Month: October 2010

Microsoft finally launches its hotly-anticipated new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 today. If you’re thinking of getting one of the new phones, why not first check out the official Windows Phone 7 emulator, which lets you have a play around with the OS? Grab the developer tools suite, then check out this video guide to the emulator before having a look around Windows Phone 7 yourself!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf-jWHCK_4I[/youtube]

Halloween is just around the corner, and I’m already getting in the mood for it. Not only have I downloaded a few Halloween wallpapers, but I’ve also had lots of fun with the special Halloween effects recently featured in Picnik, the online photo editor.

According to the announcement in Google’s official blog (remember Google bought Picnick in March 2010), the popular photo editor has launched a new special collection of Halloween imagery to make your photos look as spooky as possible – without losing Picnik’s traditional ease of use. All you need to do is upload a photo and start applying the Halloween eyecandy, available in the sidebar on the left side of your screen.

I hope Alma, our dear Softonic Executive Assistant, doesn’t get mad at me for this.

The Picnik Halloween special pack includes different types of material to give your photos a Halloween look:

• Halloween effects – From bloody fangs to scary yellow eyes, here’s everything you need to quickly turn anyone into a vampire, a zombie, a ghost or any other creature of the night. No biting necessary!

• Halloween text – Add a message from beyond the grave with these spooky text fonts. My personal advice: use a brilliant, blood-inspired red as the text color.

• Halloween stickers – Give a final touch to your creation with Picnik’s selection of stickers: jack-o-lanterns, bats, tombstones, ghosts, spider webs and other creepy decorative items.

Not all of the Halloween effects are available for free – some of them can only be used with a Picnik Premium account – but still, it’s a fun way to start celebrating Halloween 2010.

HTC has today launched a new site that delivers some innovative new features to users of HTC Sense devices. HTCSense.com provides added value to users of its new Android devices, the HTC Desire HD and the HTC Desire Z .

One of the coolest uses for HTCSense.com is to help you find your phone if it’s gone walkabouts. You can instruct the site to make your phone ring loudly, so you can locate it if it’s stuck behind the sofa or under the bed. Even better, you can track the exact location of your phone with HTCSense.com, including the ability to lock it – or to post a reward message on it for anyone who hands it back to you.

HTCSense.com backs up all of your SMS messages online for posterity, and it even lets you send text messages online. Other uses for the service including adding and editing contacts, downloading apps that have been reviewed and tested by HTC, and even plotting everywhere you’ve been today on a map, using the site’s Footprints service.

Within hours of Apple accepting P2P management application IS Drive into the App store, they withdrew it yesterday over potential piracy concerns. But the logic behind the withdrawal is hard to follow. If Apple refuse to publish an application that allows iPhone users to manage BitTorrent downloads on their Mac, surely it has to withdraw every application – such as LogMeIn Hamachi, Chicken of the VNC which allow users to remotely connect to their Mac and download files. Even a simple browser like Safari could “potentially” be used to download illegal material.

It seems what has happened here is that Apple approved it but then ran a mile after seeing the word “BitTorrent” used in the application’s description submitted by the developer Derek Kepner. Which raises the question, don’t they check the descriptions submitted by developers before they are released into the App store? This rejection on what are effectively use of language grounds is especially ironic when you consider Kepner was well aware that using the word “torrent” could have Apple running for the hills. He told Torrentfreak:

I didn’t see any reason for the app to be rejected in Apple’s recently released guidelines. So, I was very careful with this release to not use the dirty word ‘torrent,’ and I’ll continue to carefully add new features, so stay tuned.

There are a huge number of applications that can be used for illegal purposes. Is it really Apple’s role to say users can’t be trusted to use applications legally? And if so, where should they draw the line? It seems that the line at the moment is word “torrent” because As Macworld report, this isn’t the first time that Apple have rejected a torrent application. Back in 2009 they rejected Drivetrain which would have allowed users to manage Transmission from their iPhone.

But since you can effectively do exactly the same thing by logging into your Mac with other applications, the withdrawal of IS Drive makes little sense.

Are you bored with using pictures as your desktop background? Then why not use a video with My Living Desktop?

My Living Desktop is an interesting blend of a video desktop (i.e. a moving wallpaper) and a traditional screensaver. The aim is to turn your desktop into a moving, soothing living environment although you can use any video you want, including home movies. There are 26 relaxing high definition video scenes from around the world to choose from to get you started.

While many will be tempted to add their own video, relaxation is the aim of My Living Desktop. There’s even an Auto Serenity Break which reminds you when it’s time to take a break from the screen. If you like particular scenes in the videos, you can rate them so that My Living Desktop replays them more. And while you might think that My Living Desktop could slow down your machine while you’re using it, there’s actually no noticeable difference.

Continue reading “Use a video as your Mac desktop background”