Month: July 2009

Looking at the moon landings on Earth might seem like a silly idea, but New Scientist have put together a collection of downloadable layers for Google Earth, which allow you to see how far the astronauts went on their moon explorations. They put the routes taken by the Apollo explorers, and add them to major cities. If you know any of the cities included – London, New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Sydney – these give you an excellent feel for the scale of their investigations, from the small first steps of Apollo 11, to the much larger distances covered in later missions with the Lunar Rover.

If moon landings on Earth are too earthy for you, check out Google’s 2D Moon here. Google are announcing “something special” at an event later today featuring none other than Buzz Aldrin. If they don’t announce Google Moon in 3D, I’ll eat my space suit.

In the unlikely event that the moon isn’t added to Google Earth, you can download NASA’s World Wind, which is free and features 3D models of Earth, the moon, Mars, Venus and Jupiter too.

Download the Google Earth moon landing layers here, and Google Earth here. If you have Google Earth installed, download the layers you want, and just open them with Google Earth. The moon landing images will then appear automatically.

We have had a three part question from a user on Twitter (@softonic_en) about the PortableApps Suite. That’s a really useful collection of applications you can keep on a pen drive, and use on any PC you happen to be in front of.

The first question asks how to update applications in PortableApps. To do this, first you have to download the new file. Then, open your USB drive, and drag the downloaded application into that window. If it’s a ZIP file, double click it to unzip it so you can run the installer. The next stage is just double clicking the application’s EXE file, and following the installation wizard. The old version will be removed, although your settings will be kept.

The second and third parts are related to updating the PortableApps suite itself: When you guys update the suite do you guys update the apps in the suite? What programs are taken out of the suite in 6.73 and will they be gone if I update from 6.72 to 6.73?

When PortableApps is open, click Help and choose update. This will take you to a download of the new version if you don’t have it. Then the process is the same as above – drag the downloaded EXE file into your USB file window, and double click it to update. This won’t change any of your applications, just the PortableApps interface, so you won’t lose any applications by updating at all. I must point out the version number for the PortableApps Suite is not as high as 6.73 yet! The current version is 1.5.2.

The PortableApps Suite comes highly recommended, as it’s a fantastic collection of genuinely useful free software, with a really user friendly interface.

Windows: After launching version 3.5 a few weeks ago, Firefox was reported to have a serious Javascript vulnerability. This new version of the popular web browser, Firefox 3.5.1, fixes that critical bug, as well as other stability problems and an issue that was making Firefox take too long to load on some Windows systems.

iPhone: If you’re a fan of the Harry Potter series of movies/books then you’re going to love Magic Wars. This inventive game gives you the chance to become an all-conquering wizard or witch. In order to do this you’ll need to pick the right wand, learn spells and charms, train yourself in wizard skills, chant incantations, and take on other sorcerers in duels.

Mac: If you’ve still never found a P2P client on Mac you’re truly impressed with, then take a look at Transmission. This P2P file sharing app has an elegant interface and a simple set of intuitive features. This new version brings many more improvements to an already solid release including “Inspector” and “Add Torrent” buttons for iPhone/iPod Touch.

Fancy a $29 iTunes/Last.fm Mac app absolutely free? Well you can have exactly that with SweetFM which the developer has decided to make completely free and open source. If you regularly use iTunes and LastFM then you’re going to love it. The tiny app allows you to combine the best of both applications under one controller and much more. It used to sell for almost $29 but right now it’s completely free and open source.

SweetFM switches seamlessly between Last.fm and iTunes. If you get bored of listening to either application at any point, you can just switch in a click. You can configure hotkeys to control most tasks and even use your Apple Remote – useful for parties or just kicking back and relaxing.

But there’s more to it than that. SweetFM extends Last.fm functionality with things such as tag-station shuffle. Just enter an artist name with some keywords and let Last.fm create the playlist for you. You can see what’s next on your playlist in the dock or the statusbar menu. I like the fact that SweetFM also uses album art covers retrieved from Amazon.com when playing major artists.

One other thing worth bearing in mind about SweetFM is that if you want to export tracks to iTunes, it will automatically check for duplicates although this obviously relies on your music being tagged correctly. There’s lots more to SweetFM than this too including CSS skin design support, Skype moods integration and handy Growl notifications.

There’s little to fault with SweetFM and considering it’s now completely open source and free, the time has never been better to try this sweet app.

I only ask because I see Mirror Free is still at the top of the chart in the App Store. Quite why people are so fascinated by this app is completely beyond me. In my opinion, nay, in fact, this is the worst iPhone application of all time. It’s an application so pointless that its functionality can be replicated without even turning your iPhone on.

In case you’ve not heard of it, Mirror Free is a program that places a series of poorly-designed picture frames on your device, allowing you to see your face in the black space in between. It looks terrible and offers no functionality whatsoever. Even the developer of the program has admitted that “this app is a piece of crap”.

Of course, it’s not the first pointless app to become mega popular. There was iFart, which replicated the sound of flatulence; Spin the Coke, which was designed for risqué college party games; and iBeer, which made your iPhone look like it had beer in it. Like Mirror Lite, all of these stupid programs reached the top of the iTunes chart. The logical conclusion, therefore is that most iPhone users are a bunch of vain, vulgar, promiscuous alcoholics. Feel free to disagree with me, but I think you’ll find the evidence speaks for itself.

MoneySeize is a great example of retro jumping and collecting. Your hero, of sorts, Sir Reginald MoneySeize II, Esq. needs to collect all the gold coins he can find, to fund construction of the tallest tower in the world! No princesses to rescue here. There are 50 stages, with 1010 coins to find. Stages range from super easy to almost impossibly difficult. It even comes with the disclaimer “this game is very difficult” – platformer professionals will love it. It really is great, though, and our rotund aristocratic hero can do everything an Italian plumber can – while wearing a top hat.

iPhone: Ever hear a song you like on the radio, on TV or at a party but don’t know what it’s called? Install Shazam 1.7 on your iPhone and you can find out. Whenever you hear a tune you dig, simply hold your iPhone’s microphone to the speaker. Shortly after, as if by magic details of the song will appear in the Shazam interface, including the name of the song, the singer, and the album it appears on.

Mac: If you’ve never used a macro recorder then you might find that one could save you valuable time performing the same old routine tasks on your Mac. QuicKeys allows you to automate common tasks that you do all the time and remember those that you frequently forget. QuicKeys does this via a series of ‘Abbreviations’ and ‘Shortcuts’ that mean you can concentrate on more important things.

Windows: Switching to a new computer can be a lengthy process, especially when it comes to customizing your web browser. With FavBackup you can create a backup copy of the browser’s settings and restore it in the new system, easy as pie! FavBackup doesn’t require installation and works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera.