Category Archives: Software reviews

Any software reviews will be placed in this category.

RedLaser – best iPhone barcode reader!

Leave a Reply

Last night I came across a free app that’s on the App Store which seems to be very handy.

I’ve always been a fan of the concept of being able to scan barcodes and find the cheapest prices for various products. However, I’ve never found a decent app that’s (ideally) free and works very well.

Now I have my new iPod touch with the cameras built in, I thought it would be extremely useful to be able to scan barcodes and find the best prices.

So, I stumbled across this free app called RedLaser and downloaded it. Overall, I have to say it’s the best free app of it’s kind. It works in all kinds of environments – even low light!

Simply place the camera in front of the barcode until the iPhone (or iPod touch 4G) beeps and it will instantly search for the best price online from various price comparison sites.

You can even scan multiple barcodes, save them, and look them up later. And if you can’t get it to scan the code for whatever reason, you can enter it manually.If you’re into finding the cheapest prices for products, this is the app for you!

iPod Touch 4G Review (8GB) – everything there is to know

7 Replies

If you’ve been a long term reader of GEEK!, you’ll probably know that for the last 18 months I’ve been the proud owner of an 8GB 2G iPod touch. Over it’s time it has served me very well and became one of those gadgets I can’t leave the house without. However, this week, I decided that the 128MB of RAM and 533Mhz processor just isn’t enough to cope with iOS4.

So, I ordered a brand new 4G iPod Touch. I decided to stick with the 8GB model as I don’t really listen to enough music to want much more – plus the lack of a 16GB model makes the jump to 32GB far too expensive.

Yesterday, I manned the front door waiting for my special delivery from the postman. It came, and I have to say – I adore it. It is such a huge improvement on the preceding iPod touch models.

I think the thing that takes my eye the most is the new retina display. When Apple announced this for the iPhone earlier this year, I was a bit sceptical. Having never been an iPhone owner, I wasn’t really ever given the chance to be proven wrong that the retina display was some over-hyped piece of technology made up by Apple. Oh how wrong I was. The retina display ups the resolution of iPod touch’s 3.2 inch display from 320×240 to 960×640 – at a whopping 326 pixels per inch. This is very noticeable and makes one heck of a difference when viewing web pages or simply looking at images on the screen. So that got an immediate thumbs-up from me.

The next thing that I noticed was the vast improvement in speed. The new iPod touch 4G comes with the same Apple A4 chip that’s in the iPhone, giving it 1Ghz of power* (up from 553Mhz on the 2nd gen). In addition, they’ve double the RAM from 128MB to 256MB which makes multitasking so quick and simple. They actually disabled multitasking for the 2G because there wasn’t enough RAM – and although I usually disagree with Apple’s choices, they were right in disabling it. Even if you jailbreak the 2G to enable multitasking, it doesn’t work very well and causes frequent crashes. On the new 4G, apps load up so much quicker! In general, switching from app to app is also much less time consuming.

Multitasking itself has also become a fantastic feature on the 4G – not only for games, but also for VoIP apps like Skype. I can now run a Skype call, minimize Skype, and continue writing my emails or browsing the net whilst the call remains active (although I myself am not very good at multitasking!!). Take a look at the screenshot (and yes, click it to admire the beautiful resolution of it!)…

The red bar at the top signals that the call is still active, so I can just carry on with what I’m doing! Win for multitasking!

The built in microphone is also a considerable advantage over older iPod touch models. I can now make Skype calls without the need for a headset and they sound crystal clear. Sadly I haven’t yet had the chance to give FaceTime a go.

However, this does bring me neatly onto the 2 cameras that Apple has fitted on the device. They aren’t particularly high resolution, but do the job fine for casual out-and-about shots. The rear camera can also shoot 720p video which is very cool and looks very decent.

When you’ve had enough of messing with the OS itself, you’ll notice that the device is also considerably thinner than it’s predecessor. They’ve made the back of the device flat which is extremely useful for typing as it doesn’t roll around on the desk any more – a very big problem with the older iPod touch models. They have also changed the design slightly. The built-in speaker is now on the exterior of the device (finally!) and not in the headphone jack. In addition, they’ve switched the positioning of the sleep button from left to right – something that will take a little getting used to.

So, as you can probably see, I love my upgrade. The rather expensive £189 price tag for the lowest model is quite a lot higher than previous models, but to be honest I do think it’s worth the extra few pounds.

The new 4G iPod touch has very similar specs to the iPad and the iPhone 4 – effectively making it an iPad with a smaller screen or an iPhone without the phone.

For a portable gadget without the hassle of a contract, it’s perfect. If you’ve got a 3rd generation iPod touch, this probably isn’t worth the upgrade. However, if you’re still on the 2nd generation, you should really be looking to upgrade. I managed to sell my old 8GB 2G for £65 on eBay, taking a fair chunk out of the price of a new 4G. If you’re a frequent iPod touch user, I advise you to upgrade (and I’m an Apple-basher, so this means a lot!).

Wow. That was a long review!

*Update 16/11/2010: It has come to my attention that this was never actually confirmed. Although the A4 chip is capable of 1Ghz clock speed, Apple never confirmed whether it was actually running at this speed in the iPhone and iPod touch.

Get the old Windows Live Essentials (2009) back – Messenger, Mail, Writer etc

84 Replies

Update 23/03/2014, 20/08/2015: It still amazes me how much traffic this page gets (by far the most popular post on this site) – people still want Windows Live Essentials 2009! A few things to note… first of all, Windows Live Messenger is no longer supported by Microsoft and it’s now built into Skype, so use that instead. Additionally, the rest of the software still works fine (including Windows Live Mail which is the most requested item), but do bear in mind that the 2009 version isn’t designed for Windows 8/8.1/10, so you may have limited success (not tried it myself). Best of luck!

If, like me, you’ve tried Windows Live Essentials 2011 and dislike it – you’ve come to the right place.

I can’t stand the new Windows Live Messenger or the fact that Windows Live Mail now seems to display an error every time you download a new email. Microsoft clearly didn’t put enough work into this one. So until they fix the issues with it, I’m back with 2009.

Sadly, however, Microsoft have removed the download links for Windows Live Essentials 2009 which is quite annoying. You can still get the web installer from some sites on the internet, but I suspect Microsoft will remove the resources for this soon.

Have no fear though. GEEK! has the full installer which you can download and install to get the 2009 version back. You must uninstall the 2011 version first completely, and then install this version again.

Download now
File size: 134.85 MB

File is on Google servers. You will get a warning that the file can’t be scanned for viruses by Google – this is just because it’s too big for them to scan. Please see the disclaimer below.

Disclaimer: GEEK! has made every effort to ensure the safety of this download by scanning it for viruses and uploading it to a reputable server. However, GEEK! is not responsible for damage to you or your equipment through use of this download or software. Use at your own risk. This download has been provided purely for historical version provision purposes and is not in any way an intention to breach copyright.

Google Chrome 6 brings cleaner interface and minor new features

Leave a Reply

Google Chrome was recently updated to it’s latest version – version 6.0. The new version includes a few minor updates.

The interface has been cleaned up a little since 5.0, with the main navigation controls looking slightly more seamless. In addition, the address bar no longer shows the “http://” part of the URL. At first I thought this would be annoying, but there are exceptions to this rule which make it more practical.

  • If you copy and paste a link from the address bar, Chrome automatically replaces the “http://” in the URL. This avoids any problems with using URLs in social networks or placing them in IM conversations.
  • If you go to a secure site, Chrome replaces the “https://” in the URL. This avoids any user confusion when purchasing products online.

With exception to those minor new features, there isn’t much to know. There is a new form feature which allows you to save personal details into the browser, so that you can sign up and pay for products with ease.

In addition, Google claims that there are javascript improvements with the new version together with extension sync (similar to bookmark sync but for extensions).

It is also worth noting that Chrome is now 2 years old. Happy Birthday Chrome. It was actually launched on September 2nd, 2008. I can remember trying the first Chrome beta and immediately switching from Firefox.  I haven’t gone back since!

You can grab the version by going to google.com/chrome or heading to “About Google Chrome” from within the browser.

iTunes 10 (Windows) review – worth the upgrade

3 Replies

It was announced yesterday that Apple would be releasing their newest version of iTunes in the early hours of this morning. And as if by magic, the Apple Software Updater today alerted me that a new version of the software was available. So I’ve downloaded it, given it a spin and here’s what I have to say.

If you’re just a casual user of iTunes, you probably won’t notice any huge difference except from the new design and interface. They’ve replaced the CD logo with a new logo of a music note. The general UI of the program has been changed quite considerably. I quite like it, but I think this new approach to listing my music library looks very untidy.

Thankfully, I use the album cover view to see my music, so that won’t affect me hugely.

The biggest new feature to the program is the new “Ping”. Essentially, it’s just a copy of last.fm with the ability to like, review and follow artists/songs that are of interest to you. You can then share this with other users that you happen to be following. The software will give you up to date information from the artists you are following.

Personally, I quite like the feature. I’ll find it very useful for “discovering” new music as Apple like to put it. However, I think it’s sad that Apple are so desperate for ideas that they have to go and copy a concept that already exists. I much prefer last.fm’s approach and I think Apple will have a job getting people to convert to their idea.

I happen to think performance has improved considerably with the new version. Even with a dual core 2.8ghz processor and Windows 7, iTunes 9 still seemed to be pretty sluggish. The new version appears to load up pretty quickly and navigating through the software seems to be much more speedy. Gone are the days when you have to wait several seconds for iTunes to respond to you clicking a menu option.

Other than that though, there isn’t really much the casual iTunes user will notice. The store hasn’t really changed much, except for “Ping” integration. The iPod management is almost identical to the old version, with exception to a tiny bit of new design.

Overall, I’d go grab it. It’ll probably be essential to upgrade soon anyway. You can get it from apple.com/itunes or from the Apple Software Updater.