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January 6 giveaway: Auslogics Registry Defrag

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 5:40pm MST by Mark Wilson

It is important to keep your computer in good shape if you are going to get years of use from it and there are various techniques that can be used to ensure that you are getting the best possible performance from your hardware. While it is fairly easy to use the various tools that are built into Windows to keep your hard drive optimized, when it comes to the registry it is something of a different story. Windows includes a tool that can be used to edit the registry, but nothing that enables you to optimize it. This is precisely where Auslogics Registry Defrag can help and today we’re giving you a free copy of this powerful app worth $19.95.

Auslogics has a great reputation for producing powerful maintenance tools, and Registry Defrag falls very neatly into this category. The registry is an area of Windows that many people do not feel comfortable tampering with -- and with good reason, as any incorrect changes could have disastrous consequences for your computer. But just like your hard drive, your registry is prone to fragmentation as software installation and uninstallations leading to bloating and an increase in size that impacts negatively on performance.

Whether you have a cutting edge computer or you are working with a slightly older machine, Auslogics Registry Defrag is a valuable tool that can make a real difference to performance. Turning to this dedicated tool is a far better option than trying to battle with the registry yourself. Windows’ huge database is an unwieldy beast to battle with and if you make incorrect changes or deletions you could render your system unusable. Registry Defrag automatically create a System Restore point so in the unlikely event that something goes wrong you can reverse the changes.

The fact that Windows is making constant reference to the registry means that it is important to keep it optimized. Auslogics Registry Defrag will eliminate unnecessary entries and reduce the overall size of the registry to keep things running as smoothly as possible and maximizing the amount of RAM available to applications. As an added bonus the app can be installed on up to three computers with a single license, so you can maintain all of the computers in your household with the same tool.

To take advantage of this special giveaway, go to the Downloadcrew Giveaway site, log in (or create a free account if you don’t have one already), grab your copy of the program and get a free serial code. Be quick as the offer is for January 6th only, and expires at 23:59 Central European Time.

Photo Credit: Sergey Mironov/Shutterstock
Whoa, Galaxy Nexus is coming to Sprint

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 3:57pm MST by Joe Wilcox

That's the gist of an advertisement running at CNET right now. It's the "first 4G LTE phone from Sprint", according to the banner advert, on the carrier's, ah, coming-sometime-really-soon LTE network. I dunno if the ad spills a pending CES 2012 announcement or what. But leaks don't get much funnier than this.

On the other hand, Sprint held a little event late this afternoon announcing big, splashy LTE network deployment. I suppose the carrier could offer Galaxy Nexus with LTE capability ahead of the bigger pipes. But the handsome smartphone may look a little old in the tooth when quad-core beauties start selling around the time Sprint offers LTE.

Sprint will offer LTE first in Dallas, Atlanta, Houston and San Antonio sometime in the first half of the year, CEO Dan Hess said today. That's a hell of a big time target. The carrier also plans to improve 3G coverage.

"Within the first half of 2012, Sprint customers should experience first-hand the wide-reaching improvements we have made in terms of boosting voice and data quality", Bob Azzi, Sprint senior vice president, says. "With advanced smartphones and sophisticated wireless modems, our customers are using more and more mobile data, and one of our top priorities is to provide the best technology possible to improve our customers' experience".

I've got to wonder what good the "LTE" will be in Galaxy Nexus between now and then -- and just for a smidgin of subscribers at that. Today, AT&T expanded its LTE network by 11 cities, reaching 26 and 74 million Americans. Verizon's is bigger still, reaching 200 million people and supported by 9 LTE Androids.

Galaxy Nexus already is available from Verizon (I have one), and the LTE performance hugely satisfies (as does the battery life).

I see nothing in today's Sprint LTE announcement about Galaxy Nexus (yet), so I must assume that the CNET ad outs a planned CES announcement. Uh-oh.
AT&T lights up 4G LTE service in 11 more cities and mine is one of them

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 1:24pm MST by Joe Wilcox

AT&T LTE is now available in San Diego, which means I'll soon conduct speed test comparisons around the city against Verizon's 4G network. It will be the Wilcox household network speed test face-off, the wife's Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket against my Galaxy Nexus.

San Diego joins 10 other cities, which LTE service AT&T announced today. They are: Austin, Texas; Chapel Hill, N.C.; New York City metro area; Los Angeles; Oakland; Orlando, Phoenix; Raleigh, N.C.; San Diego; San Francisco; and San Jose. They join 15 others: Athens, Ga.; Atlanta; Baltimore; Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Dallas-Fort Worth; Houston; Indianapolis; Kansas City; Las Vegas; Oklahoma City; San Antonio; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Washington, DC. AT&T claims its LTE network reaches 74 million people; Verizon, 200 million.

"We’re building a 4G LTE network that’s blazing fast, and we offer dual layers of 4G technologies to provide customers with a more consistent speed experience" John Stankey, AT&T Business Solutions CEO, says. "Our network, together with our unsurpassed 4G device portfolio and innovative applications, will give our customers an industry-leading mobile broadband experience".

AT&T's network expansion trails far behind Verizon's, and the nation's second-largest carrier doesn't expect to complete its LTE rollout until 2013. AT&T offers just two LTE phones, HTC Vivid and Skyrocket, while Verizon offers nine. All 11 are Androids.

Days before Apple announced iPhone 4S, I asked: "What if iPhone 5 isn't LTE?" There is no true 4G iPhone, which apparently isn't stopping buyers. Yesterday Verizon -- the carrier with broadest LTE network and most number of supporting handsets -- revealed 4.2 million iPhones sold during fourth quarter.

Circling back to LTE here in San Diego, last week I wrote about sudden battery problems with Skyrocket, apparently related to network acquisition problems. I suspected that the phone burns through the battery trying to connect to AT&T's cellular network. An AT&T technician confirmed an acquisition problem, but attributed it to the antenna. I wasn't convinced, particularly since AT&T will only swap the fairly new Skyrocket for a refurbished one.

I discussed the situation with my wife and asked her to sit tight, thinking the problem might resolve itself. I had seen this before. In late Spring 2010, battery life went to hell on all our AT&T phones, and I determined it was a problem connecting to the local cellular towers. About 30 days later, battery life on all phones returned to normal and we stopped having dropped calls. AT&T had been updating the network in advance of iPhone 4's release.

AT&T had indicated LTE would soon come to San Diego, and I wondered if a network upgrade could cause the problem. Three days ago, Skyrocket went from 8-10 hours battery life, even when idle, to more than 24. It's nowhere as good as when I bought the phone in early November but more than acceptable. My wife is out as I write, or I'd check to see if she's connected to LTE. But that's what I expect, and I am looking forward to speed comparisons. Best speed test so far on Verizon, about two blocks from my apartment: 27Mbps. Can AT&T do better? I actually expect it will. But, so far, Galaxy Nexus, which is always connected to LTE, has exceptional battery life. Galaxy S II Skyrocket won't easily compete.
Box rolls out big feature upgrade to Android app

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 12:53pm MST by Tim Conneally

Cloud storage and collaboration service Box has rolled out the 1.5 update to its Android application on Thursday, adding three big new features to the mobile app which take advantage of Android's unique capabilities.

First, the application now includes a homescreen widget that shows whenever a file is updated by a collaborator, and it launches files direcly without having to take the additional step of launching the Box app.

Secondly, Box is now tied into the Android "share" menu, and any file you open on your Android device can be instantly shared to your Box, uploading it to the site without having to send links or attach files in emails.

Finally, you can now create Office documents, spreadheets, and presentations through the "Create" menu in the Box app if you have a mobile app capable of creating these documents. It sounds kind of goofy when stated in that way, but it's actually a useful feature. Box has always been deeply tied into the Android application QuickOffice Pro, for example, allowing you to access documents in your shared boxes from within the QuickOffice app. Now, it's a more reciprocal relationship, and you can choose to create an Office file in Box's "create" menu, and it opens the editor with the document all ready to save in your Box account.

Box 1.5 is now available for download in the Android Market.
Broadcom debuts next WiFi standard at CES 2012

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 11:06am MST by Ed Oswald

Broadcom says it is using the platform of the Consumer Electronics Show next week to debut fifth generation wireless networking technology, dubbed 802.11ac. The wireless standard promises speeds of up to 1.3Gbps, which would make 802.11ac about three times as fast as 802.11n. It will also be about six times as power efficient, perfect for portable devices.

802.11ac promises greater range than its predecessors. While like previous technologies, top speeds are only attainable less than 10 meters from the transmitter. However, due to the speed bump alone 802.11n speeds are still theoretically attainable 60 meters away. This obviously makes wireless networking more viable in larger spaces.

Increased speed allows for devices to transfer a greater amount of data in a shorter time, which conserves battery power. In most portable devices, WiFi connectivity is one of the biggest draws on the battery. By eliminating the need for long connection times to download data, battery life of these devices will then increase, Broadcom argues.

The company will release four chips initially: the BCM4360, BCM4352, BCM43526, and BCM43516. Samples of these chips have been sent to manufacturers for testing, and Broadcom plans to demonstrate the capabilities of 802.11ac to CES attendees.

Several electronics companies including Asus, D-Link, Huawei, and LG have announced plans to integrate the technology into future products. No announcement has been made on a time frame for consumer availability, however.

Photo Credit: 21thDesign/Shutterstock
Logitech Cube might be CES 2012's ugliest product

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 10:32am MST by Ed Oswald

In a move that looks more like a clever ploy to attract bloggers and journalists to their booth at next week's Consumer Electronics Show than a product with any actual hope of success in the marketplace, Logitech on Thursday introduced the Cube. The rectangular shaped device is a mouse primarily, although it doubles as a presenter.

The square shape sure will take some getting used to, especially considering the design of the mouse has all but been unchanged in its three decades of existence. Why? Because it works. Remember Apple's circular mice that came with the original iMacs? They were derided for one reason -- ergonomics -- and the Cube seems destined for a similar fate.

I just don't see this thing being comfortable, and that's a big issue.

Scrolling is performed by running the finger across the top of the Cube. Lifting the device off the table will activate "Presenter Mode", and clicking the top will advance to the next slide. Logitech is also throwing its Unifying 2.4GHz wireless receiver into the package, allowing the user to connect up to six compatible devices to the receiver without the need for multiple dongles.

Logitech will begin selling the Cube this month in both the United States and Europe for $69.99, however it has decided to only sell it online. Maybe that's because this seems more gimmicky than anything? I do digress.
Barnes and Noble: Nook is doing so well that it can be spun off

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 10:07am MST by Tim Conneally

National bookstore chain Barnes and Noble announced on Thursday that is considering a spin-off of its digital content business surrounding the Nook e-book software platform and its related hardware. The company says the Nook digital business is expanding so strongly that it could be separated from Barnes and Noble's other business units and operate on its own.

"We see substantial value in what we’ve built with our NOOK business in only two years, and we believe it’s the right time to investigate our options to unlock that value,” William Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble said in a statement on Thursday. “In Nook, we’ve established one of the world’s best retail platforms for the sale of digital copyright content. We have a large and growing installed base of millions of satisfied customers buying digital content from us, and we have a NOOK business that’s growing rapidly year-over-year and should be approximately $1.5 billion in comparable sales this fiscal year. Between continued projected growth in the U.S., and the opportunity for NOOK internationally in the next 12 months, we expect the business to continue to scale rapidly for the foreseeable future.”

Customers have shown a proclivity for Nook's full-color products, and the company's third generation Android e-reader, the Nook Tablet outsold expectations, while the e-paper Nook Simple Touch actually failed to live up to projected sales.

"Although Barnes & Noble was the first to the market with a revolutionary color eReader and has since introduced NOOK Tablet...the Company over-anticipated the growth in consumer demand for single purpose black-and-white reading devices this holiday," the company's statement said.

This matches the holiday trends from Nook's principal competitor, the Amazon Kindle. Though the Kindle is breaking all kinds of records for Amazon, selling over 4 million devices in the month of December alone, the Kindle Touch still takes second place behind the full-color Kindle Fire tablet in sales.

The two companies also experienced a similar holiday surge in digital content sales. Two weeks ago, Amazon said e-book sales were up 175% between Black Friday and Christmas Day, and today Barnes and Noble said its own digital content sales were up 113% for the nine pre-holiday weeks.

Barnes and Noble on Thursday forecasted $450 million in digital content sales for 2012, but based upon current movement in the sector and device sales, said it could conceivably close out 2012 with as much as $700-$750 million in sales.
Get Linux lets you find and download more than 100 distros

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 9:11am MST by Mike Williams

If you want to download a particular Linux distribution you could go online, run a quick search or two, and you’ll probably turn up the necessary links fairly quickly. But a portable Windows tool called Get Linux aims to offer an even simpler solution.

Launch this small program and you’ll see a list of more than 100 Linux distros. Enter the name you need in the Search box, choose whether you’d like the 32 or 64-bit build, click Download, then just wait while Get Linux grabs the necessary ISO for you.

Or maybe you’re not quite sure what you’d like? You can also browse the list manually. Unless you’re a Linux guru then there’s a good chance you’ll come across projects you didn’t know about before -- linu-X-gamers Live DVD, say -- and clicking any of these will reveal a quick text description, basic details like version number and download size, a screen grab, and quick links to the project website, its page on Distrowatch.com, and a YouTube search for any relevant clips.

This kind of tool obviously has its limits. If you’re a Linux newbie you may be better off going to DistroWatch.com directly, or some other website where you can get more detailed help on the distribution that might be right for you. And if you’re an expert then you’ll probably go straight to the download page you need, if only to be sure you’re getting the very latest version.

If you’re somewhere in between, though, Get Linux does provide an easy way to find out a little more about some interesting Linux projects. And as the entire program consists of a single 772KB executable, it’s probably something you afford to keep around, just in case its directory might come in useful.

Photo Credit: claudionegri79/Shutterstock
Turn you Android into a second PC monitor

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 8:02am MST by Mark Wilson

Anyone who has worked with a dual monitor setup will be aware of just what a productivity boost the extra screen space can be. The ability to have more than one application visible in full screen mode enables you to view more information at any one time is incredibly useful and it something that everyone should try. But whether you have a couple of monitors sitting on your desk or not, ScreenSlider enables you to gain a little extra space using your Android device.

The app can be used with either tablets or phones, and while both are useful options, tablet owners undoubtedly get a better deal thanks to their larger screens. ScreenSlider simply requires that you install the free app on your Android device as well as the desktop software on your PC and the software will then automatically detect your phone or tablet over your wireless network from your computer. You can drop any program window onto the display and take advantage of it whilst sat at your desk or move further afield --providing you stay within range of your network.

Performance is not high enough to allow for your new wireless monitor to be used to stream video from your computer but it is useful for housing your web browser or inbox. The cheaper version of the app is slightly limited, but the installation does include a 30-day trial of the extra features that are to be found in the Pro version, including pinch-to-zoom gesture support, the ability to use the Android keyboard to enter text as well as the handy ability to transfer files between your computer and Android device.

It’s a shame to see that there is no support for Mac users at the moment, but hopefully this is something that will be addressed in the future. As it stands, ScreenSlider is an interesting utility. Android phone users are unlikely to find that the extra two or three inches of screen space can be put to much use, but tablet owners will find that they already have a second or third monitor in their possession, and this is screen space that can be genuinely useful.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the app by paying a visit to the ScreenSlider review page.
AIMP 3 adds own sound engine, 7.1-surround sound support

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 7:50am MST by Mike Williams

First released back in 2006, AIMP’s lengthy feature list has helped to make it a popular free audio player. It has been out of the news for a while as the developers worked on the latest release, but they’ve finally finished, and now we can all sample AIMP 3′s new features for ourselves.

Top of the list has to be the introduction of the program’s own sound engine, which allows you to output using ASIO, WASAPI or DirectSound (click Preferences > Playback to control this).

There’s now also support for 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound.

The latest release additionally includes full support for ReplayGain, a redesigned Audio Library, a new version of the skin engine, extended playlist functionality and a host of worthwhile bug fixes and usability tweaks, amongst other things.

And of course this is building on what was already a very powerful audio player. So you also get extensive audio format support (.CDA, .AAC, .AC3, .APE, .DTS, .FLAC, .IT, .MIDI, .MO3, .MOD, .M4A, .M4B, .MP1, .MP2, .MP3, .MPC, .MTM, .OFR, .OGG, .RMI, .S3M, .SPX, .TAK, .TTA, .UMX, .WAV, .WMA, .WV, .XM); an 18-band EQ with a host of presets; lots of built-in sound effects, Winamp plugin support, audio recording, CD ripping, file format conversion, Internet radio support, and a whole lot more.

If there’s a problem then it’s perhaps the interface, where just about every screen seems to cram in a host of tiny buttons, making it a little intimidating for the first-time user. Once you start to explore, though, it’s really quite straightforward, with helpful tooltips everywhere, convenient right-click options, well-designed menus and more. So if you’re in the market for a free audio player, which can be installed on a USB key for portability, give AIMP a try: it’s always been a great audio player, and the new release is now more powerful than ever.
Google will debut new Google TV at CES 2012

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 6:00am MST by Tim Conneally

Semiconductor company Marvell announced on Thursday that the next generation of Google TV will be powered by the Marvell Foresight Platform and its Armada 1500 HD Media system-on-a-chip, and that we'll be getting a first look at it next week at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Marvell has teamed up with Google and effectively picked up where Intel left off when it quit its short run with Google TV, and moving its Digital Home Group engineers over to Ultrabooks, tablets, and smartphones.

The first generation of Google TV was powered by Intel's Atom CE4100 system on a chip, but due to extremely poor consumer adoption, both Intel and Google TV set-top-box maker Logitech both bowed out of the Google TV project as leading partners.

Google, however, still has big plans for the platform and rolled out a major update in October that endowed Google TV with Android Apps, improved search, and an overall more simple interface.

"The Google and Marvell teams have been working closely together to bring our combined software and chipset technologies to market to grow the Google TV ecosystem of manufacturers and devices. Marvell-powered Google TV solutions will enable powerful products to be brought to market at attractive prices,” said Mario Queiroz, Google TV's Vice President of Product Management.

With Logitech's Revue set top box now discontinued, there could have been a lack of affordable options for Google TV, but with Marvell's Foresight platform, the lower cost set-top-box segment will be addressed. The Armada 1500 system on a chip inside the Foresight platform runs an ARM v6/7-compatible PJ4B SMP dual-core CPU and has Marvell's Qdeo video processing technology and VMeta HD video encoder/decoder/transcoder.

We're scheduled to meet with Marvell later today about this announcement, and we'll post a follow-up with answers to our questions. If there's anything you want to know about the platform, or Marvell's partnership with Google in the Google TV project, let us know in the comments.