Category: News

Yes folks, the latest version of revolutionary peer-to-peer TV app, Joost, is now out and it includes some pretty important new features, as well as a handful of invitations for anyone already testing the program.

Certain little annoyances in the program’s interface persist. You’re forced to uninstall your previous version as a part of the install process, though the installer does take care of this for you. Also, some users are still a bit confused by the system for browsing channels, not all of which are automatically activated in your ‘My Channels’ listing. My advice is to explore the program thoroughly: it’s still a beta, after all.

Joost’s roster of channels is increasing rapidly, to include such stalwarts as MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and, er, The Diddy Channel. Unfortunately most of the big-name channels are limited to US users only, no doubt for licensing reasons. Let’s hope that some agreements can be reached to extend availability of these channels… it’s tough knowing there’s an entire stream of Ren and Stimpy which I can’t access.
Continue reading “Joost 0.9 – final release edges closer”

Yahoo’s recent announcement that they are to offer unlimited e-mail storage will come as good news to users but equally good news to those evil spammers. E-mail spam is one of the biggest problems on the internet, causing headaches for users and costing businesses billions of dollars each year filtering it from inboxes. We can’t offer you any billion dollar solutions but there are a few useful utlilities out there that could help you if you are sick of spam. Note that these only work if you’ve got your own POP3 account such as with Outlook – they won’t work with web based e-mail programs such as Hotmail or Gmail.

K9 AntSpam is an email filtering application that works in conjunction with your regular POP3 email program and automatically filters spam without the need for dozens of rules or constant updates. Over time, it uses statisitical analysis to ‘learn’ which e-mails are spam and which aren’t. The downside of this is that you might not notice results immediately but in the long-run, it should prove effective.

Continue reading “Prevent spam reaching your inbox”

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve launched a major redesign of our program pages at Softonic. The biggest new features are a much-improved user rating interface, and a swish new ‘lightbox’ mode for program screenshots. Our new rating system makes it easier than ever to say what you think about a program, as well as allowing you to check out and rate other users’ reviews.

Our new screenshot viewer lets you take a better look at a program before downloading. Simply click the thumbnail and you’ll get an instant peek at the full size image. What’s more, we’ve given the page a generous lick of paint, to give it a bolder, clearer look.

So come on in and have a look around. And don’t forget to let us know what you think of the new design!

Playing videogames is not just for kids any more. According to Nielsen/NetRatings,  36.7% of game console owners in the United States are adults. Plus, more than half of them live with their family (spouse and at least one child). It seems then that game consoles should no longer be considered as children’s toys. As these devices evolve into highly sophisticated entertainment systems, “families have incorporated them into their centralized home media centers, which include television, digital recording device, digital music player and the PC” said Carolyn Creekmore of Nielsen/NetRatings.

Microsoft seems to be well aware of this convergence towards a centralized home entertainment system, or at least this is what you can infer from the announcement that the Redmond guys released yesterday: the Live online gaming network, which so far was exclusive to Xbox players, will soon be opened for PC players too. Microsoft plans to launch Live for PC in May 8th, exactly the same day when Halo 2, the Xbox blockbuster, will be released for Windows Vista. In this way, the Live Xbox community will expand to another platform and enable PC gamers to play, compete and interact with the over six million Xbox gamers who already belong to it.

There will be two levels of PC Live membership: ‘silver’ is free and offers basic multiplayer functionalities, some social network tools and a single gamertag, while ‘gold’ features cross-platform gaming and other advanced multiplayer possibilities for a $49.95 monthly fee.

A month after the launch date, Microsoft will release the first game in which PC players will actually be able to join Live community: Shadowrun, a first-person shooter set in the near future where PC and Xbox gamers will enrol in cross-platform online battles of up to 16 players. Later on during 2007, Microsoft will also launch the Vista version of Uno, one of the most popular arcade games in Xbox Live, as one more step towards uniting videogamers across different gaming systems and platforms.

It’s been a long time in coming but Microsoft has announced it is to launch its own Skype-like VOIP program designed especially to integrate with Office 2007. The company has confirmed that by the end of this month, beta testing will go ahead for its IP telephony software Office Communications Server 2007.

Until now, voice or conference calling within Office was limited to Microsoft’s NetMeeting but the new program promises to offer far better integration and quality in calling and video conferencing. The most recent version of Microsoft Office will automatically be able to incorporate the software so users won’t have to resort to third party applications such as Skype to make calls. Microsoft first announced plans for such a service last summer and has since spent the past year developing it alongside Nortel.

The add-on will mean that users can simply click on a name in Word, Excel or Outlook to call them directly. Calls to contacts will also be possible from Sharepoint and MSN Messenger. It will also allow one-to-one, multi-videoconferencing and webconferencing and will be launched in both desktop and Windows Mobile-based versions. The downside however is that it will only work with Office and not any other external programs.

The fact that Microsoft Office is the world’s most widely used business and domestic desktop package means that its certainly going to prove a challenge to VOIP heavywight Skype. However, how many home PC users will be willing to pay to upgrade to the new version of Office just to use something they can already do for free is debatable. The other problem for Microsoft is that many people will be loath to start their contact lists from scratch again. A tool or integrated wizard which would make this process as seamless as possible from Skype would be a wise investment for them if it is to really take-off – at least for home users.

BBC Worldwide has announced it is to launch its own iPlayer in an attempt to rival Apple’s iTunes for downloaded music and video content. It is expected to be approved in the Spring although no official date has been set for the release.

Since the BBC is a publically funded institution, the iPlayer had to prove that it will fulfil a public service. As a result, it will initially only be available to UK licence-fee payers and will allow them to re-watch programs broadcast within the past 7 days (more on the negotiations here). However, the BBC plans to take further controversial steps towards commercialisation by generating revenue from advertiser driven content and pay-per-view downloads. It’s even possible that other commercial broadcasters may be invited on board which would turn the iPlayer into the biggest online broadcaster of terrestrial channels in the UK.

The new project is part of the BBC’s renewed drive to embrace online video including plans to put clips of popular shows on YouTube. Its also currently in the process of working with IBM to create an online searchable database of its children’s programmes.

However, there’s no guarantee that such an on-demand service will work. UK broadcasters Channel 4 and Sky have both experiemented with putting content online but without spectacular results. Most people who miss a program that is broadcasted on TV record it on a VCR or hardrive anyway so it’s debateable whether people will really want to watch a rerun of a soap such as Eastenders online. However, if the BBC were to put its unique archive online on a pay-per-view basis, it might find more success.

The BBC Trust today approved the BBC’s on-demand project, with a final consultation to be held May 2, 2007. The service will allow users to view or download popular programs like Doctor Who, 7 days after their original broadcast. The BBC then plans on releasing its iPlayer application, which will let users play a program 30 days after it has been downloaded or 7 days after it has been watched. The original plan was to let users keep downloaded programs 13 weeks on their hard drives but had to be brought down to 30 days because of Ofcom’s (the UK communications industry regulator) worry that the iPlayer would have a “negative effect” on competitors. But users will still be able to use the “series stacking” feature to keep watched series more than 7 days.

In a sense, the BBC breaks off from the traditional model seen in the majority of broadcast companies. According to WebTVWire, the reason is that the British network is only interested in ratings and doesn’t have to worry about advertising. Other stations are tied to a model where advertising space can be sold at extremely lucrative prices. Joost, the new P2P TV project, should prove traditional channels wrong by embedding advertising into their on-demand service.

It’s interesting to see how the BBC justifies cutting down storage time for episodes. Chris Woolard, head of finance, economics and strategy at the Trust says that “if (users) don’t look at (content) within 48 hours, they don’t look at it at all”. Kind of an easy way of justifying putting more control on content. While the on-demand service is an exciting way of broadcasting episodes it’s clear that management is making sure they keep a tight grip on it.

Whatever you say about Microsoft and its effort to shut out rival developers at all costs, there’s no disputing that its PR machine is very well oiled. The Redmond giant has just launched a competition to find the best student software developers in the world, in an event dressed up as the ‘Software Olympics’.

The fifth annual Imagine Cup will see budding developers from around the world compete for the $25,000 top prize and the chance to win global recognition for their idea throughout the industry. The contest, which attracted more than 65,000 entrants last year, is described by Microsoft as the chance for “young technologists around the globe to explore their creativity by using technology to solve real-world problems.” One assumes that applicants entering ideas for pioneering new web browsers or office suites need not apply.