CyberNet News » Pre-Release

winLAME: Another Free Audio Converter

Ryan — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:57:01 +0000

A few weeks ago we wrote about a free audio converter that was pretty nice, but when installing the app it tries to also put a bunch of third-party software on your machine. I made sure to point this out, but our readers stepped up and mentioned several other apps that are both free and clean. One of them, called winLAME, was recommended by Ian and really caught my attention. Not only is it free, but it’s also open source.

There were a few reasons why I really liked this app. First, it already has support for Windows 7. Second, it has presets for people looking for no-brainer audio conversion in addition to custom settings for people looking for more control. It’s basically a four-step process: Select your input file(s), select your output settings, choose from one of the quality presets or customize the advanced settings, and then let it go to town. And not only can it convert your audio files, but it can also rip CD’s.

Here’s a more complete list of features and supported formats:

Encoding and decoding of many audio formats, including:
- .mp3 via LAME mp3 encoder (encoding) and MAD (decoding)
- .ogg Ogg Vorbis
- .aac via libfaac/libfaad
- .wav, .aiff, .au, .voc and many more, via libsndfile
- .wma via Windows Media Audio codec
- .flac via FLAC library
Uses LAME features, including:
- high quality and optimized mp3 encoding
- nogap encoding of continuous-mix-cd’s
- optimized 3DNow! and SSE routines
- ID3 v1 and v2 tagging
Easy-to-use wizard-like user interface style for easy encoding setup
CD Audio extraction (aka. CD ripping), including freedb support
Presets for fast settings setup
User interface translations to english and german language
Batch Processing
Detailed HTML Help File
Easy install- and uninstall process
Small size

If you’ve got some audio files to convert this is one app that I highly recommend downloading.

winLAME Homepage
Thanks Ian!

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Play MKV Files in Windows 7

Ryan — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:51:58 +0000

Windows only
I’ve been using Windows 7 Media Center as my dedicated media hub for the last few weeks, and it’s been a nice upgrade from Vista Media Center. Some improvements include support for up to 4 tuners for each type (QAM, ATSC, etc…), a lot of interface improvements, and HD support to name a few. It can even play AVI/DivX files natively without needing any add-ons.

Windows 7 Media Center does support HD content, but it isn’t able to handle Matroska files (with the MKV file extension) which is disappointing. The MKV format, for those of you unfamiliar with them, has become the chosen method for people ripping Blu-ray videos to their machine. Since those files aren’t supported the videos are treated just as any other file on your computer… they do not show thumbnail previews and, more importantly, are not playable.

The solution is easy though. DivX Labs has introduced a “tech preview” of what they call Project Remoulade. Part of the project is a simple download that adds support for MKV files to Windows 7. Once installed you’ll get thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer (including details like movie duration), you can watch the videos in Windows Media Player or Media Center, and it can even be streamed to UPNP devices like the Xbox 360 or other extenders. Their most recent release also added support for 64-bit versions of Windows 7 in addition to the already supported 32-bit.

It’s still not 100% perfect yet, and I’ve particularly noticed issues when streaming to my Xbox 360. For example, some movies that play on my computer will not play on my Xbox. Installing the free AC3Filter and Haali Media Splitter, however, made the rest of my videos work. I’m sure the DivX add-on will continue to get better, and I’m just happy to see them working on an easy way for people to play MKV files on their machines.

NOTE: You’ll need a DivX Labs account in order to download the file, but I just jumped over to bugmenot.com to grab an account that had already been created.

MKV Support on Windows 7 (Windows 7 only; 32/64-bit; Freeware)

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Microsoft Office 2010 Icon Pack

Ryan — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:01:48 +0000

In our WrapUp earlier this morning we talked about how a new build of Office 2010 Beta had been leaked, and in this build Microsoft included new icons for each of the applications. It didn’t take long for someone to extract all of the icons from the release and assemble them into an icon pack, which is exactly what one DeviantArt user did (our download mirror).

I’ve pasted the icons for each of the main applications below, and that includes Access 2010, Excel 2010, InfoPath 2010, OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Project 2010, Publisher 2010, Visio, 2010, and Word 2010 (in that exact order). Each of the icons are 256×256 pixels, and come in both ICO and PNG formats if you download the pack. In all there are over 60 different icons included in the download.

What do I think of them? Well, I actually like them. They feel modern, and one of the first things I thought of when I saw them for the first time was how much they reminded me of the icons Adobe uses… mostly because of how prominent the lettering is on them. I think they fit the Office Suite well.

Here are the full uncompressed icons for the 10 primary applications:

[via Redmond Pie]

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High Sign: Mouse Gesture Application

Ryan — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:28:15 +0000

(Click to Enlarge)

Windows only
Mouse gestures are something that I’ve gotten into the habit of using for years now, and giving them up would almost be like giving up the ability to use keyboard shortcuts. Some gestures have become second nature to me, and when I’m on a computer that doesn’t have that capability I get rather frustrated.

The bad news is that a lot of these apps have a tendency to not get updated very often. A good example of this is with StrokeIt… one of the most popular mouse gesture programs. The last time it was updated was over 4-years ago.

The other day I started doing some searching and found a relatively new app called High Sign, and I like what it has to offer. It’s extremely simple to understand and operate, and has all the right features… like being able to record your own custom gestures.

Once you’ve recorded a gesture you can assign an action to it. This includes minimizing/maximizing a window, switching between apps, running a program or command, and simulating a hotkey combination or keystrokes. With these options you should be able to do just about anything you want, and you can even restrict a gesture to a particular application.

Once you get High Sign installed it will be in training mode so that you can create some new actions, but it does already come pre-configured with a few popular ones. To start using High Sign you’ll want to exit out of Training Mode by right-clicking on the System Tray icon, and then just hold down the right mouse button to start drawing.

High Sign is an open source and freeware application for Windows only

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Safari 4 Beta is Worth a Look

Ryan — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:10:53 +0000

Windows; Mac;
Today Apple kind of took everyone by surprise when they released a big milestone for the Safari browser. The new Safari 4 Beta from Apple borrows some ideas from their competition, and they spiced it up a bit with some fancy graphics. This is most notably seen in the “Top Sites” screen as seen in the image above. It’s a combination of Opera’s Speed Dial and Google Chrome’s most frequently visited pages. Then they added a little glamor to really make it pop.

The Windows version also received a major visual overhaul so that it actually fits in well with the operating system, and for the most part feels a lot like Google Chrome. Especially since the tabs are located along the top on the titlebar… again, like Chrome.

When it comes down to speed Apple has actually managed to squeeze out a bit more. I ran the Mac version of the browser on the SunSpider test against Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 (also Mac), and Safari 4 Beta squeaked out on top. It took Firefox 3.1 a total of 1409.6ms to run all the tests, and Safari 4 was 1276.8ms (lower number is better). It’s not much of a difference, but Firefox 3.1 beat out Safari 3 proving that Apple didn’t focus solely on appearance this time around.

Aside from that here are some of the features Apple pointed out for Safari 4:

Top Sites – See your favorite websites at a glance.
Cover Flow – Flip through your site history or bookmarks like you flip through albums in iTunes
Full History Search – Easily retrieve sites you’ve seen before.
Tabs on Top – Manage your tabs elegantly and open a wide window for exploring the web.
Nitro Engine – Surf the web with the world’s fastest browser.
Windows Native Look and Feel – Vista and XP users will feel right at home.
Developer Tools – Access the best suite of development tools ever included in a browser.

I’m diggin’ Safari 4 on my Mac, and despite being a rather dedicated Firefox user I plan on giving Safari a fair shot. I think Google might be able to grab an edge on Safari once they add support for extensions, but until then I think Windows users will, at the very least, be giving the browser a shot.

So what do you think? The number of web browsers and what they’re capable of doing is getting pretty amazing when you think about where this market was just a few years ago. I can’t wait to see what comes next, and what company it will come from.

Haven’t read enough? Here are some more articles worth checking out regarding this release:

This is one fast browser – by Hardware 2.0
Safari 4 Hidden Preferences – by Random Genius
Safari 4 a big step up, but not as far as rivals – by Webware
Safari 4 First Impressions – by Gizmodo

Get Safari 4 Beta for Windows or Mac

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Windows 7 Download Available, Users Wait for Product Keys

Ryan — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:46:54 +0000

Big news came Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) when Steve Ballmer said that they would be releasing a copy of Windows 7 Beta today that the public can actually get their hands on. The Beta build leaked a few weeks prior to the official announcement, and there was a lot of excitement because early reports were saying that it was stable, efficient, and a huge improvement over Vista. Naturally people were wanting to kickoff their downloads early today because grabbing 2.4GB is not a 2-minute task.

Surprise! Right now the Windows 7 site has a message up that essentially says the demand was more than what they anticipated:

Thanks for your interest in the Windows 7 Beta. The volume has been phenomenal—we’re in the process of adding more servers to handle the demand. We’re sorry for the delay and we’ll re-post the Beta as soon as we can ensure a quality download experience.

Over at Lifehacker they managed to scrounge up some direct download links for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions, which is handy for those wanting to get the download going overnight. Here are the links:

The only problem now is waiting to get your hands on one of the 2.5 million product keys they are handing out for this round of testing. What boggles my mind is the fact that Microsoft isn’t letting people just sign-up so that they could receive the product key, and then let users download the OS from an alternative source if they don’t want to wait (*cough* BitTorrent). Heck, a lot of the people probably have the leaked copy installed and all they need is the product key to activate Windows 7 Beta.

P.S. This Beta release will expire on August 1st, 2009 even after entering the product key. If you don’t enter a product key you can still run Windows 7 Beta for 30 days.

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Opera 10 Gets Inline Spell Checking and More

Ryan — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:14:50 +0000

Win; Mac; Linux
I’ve been waiting to see what Opera had in store for us in version 10, and it looks like everyone is finally getting a peak. In fact I’m a bit surprised by what has been revealed so far, but in a good way. For awhile it seemed like other browsers were trying to find their own ways to adopt features that were first introduced in Opera, but the opposite never really happened. By that I mean Opera never really went after the handy features that other browsers were introducing.

What features am I talking about? Inline spell checking and auto-updating. Last year I covered some of the things that I really wanted to see included in future versions of Opera, and those two things were definitely on my list. Opera 10 Alpha 1 is the first version of their browser to incorporate these features.

Here are some of the other highlights in this release:

Presto 2.2 Rendering Engine
Performance boost
100/100 and pixel-perfect on the Acid3 test
Opera Mail improvements, including rich text composition and delete after X days
Widget Improvements on Linux

The million dollar question is whether Opera is still doing enough to attract new users, or whether they’re fighting a losing battle? I found Opera 10 to be more responsive than any of the other browsers, and the pages felt like they were displayed faster as well. Does that mean I’m going to make it my primary browser? I’ve really become accustomed to the extensions that Firefox has to offer though, and it would be hard for me to use only Opera without some of that important functionality.

What do you think about Opera? Did you expect more from Opera 10? Guess we’ll have to wait and see whether they have a few more tricks up their sleeve.

Get Opera 10 Alpha 1 for Windows, Mac or Linux
Thanks Cody!

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ESET Smart Security & NOD32 4.0 Beta

Ryan — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:31:18 +0000

Windows only
ESET NOD32 and Smart Security have always been my favorite security products because of their performance and high detection levels. There’s some good news for current owners! ESET is getting ready to move to the next level with version 4 of their security suite and antivirus software.

NOD32 4.0 and ESET Smart Security 4.0 are currently in a public Beta phase, and include numerous enhancements. One such improvement is that they will now be bundling the SysInspector tool that they have been, and still do, offer as a free download. Here are some other features new to version 4.0:

Tasks can be postponed when the machine is running on battery, and a notification can be displayed if a larger update is going to be downloaded.
Improved scanning of removable media (used maximum settings when running files from removable media, allows blocking/allowing USB ports)
Improved cleaning and self-defense
Added statistic graphs and information about the currently scanned object
Added an option to use advanced heuristics on file execution
Added an option to control the level of archive scanning or maximum scan time of objects
Added option to supress notifications when applications are run in fullscreen mode
Scanning of encrypted HTTPS/POP3S protocols
Website management allowing to block/allow access to user-defined sites
New Document protection module for scanning MS Office files
Password protected uninstallation
Notification about missing operating system updates
Works with Windows Live Mail and Mozilla Thunderbird
Antispam now uses a user and global address books
Potentially unwanted/unsafe applications are now reported in a yellow alert window which requires a user interaction

There’s no word on a release date yet, but the current Beta applications don’t expire until 02/03/2009… so I wouldn’t expect to see a final release before then.

ESET Beta Homepage
Thanks Storytellerofsci-fi!

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Download Vista SP2 Beta via Windows Update

Ryan — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:52:30 +0000

If you like to stay on the bleeding edge of technology (and you’re running Vista) you may want to consider modifying two registry keys on your system so that you can participate in the Vista SP2 Beta program. To join the program all you have to do is download this batch file, and run it on your Vista machine as an administrator. Then just check for available Windows Updates (it may take 30 minutes or so for it to show up in the Windows Updates).

Think carefully whether you want to do this or not. There will likely be some bugs that could cause problems with your system, but at the very least it will cause Vista to expire on 4/2/2010 (or around then). Plus it will place the “Evaluation copy” message on your desktop wallpaper. You can always uninstall Vista SP2 to remove the evaluation message and expiration date, but it’s important to know what you’re getting into before you try to install it.

So what’s new in Vista SP2? Here’s a brief rundown that the Vista blog provided last week:

Windows Vista SP2 adds Windows Search 4.0 for faster and improved relevancy in searches.
Windows Vista SP2 contains the Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack supporting the most recent specification for Bluetooth Technology.
Ability to record data on to Blu-Ray media natively in Windows Vista.
Adds Windows Connect Now (WCN) to simplify Wi-Fi Configuration.
Windows Vista SP2 enables the exFAT file system to support UTC timestamps, which allows correct file synchronization across time zones.

Windows Vista SP2 is expected to be released in final form sometime in the first half of 2009. Judging by the expiration date of Vista SP2 Beta I’d say that sounds about right.

[via WinFuture - English Translation]

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Windows 7 Taskbar Screenshots & Video

Ryan — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:52:41 +0000

Microsoft unveiled Windows 7 today at the Professional Developers Conferences (PDC). There wasn’t anything too unbelievable, but they did show off a revamped Taskbar that some are saying is inspired by Mac’s Dock. Windows 7 will use what looks like oversized quick launch icons. Don’t be fooled though. Those icons are used to not only start apps, but also switch between them. Here’s how Microsoft’s Windows Blog explains the new “tiles” on the Taskbar:

The new Windows Taskbar in Windows 7 focuses on application “tiles”. These application tiles can be arranged or re-arranged anywhere on the Windows Taskbar simply by grabbing the tiles and moving them where ever you want on the taskbar. Users will be able to “pin” applications they use the most to the new Windows Taskbar via the Start Menu by simply dragging and dropping those apps from the Start Menu to the Windows Taskbar.

What makes it even more interesting is that when you hover over one of the tiles you’ll see a live preview of all the application’s open windows. You can then use those previews to switch between each of the different windows… kind of like tabs:

(Click to Enlarge)

And it still gets better. Those preview windows are a bit too small to see intricate details, and Microsoft has finally realized that. So now when you hover over one of those previews it will immediately bring that particular window to the front of the screen so that you can clearly see its contents. If you hover off the preview it will be sent back to the position where it resided.

One of the last things I wanted to show off is Microsoft more extensive use of “glass” throughout the operating system. Now when you want to preview the desktop it will make the windows on top transparent leaving a glass-like frame to hold their place:

(Click to Enlarge)

In the end I think Microsoft is definitely on the right track with the new Taskbar in Windows 7. Plus I’m really loving the fact that you can see both the date and time without needing a double-height taskbar.

Don’t forget to check out what’s new in Windows 7 Media Center, and enjoy some more screenshots courtesy of Channel 10 at Microsoft…

(more…)

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