Category Archives: Product Reviews

GEEK! Product Reviews

Using Windows Live Writer to manage your blog

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Over the last couple of posts I’ve written (including this one), I have been using Windows Live Writer. This is a free piece of software that is created by Microsoft. It can manage and sort your blog for you with ease, and means you don’t have to use any online dashboard.

For GEEK!, I use WordPress and Windows Live Writer takes WordPress in its stride. I simply tell WLW my login details, and it automatically works out what my blog looks like, what theme I use, and what my posts would look like.

It does this all very quickly, and within a minute or so it is ready to go.

It is really quick, efficient and professional and I really like its simplicity. It is a great concept that works very well. I really like using it because it is so much easier than logging into the WordPress dashboard, then getting distracted by plugins, WP upgrades – the lot. With this, I just write my post without any distractions at all.

Perfect! Another recommendation for GEEK! Recommends.

Warning: Tiscali changes broadband usage allowance

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This has gone through very quietly, but I noticed today that Tiscali has changed its usage allowance for broadband.

It was originally 100GB per month, and I think it must have changed very recently as when I did my broadband investigation last month they were still quoting that.

But if you look on their website now, it says:

screenie

It probably has something to do with the new ownership of Tiscali by TalkTalk.

Just a little warning for any existing customers or people thinking of joining Tiscali. I’m glad I noticed that one. 🙂

[UK] Live TV on iPhone/iPod Touch is here!

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Big news iPhone and iPod Touch users – you can now get live TV in the UK on your Apple devices.

Before I explain and you explode in excitement, you need to head straight over to http://iphone.tvcatchup.com to get the service.

The service is in beta so you only get some of the Freeview channels, but all the big ones are up on there.

I’ve just tried it now and it’s absolutely brilliant. The service is apparently optimised for 3G and Wi-Fi, but I’ve just ran it through on Wi-Fi and it streams in harmony. I’m on a 2MB connection here and it loads up really quickly, and hasn’t buffered once in the last 15 minutes. Perfect!

This is another brilliant addition to the TVCatchup service. Perfect if you’re in need of some TV and you aren’t at home.

Great work TVC, I’m really looking forward to the final version, but for now the beta is way more than I need!

A little legal note: Remember you need a UK TV license to watch TV while it is being broadcast. For your own legal safety, make sure your license is up to date before using the service. Thanks!

[Review] Spotify for iPhone/iPod Touch absolutely fantastic!

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I finally got some funds into my PayPal account, and since Spotify recently started accepting PayPal payments for subscriptions, I decided to get my act together and buy a month of Spotify Premium.

I have to say, it is the best £9.99 I’ve spent in a hell of a long time. The premium subscription not only scraps the ads, but gives me unlimited access to the iPhone and iPod Touch app. I had to try it out, especially with the “Offline Playlists” feature.

And take my word for it, it is brilliant! I can save up to 3,333 tracks onto my iPod Touch, and listen to them anytime I want – no matter whether I’m connected to the net or not. So if I’m on the train, in the car, or sitting at the bus stop, I can listen to all my favourite tracks over and over without any connection to the internet.

It is absolutely truly and utterly worth the £10 it costs per month. I also get the new offline playlists for PC, but I doubt I’ll use that half as much as on the iPod. The loss of ads on the PC will be cool too. I don’t have to buy music anymore, and it’s 100% legal :).

If you have £10 a month available, and you love music, Spotify Premium is worth every penny!

Microsoft Security Essentials – hands on…

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It was in tech news today that Microsoft has let loose its new free security system to replace Windows Live OneCare. It’s been expected for release for quite a while but we didn’t know an exact date.

So, GEEK! decided to have a quick go with the new software and see whats up.

You can download it for free here, providing you have genuine Windows software. The download is under 5MB, so you don’t have to worry about a large download. Once it is downloaded and you run it, it will do a verification of genuine Windows software, and then it will install. Installation is remarkably quick, and before you know it the software will be downloading updates.

Surprisingly, this took a very long time. It took nearly 10 minutes for my mid-spec laptop (dual core, 2GB RAM) to download the relevant updates.

Once it had finished, I did a quick scan. This wasn’t too bad actually. I was quite pleased at how little resources this used. While it was scanning, my computer told me it was using about 7MB of RAM and very little CPU power so I was very impressed at how quietly it runs.

I also did a couple of hours of browsing around the software. I have to say it is extremely simple to use and navigate.

I’d like to see it become popular because I’ve always had my views that paid antivirus is a waste of time.

In my case, I won’t be keeping it because I like Comodo Personal Firewall a lot, but if you’re a novice computer user and you need a simple way to get protected, this might be for you. It will work on Windows XP, Vista and 7 and as long as you have genuine Windows software you can get it for free.

I have to say I like it, but I’m looking forward to seeing if it gains any form of popularity.