Month: June 2007

A few weeks before summer’s arrival, many of us go on diet in a desperate attempt to get rid of all those spare tyres before having to show our bodies in a swimsuit.

The same could be applied to computers: there are light alternatives to the heavy software big shots that can do the job almost as well, taking up less space, memory and system resources.

We’ve gathered some of them for you, so that you can put your PC on a diet too.

• Instead of using the actual Quicktime, have a look at Media Player Classic, with support for lots of video formats.
• Using Acrobat Reader for those PDF files? Forget about it: Foxit Reader opens up much faster and works equally well.
• If you still use ACDsee to view your pictures, it’s time for you to test IrfanView and see what this amazing program can do.
• Forget about listening to music with Winamp, try XMplay instead and enjoy your favorite songs just the same.
• The Nero recording suite is the definition of bloated software: if you just want to record a simple CD or DVD, try Express Burn.

You know the situation: opening a movie in your video player only to find that the screen is black or that you can’t hear anything. Yes, a codec issue. You would have probably avoided it with Gom Player, a multimedia player that includes the most important audio and video codecs and finds new ones if necessary. Gom Player also features support for subtitles, a screen capture tool and advanced functionality to tweak the video display.

The Mac OS X Address Book is a simple application that stores all your contact details like phone number, address and email. You can add a little thumbnail photo for each person, write up notes and create groups to keep your contacts organized. For first time Mac users, it’s a useful tool because it synchronizes with other Mac applications like Mail.app, Safari, iSync and iChat, so you don’t have to worry about adding your contacts to each app.

We came upon some useful tips to make the best of the Address Book, like how to merge contacts, get directions or chat to your contacts. Did you also know that you can add your contacts to Spotlight so that it quickly picks up any file associated with that person?

There’s also a number of Mac applications you can use to complement your Address Book. The Google Maps plugin shows all your contacts on Google Maps and Google Earth. Address Book to CSV Exporter lets you take your contacts with you anywhere and upload them to any webmail or mail client. TapDex is a clever solution to put all your contacts just a click away. And, for a bit of fun, install Address Book Dates to associate astrological signs and Chinese Zodiac to your contacts.

Having watched the new Apple iPhone demo, it’s hard to imagine anyone not wanting to throw their old handset in the nearest lake and rush to the Apple store when it’s finally released. After being seduced by the iPhone’s touch-screen interface, its slick iPod features and the drop-dead gorgeous browsing and email apps, I can’t bring myself to look my current phone in the face anymore.

Luckily, there are a few apps that can bring a taste of what’s to come from the iPhone to your current device. The Java-based iPhone Theme lets you apply that sexy Apple menu screen to your phone, which you can customize to control your various tools and applications. Watching the demo of the iPhone’s Contact system got me a little hot under the collar, and it’s possible to replicate this, albeit in a rather crude way, on your Pocket PC. SSContact features the same slide-down option, one-click dialling and contact management features, to give you a little practice for when the real thing arrives.

If you have a Mac at the moment, you might want to try out iSoftPhone, a VOIP application that replicates the iPhone, or count down to the launch of the wonder-device with the iPhone Widget, which delivers all the latest news on the product to your desktop in the form of an iPhone-style display.

How often have you actually used backup software? Although a good way of making space on your PC, protecting your data and keeping your files organized, it seems many people shy away from backup applications and instead prefer to save files on hard drives or CDs, or even avoid backing-up at all. Alexey Spiridonov has an interesting view on what he sees has the “four common myths” that discourage people from using backup software.

A while ago we covered Backup4all, a good solution for people in professional environments that have to protect and keep sensitive data. However there’s a good deal of other solutions that you should turn to. Norton Ghost can make automatic backups with no worries on your part, Cobian Backup is free and works effectively, and PicoBackup handles different backup solutions like incremental or multi-generation.

This was a big week for games news on insideTonic. Did you know that Lucas Arts is planning to release Monkey Island 5 in 2008? Elena has the full story for you. We also brought you the news that GameTap, which lets you play classic PC and console games on your PC for a monthly fee, is set to open up to Intel Macs on the 28th of June. It almost certainly won’t offer Manhunt, recently banned in the UK for its violent plot, but should include some games that, as James informs us, encountered censorship in their time.

It’s been revealed that a hacker has posted on the web what he claims are key elements of the plot of the latest Harry Potter novel. Elena takes the opportunity to remind us all about some easy steps we can take to protect our PCs (whether we’re bestselling authors or not). In other news, you should check out Microsoft’s new groundbreaking photo-stitching technology, Photosynth. The program joins photos in a 3D environment and handles high resolution zoom-ins.

Nick also had a very informative post on the different customer support attitudes in small and big software companies. He felt that small companies tended to have a more human approach and hoped that expanding companies would keep this in mind.

Finally, as the summer time is always chock full of festivals, James wrote a useful list of software you can add to the beer, sun tan lotion and spare clothes you’ll be jamming in your backpack as you run along to a festival.

What if you could talk to your MySpace friends any time you want? MySpaceIM makes it possible, bringing all your MySpace contacts on your desktop with this exclusive instant messaging tool. You’ll be able to chat with your friends, login to your MySpace account and browse profiles, all with a single click.

Video Poker Solitarus is a good poker game if you have five minutes to waste. No complicated rules, or faceoffs with poker experts, it’s just you and your cards. You start out with a 100 credits and can either bet bit by bit or all at once. The game also only lets you replace cards once. Remember though, pair of jacks or better if you want to make any money!