August, 2010 - Softonic English

Yet Another Facebook Scam

Shouldn’t people have learned by now?

Maybe that sounds bit harsh, but I am beginning to think that if people fall for the latest Facebook scam – a brand-new dislike button – they only have themselves to blame. Luckily this time users who fell for the trick got nothing worse than an unwanted application that could be easily removed – oh, and a dose of public humiliation, since the fact they had fallen for the scam showed up in their friends’ news feed.

Even though we live in a technologically advanced world, there’s some pretty old-school advice that still works well – if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Free iPads? A dislike button? A hippo being eaten by a rabid mongoose? Keep dreaming!

Equally, if your Harvard-educated aunt (or indeed a scam-prone friend) suddenly starts posting things entitled “OMG WTF BBQ , watch dis seriously cool video!!” accompanied by a link, alarm bells should start to ring. The bottom line? If you want an iPad, start saving. If you want a dislike button, check out Social Plus! And if you want a rabid mongoose? Well, there’s not a whole lot OnSoftware can do for you. Sorry.

Image courtesy of Graham Cluley’s blog.

Timewaster: Bunnies Of Fury 2

The early build of Bunnies Of Fury 2 currently features neither Fury nor Bunnies, but is absolutely fantastic. You need the Unity plugin for your browser, then you’ll be left to your own devices in a 3D rainbow world of blocks. You have two weapons, toggled with the Q key, otherwise the controls are a pretty standard First Person mouse/keyboard setup. F1 puts the full controls on screen.

For a few seconds, you might not get Bunnies Of Fury 2. Press Q, and shoot down with the left mouse button, and you’ll quickly understand! This is abstract sandbox gameplay at its best – big, free and dramatic. It’s completely aimless, but excellent fun. You can either build your own constructions, or mine your own caves, or both. It’s very hard to know when to stop!

[via bytejacker]

Create Firefox extensions with the Add-on Builder

One of the pending things in my life – besides the traditional “plant a tree, write a book and have a child” – is learning to code. I’m quite good at languages, but unfortunately I’m not as skilled when dealing with programming languages. I guess my brain is more artistically-oriented and it’s hard for me to reach the levels of analysis and abstraction required to code. But that doesn’t mean I won’t keep on trying!

Luckily there are thousands of coding resources on the web, from tutorials for newbies to online communities around specific programming languages. For the coding-challenged like me, there are also tools that help you create your own apps without requiring a single line of coding, like the Ovi App Wizard or the Android App Inventor. Following this line of simplified software to create apps, I found Mozilla’s Add-on Builder: an online coding tool that lets you create extensions for Firefox with the help of a few extra ready-made elements.

Add-on Builder

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Clearing Market Search History on Android

Whatever your reason – risque or not – you might be looking for a way to clear your Android Market search history, which gets crowded pretty quickly. Unfortunately, wiping the slate isn’t as easy as I expected – there’s no easy option and even popular old wives’ tales circulating online, such as clearing the Market cache, just don’t work.

It seems a major oversight on Android’s part, but as far as I can see, there’s no built-in option. Ironically, it would seem that you have to search for and install a new app to get the job done, and internet sources point to two – HistoryEraser and MarketSearchEraser (Android 1.5). Even more extreme, you could try a factory reset (how to do this depends on the phone, but as usual, Google is your friend!) – but there will be other consequences, such as data loss.

Personally, I don’t feel guilty enough about my searches to bother with new apps, but maybe one or two of you out there will consider it. Let us know how you get on!

Make your own speaking animations online

It’s amazing how much fun you can have just making your Mac speak with the Speech function in OS X although once you’ve exhausted every expletive under the sun and made your Mac insult itself, the novelty tends to wear-off. Xtranormal however takes things to a new level with a clever online animation tool which allows you to create video-animations to your speech creations. It works on Windows PCs too. Most famously it’s the platform behind the iPhone4 v HTC Evo YouTube viral video that mocked iPhone users.

If you think you could do better however, why not give it a go? Xtranormal is extremely easy to use and provides a selection of template backgrounds and animations for you from TV studios to workplace and soccer pitches.

First you need to sign-up for an account which takes just a few seconds.

Then the fun starts. Xtranormal allows you to select how many actors you’d like to use to begin with (although this is limited to two) and then which background you’d like:

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50 Xbox LIVE games announced for Windows Phone 7

The more we hear about the new Windows Phone 7 platform, the more plausible it becomes that the new OS will be able punch its weight against iOS and Android. The latest tantalizing tidbit of information is the announcement by Microsoft of the 50 Xbox LIVE games that will launch for Windows Phone 7.

There are some real gems amongst the list, including Bejeweled, Earthworm Jim, Guitar Hero 5, Let’s Golf 2, Max and the Magic Marker, and Star Wars: Battle for Hoth. Visit the official Xbox LIVE on Windows Phone page for the full list.

It’s encouraging to see heavyweight developers like Gameloft, Konami and Glu getting behind the Windows Phone 7 platform. There have been fears that many developers might spurn the platform due to the restrictions and limitations of the development framework.

From the evidence so far, Xbox LIVE on Windows Phone 7 will deliver a great gaming experience, possibly even eclipsing that of the iPhone, eventually. The only real concern I have at the moment is that it won’t support real time multiplayer (at least it won’t when it launches), but hopefully this is something that will be looked by Microsoft if it manages to shift some handsets.

Check out this rather fun promo video for more on Xbox Live for Windows Phone 7.

[youtube]CLh2-uc_XMs[/youtube]

Microsoft brings Flight back

Flight Simulator was one of the first PC games that impressed me. Despite the bland graphics and complexity, here was a game that finally gave you total freedom (as long as you wanted to fly). Released four years ago, Flight Simulator X was the last version, and after Microsoft announced the development team behind it was being disbanded, it was assumed the venerable simulator had been put to sleep.

Today they’ve announced its return with Microsoft Flight. The short teaser on their website hints that ‘Simulator’ has been dropped in favor of creating a more emotive product, as it features the lines ‘when I was a child, I dreamed I could fly’. Software doesn’t come much drier than the Flight Simulator series, so maybe a dash of feeling is just what it needs. Check out the video here.

Search Google Docs and Sites from your Gmail inbox

The Gmail search function is a great feature that has just got even better. Gmail Labs has just introduced a new feature that allows you to search your emails, Google Docs and other Google sites from your inbox.

The Gmail search is already pretty powerful, and I find that it almost always strikes gold. The new Labs feature, however, takes things a step further and it’s perfect for anyone who uses Google Docs on a regular basis. You’ll see search results divided into Mail and Docs and Sites, and there are options to highlight only Mail results, or just Docs. Some users have reported an error when accessing documents from the search results, but since this is Google Labs feature, it’s pretty much to be expected. When it does work, however, it’s a great feature. Let’s hope it is another step on the path to totally integrated Google Account search!

Seven ways to save battery life on an Android phone

The Nexus One, HTC Desire and HTC Legend are all great Android phones, but they are all blighted by the same problem: a woefully short battery life.

The most disappointing discovery you’ll make when you first get one of these phones is that it barely has enough juice to make it until the end of the first day. From here on in, your daily routine will involve ensuring your phone goes on charge when you go to bed. Of course, this isn’t such a bad pay-off considering the quality of these devices, but there will be days when you won’t be able to charge it.

Here are seven ways to save battery on an Android phone that can be very effective. I’ve tried to include the main ones, although it’s also worth checking out the handy power-saving tips on TechCredo, Mr.Gadget, and also on the Help section of the Nexus One forums.

Monitor your battery use

A good place to start is by checking which apps, tasks and processes are killing your battery. You can do this using the built-in Battery use feature of Android (Settings > About Phone > Battery > Battery Use). Once you’ve identified where the leak is coming from you can kill the apps or processes (as long as their not needed) using a program such as TasKiller or Advanced Task Killer.

Beware when using third-party battery management apps, such as JuiceDefender or Power Manager. These tools can effectively identify where power is being used, but leave them running and you’ll discover that these programs can actually be a real drain on battery life themselves.

Monitor use

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Five tools to help you adopt the GTD method

Whether you like it or not, school is just around the corner. I must admit I liked this time of the year when I was a kid: buying new books and new stationery was exciting, and I looked forward to meeting school friends again after a few weeks without seeing them.

Now it’s a bit different: going back to work may not sound that thrilling, but hopefully having some time off in summer will have helped you gather all the energy you need for a fresh start. Also, there are a lot of tools that can help you stay organized all throughout the year, many of them based on the popular GTD (Getting Things Done) productivity method.

GTD software apps
image by orcmic

So if you plan to start managing your projects and tasks in a more organized, productive way, here’s a bunch of apps that can lend you a hand:

ActiveInbox – A Firefox extension that enables you to apply the GTD method right into your Gmail account. ActiveInbox creates the appropriate labels to identify GTD actions, and a special box to check the list of current projects, references and other elements.

JelloDashboard – An Outlook plugin that organizes your emails in different lists according to the GTD principles. This enables you to focus on what is really important and work on all your tasks, one at a time, without wasting energy or resources.

Doit.im – More like a lighter version of GTD, Doit.im is a productivity tool based that enables you to deal with all pending tasks more effectively. It’s based on Adobe AIR, has support for online syncing, and lets you create tasks with notes, tags and alarm options.

GTD-Free – A basic, standalone app (no installation required) that helps you organize your tasks according to the principles of GTD very simply. Create queues of actions, schedule tasks, assign priorities, follow up projects… all of it in a neat interface.

ThinkingRock – A complete, feature-rich task organizer that faithfully follows the GTD principles. ThinkingRock helps you gather tasks, identify them and organize them into the appropriate list, according to whether they’re immediately actionable or not.