Tonight is the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launch party here in London and right now it’s in full swing. There is also a really cool video for the game you just have to watch.
The official Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 live action trailer featuring Sam Worthington, Jonah Hill and Dwight Howard. Whether you’re a veteran of Call of Duty or a n00b just starting out, there’s a soldier in all of us.
Are you going to get the game?
Spotify, the cool music streaming service finally comes to the Windows Phone.
Here is what Microsoft posted on their UK blog:
Streaming music on Windows Phone was already pretty awesome. However, today it just got a whole lot better.
What a lot of people have been waiting for has finally arrived. Spotify on Windows Phone.
For those of you who don’t know (who are you?), Spotify is the fastest-growing and most successful music service of its kind, giving you on-demand access to millions of songs, streamed straight to your phone (and no need for any buffering). It gives you the ability to create and share playlists from your mobile phone, and sync lists for those times you’re out of range.
In addition to one of the world’s biggest music libraries, Spotify lets you easily import all your existing MP3s so you can play all your music from one place.
Music is best shared
Like Windows Phone, Spotify has people at its heart. Would you rather have a machine tell you what to listen to or would you rather get suggestions from a friend with great taste in music? Whether you’re an indie kid, electro geek or pop music purist, Spotify on Windows Phone helps you get closer to the music you and your friends love to share.
Spotify uses the social power of Windows Phone to help you stay connected to what your friends are listening to. You can share top tracks and artists via Twitter and Facebook and browse your friends’ favourites right there from your phone.
Over 400 million Spotify playlists have been created by people so far. You can find many of these shared at sites like http://www.sharemyplaylists.com and http://www.bbcify.com, as well as uploading your own. Even better, all this is connected right into the Music + Videos Hub and taps into the universal music controls on your Windows Phone, giving you access to millions of tracks right from the heart of your phone.
Starting November 7, Windows Phone users can download Spotify from the Windows Phone Marketplace (available later today on Marketplace)
Over the last few day’s I have been using Spotify’s Premium service, and I have to say I really like it!
Do you use Spotify? What do you think of it?
Tonight is the launch of the latest Call of Duty game – Modern Warfare 3 here in the UK, and UWHS will be at the launch party. Care to join us?
Unfortunately we can’t take you with us into the party itself, but you can join us “virtually” as Activision will be streaming the entire event live via YouTube.
We will bring you more from the party later, but if you want to watch, visit http://www.youtube.com/codmw3launch
This morning HTC announced the first wave of it’s phones to get the new Android OS – Ice Cream Sandwich.
This is what HTC posted on their Facebook page this morning:
HTC knows how excited our fans are to get their hands on Google’s latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, so we’re thrilled today to announce the first wave of HTC phones that will receive upgrades: We can confirm the brand new HTC Vivid, on sale beginning today, is upgradeable to Ice Cream Sandwich. In addition, Ice Cream Sandwich is coming in early 2012 to a variety of devices including the HTC Sensation, HTC Sensation XL and HTC Sensation XE, as well as the HTC Rezound, HTC EVO 3D, HTC EVO Design 4G and HTC Amaze 4G through close integration with our carrier partners. We’re continuing to assess our product portfolio, so stay tuned for more updates on device upgrades, timing and other details about HTC and Ice Cream Sandwich.
More news when we have it.
As you may know, I am a huge fan of My Movies, and now Brian has released an update to My Movies for Mac OS X – taking it to version 1.01.
Introduction
My Movies for Mac OS X allows you to catalog your entire movie collection from our high quality online data service containing data for more than 475,000 DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD titles from various countries. The application supports Mac OS X 10.6 and higher.
Notice! The application is currently in Pre Release, and is freely available to everyone during this Pre Release period. The Pre Release distributions contains a time bomb functionality, allowing to function typically for one month from the release date.
My Movies for Mac OS X requires you to create a user account, or log on to an existing My Movies account to be able to use the program. Your collection will follow your user account through our online servers, allowing you to switch between different clients without ever loosing your data. If you log in to an existing My Movies account, your current collection will automatically be synchronized to My Movies for Mac OS X. Users of My Movies for iPhone, iPad or Android will automatically have their collection synchronized between My Movies for Mac OS X and your movie devices.
Availability
My Movies for Mac OS X is available in two different versions; an unlimited “Pro” application, available for purchase through the Mac App Store, and a “Free” application which is identical to the “Pro” version, but limited to 50 titles, a limitation that can be lifted either through contribution points or purchased points.
The Pro application can be purchased by clicking here.
The free application is at this time not available through the App Store, but instead available as a direct download on this page. This is due to Apple not allowing for trial software on the App Store.
The Free application can be downloaded by clicking here.
My Movies for Mac OS X and My Movies for Windows
My Movies for Mac OS X is a standalone software, synchronizing with the My Movies WebService.
The application is not a client for My Movies for Windows servers, such as My Movies for Windows Home Server and My Movies Collection Management functioning as server. This means that you cannot connect it to the My Movies Windows based solutions.
It is not planned that for the software to function as a client to the My Movies Windows software package at any point. The internal structure and functionality of the application differs in many ways to how the Windows software packages function. Depending on user feedback, it may be that this at some point will change, and while we would like the requests as feedback, it is not something users should expect.
Interface Overview
Below is an overview of the interface of My Movies for Mac OS X, allowing you to see the functionality of buttons and interface areas. You can click the image to view it in a larger version.
– Title search dialog now remembers country selection.
– Search function extended to allow user to select in Title, Director, Cast, Notes, Tags or other options.
– Fixes a random crash after adding multiple titles.
– Various other minor fixes.
– Adds German language.
– Adds French language.
– Adds Italian language.
– Adds Dutch language.
– Adds Danish language.
– Adds Russian language.
UK publisher PX Software, and Kaspersky, one of the fastest growing IT security companies worldwide have announced Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 Booster Edition.
Kaspersky Lab was the first to develop many technological standards in the antivirus industry, including full-scale solutions for Linux, Unix and NetWare, a new-generation heuristic analyzer designed to detect newly emerging viruses, effective protection against polymorphic and macro viruses, continuously updated antivirus databases and a technique for detecting viruses in archived files. Kaspersky Lab now operates in more than 100 countries and is one of the market leaders in the development of antivirus protection.
Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 Booster Edition includes Kaspersky Internet Security (3 User), Rebit 5 Essentials (3 User) and Tuneup Utilities 2011 (3 User). Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 is a comprehensive computer security suite that provides users with unique, hybrid protection from all types of computer threats. Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 delivers premium protection from viruses, Trojans, spam, hackers and more. Whether you’re banking, shopping or social networking online, you can have complete confidence that your account details are secure, you won’t stumble onto dangerous websites and you’ll only receive safe messages from your friends.
Rebit 5 Essentials backup software is the safe, simple and smart way to protect your digital content.
Every song you download each picture you transfer or video you capture is immediately backed up with Continuous Data Protection (CDP) technology. Rebit is the only backup and complete system recovery solution that starts working the minute it is installed, keeping PCs continuously protected from crashes, viruses or accidental file deletions. At the heart of Rebit’s product line is the exclusive SmartSave™ Personalization Technology which delivers complete backup and recovery while providing additional storage space for personal files including music, movies, pod casts and other data.
TuneUp Utilities helps you get the most out of your PC. This highly successful tuning suite doesn’t just optimise Windows; it also provides peak performance for games and programs. With more than 30 intuitive tools, users can be sure of increased performance and top speed, greater system reliability, optimal maintenance, recovered disk space and a fresh looking Windows interface With this wide range of TuneUp Utilities functions, the user is assured of complete, safe control over their PC and tweaking a technically complex system is easy.
“We are committed to providing the best protection for our three million users worldwide. This new partnership with TuneUp and Rebit is great because it means we can provide this top level protection, back up and tune up to customers across the board, no matter what their requirements or circumstances.” Stated Alex Busk, Head of Retail, UK & Ireland.
“Rebit is very pleased to be able to partner with Kaspersky. The combination of Rebit’s full system backup and restore functionality with Kaspersky and TuneUp will provide customers with a unique and powerful level of security, performance, and data protection for their PCs.” commented Paul Guerin, CEO, Rebit USA
“Over the past 2 years, PX Software have partnered with Kaspersky to include TuneUp Utilities in their retail packaging, and with both TuneUp and Rebit going into retail for 2012, we believe consumers will have the best security, data protection and PC optimisation available in one box, offering unbelievable value for money,” stated Robert Hall, Sales Director, PX Software.
Price and Availability:
Addressing all demands for effective security, data protection and PC optimisation, Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 Booster Edition is available at an extremely competitive price of £59.99 – a saving of about £50 on the prices of the individual titles.
About PX Software:
PX Software Ltd. is a Value Added software republishing and distribution business with offices in the United Kingdom. The company supplies a select range of new and established software products, for republishing and distribution, to all regions where they currently have representation. The focus is on software that is niche and aimed at various vertical markets. PX Software Ltd. believe that their major strength lies in their association with their respective distribution and development partners.
This allows them to deliver cost-effective software solutions to their resellers, thereby allowing significant margin opportunities for their customers.
PX Software has an ongoing mission to provide leading edge products, providing market leadership opportunities by always bringing new and exciting applications to the market place. They have publishing and/or distribution rights for the following products Tuneup, Rebit, UniBlue, www.pxsoftware.co.uk
Last week, CyberLink Corp launched a new version of its industry leading burning software, Power2Go.
CyberLink Corp launched a new version of its industry leading burning software, Power2Go. Engineered to include several new features that deliver the most complete media burning experience, Power2Go 8 now burns system recovery discs, allowing users to not only burn videos, photos, music and data to any optical disc format, but also save data and restore their PC after a hard disk failure.
Power2Go 8 introduces several new features, including the ability to create system recovery discs to backup data and restore a PC as well as the option to mount a disc image as a virtual drive. Power2Go 8 also includes WaveEditor 2, a sample-level precision waveform editor which features a new multi-timeline audio mixer allowing users to compose an audio output from multiple audio tracks.
“Power2Go 8 is the most versatile media burning tool on the market,” said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. “Whether it’s burning data, creating a DVD of your home videos, or saving your data with the new system recovery capabilities, Power2Go 8 delivers all the features users need in burning software in industry leading quality and reliability.”
Additional Key Features in Power2Go 8
Complete Burning Tool
Safeguard Your Data
Jazz Up Your DVDs
Product Availability
Power2Go 8 is available today and can be downloaded from the CyberLink online store. Power2Go 8 is available in the following languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, and Korean. CyberLink offers OEM versions to PC and CE manufacturing customers.
Additionally, for the first time CyberLink is offering a free version of its media burning software, Power2Go 8 Essential, which delivers reliable, high quality burning for photos, music, video and data to CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs.
CyberLink Power2Go 8 Versions
Power2Go 8 Platinum: £49.99
Power2Go 8 Deluxe: £39.99
Power2Go 8 Essential: FREE
Upgrades for previous Power2Go versions are available starting at: £29.99
Have you always wanted to own a white PS3? Well now you can, and GameStop here in the UK have them available to pre-order.
Here is how GameStop describe it:
The new PS3 continues to offer the cutting-edge features and functions of the current models, such as the ability to enjoy high-definition Blu-ray disc (BD) movies and games, as well as various content and services downloadable through the network.
The new PS3’s storage size been increased 320GB, and with the extra capacity users will be able to store more games, music, photos, videos as well as various content and services available through PlayStation Network. Having more than 27 million registered accounts around the world, PlayStation Network offers more than 15,000 pieces of digital content, ranging from game titles, trailers, and demos to more than 15,000 movies and TV shows via PlayStation Store.
PlayStation Network members can also download free applications, such as PlayStation Home, a ground-breaking 3D social gaming community available on PS3 that allows users to interact, communicate and share gaming experiences, as well as Life with PlayStation, which offers users various news and information on a TV monitor in the living room by connecting the PS3 to the network.
You will get a white PS3 console and two white dualshock pad controllers.
You can pre-order it now for £249.97 and it will ship Tuesday 8th November.
Pre-order your White PS3 from GameStop today
Earlier this year we told you about a UK based company called PC Specialist that had entered the Windows Home Server 2011 market. Here at UWHS we worked with PC Specialist to build what we call the Ultimate WHS 2011 box, and here is our review.
From their website:
We are also an official Microsoft® Certified Partner which demonstrates our commitment to skills & training using Microsoft® products.
One of the really great things about the PC Specialist offering is the sheer amount of options and variants you can select – from 9 different cases, to processors, hard drives, and so on. It’s certainly nice to have options to choose from.
Here is the selection PC Specialist and UWHS made for the Ultimate WHS 2011 box:
Case
FRACTAL DESIGN ARRAY R2 Mini ITX NAS Case + 300W PSU
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600S Quad Core (2.8GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS P8H67-I DELUXE: Mini-ITX, LG1155, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Storage
1 x 80GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 90MB/sW)
2 x 2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm) : setup as RAID 1
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD + Clear Video HD Technology
Sound Card
ONBOARD 10 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows Home Server 2011 64 Bit – inc DVD & Licence
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Price
The price worked out at £936.00 including VAT and delivery.
Earlier this week Microsoft launched an addition to it’s Marketplace for Windows Phone called Marketplace Extra.
Here is what Microsoft posted on their blog:
Ever have the nagging feeling you’re missing out on some great overlooked app or game in Marketplace?
Or maybe Windows Phone is your first smartphone, and you’re a little unsure what to download first.
I think we’ve all felt that way from time to time. That’s why we created Marketplace Extra, a new feature of the Windows Phone website dedicated to helping you discover handy, fun, and other pinworthy apps and games.
Marketplace, of course, already comes equipped with useful automated tools for sorting and slicing our fast-growing app catalog. Marketplace Extra adds the human touch: Each month a team of writers and editors—me included—will comb Marketplace for great apps and games to feature. We’ll also spotlight app news, reviews, videos, and more. So check out Marketplace Extra and tell us what you think!
I think this is a really great idea – well done Microsoft!
Have you got a Windows Phone and have you used this new service? Let us know what you think.
Recently we reviewed the Samsung 830 Series SSD, which also comes with some special software. So here is our review of the Samsung SSD Magician version 3.0 software.
The “Samsung SSD Magician” software facilitates easy maintenance and use of Samsung SSD products connected to a desktop or notebook computer.
In addition to providing information about the user’s system and SSD product, Samsung SSD Magician also supports advanced features, like SSD performance management, benchmarking for optimum performance, new firmware updates, etc.
Samsung SSD Magician comes with all new Samsung SSD’s.
Installing the Magician software is simple, and just requires you to step through the screens.
A new icon appears on your desktop, which you can double-click to launch.
This launches the Samsung SSD Magician software.
If there is an update available you will be informed – in which case, download and install the update.
This menu provides detailed system summary and the summary of Disk’s connected to the host system.
System Summary will display system information details like Operating system, mother board, display, Storage, memory, HD Audio, Network etc.
Disk Summary will display Model name, serial number, manufacturer, firmware, size, max LBA etc for each of the disks connected to the system. Disk summary also shows the Logical & Physical drives for the selected disk.
DVBLogic put out this plea – Please help us to update the DVBLink v4 language files. Can you help?
Here is what they said:
We need update for the following languages:
Chinese, Danish, German, Spanish, French, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish and Czech.
The language files are in the attached zip file. There are several of them, divided across a number of sub-directories.The files themselves are in xml text format. They are largely translated already as we have taken v3 strings as basis. Strings that are not translated yet are at the end of each language file (but please have a look across the whole file to make sure that there are no language irregularities).
Please do not forget to save the files that you edit in utf-8 format to preserve any special characters that you may have.
Unfortunately you will not be able to test your translation on the fly in your v4 installation because the language files have to be compiled into string resources.
UK-based Picsel has released their document creation and editing suite SmartOffice for the webOS-based HP Touchpad. Read on for details!
UK-based Picsel recently announced that they have released SmartOffice for webOS-based HP TouchPads. This brings another choice to the platform, which shipped from HP with Quickoffice installed.
Here is how Picsel describes themselves:
About Picsel
Turning exciting ideas into compelling reality.
Picsel is a dynamic mobile solutions provider, whose pioneering software enables true office mobility. Key stakeholders such as handset OEMs and Operators – use Picsel’s solutions to deliver a vibrant and visually stunning mobile experience that rivals, and often supersedes, the desktop PC experience. Established in 1998, the company employs over 60 staff at its headquarters in Glasgow, Scotland and Korea. The company’s technology has shipped more than 500 million units worldwide, with a customer list that includes LG, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung and Sharp.
Picsel’s aim is to empower Operators and OEMs by allowing the creation of visually stunning and interactive applications that drives the uptake of handsets and services, and build relationships with end user communities. As the mobile market continues to incorporate more advanced media for mobile workers, such as video, enterprise services and user-generated content, Picsel’s proven technology and highly skilled team will become increasingly pivotal in the development of the broader mobile industry.
Here is how Picsel describes SmartOffice and why they released it for webOS:
Picsel UK, a dynamic mobile solutions provider, is pleased to announce the release of Picsel SmartOffice™ for HP WebOS.
In August Picsel UK received an overwhelming response from the WebOS community to a viral video showing a test port of SmartOffice™ on an HP Touchpad. Picsel UK committed to releasing a version of SmartOffice™ on the HP App Catalog. The company has worked closely with HP in delivering a flagship premium application. The Picsel SmartOffice™ for WebOS release gives HP WebOS users a choice and ability to download the first independent mobile office productivity suite available on the App Catalog.
From the 24th October users can purchase Picsel SmartOffice™ for the HP Touchpad from the App Catalog. SmartOffice™ provides superior document viewing and editing capabilities for Microsoft® Word and Excel, and is currently the only application for WebOS that enables you to create and edit Microsoft® PowerPoint documents.
SmartOffice™ makes creating, editing and sharing Microsoft® Office and other documents on the move even easier through contextual menus, a drag and drop interface and sharing to email, Dropbox and Google Docs™. SmartOffice™ for WebOS is a true mobile office experience. Here are just some of the great features:
- Create and edit Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint Documents
- View Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, Txt and many image file types
- Send files as email attachments
- Cloud integration with Dropbox and Google Docs™
- Delete, copy and rename files in the SmartOffice™ file explorer
- Slide show mode in PowerPoint
- Full screen view – use the whole screen to view your document. Tap at the top of the screen to show the menu.
- Pages view – navigate document easily and quickly with 3D pages view
- N-Up: zoom out to show multiple pages, dynamically arranged on screen
- 3D Stereo View – convert any document or image to 3D instantly to view using anaglyph glasses
Picsel UK will continue to develop SmartOffice™ for WebOS. Future releases will include feature enhancements such as Autoshapes for PowerPoint and UI enhancements.
This software allows you to view Microsoft Office documents and perform some light editing on the TouchPad, and can even support creation of simple documents. The real differentiation here from Quickoffice is the ability to edit PowerPoint documents with better fidelity.
Here is what Picsel had to say about product features:
General
Alternative user interface for tablet devices
Support for native device buttons (e.g. Android Back button)
Visual Explorer
Recent documents option – this lists the documents users have accessed before, regardless of where they have been saved
Thumbnail view for recent documents and templates
Save As – allows users to rename their documents and resave them into new locations
Cloud file hosting capabilities – Dropbox has been integrated into Picsel Smart Office to allow users to save files automatically onto the online cloud service, and then these files can be shared by multiple computers. Simply add in a Dropbox username and password, and then when documents are saved into the Dropbox folder on Picsel Smart Office, they will be uploaded to the main Dropbox folder online and visible practically immediately (time taken depends on speed of internet connection to upload the file)
Editing
Inline editing of text in Word and PowerPoint
Multi-level Undo and Redo
Excel Function picker – when you are editing a cell’s formula, Picsel Smart Office will allow you to insert a function from more than 100 options. Other formulae can be entered in manually and the function will be processed the next time the spreadsheet is loaded into Microsoft Office Excel
Excel Number formatting – this specifies how the value of the cell should be rendered such as a date or very large number
Manage PowerPoint slides – Click on the Slide Sorter within PowerPoint, and users can now reorder or delete slides. To delete, simply hold down on the slide you want to delete, and select delete from the callout box. To reorder, simply hold down on the slide you want to move, and drag to its new position
Supported Document formats
Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2003, XP, 2007: .doc .docx
Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2003, XP, 2007: .xls .xlsx
Microsoft PowerPoint 97, 2000, 2003, XP, 2007: .ppt .pptx
Adobe Acrobat PDF 1.0 to 1.7: .pdf *
Images: .jpg (.jpeg) .png .bmp .wmf .emf .gif
Plain text: .txt
selected features of pdf v1.0 to 1.7 supported
Last week we told you about an new WHS add-in called ISO Mounter. Well Jim from Electrogoo has been in touch tonight to say that ISO Mounter is now officially available.
ISO Mounter is a software add-in for Microsoft Home and Business server that allows you to mount ISO files (DVD and CD images) stored on your server so they can be viewed directly through your servers folder share on all of your PC’s and laptops.
Are you tired of burning ISO images onto physical CD and DVD and media?
Would you prefer not to install ISO mounting software containing ad-ware and annoying toolbars on all of your PC’s and laptops?
