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How to control Google Earth Flight Simulator

Google Maps and Google Earth are edging closer and closer to becoming the same app. There is still a huge Google Earth feature missing from Google Maps though. One of the more lesser-known features of Google Earth Pro is the in-built hidden Flight Simulator. Accessible via the Tools Menu, the Flight Sim allows you to fly around the globe from a selected number of airports around the world.

This makes traveling the world using Google Earth a bit more interesting and fun than just panning it over with your mouse.

Google Earth Download

How to control Google Earth Flight Simulator

Step 1

To access the Google flight simulator mode, go to the Tools menu and look for Enter Flight Simulator…

Step 2

You can then choose between two types of planes. Also, you can choose whether to fly from your current position in Google Earth or take-off from a selection of different airports.

Step 3

The controls for Google Earth Flight Simulator aren’t very clear. It isn’t as simple as pressing a start flight button. There is joystick support so you can use a Joystick if you’ve got one but if not, you’ll need to refer to this list of flight simulator keyboard controls. These keyboard shortcuts include the arrow keys, page up, ctrl, alt+a, and all manner of complicated keystroke and mouse controls. Note that they are different for Windows/Linux and Mac.

Step 4

The Head-Up Display is a standard basic HUD that displays altitude, heading, throttle, etc.

Step 5

It takes a while to master the basics, especially controlling thrust and altitude to prevent crashing. Once you have, it’s fun flying around and clicking on points of interest as if you were browsing Google Earth normally. You can even land your plane by throttling down when you approach an airport and pressing G to extend the landing gear. It’s quite hard as you need to control your flaps as well as hitting both “.” and “,” to break the left and right wheels.

5 tips for Google Earth Pro

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Satellite Live app allows real-time spying worldwide

A shocking new satellite program could be a huge setback for privacy around the globe.

Space Soft Labs have today launched the ultimate Big Brother tool with its new Satellite Live application. Satellite Live goes one step further than Google Earth in that it allows you to see real-time video of what is going on, anywhere, anytime on Earth.

Space Soft Labs dismissed accusations that the application raises serious issues of invasion of privacy and national security claiming that Satellite Live is the “ultimate webcam” allowing you to observe only what people are doing in public areas – much like webcams do – but in crystal clear, high definition detail, anywhere on the globe. This can be anything from your local street to Times Square in New York or the middle of the Gobi desert.

The application has been apparently developed in complete confidentiality with only a few of Space Soft Lab’s most important developers assigned to the project. The company says they’ve had to develop it in this way because of what it calls “the obvious implications for personal privacy and associated national security issues that some groups may raise.” They were apparently concerned that major interests would try to “block” the launch of the app if it had become public knowledge that it was in development.

The application uses some of the latest military and space-age technology used by NASA in their last 3 space missions. At the moment, Satellite Live can only view public areas such as high streets, marketplaces and open-air leisure facilities. However, intriguingly according to one Space Soft Labs insider:

Depending on the position of the satellites and time of day, it is occasionally possible to see inside private property.

The program is based on the same infrastructure as Google Earth including an instant location feature, an embedded screen capturing tool (for publishing live action of what you’ve found on your blog) and navigational buttons to move around maps. As with Google Earth, however, the level of detail may vary from one place to another, which means that populated areas such as New York, Los Angeles, London or Tokyo are more detailed than the Nevada desert or the Amazon jungle.

Softonic is one of the first software portals allowed to distribute the application, so download the application here and let us know your thoughts on what is potentially the most exciting and controversial app ever released.

Please note, this blog post is a joke. April Fools!

How to watch WMV files on Mac

A very common problem Mac users have is playing Windows Media Video (WMV) files. When your Mac attempts to open and play WMV files by default in QuickTime, you’ll commonly receive an error message along the lines of ‘This is not a movie file’.

The reason behind this it the fact that WMV files use Microsoft proprietary codecs that don’t work in OS X. This gets really annoying if you come across a WMV file and want to watch it on your Mac.

Microsoft discontinued Windows Media Player for Mac way back in 2006, meaning there’s no longer a tailor-made player for the WMV format for OS X. Fortunately, there are a few free and easy solutions.

Option 1 – Use a Mac Video Player that Supports WMV

The good news is that there are plenty of simple and useful choices when looking for a wmv player for Mac. There are dozens to choose from in our catalog, but below we’ve selected the top 3 WMV compatible players for you.

Flip4Mac Plugin

This is probably the easiest solution to watch WMV files because it enables QuickTime playback of WMV files. This plugin, created by Telestream, allows you to import, export and play Windows Media video and audio files on your Mac. The Flip4Mac WMV plug-in also works with other QuickTime based apps like iMovie and Final Cut Pro, meaning you can even edit WMV files on your Mac too.

Download Flip4Mac Plugin

VLC Media Player

The most versatile player out there, VLC media players lets you play WMV files without the Flip4Mac Plugin, although it’s only a playback solution; it doesn’t let you edit WMV files in QuickTime supported apps including iMovie and Final Cut. The great thing about VLC Media Player, however, is that it’s lightweight, fast, and can handle almost any media format you throw at it.

Download VLC Media Player

Get More With These 5 Expert Hacks for VLC Player

MPlayer OSX

This player emerged out of the Google Codes project as an attempt to create an all-round player. MPlayer OSX is a simple but powerful video player designed specifically for Mac and can handle WMV playback. It features more options and preferences than VLC Player, with the only drawback being that the first time it plays a video, it has to build a font cache, which can take a while. Luckily, it only has to be done once.

Download MPlayer OSX

Option 2 – Convert the WMV file to a Different Format

Another option, and one that is equally good is to use a tool to convert wmv to mp4 or another popular format supported on the Mac. This is a particularly good option if you’re going to want to share the video with other Mac users. Once again, there are a lot of wmv converters for the Mac in our catalog. To save you some time, we’ve hand-picked some of the best ones right here.

VLC Media Player

Oh, VLC, what would we do without you? Yes, if you’ve read this far then you know that VLC Media Player already shows up on our list of WMV Video Players.

But VLC is also a killer tool for converting videos of all formats, and it’s hands-down the best tool of the bunch for converting WMV to MP4 or any other major video format supported by the Mac.

Download VLC Media Player

Total Video Converter Lite

Another top-notch option for converting WMV files on your Mac to another format is Total Video Converter. It features a friendly user interface that will be more comfortable to some Mac users than VLC and it supports conversions of over 160+ video format types.

The unregistered lite version is limited to converting just the first 30% of your file, however, and you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro version of Total Video Converter to complete the job.

But VLC is also a killer tool for converting videos of all formats, and it’s hands-down the best tool of the bunch for converting WMV to MP4 or any other major video format supported by the Mac.

Download Total Video Converter Lite

Original article published on July 6, 2009.

The top 5 Skype voice changers

You can have a surprising amount of fun with Skype voice changers. Whether you want to call your girlfriend pretending to be Barry White, or your boss disguised as Darth Vader, there are a few great apps for Windows and Mac that’ll help you have a bit more fun with the most popular VOIP calling service.

Skype Voice Changer (Windows)

This is the most simple and basic voice changer for Skype, and its free. Install Skype Voice Changer on your PC, open up Skype, and then agree to the permission request. You’ll be presented with an effects panel that lets you alter your voice with a range of presets including Childish, Tremolo and Pitch Down, and you can tweak each of them using the sliders.

Download Skype Voice Changer for Windows

MorphVOX Pro Voice Changer (Windows)

MorphVOX Pro Voice Changer has some interesting preset voices including a demon, a robot, a woman, a kid and even a dog. You can also apply background noises like a shopping mall or traffic as you’re talking, perfect for a call to your boss saying you’ll be late for work.

Another great thing about MorphVOX Pro is the ‘Voice effects’ section, where you can apply various filters to your dulcet tones including nasal, growl, underwater, and monotone. All of the presets can be customized using the ‘Tweak Voice’ control panel.

Unlike Skype Voice Changer, MorphVOX Voice Changer comes with a steep price, although you can try it free for 30 days.

Download MorphVOX Pro Voice Changer for Windows

Voice Candy (Mac)

Voice Candy labels itself as the ‘Photo Booth of voice software’ and although that’s stretching reality a bit, it certainly provides some quick and easy voice effects for Mac users. There are eight choices of varying quality; to apply them, you have to select one of the effects before recording. These effects include Normal, Chipmunk, Vader, Robot, Old Radio, Bad Science Fiction, Phone, and Sore Throat.

Unfortunately, many of these effects are poorly implemented. Bad Science Fiction, for example, simply adds a few ‘eerie’ noises to the background. The best effects are probably Old Radio and Chipmunk.

Download Voice Candy for Mac

AV Voice Changer Software (Windows)

AV Voice Changer Software is designed to alter your voice to make it funny, or at least unrecognizable. It can alter your voice in realtime as you speak into a microphone, or alter recordings and audio streams. The demo is very limited in what you can do, but gives you a good idea of how it can morph your voice.

The fastest way to change your voice is to plug in your microphone and click ‘nickvoices’, which gives you a range of presets. If you’re a guy, for example, you can choose things like Baby, Prudent Girl, Schoolmistress, or Old Woman. Unfortunately, when I tried it out, most of these voices sound fairly similar and unrealistic. You can alter the pitch, tone and frequency of your voice manually in the full version of AV Voice Changer Software.

Download AV Voice Changer Software for Windows

Garageband (Mac)

Garageband can be used to create funny and distorted voices in real-time as you chat on Skype courtesy of the Vocal Transformer. You will, however, need to download Soundflower to channel your voice for Skype. You can also use it to add voice effects in online games like Second Life.

Download Garageband for Mac

Whether you’re on Windows or Mac, there are plenty of options for adding some fun to your Skype conversations with voice changing apps.

Original article published on August 8, 2011.

More about Skype:

How to use Skype’s free group video call feature

Viber vs. Skype: Which is best?

How to delete chat history in Skype

OneNote for Mac: The good and bad

It’s been a long wait but Mac users can finally rejoice at having a native Microsoft OneNote app on their Mac. Microsoft released OneNote for Mac earlier this week and there’s both good news and bad news. The good news is that it’s free. And if you just need OneNote for fairly simple note taking and personal use it’s just as good as the Windows version and a lot more convenient that having to open Parallels just to use OneNote. The bad news is, if you’re expecting the full functionality of the Windows version and suitability for corporate environments, you’ll be quite disappointed.

As is often the case with Microsoft software on Mac, OneNote for Mac isn’t exactly the same as the Windows version. This initial release is a bit like a OneNote “Lite” version with certain features missing – some major, others more minor. Also as expected, Microsoft hasn’t made much effort to give it an OS X style interface with the look clearly inspired by the Windows version. However, if you’ve used Microsoft Office for Mac, you will be familiar with the with the same ribbon interface along the top which makes it easy to access the various features of OneNote.

Like on Windows, you can style your notes in just about any way you want with a huge number of fonts, tables and styles to choose from similar to what you find in Microsoft Word. Notes written on OneNote for Mac are synced with Microsoft OneDrive (formerly known as SkyDrive) with a generous 7GB of free space so you can view your OneNote pages on just about any other device.

The bad news

Unfortunately, there are several drawbacks to OneNote on Mac. One of the most glaring is that you can’t work with OneNote files locally – you can only work with files that are synced in your Microsoft OneDrive account. Even worse, OneNote for Mac doesn’t yet sync with Office 365 or SharePoint which is bad news for those in corporate environments that need more security than OneDrive. Presumably, this will at least be fixed when as expected, Microsoft releases Office 2014 for Mac later this year. In general, integration of OneNote for Mac with other Microsoft software is poor include a lack of support for Outlook.

There are various other small features which are missing from the Mac version including the ability to attach files, lack of support for symbols or equations and the inability to open embedded files. You’re also out of luck if you need to open password protected note pages – OneNote for Mac does not yet support it yet. Copying HTML or webpage content doesn’t work very well, there’s no printing option and no iCloud support.

However for those used to the inconvenience of having to run OneNote on Parallels in Windows, these are relatively small drawbacks that should be fixed in time. And considering OneNote for Mac is completely free too, it’s a step in the right direction for Microsoft on Mac.

How to sync audio with video in VLC for Mac

Have you ever played a video on your Mac that doesn’t have the audio in perfect sync? If so, you’ll know that it can make a movie virtually un-watchable. Thanks to VLC Player, however, there’s a very easy solution!

VLC Player is unusual in that it allows you to adjust your video’s audio track. All you need to do is press the G and F keys while the video is playing.

“G” moves the audio forward:

“F” delays audio:

An Audio delay indicator shows you by how many milliseconds you have moved the audio forward or back after pressing the keys.

However, using the keys only allows you to move the audio in increments of 50 milliseconds. If you want to move it more precisely, then you have to go into VLC’s Preferences.

In Preferences select Audio:

In the bottom left box, change “Basic” to “All”. Now you have access to the advanced preferences where you should see a value called Audio desynchronization compensation:

Simply change this to the exact value that you want and the audio speed will change instantly.

This trick is simple and works every time, but it can make a world of difference to your videos. Unfortunately, we haven’t found a way to save videos with your new audio values, so you’ll have to do it every time.

Have you found a way to save the new audio? If you have, tell us below!

[Original article published August 5, 2010]

Exclusive download: KMPlayer 3.6 update

For the next 24 hours, you can download the latest version of KMPlayer 3.6 exclusively from Softonic.

Like the hugely popular VLC media player, KMPlayer is a lightweight audio and video player for Windows that supports a wide range of different file formats, including AVI, ASF, WMV, AVS, FLV, MKV, and many more. Version 3.6 is recommended because it fixes various bugs and adds a few features such as https streaming and Instant View.

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5 things that could kill Facebook

It might be hard to imagine a day when Facebook isn’t the number one social networking site on the Net but huge social networks have fallen from grace in the past.

The prime example is MySpace which was once the most visited social network on the net from 2005 to 2008. At its peak, if MySpace had been a country, it would have been more populous than Russia, with over 150,000,000 users. Since then, it has declined to 220th in the internet rankings and although Facebook surpassed it long ago, could it one day face the same demise as MySpace?

Continue reading “5 things that could kill Facebook”

Slender: The Arrival Preview (Video)

The final release of Slender: The Arrival for Mac and Windows is just around the corner, on 26th March, so we’ve taken a look at how it compares with 2012 viral sensation Slender: The Eight Pages.

Despite promises from the developer that Slender The Arrival would feature a more complex plot, it doesn’t seem all that different from the original i.e. you simply collect eight pages and avoid the horrendous slender freak voyeur that is Slenderman. Slender: The Arrival is, however, slicker than the original with a more interesting forest. Check out how we got on in Slender: The Arrival (spoiler alert: not very well).

Download Slender: The Arrival

Best apps to follow Formula 1 2013

The 2013 Formula One season is just around the corner starting on Sunday the 17th of March with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. If you don’t want to miss one lap of the action, then there are a few essential F1 apps out there that you’ll need.

Here is a selection of some of the best apps to follow the new Formula 1 2013 season with.

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