August, 2012 - Softonic English

Pokki introduces App Store along with major updates

Pokki, an app that improves your Windows 7 experience by letting you install a variety of different games, social media and productivity apps, recently released a major update in honor of its million monthly active users achievement. On top of a few nice customization perks, there are also some new apps available for download that should appeal to a wide base of users.

If you haven’t already given Pokki a try, now’s a great time to check it out. It’s easy to download, and installing new apps is a snap through Pokki’s desktop App Store.

Here’s what came with Pokki’s most recent major update that takes it out of beta and into the mainstream.

Continue reading “Pokki introduces App Store along with major updates”

Analyze your Facebook data with Wolfram Alpha

What I love about Wolfram|Alpha is that whenever it rolls out a new tool, there’s always genuinely interesting data to discover. The self-styled Computational Knowledge Engine’s latest feature lets you analyze your Facebook user data and visualize your friends and networks in interesting new ways. By visiting Wolfram and connecting your Facebook profile, the web tool generates a series of fascinating data sets and graphs on a variety of topics, from your friends’ hometowns to the time of day you post photos. Continue reading “Analyze your Facebook data with Wolfram Alpha”

5 Apps to keep you informed on the presidential election

2012 is a presidential election year in the United States. Are you sick of the political TV and internet ads yet? With a background in law myself, I’m admittedly a bit politics obsessed whenever signs of November elections start showing up just about anywhere. With the Republican National Convention took place in Florida this week, as well as a few other smaller but still notable political occurrences cropping up (did you know that President Obama held an AMA on Reddit on Wednesday?), it looks like the campaigns are in full-swing. Ready your iOS and Android devices!

If you’re keen to keep up with all the political happenings, here are five apps to keep you up to date with the latest campaign news, no matter where you happen to be when it breaks. Continue reading “5 Apps to keep you informed on the presidential election”

Core Online: cloud gaming surrounded by ads

Square Enix unveiled their new cloud-based streaming gaming platform today called Core Online. Much like what OnLive and Gaikai were offering with streaming video games through a browser to your computer with a broadband connection. What Core Online does differently is offer two ways to play the two games currently available, which are Mini Ninjas and Hitman: Blood Money.

Players can either watch ads to earn play time, spend money to unlock individual levels, or pay a premium to purchase the entire game. It’s a change from the normal subscription or full purchase option that had existed before and takes cues from what many mobile developers are doing with their apps.

Some mobile apps have options to earn more in-game currency by viewing an ad, downloading another app, or signing up for a service. Square Enix is translating this type of system for browser games.

The two available games also shows the infancy of Core Online as Mini Ninjas was released in 2009 and Hitman: Blood Money launched in 2006. These games don’t require the computing power of recent games like Sleeping Dogs or Dead Island.

Continue reading “Core Online: cloud gaming surrounded by ads”

Windows 8 Guide: integrating social media and services

Microsoft had to dramatically rethink how Windows and other services, like social networks, would work out of the box. Previous versions of Windows didn’t have any social network integration with non-Microsoft products. There was always Windows Live Messenger, but it wasn’t included in the operating system nor did it integrate with any service other than Microsoft’s own. Windows 8 completely scraps that paradigm and includes great applications that integrate with just about every major social network and service.

Take the Photos app for example. Once you log into with your Microsoft Live account, all the social networks that you’ve linked to it previously will show up. Photos from your Facebook, Flickr, and SkyDrive are automatically populated in the app. No more signing into each account every time you set up a new computer. This makes setting up a new computer as simple as logging in. All of your networks and settings will be synced.

Let’s take a deeper look at how Microsoft has integrated social media and other services in Windows 8. Continue reading “Windows 8 Guide: integrating social media and services”

Microsoft SkyDrive is available for Android

We previously highlighted Microsoft’s update of Skydrive with the eventual release of the Android app. Microsoft released SkyDrive for Android today and it is now available to devices running Android 2.3 and higher. This means that users with Gingerbread and above can access their SkyDrive account from their Android devices.

While the desktop version uses the tile-based user interface, the Android app supports a grid or list layout. The header contains the new visual design, but the actual user interface is a little unfriendly.

Continue reading “Microsoft SkyDrive is available for Android”

How to: enable 2 factor authentication in Dropbox

In the last year, there has been a trend of big companies getting hacked and user data being stolen. The most notable hack was Sony, who got hacked twice, and exposed approximately 77 million accounts. User passwords and credit card information were leaked online. Other notable companies that had their user information stolen include LinkedIn, Last.fm, and more recently, Dropbox.

Dropbox has become a ubiquitous cloud sync and storage locker. Many users keep important files in the cloud as back up. With huge companies showing vulnerability to hackers, users are finding it harder and harder to trust companies with personal information. Thankfully, Dropbox isn’t taking its hacking laying down. Over the weekend it introduced 2 factor authentication in beta for its service. Today, Dropbox took the service out of beta and is now available to all users.

Here’s how to enable 2 factor authentication in Dropbox. Continue reading “How to: enable 2 factor authentication in Dropbox”

WhatsApp updates iOS app, adds encrypted messaging

WhatsApp finally supports encrypted messaging, thanks to the latest update of the iOS version of the popular chat app.This significantly increases the security of the billions of messages sent every day using the app.

Although it’s unclear what type of encryption is being used, secure messaging has been announced in the change log of version 2.8.3 of WhatsApp for iOS. It’s unclear when this important change will be added to other versions of the chat application.

Was WhatsApp unsecure up until now? Why?

Continue reading “WhatsApp updates iOS app, adds encrypted messaging”

How to disable animations in Android 4.0

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is the operating system that offers the most customization options for users. Imbedded inside the OS are options that offer detailed information about 4.0 functions. The update in Jelly Bean improves the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) by improving performance, notifications, and fixing a lot of behind the scenes parts of the OS.

While the devices that run both 4.0 and 4.1 are designed to run Android smoothly, there are easy ways to make it faster than stock. While you could install a custom ROM that is built purely for speed, you can easily see an improvement in performance by changing a few settings.

Just like in Windows 7, disabling animations can give a boost in speed when using your Android device. Personally, I enjoy a device focused on speed and responsiveness.
Continue reading “How to disable animations in Android 4.0”

5 reasons to update Facebook for iOS

A new version of Facebook for iOS has been released that promises to be twice as fast as the previous version. Facebook 5.0 has been completely rewritten to make it quicker to load and also includes some key functionality changes to make it smarter and more enjoyable to use.

Here are the most important changes that make this an essential update:

Continue reading “5 reasons to update Facebook for iOS”