What is Windows Home Server?

CES 2012 – PureGear’s PureTek Roll-On Screen Shield Kit for the iPhone 4

Andrew Edney

-

Jan 17, 2012

CES 2012 – PureGear’s PureTek Roll-On Screen Shield Kit for the iPhone 4

At CES there were literally hundreds of screen protectors and cases for the iPhone, but one really stood out for me – the PureTek Roll-On Screen Shield from PureGear.

I saw this tweet during my time at CES and was intrigued:

So off I went to see what all the fuss was about!

The fuss was PureGear’s PureTek Roll-On Screen Shield Kit for the iPhone 4 and 4S. During the hour, PureGear were giving away their shield kit, you just had to apply it to your iPhone at the stand – and there was always a big queue!

This is how PureGear describe the kit:

The first ultimate device protection made simple with patented application tray and roller.

Error-free application tray ensures perfect alignment
Industrial strength film
Self healing technology
Long-lasting adhesive
Includes microfiber cleaning cloth
Limited Lifetime Warranty

Below is a video of my iPhone 4S being protected at CES:

Pure Gear PureTek Roll-on Screen Shield Kit

Towards the end of the video, you can hear that the few air bubbles that were present should disappear within 24 to 48 hours, and I can confirm that after 24 hours they were all gone!

Needless to say I was very impressed just how simple and easy it was to apply the screen shield – and that the bubble-free claim actually was real, and not just “most of the bubbles” disappearing!

And I have tried to scratch it as well and it is fine!

Not bad at all for $19.95!

Learn more from the PureGear website

CES 2012 – Angry Birds on the Big Screen

Andrew Edney

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Jan 17, 2012

2

CES 2012 – Angry Birds on the Big Screen

CES wouldn’t be complete without Angry Birds – and TCL were showing off touch screen TV’s you could play Angry Birds on!

TCL Corporation, a leading Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer, started marketing its full line of TCL branded products and solutions for the first time in its corporate history at CES last week.

And to show off some of it’s touch screen technology, they were playing Angry Birds!

Here is a short video of Angry Birds being played at CES:

UWHS–CES 2012–Angry Birds!

Apple Education Announcement this Week

Apple
News

Andrew Edney

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Jan 17, 2012

1

Last week Apple sent out invites to selected journalists for an education focused event set to take place in New York City on Thursday 19th January at the Guggenheim museum.

Details are sketchy at this time, but the general assumption is that this will be “iBooks for Education” – so doing away with traditional printed textbooks in favour of electronic ones.

Let’s see what Thursday brings…..

StableBit DrivePool Moves to Beta M4 Build 5449

Windows Home Server

Andrew Edney

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Jan 17, 2012

0

StableBit DrivePool Moves to Beta M4 Build 5449

There has been another beta build from CoveCube! StableBit development marches on – now its beta M4 build 5449.

Here is how CoveCube describes this application:

Combine all your hard drives into one big storage pool (except the system drive with the OS).
Add and remove drives from the pool at any time without re-partitioning or manually moving folders.
Create duplicated folders on the storage drive pool that are protected against single drive failure. If a drive fails on which a duplicated file was stored, the contents of that file will remain readable even without the drive.
All your data is stored in standard NTFS files. You can always access your files even if the Windows Home Server completely crashes or this add-in can’t be used.

This version’s change log:

1.0.0.5449 ———-

* Fixed installation issue, where if the previous M4 install failed in the middle, future installs would not work.

* [D] Fixed directory enumeration issue that was causing the WHS client backup engine to report damage in the backup database. Note that, when reproducing this issue, the backup database files were not actually damaged.

Get More Information About the Beta Here Download Stablebit Drivepool build 5449 here

Microsoft Talk About Windows 8 ReFS (Resilient File System)

Andrew Edney

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Jan 17, 2012

0

Microsoft Talk About Windows 8 ReFS (Resilient File System)

In another blog post about the forthcoming Windows 8, Microsoft talk about a new file system called ReFS, or Resilient File System.

Here is how the post starts:

In this blog post I’d like to talk about a new file system for Windows. This file system, which we call ReFS, has been designed from the ground up to meet a broad set of customer requirements, both today’s and tomorrow’s, for all the different ways that Windows is deployed.

The key goals of ReFS are:

Maintain a high degree of compatibility with a subset of NTFS features that are widely adopted while deprecating others that provide limited value at the cost of system complexity and footprint.

Verify and auto-correct data. Data can get corrupted due to a number of reasons and therefore must be verified and, when possible, corrected automatically. Metadata must not be written in place to avoid the possibility of “torn writes,” which we will talk about in more detail below.

Optimize for extreme scale. Use scalable structures for everything. Don’t assume that disk-checking algorithms, in particular, can scale to the size of the entire file system.

Never take the file system offline. Assume that in the event of corruptions, it is advantageous to isolate the fault while allowing access to the rest of the volume. This is done while salvaging the maximum amount of data possible, all done live.

Provide a full end-to-end resiliency architecture when used in conjunction with the Storage Spaces feature, which was co-designed and built in conjunction with ReFS.

The key features of ReFS are as follows (note that some of these features are provided in conjunction with Storage Spaces).

Metadata integrity with checksums

Integrity streams providing optional user data integrity

Allocate on write transactional model for robust disk updates (also known as copy on write)

Large volume, file and directory sizes

Storage pooling and virtualization makes file system creation and management easy

Data striping for performance (bandwidth can be managed) and redundancy for fault tolerance

Disk scrubbing for protection against latent disk errors

Resiliency to corruptions with “salvage” for maximum volume availability in all cases

Shared storage pools across machines for additional failure tolerance and load balancing

In addition, ReFS inherits the features and semantics from NTFS including BitLocker encryption, access-control lists for security, USN journal, change notifications, symbolic links, junction points, mount points, reparse points, volume snapshots, file IDs, and oplocks.

Read the rest of the post here.

Hopefully we should have the first public beta of Windows 8 in a few weeks time.

CES 2012 – A Look at the Synology 1812+ NAS

Andrew Edney

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Jan 16, 2012

0

CES 2012 – A Look at the Synology 1812+ NAS

Last week at CES I spent some time with Synology. One of the things they showed me was their new 1812+ NAS box.

The new 1812+ is an eight bay model, with a new easy to use key system for locking and unlocking the drive bays.

On the rear of the device you will see two large fans.

The back panel can be opened very simply, and the fans can be removed and replaced in a matter of seconds if needed, meaning a much reduced downtime in the event of a fan problem. Synology told me this was one of the most often requested “features”.

It also has two USB 3.0 ports and eSATA, along with the usual assortment of ports, and it will run DSM 4.0.

More information on the 1812+ when we get it.

Visit the Synology website

Add-In: WHS Drobo Status for Windows Home Server 2011 Beta 2

Windows Home Server

Andrew Edney

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Jan 16, 2012

0

Add-In: WHS Drobo Status for Windows Home Server 2011 Beta 2

The Home Server Show have been running a competition for an add-in for WHS 2011 and Drobo. One of the entries is called WHS Drobo Status, and it’s now at Beta 2.

The plugin allows you to at-a-glance view how much space you have available, and the status of the drives.

You can find the beta in the downloads section of the Home Server Show forums.

Simply install the add-in as normal from any WHS client computer.

Please note you must have the Drobo dashboard software installed on your Windows Home Server for the plugin to work (you probably have it installed already! If not you can find the right version from the drobo website).

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – New Multiplayer Maps Coming Next Week

Gaming
News

Andrew Edney

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Jan 16, 2012

4

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – New Multiplayer Maps Coming Next Week

Last week Activision announced more details of the new multiplayer maps launching next week for MW3, and then with more coming over the next nine months. Lock and load!

From January through to September, Call of Duty Elite premium members on Xbox LIVE will receive regular updates of all new content totalling at least 20 content drops.

The Modern Warfare 3 Content Season for Call of Duty Elite will include a broader variety than ever, with brand new multiplayer maps, Special Ops Missions, new game modes and more. While Call of Duty Elite premium subscribers get the new content first, as promised, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 fans who want to buy the content a la carte as they have in the past, will be able to purchase the content via Modern Warfare 3 Content Collections.

“The mammoth launch of Modern Warfare 3 and the breakout success of Call of Duty Elite were just the beginning. Call of Duty Elite provides an ‛always-on’ connection to our fanbase, and the MW3 Content Season is the ultimate way to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the Call of Duty community and provide tremendous value to Call of Duty Elite premium members,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. “With the Call of Duty®: MW3 Content Season for Call of Duty Elite we are delivering on our promise of more new content, more often, and with more variety than ever. With three studios collaborating on the first season, the breadth and depth of material on tap is truly extraordinary. It’s rare you can successfully execute both quantity and quality, but thanks to the expertise of our developers, the reach of Call of Duty Elite and the passion of our fans, we intend to deliver.”

All content drops for Call of Duty Elite premium members will occur once a month, starting in January for Xbox Live users and will continue throughout the year, ending in September. During the first three months of 2012, Activision will release five different content drops on three occasions in January, February and March, first on Xbox Live, followed by additional platforms at a later time.

The first two Content Drops will be multiplayer maps—also playable in Modern Warfare 3 Survival Mode—that throw combatants into a war-torn Central Park and an Italian seaside village. Liberation is a vast, militarised landscape, ripe for long-range sniper and LMG fire, with mounted turrets on either end that lend power to anyone brave enough to expose themselves in exchange for deadly firepower. Piazza is the idyllic Italian getaway that is anything but, where tight corners and branching pathways pose great risk at every turn. Close-range combat dominates in Piazza, where attacks from behind, above and below are an ever-constant threat.

The third Content Drop will be available for download in mid-February and two additional Content Drops will go live in March, as premium Call of Duty Elite members will receive new content once a month between now and September. Also in March, the first Modern Warfare 3 Content Collection will be available for purchase by the entire Call of Duty: MW3 player community on Xbox Live.

To celebrate the launch of each new content drop, Call of Duty Elite will run specialised events for real-world prizes throughout the nine-month Season. Additional details about the Modern Warfare 3 Content Season for Call of Duty Elite and Collection series will be announced throughout the year.

Check out our review of Call of Duty: MW3

Amazon’s LOVEFiLM Signs Another Streaming Deal to Launch ABC TV on Demand in the UK

Andrew Edney

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Jan 16, 2012

0

Today saw LOVEFiLM sign another streaming deal – this time bringing ABC TV on Demand to the UK, so that means shows like Lost and Grey’s Anatomy.

Here is what Amazon said today:

LOVEFiLM, an Amazon company, has partnered with Disney UK in a deal that will give LOVEFiLM members access to full seasons of some of the most iconic American television series ever created.

The branded subscription video on demand (SVOD) service, ABC TV On Demand, will offer LOVEFiLM members on-demand streaming access to ABC Studios’ library of hit network and cable series.

From this month popular series such as Castle, starring Nathan Fillion, as well as all six seasons of Lost, ranked by critics as one of the top US TV series of all time will be available to LOVEFiLM members with streaming packages.

The Golden Globe and Emmy-winning Desperate Housewives, hit comedy Happy Endings, critically acclaimed medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, Ghost Whisperer – starring Jennifer Love Hewitt – and every episode of Brothers & Sisters, which earned actress Sally Field an Emmy, will also be available on-demand later in the year.

Shows will be launched as full seasons after their first run on UK pay and/or free TV. Previous seasons of some series will even be available to members before the next season airs on UK television.

This is the latest TV content deal with a major US Studio to be announced by LOVEFiLM – Europe’s leading TV and movie subscription service. It follows a number of recent TV deals including BBC and ITV, which have added to the expanding collection of top TV content, together with thousands of movies, already available on LOVEFiLM Instant, from studios and distributors including Sony, Warner Bros., Entertainment One and STUDIOCANAL.

Subscription video-on-demand service LOVEFiLM Instant is available on a wide choice of internet-connected devices including the PC, Sony PlayStation®3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Apple iPad and web-enabled TV sets and Blu-ray players, giving members immediate access to content wherever, whenever.

LOVEFiLM has introduced an unlimited streaming-only package which provides access to LOVEFiLM Instant for an introductory price of £4.99 per month. Members will also continue to benefit from physical DVD rentals with the ever-growing ‘LOVEFiLM by Post’ service.

Simon Calver, CEO of Amazon’s LOVEFiLM, comments:
“LOVEFiLM members want top class TV shows, as well as movies, to watch instantly as part of their subscription. Today’s deal with Disney brings them access to some of the best American TV content ever produced. LOVEFiLM’s unique combination of world class movies and TV shows ensures that LOVEFiLM is the first and only port of call for those who want subscription entertainment on demand.”

Catherine Powell, senior vice president / general manager, Media Distribution, The Walt Disney Company EMEA added:
“ABC TV On Demand is home to high quality, compelling US drama, produced by ABC Studios, and launching this service with LOVEFiLM means we are able to offer viewers more choice and flexibility in how and when they can view full seasons of these gripping shows, through one easy-to-use service.”

So what do you think about this?

Synology DiskStation Manager 4.0 Beta Out Now

Andrew Edney

-

Jan 16, 2012

0

Synology DiskStation Manager 4.0 Beta Out Now

Last week we brought you news about Synology’s DiskStatation Manager 4.0 beta coming out – it’s now available!

We spent some time with Synology last week at CES, having seen a demo, it’s really good (check out this video).

Media Browser 2.5.2 (Apollo) Released

Andrew Edney

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Jan 16, 2012

0

The latest version of Media Browser, version 2.5.2, codename Apollo as been released.

Highlights:

Much faster RAL loading in most instances
Faster performance with the Music plug-in in most instances
Improvements to the default theme for Music items
RAL should eliminate dups in situations where you have multiple children of a top item pointing to the same items
Unavailable content should be handled much better. Now it will just skip the validation of the specific items that are not available and allow everything else to refresh.
Support for logos, art and thumbs at the core level (so all themes can take advantage of them).
Implemented non-english metadata retrieval from tmdb
Indicators are shown for premium plugins in the More Plugins window of the Configurator and you can limit the list of plugins to only free ones.
Screensavers can now kick in from the details screen
Jump in List fixes with non-english character sets
Much better Jump in List when not sorted by name. See: Search by NAME when sorted by DATE
3D Movies can now be recognized by Media Browser
Added mk3d media type for external players
Change in xml provider to look for movie.xml primarily instead of mymovies.xml. For more details see Important Notes.
Default theme improvements and fixes

Download Media Browser 2.5.2 from here

Apple iPod Nano 1st Gen Replacement Program Delivers

Apple

Dan James

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Jan 15, 2012

3

Apple iPod Nano 1st Gen Replacement Program Delivers

Towards the end of November 2011, UWHS’s Andrew Edney made me aware of Apple’s Replacement Program for 1st generation iPod Nanos. It seems some 1st gen Nanos had a rare fault which caused some safety issues, so Apple decided to recall them and offer replacements. Not all 1st gen Nanos are eligible. If you have one, go to this page on apple.com to see if yours is eligible for replacement. If it is, simply follow the instructions to start the process.

After filling out a few details, Apple sent me a shipping box to send back my old Nano. It took a couple of weeks for the box to arrive. The box was perfectly sized for the 1st gen Nano, and I sent mine off (being sure to restore it to factory settings with iTunes first – I didn’t use mine for anything except music, but hey, you never know). You have to send it recorded delivery (pre-paid), so you’ll need a trip to the post office. Apple give you a link via email to the repair status page for your case so you can track the progress. Mine was received by Apple very quickly, and it was marked “pending replacement”.

It stayed as “pending” for about six weeks. A friend of mine had submitted his at the same time and sent me a message that he’d received his replacement, and that it was a barnd new 6th gen Nano! I couldn’t believe it! I just hoped mine wouldn’t be pink…

Sure enough, a couple of days later, I got an email with a status update and a UPS tracking link for my new Nano, which was on its way from Ireland. It arrived a couple of days later. As it had to be signed for, you’d have to be at home to take the delivery. I opened the box, and found inside a fantastic brand new silver 6th gen iPod Nano*. They are worth £115, so to get one in exchange for a well-loved 1st gen I’d had for over six years is brilliant – thank you, Apple.

Here are a few pictures of my new toy…

iPod Nano 6th Gen Front with Magic Mouse for Scale

iPod Nano 6th Gen Rear with Magic Mouse for Scale

It’s the 8GB version – there is also a 16GB model available. It comes with a square multi-touch screen of just over an inch square. The multi-touch allows you to turn the screen orientation with two fingers. You move into the menu items by touching, and out of them by swiping right. It has a surprisingly good set of features for a Nano (especially compared to the 1st gen it’s replacing):

24hr battery life
Shake-to-shuffle
Fitness application which links to Nike+
Strong clip for wearing on clothes or as a watch (strap not included)
Clock application with many faces
iTunes with Genius
FM radio (with headphones attached)
Accessibility options to change display options, and give mono audio

If you have a 1st gen Nano, I strongly encourage you to see if you can get a replacement – what you get in return is well worth the effort and the wait.

*Note this link goes to the generic iPod Nano page at apple.com – if they bring out a newer version than 6th generation, this link will point to the new version instead.

StableBit DrivePool Moves to Beta M4 Build 5421

Andrew Edney

-

Jan 15, 2012

0

StableBit DrivePool Moves to Beta M4 Build 5421

There has been another beta build from CoveCube! StableBit development marches on – now its beta M4 build 5421.

Here is how CoveCube describes this application:

Combine all your hard drives into one big storage pool (except the system drive with the OS).
Add and remove drives from the pool at any time without re-partitioning or manually moving folders.
Create duplicated folders on the storage drive pool that are protected against single drive failure. If a drive fails on which a duplicated file was stored, the contents of that file will remain readable even without the drive.
All your data is stored in standard NTFS files. You can always access your files even if the Windows Home Server completely crashes or this add-in can’t be used.

This version’s change log:

1.0.0.5421 ———-

* [D] Fixed simple rename crash (E.g. when renaming from OS X).

* [D] Disk buffer fixes.

* Attempted to fix folder re-share on migration (unable to reproduce).

Get More Information About the Beta Here Download Stablebit Drivepool build 5421 here

CES 2012 – TomTom Preview Version 1.10 of App for iPhone and iPad

Apple
News

Andrew Edney

-

Jan 15, 2012

0

CES 2012 – TomTom Preview Version 1.10 of App for iPhone and iPad

This week at CES, TomTom previewed the latest version of it’s iPhone and iPad TomTom app – version 1.10.

The new version integrates TomTom navigation with Facebook and Twitter allowing users to navigate to friends, places and events more easily. Customers who already have the App will be able to download the new features for free.

The TomTom App for iPhone and iPad will be the first to use social networks as a source for turn-by-turn navigation. It can automatically plan routes based on information from Facebook events, places and friends. Drivers can also use the App to share their destination and arrival time on Twitter, Facebook, by email and SMS text.

The new TomTom App will be available within Q1 2012.

We reviewed the TomTom for iPhone app back in August 2010.