Month: December 2009

You surely know about games that challenge you to build cities… but what if they asked you to do exactly the opposite? Demolition City is a surprisingly addictive Flash game that turns you into a demolition specialist with a clear objective: tear buildings down to pieces with a limited amount of explosives and make sure the debris stays under a certain height. The game features a bunch of levels, in which difficulty is progressively increased with varying amounts of explosive and harder height limits. You’ll be suprised to see that destroying a city can be as difficult as creating one!

We have iTunes, Spotify, Grooveshark… so what else does tunesBag have to offer? tunesBag is a new music storage and sharing service that enables you to upload all your music to ‘the cloud’ and access it from anywhere in various ways – as long as you have an Internet connection, that is.

Once you’ve created a user account on the tunesBag website you’re ready to start browsing playlists or uploading your own music.  You can create a new account (it’s free and takes less than one minute), or use your login credentials for Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live, MySpace, Yahoo! or Google. Playlists are either created and shared by other tunesBag users, or generated by the system itself with the latest additions, the top rated songs or the recently played tracks.

In order to upload your own music, you can either use a web-based uploading tool, a special desktop uploader (that must be downloaded and installed on your PC) or even send the songs via email to a personalized tunesBag address. Continue reading “tunesBag, a new way to store and share music online”

Going back to the past is sometimes the only way to understand the present – and even the future. Now that we’re about to enter 2010, blogs and newspapers are starting to publish their own analysis of this first decade of the 21st century. But what about software? Can we trace it back to its origins and see what it looked like five, ten or twenty years ago? In the case of Windows, the answer is yes. We’ve been able to find images from all the versions of Windows released up to now, from 1.01 to Seven.

Windows 1.01 (1985)

You might not have been born yet when Windows 1.0 was released. Don’t complain about it though. With such a tacky combination of colors, this first version of Windows wasn’t really something worth viewing.

Windows 2.03 (1987)

It took Microsoft two long years to release the second version of Windows. Windows 2 was supposed to improve the first version, but the color combination didn’t get any better. The most outstanding feature, however, was the Control Panel, with an overbloated menu of three options.

Continue reading “The Evolution of Windows interfaces”

Windows: More and more people work with dual monitor PCs today, and while this can help productivity, it’s not always easy to find nice wallpapers wide enough to stretch between them. This pack of 20 Dual-Monitor Wallpapers gives you a wide selection of high quality images to choose from, designed specifically to suit dual monitors.

Mac: If you haven’t installed Flip4Mac WMV on your Mac yet then how on Earth have you survived without it? Flip4Mac WMV is an essential collection of QuickTime components that allow you to play, import, and export Windows Media video and audio files on your Mac using your favorite QuickTime-based applications.

iPhone: If you’re trying to stir up some Christmas spirit then I recommend you take a look – or rather a listen – at Christmas Sounds. This is a collection of 16 different festive noises and music, all available to play by clicking on an icon. Each icon is decorated with a fun seasonal image that represents the audio hidden behind it.

Just two more days until Christmas and that’s two more days in which to check out great software before you get  interrupted by the festivities. Have a look behind the window to find one of Niamh’s top apps of the year.

xxx is a great application that allows you to create stick figure animations that range from the simple to impressive – with a little time and patience. Working on the normal basics of stick figure animation, create individual frames of action and then view them in sequence, producing the animation. Move over Disney, xxx has come to town! – Niamh

Windows: The default Task Manager shipped with Windows is often not enough. In these cases, you should use System Manager, a complete task management tool that includes information about everything that’s brewing in your system: active processes and services, installed drivers, start-up apps, network connections and more.

Mac: The latest version of Firefox 3.6 (Beta 6) is now available gives you a taste of what’s to come from the best web browser out there. There aren’t really any revolutionary changes in Firefox 3.6 Beta as the look remains the same but some handy new features have been introduced such as integration with Personas and a new intelligent add-ons manager which updates automatically.

iPhone:Since Amazon introduced its Kindle device, the whole World has gone eBook crazy. Trains are now full of commuters gazing at digital displays rather than thumbing through paperbacks. If you haven’t got a Kindle and want to know what all the fuss is about – or if you have a Kindle and want to enjoy the books you’ve already purchased for it on your iPhone – then install the free Kindle for iPhone app.

As we roll towards the end of our advent calendar, here’s a fun game that Jon seemed to be glued to the whole year. Take a peek behind the window to reveal what it is…

You control a guy on a pogo, and have to jump on the pigs and bats to score, against the clock. High scores can be racked up by executing combos. The mechanics of xxx are simple, and work well. While it’s a really simple concept, it’s surprisingly addictive, and the online scoreboard gives you the urge to push for even greater high scores – Jon

Seeing as everyone seems to be in the spirit of writing end of year round-ups, I thought I’d compile a run-down of my favorite Symbian mobile apps of 2009. This time last year, things were looking bleak for fans of the OS, and many feared that developers may shun the platform and opt to concentrate on iPhone and Android instead. Thankfully, these concerns never became reality. In fact much of the great innovation in mobile applications in 2009 was Symbian flavored. Here are ten great apps from this year that I now regard as essentials.

 

Vlingo – If Michael Knight had a Nokia, he should probably ditch K.I.T in a lay-by and use Vlingo instead. Just speak a command into your phone then Vlingo will oblige, be it opening a web page, taking a text note, or starting up a utility. Plus, it doesn’t answer back like the smug, patronizing car from the 80s series.

Spotify – Everyone has gone Spotify crazy this year. Now you can carry the music player around with you on your Symbian phone, effectively converting your device into an MP3 player with infinite memory. You need never pirate an album again!

Nokia Internet Radio – Another great audio app, this time from the Nokia development stable. This small program lets you browse hundreds of radio stations from across the planet. You can peruse stations by genre, by country, or by language, meaning Nokia Internet Radio will take over your life.

Skyfire – Finally, a decent competitor to the superb Opera Mobile. Version 1.0 of Skyfire touched down in May and blew us away with its streamlined interface design, customizable start page feeds,  and its ability delivers pages to you faster than a paperboy with a jetpack.

Skype – My respect for telephone operators disappeared a long time ago. Then along came Skype, to show that it is possible to offer a telecoms service with a smile and a sense of fun – and what’s more, to make it free! Skype for Symbian is one of the best things to happen to the platform for quite a while.

Qik – An essential for anyone who didn’t get through the Big Brother auditions, Qik lets you broadcast live video (and audio) of yourself to the Internet through your phone. Next year, expect plenty of celebrities to ditch Twitter in favour of this new way of getting in our faces.

Snaptu – I’m a member of so many social networks, I think I know almost everyone on the Internet. Having so many accounts and being so damn popular can be a hassle. Not with Snaptu though, which pulls all of your networks into one place to make things easily digestible.

Nokia Step Counter – Previously known as Nokia Activity Monitor, this little app could be the secret to a new you. Install it on your phone then walk around as normal, and Nokia Step Counter will tell you exactly how many calories you’ve burned off. I’m hoping a future version will count how many are going into your mouth.

Twittix – Arguably the best Twitter client on the Symbian platform. Twittix comes with a beakful of features, including quick photo uploading, a timeline that’s easy to navigate, and SMS forwarding of tweets. Armed with this, you’ll never be out of the loop.

Spb TV – People don’t watch enough TV these days, so I recommend everyone to go and download Spb TV on their mobile. The app lets you watch live TV without paying a subscription, and includes a bumper choice of channels from around the World. So now you’ve got no reason to miss the latest Mongolian mud wrestling matches.

This is just a quick post to let our readers know that nearly everyone at OnSoftware will be in holiday between now and the new year. We’ll publish a few posts but not as many as we would normally.

In the meantime, don’t forget to send in your questions and suggestions to ask@onsoftware.com

We wish you all a very happy holiday season and an awesome-software-packed 2010!