and only email client Certified for Windows Vista by Microsoft Corporation. “Certified for Vista” logo guarantees the highest level of compatibil…
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Posted on 08 December 2011.
More than anything, though, reading on a computer is nice because it’s a device you already have. Buying expensive hardware just to do one thing can be pricey, especially when computers can do pretty much everything those devices can (and more). As Mark once asked
Here’s a list of what I think are the best desktop eReaders out there. Be sure to check out the comments below to find out what software your fellow readers recommend.
Sometimes called the iTunes of eBooks, Calibre is the ultimate way to manage your collection on a desktop computer. It’s compatible with seemingly every known ebook format on the planet, and supports sending books to a wide variety of handheld ereaders and smartphones.
This program does too much for me to describe here, so find out all about Calibre in
Know this too, though – Calibre features a full-featured eBook reader as well as collection management. So if you want to manage and read your eBooks, Calibre is all you need.
Prefer using something in your browser? That makes sense. You might not be able to install software on your work computer, or you might switch computers regularly. Whatever your reason, you should check out
Google’s store offers thousands of titles for sale, and a wide variety of free books as well. A minimalist reader in your browser stays out of your way so you can do what you want to do – read.
Do you want to read in your browser, but have already downloaded the EPUB files you want to read? You’re in luck!
Upload your EPUB file so you can read it in your browser.
Do you already own a
Own a Kobo instead of a Kindle? Me too! Good news:
You can manage the books on your Kobo account, which can wirelessly sync with your device. Even if you don’t own a Kobo, however, this software is worth checking out.
Are you a Nook user? You should check out the
There you have it – the six best desktop eBook readers for your computer at home or work. Disagree with the list? Let me know, because I’m always willing to learn. I’ll be in the comments below, waiting to hear from you.
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Posted on 07 December 2011.
But after subscribing to and exploring iTunes Match, I find the paid service not as useful as Apple’s wireless iTunes syncing, its Home Sharing feature, and music streaming service sites like Rdio.com and Spotify.
iTunes Match is a music streaming service ($24.99 per year) that essentially allows you to sync all the songs (including the ones you purchased in the iTunes Music Store and ones you imported from other sources such as CDs) from your iTunes Music Library to your iCloud account over Wi-Fi or 3G. In turn, you can access your songs in the cloud from any iTunes supported Mac or PC and on your iOS devices.
With iTunes Match, your song files are not physically uploaded to the cloud. Rather, iTunes scans your iTunes Library and matches your song content with the vast catalog of songs in the iTunes Music Store. The matched music is added to your iCloud account. Songs in your library that are not found in the Store don’t of course get matched, and thus don’t appear in iCloud.
If you’re an avid user of iTunes and customer of the iTunes Music Store, iTunes Match may very well be a useful subscription service for you. In addition to having access to your music in the cloud, the paid service backs up your music to cloud; and if your songs are ever deleted on your local drive they can be re-downloaded from your iCloud.
But there are problems with iTunes Match that you might want to consider. First off, though you can stream your music from your iCloud account over Wi-Fi onto your iTunes supporting computer(s), you can’t stream music in the same way to your iPhone and other iOS devices. You have to actually select and download those songs from your iCloud account to your device, which means that it will take up memory space in your device. In fact, when you turn on iTunes Match on your device, it replaces the iTune library set up for your device prior to iTunes Match.
With the release of iOS 5 for the iPhone and other Apple devices, you can now sync data between your device and the iTunes library on your computer over your local network.
With this wireless syncing, you can add and delete songs and playlists in your iTunes library for your devices and sync those changes without having to make a wired connection to your computer. In fact, after the initial setup, your iOS device will automatically sync your iTunes library when you have the device plugged into a charger and connected to your local Wi-Fi network.
You can also manually execute wireless syncing in the Summary page of your iTunes or in the Settings app of your iOS device (General > iTunes Wi-Fi Sync > Sync Now). I prefer this approach over iTunes to managing music on my iPhone. This method allows me to select and deselect songs in my iTunes library instead of having to download them (and manually remove them) individually from my iCloud account.
I even use a Smart Playlist in iTunes that automatically removes songs I’ve played on my iTunes and/or my iPhone in the last 2 weeks. When songs are dropped off they are automatically replaced with new tracks from my library.
This wireless smart playlist requires no manual downloading on my part and it keeps my iPhone updated with different music from week to week.
iTunes Match may be most useful to iTunes users who travel frequently and want to have access to their music in the cloud. However, for the rest of us, the Home Sharing feature of iTunes (see
Lastly, I would argue that streaming music services like Spotify, Rdio, and MOG may be a better and much more affordable option for those of us who have a good Wi-Fi connection.
An affordable $5 per month subscription to one of these music streaming services allows you to stream, commercial free, all the songs and albums in their catalog. For $10 per month you can stream music from these sites to your mobile smartphone. These music streaming sites also have free ad-supported options as well. See my article,
So what is your view of iTunes Match, iCloud and other streaming music services. Which do you prefer and why?
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Posted on 03 December 2011.
Data plans tend to be limited, and connection speeds are sometimes not all that impressive. So when you use an Android phone (or any smartphone for that matter), Wi-Fi becomes an essential way to get online.
Today I’ll be showing you two different apps designed to make your Wi-Fi experience better so you can get better speeds and a more stable connection. These are both for Android, but you can actually use what you learn from them with any Wi-Fi device, including your laptop.
You can always tell which Wi-Fi channel you are using using your access point’s configuration interface; but how can you tell what channels you neighbors are using? This is important so you know what’s free and where to switch, and this is where our first app comes in: Free
This is the first screen shown when you launch the app, and right away, you can see how most of the networks around here are centered on channel 6. Only one network sits around channels 1-3, and channels 9 and up appear to be completely clear. Let’s swipe to the next screen:
Here, you get to select a network and see its signal strength graphically. This display constantly updates, and can also beep according to the signal level (more beeping means a stronger signal). This is fun because you can walk around with your phone like a metal detector and see where the signal grows stronger or weaker: Does this or that wall actually block your Wi-Fi signal?
The last feature I want to show you is what I call “the bottom line”. This is the screen where Wi-Fi Analyzer recommends which channel you should switch to:
As you can see, my home network sits on the absolute worst part of the spectrum possible. Wifi Analyzer says I should switch to channels 11, 12, or 13, and I tend to agree. Doing this will result in less interference, and thus in a better connection for everyone (even my neighbors will have less interference with their Wi-Fi connections!).
Okay, that’s great for when you are at home and you get to control the access point’s channel. But what should you do to get a better connection when you’re outside, at a coffee shop or an airport?
When you’re in a public location, the biggest problem with the Wi-Fi connection is usually poor signal strength. In other words, the access point is simply too far away. This can be very frustrating, because you usually don’t have any way to know where to go for better connectivity. Which way is closer to the access point? If you start walking around, you may lose the connection or end up making it even worse.
Well, this is where
So when using it, you will find yourself slowly rotating with your device. People may look at you oddly, but you can just tell yourself they are suffering crappy connections and you’re smarter. Once the scan starts, it looks like this:
This is the trickiest part in using the app. In the screenshot above, I have separated both bars so you can see them clearly. The brighter bark (around the 6% mark) moves on its own; the darker one (around the 20% mark) moves when you rotate the device slowly. Your goal is to keep them together. This means you need to very slowly rotate the device, a little bit at a time, while the progress bar moves. You are going to look pretty stupid while you’re busy doing this, but that is the price to pay for good connectivity.
This process takes a good two minutes, or even more. Once you’re done, you get a display that looks like this:
When you move around with your device, the display updates and things shift around. Even after all of this work, the display may not be correct; it is best if you have some point of reference, because then you can rotate the whole display as needed, using the “Result Offset” option.
This isn’t because the app is bad (it’s actually quite good), but because it is trying to do something that is remarkably difficult. If you’re patient and determined, you may find yourself enjoying the best Wi-Fi signal your airport can offer.
I am always on the lookout for awesome Android apps; did I miss an important Wi-Fi related application? Let me know in the comments, and I might review it!
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Posted on 03 December 2011.
Data plans tend to be limited, and connection speeds are sometimes not all that impressive. So when you use an Android phone (or any smartphone for that matter), Wi-Fi becomes an essential way to get online.
Today I’ll be showing you two different apps designed to make your Wi-Fi experience better so you can get better speeds and a more stable connection. These are both for Android, but you can actually use what you learn from them with any Wi-Fi device, including your laptop.
You can always tell which Wi-Fi channel you are using using your access point’s configuration interface; but how can you tell what channels you neighbors are using? This is important so you know what’s free and where to switch, and this is where our first app comes in: Free
This is the first screen shown when you launch the app, and right away, you can see how most of the networks around here are centered on channel 6. Only one network sits around channels 1-3, and channels 9 and up appear to be completely clear. Let’s swipe to the next screen:
Here, you get to select a network and see its signal strength graphically. This display constantly updates, and can also beep according to the signal level (more beeping means a stronger signal). This is fun because you can walk around with your phone like a metal detector and see where the signal grows stronger or weaker: Does this or that wall actually block your Wi-Fi signal?
The last feature I want to show you is what I call “the bottom line”. This is the screen where Wi-Fi Analyzer recommends which channel you should switch to:
As you can see, my home network sits on the absolute worst part of the spectrum possible. Wifi Analyzer says I should switch to channels 11, 12, or 13, and I tend to agree. Doing this will result in less interference, and thus in a better connection for everyone (even my neighbors will have less interference with their Wi-Fi connections!).
Okay, that’s great for when you are at home and you get to control the access point’s channel. But what should you do to get a better connection when you’re outside, at a coffee shop or an airport?
When you’re in a public location, the biggest problem with the Wi-Fi connection is usually poor signal strength. In other words, the access point is simply too far away. This can be very frustrating, because you usually don’t have any way to know where to go for better connectivity. Which way is closer to the access point? If you start walking around, you may lose the connection or end up making it even worse.
Well, this is where
So when using it, you will find yourself slowly rotating with your device. People may look at you oddly, but you can just tell yourself they are suffering crappy connections and you’re smarter. Once the scan starts, it looks like this:
This is the trickiest part in using the app. In the screenshot above, I have separated both bars so you can see them clearly. The brighter bark (around the 6% mark) moves on its own; the darker one (around the 20% mark) moves when you rotate the device slowly. Your goal is to keep them together. This means you need to very slowly rotate the device, a little bit at a time, while the progress bar moves. You are going to look pretty stupid while you’re busy doing this, but that is the price to pay for good connectivity.
This process takes a good two minutes, or even more. Once you’re done, you get a display that looks like this:
When you move around with your device, the display updates and things shift around. Even after all of this work, the display may not be correct; it is best if you have some point of reference, because then you can rotate the whole display as needed, using the “Result Offset” option.
This isn’t because the app is bad (it’s actually quite good), but because it is trying to do something that is remarkably difficult. If you’re patient and determined, you may find yourself enjoying the best Wi-Fi signal your airport can offer.
I am always on the lookout for awesome Android apps; did I miss an important Wi-Fi related application? Let me know in the comments, and I might review it!
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Posted on 16 November 2011.
There are plenty of tools out there that will help you with analyzing your home network and assist you with increasing your Internet speeds on that network. You could use
In this article, I’m going to offer you a very cool centralized solution that you can run on a single PC (or server), which will go out and monitor your entire network for traffic and performance issues.
If you stop and think about it, to get a true measurement about the health of your network, you really need to monitor not only the traffic going in and out of just one PC on the network. You should also be constantly monitoring each connected device for any problems. Such problems could be recognizing when the CPU goes haywire, when network bandwidth stays pegged at the max, or any other factors that indicate there could be a virus or hacking involved.
The
You can run PRTG on more than one server for a “cluster” mode, but the easiest and fastest setup is to run it on one server in “standalone mode”.
The first screen you’ll see after you set up PRTG and launch the software, is the main menu where you can quickly access the major areas of the monitor software. This includes manually adding devices to monitor, reviewing status results in log files and reports, or having the software perform “network discovery” to locate any devices connected to your network.
Manually adding devices lets you configure little details that the automatic discovery won’t do, like customizing the icon for that device or giving it a name that you will recognize.
All you have to do is type in the known network IP address for that device. At the top of the Network Monitor screen is where you’ll find the quick navigation bar. This is where you can go to view the sensor statuses, view all network alarms, reports and logs.
The alarm area will show you all of the latest alarm messages for all of the devices on your network. These might include notifications that the CPU on a PC or device has gone through the roof, or the fact that the space on the C: drive is dangerously low. The system is looking for the sort of symptoms that indicate an unhealthy or infected system.
Of course, if you scroll over to the right when you view the device status, you’ll see the last measured network bandwidth for that device as well – an important indicator that there may be a problem, or that you have someone on your network that’s stealing all of your bandwidth!
The “Live Data” graphs off to the right of the main display screen are my favorite part of the software. Here you can keep an eye on the CPU load, memory use and overall health of all of the devices on your home network. And if you don’t want to sit there monitoring everything all day, the software will log the data and provide you with graphs for different time intervals, like the last few days or the last month.
The overview screen for each device is where you can get access to that information, as well as the log files, alarm notifications, and all of the realtime information for that device.
You also get cool notification icons that highlight when there’s an active alarm or notification for any device on your network. Each icon has a different meaning – informational, warning, or alarm. Just click on the icon to see those notifications.
If you want a closer view of the device behaviors, just click on any of the graphs and it’ll switch into full-screen mode. If you are the type of person that likes to have realtime statistics up on your screen (especially if you use an extended monitor) – go ahead and connect to the server remotely, and just display these graphs right on your screen (plus it looks really cool when people walk by…)
The logs will provide you with a huge volume of system state changes, alarm notifications and just status reports about what’s going on throughout your network and from each device. I’ve never seen freeware that is quite this effective and useful when it comes to getting really valuable information about a network, or remotely monitoring device like this. I’m really impressed with this software.
Try installing it on one of your more powerful home PCs and give it a try, or set up a dedicated server for monitoring your network health, and just let it run and log data. You may be surprised at what the software discovers, and what it tells you about where you may be losing bandwidth to runaway processes or infected computers.
Give it a shot and let us know how well it worked for your network. Did you learn anything new? Share your experiences with it in the comments section below.
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Posted on 31 October 2011.
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Posted on 30 October 2011.
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Posted on 16 October 2011.
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Posted on 16 October 2011.
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Posted on 16 October 2011.
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Posted on 15 October 2011.
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Posted on 10 October 2011.
The Bat! mail client has a lot of vital benefits and useful features that make your email experience simple and convenient. All these features perfectly fit any Windows OS. Moreover, The Bat! is the first and only email client Certified for Windows Vista by Microsoft Corporation. “Certified for Vista” logo guarantees the highest level of compatibil…
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