Category Archives: Software reviews

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Is Skype 4 Beta 2 any good?

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I’ve tried it myself and have been using it for about a week now, and overall its a big improvement on the first beta. Heres a quick video from the Skype staff on the new features:

So there you have it from the staff. The most useful features I have found is the new compact view which makes it much better for anyone who is used to the older versions of Skype, because it makes Skype much easier to use when you are doing a lot at one time on the computer.

The new alerts system is much better. In beta 1 I had issues that I’d open up Skype and notice I’d missed a message from someone a day back which is a newsense. Now the new notification system will leave plenty of ways to tell me I’ve got a new message.

Overall, much better, and hopefully the next release from Skype will be the final version which I look forward to. 

Grab a copy at http://www.skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/windows/beta/ and try it for yourself, but beware there are still a few bugs and a few call drops/program freezes, so if you want to be on the safe side stick with Skype 3.8.

Do you ever take screenshots?

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If you do take lots of screenshots, why not try Window Clippings which is a fantastic program which helps you take proffesional screenshots.

You can even get plugins which add extra features like automatically uploading to your website via FTP which can be very useful.

It’s not a free program but there is a free trial and it’s not exactly expensive baring in mind you get free updates for ever.

Try it, and I promise you if you like taking screenshots, this program will be very useful to you.

Randomize your desktop with Desktoptopia!

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You ever booted up your computer thinking how bored you are of the wallpaper that appears on your screen every time you look at your desktop?

Well with Desktoptopia, which is available for Mac and Windows (in BETA), you can randomise your wallpaper depending on what genre you choose and how often you want it to change.

You can even rate wallpapers and stop wallpapers you don’t like from appearing again.

Check it out now at www.desktoptopia.com

And, if you’ve got your own wallpapers you’d like to upload, you can do that on the site too!

OpenOffice or Microsoft Office?

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For me, it’s always been Microsoft Office. Only because I’ve had it ever since I started with computers and I’m too used to having all the features.

However, for some people it might be a great alternative to spending hard earned cash on Microsoft.

OpenOffice is basically just an opensource free version of Microsoft’s Office. It does most of the things that Microsoft’s does, but its totally free. Admittedly it doesn’t look as nice as Office 2007, but for people who are reluctant to spend money and need a decent office suite, this is perfect!

It’s available for Windows, Linux, Mac and many other distrobutions too. And with OpenOffice 3.0 coming around the corner, it may well become even better. OpenOffice 3.0 Release Candidate 2 is available for download now here – so if you like trying software, do so. You might well find it’s better for you altogether.

Is Internet Explorer 8 worth it?

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Ever since I found out about it, I have always been a big fan of Firefox. And then when I found out about Google Chrome, that took over from Firefox altogether. I love Google Chrome plainly because it has such a fast launch time – even on a slow computer – and it renders most code very well. Admittedly there are quite a few bugs, some of which can be quite annoying. But overall, it’s a very nice browser. The interface is good, and the tab management is very nice!

A couple of months ago Microsoft released the first beta of Internet Explorer 8. In my opinion, a total waste of time. It was slow, terrible at organising page elements, and constantly crashing. Then the second beta came out, and that was a slight improvement but nothing major.

I’ve never found Internet Explorer worth it. I think the only reason people use it is because they haven’t heard of Firefox or Chrome. If everybody knew about Firefox or Chrome, I think IE would have very few users.

Also, many people don’t have the time to worry about the browser they use, so they just leave Automatic Updates to keep updating IE whenever it likes.

Most of the features covered by IE were covered by Firefox ages before Microsoft. It seems truelly pointless to me.

What do you think about Internet Explorer? Is it worth it? Do you have a particular reason why IE is good over other browsers?