Tech
Aug 9th
PlayXpert redefines gaming. How can I justify that statement? PlayXpert was designed for gaming, with gamers in mind. PlayXpert features screen overlay technology on the DirectX level, which creates a user interface that is semi-transparent over the game you are currently playing. This is similar to Xfire, but it comes with so much more. PlayXpert allows a user to never again have to “Alt+Tab” out of game to look up a quest guide, information on a enemy, or chat to other players. PlayXpert allows you to chat with MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, or Xfire in-game. It also features a Google widget installer that you can access without leaving the game, a “Tunes” widget, which has support for Winamp amd iTunes, a Teamspeak widget (which has some support for other VOIP programs), a Diagnostics widget (to check your computers power levels and a built-in process killer), and lastly a GameFaq‘s widget. They also feature a web browser in game, so you can go to your favorite sites without having to leave the game.
Aside from the great general widgets, there are also several widgets exclusive to World of Warcraft. The best WoW helper-sites (Wowwiki, Thottbot, the Armory, and WowHead) are all available in-game thanks to PlayXpert! Now you won’t be shanked while looking up a quest walkthrough anymore!
PlayXpert is an excellent program. For years gamers have been struggling with the very thing that it solves with ease! PlayXpert is also a very sleek program. The interfaces that popup are trimmed to save valuable screen space, and they are easy to use. PlayXpert works alongside the game, and draggable interfaces are what make it so compatible. You define its location, not the computer. However, PlayXpert is currently only in a beta version, so download it at your own risk. PlayXpert is a wonderful tool, a good program, and above all, a good friend when your stuck on quests.
Aug 2nd
I’m sure anyone who has used Firefox 2 remembers Fasterfox, an addon that increased your connection speed to servers on the net. However, the addon creator still has not updated the addon to work with Firefox 3. Someone designed a modified version of Fasterfox to work with Firefox 3 however, so Fasterfox is back for the masses. If you are worried there is a virus in the addon, you can view the virus scan results. The addon is completely unchanged other than being compatible with the greatest version of Firefox yet, and here is a download link for it:
Update: I modified the file to work with version 3.6.* of Firefox.
To install the addon, just drap the xpi file (the only file) onto any part of the Firefox window, then you will see the normal addon installation steps.
Jul 28th
Process Library has long been a popular website to check on what processes are doing on your computer. The creators of Process Library have made it easier than ever to figure out which processes are doing. ProcessQuickLink adds a button next to each process in Windows Task Manager that, once clicked, take you to the process’ profile page on Process Library. Here is a feature list taken from ProcessLibrary.com:
You can download ProcessQuickLink from The Pxl Lab, and there is a mirror from the offical site also.
Jul 25th
At this point in time, finding your way around town has been limited to using a program like Google Maps, searching for the place you are looking for, and getting directions there. However, Enkin is going to revolutionize how we use our GPS systems. With Enkin, you can instantly change between the standard sattelite view and a “live” view. The live view takes advantage of mobile devices built-in camera, allowing users to view find where they are going in 3D. The live view displays the name of your desination(s) and how far away you are from them, which makes it really easy to get to where you want to go. The creators of Enkin made a video showing off all of the great features in Enkin:
You probably noticed that the creators said that they entered Enkin into the Google Android project, and even though Enkin didn’t make it into the Top 50 Android Apps, Google personally contacted the makers of Enkin to discuss the “future of Enkin.” Hopefully Enkin will be on our Google-powered phones sooner rather than later.
Jul 23rd
ATI released the new version, 8.7, of their drivers today. The Catalyst 8.7 drivers bring enhancements to the Information Center in the Catalyst Control Center and support for Linux. The Linux versions currently supported are:
- Ubuntu 8.04 production support
- SLED 10 sp2 production support
As usual, the update is for all versions of XP and Vista. You can download the drivers here:
Jul 21st
Have you ever wanted to find that one site or another, only to realize that the link is stored on your other computer? Foxmarks, currently for Firefox and IE, makes it easy to syncronize your bookmarks. If you save a couple bookmarks on Computer A, then save a couple on Computer B later, Computer A and B will both have the same bookmarks. Foxmarks works in the background, going as unnoticed as possible.
Maybe you only want to have some of your bookmarks on your work or school computer, while keeping others saved only on your home computer. With Foxmarks, you can create profiles that will only have certain bookmarks saved on them. One of the recommendations of the profiles system is keeping a shortlist of bookmarks for your phone/PDA, and there are plenty of other uses, too.
What if you can’t install Firefox at work? Foxmarks saves the day again, because you can view all of your bookmarks on their website.
Are you ready to download Foxmarks yet? Here are some download links:
Jul 12th
Apple recently released iTunes 7.7.0, bringing along its share of new features and bug fixes. The major update actually comes for owners of iPhones and iPod Touches, because Apple updated the firmware of both to v2.0. Version 2‘s highlighted feature is the App Store, which has 500+ applications for your pleasure. Other features are support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, which keeps your contacts, calendars, etc up-to-date, GPS tracking, contact searching, Powerpoint and iView viewing support, direct screenshot capturing, MobileMe support, among other things. Sadly, current owners (i.e. not 3G owners) have to buy the firmware update for $20. It is worth noting that everything on your device will be erased after applying the update, so make a backup before you update.
If you have any problems applying the after applying the firmware update, check out this article at MyDigitalLife that talks about how to fix firmware errors.
Jun 29th
nVidia has some new drivers, but note that if you already have the 175.16 WHQL Drivers, you are already up-to-date unless you just bought one of nVidia’s brand new 200 series cards.
Download : nVidia ForceWare 177.41 for Windows XP 32-bit (37.2 MB)
Download : nVidia ForceWare 177.41 for Windows XP 64-bit (48.1 MB)
Download : nVidia ForceWare 177.41 for Windows Vista 32-bit (35.5 MB)
Download : nVidia ForceWare 177.41 for Windows Vista 64-bit (49.5 MB)
The GeForce GTX 280 is the best graphics card to-date, and probably the best processor to-date too, with 240 processing cores! Most processors on the market today have 2 cores, with powerful processors utilizing 4. The amount of power availible in the 280 is almost unimaginable. The 280 is the world’s first graphics card that can run Crysis at a screen resolution of 1900×1280 with settings on high at 15 frames per second. The closest card to that can run it at only <1 frame per second. Overall, the GeForce GTX 280 is an insanely powerful graphics card that comes at the hefty price of $650.
Jun 29th
The new 8.6 drivers were released by ATI, bringing along support for up to 4 ATI CrossfireX cards running at once and custom filters per application of anti-aliasing. The drivers support these cards:
- ATI Radeon™ X300 series and higher
- ATI Radeon™ HD 2400 series and higher
- ATI Radeon™ 9500 series and higher
Of course, any version of Windows XP and Vista are supported, too. The whole changelog and card support list details this with more depth.
Jun 28th
A few days ago I downloaded Extra DVD Ripper Express from Give Away of the Day. It’s a handy little program that you use to rip DVD’s to your computer in almost a dozen different possible formats. This way you don’t have to spend extra money to get videos off of iTunes or similar programs, as well as enabling you access to movies that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to get off of programs like the aforementioned iTunes.
Extra DVD Ripper Express, with its frankly ridiculous name, as many pros and cons. One advantage is it provides you with a safe legal way to get DVDs onto your computer. It also looks fairly good. They skinned the program after Window’s Media Player 11, which in my opinion is one of the best looking programs available. That being said, the pleasing visuals don’t help the interface at all. It’s frankly rather jumbled, to the point where it can be down right confusing to use the program. Extra DVD Ripper Express is also rather slow. I ripped rip Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to my computer in the M4P format, and it took approximately 6 hours to be fully ripped onto my computer. Something that may have just been my stupidity, but I choose to blame on the program, are subtitles. It has them on default, and I didn’t notice when I ripped Indiana Jones. In essence, I wasted 6 hours ripping a movie only to find out that it has subtitles when I never asked there to be.
All in all, I would say Extra DVD Ripper Express is decent. It’s slow, confusing and needs to shorten its name, but it works. If you got it from Giveaway of the Day, keep it. If not, don’t bother buying it. Just torrent the movie or something. Not that I encourage stealing or anything.