Category Archives: Software reviews

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Spotify updates iPhone/iPod Touch software – the fixes are in!

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Great news Spotifyers! The good people have posted up an update for their software on the iPhone and iPod Touch. I’ve just got my iPod Touch updated with the latest version and I am very pleased with the new release. It’s a big improvement on the last version and has fixed loads of bugs and niggles.

Here’s what has been fixed…

  • The volume control within Spotify now only shows on the first gen iPod Touch. It now does not show on any other iPod Touch or iPhone.
  • The app now does not allow you to see artist and album view when offline (I actually don’t like this fix – liked it before)
  • The app will ask you to turn off “Offline Mode” when wi-fi is on – it’s optional but its a handy feature.
  • There are loads of bug fixes which means crashes are much less frequent.

Overall I’m very happy with the update. The only thing I want now is to have the ability to run Spotify in the background, but that’s down to Apple more than Spotify really.

[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.

iTunes 9 Review – A definite improvement

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As most of you will already know, the Apple conference on the 9th of September brought a lot of news to iPod users. As well as the new iPod Nano and “new” iPod Touch (I can’t say it’s new, all they’ve done is made a bigger size), Apple also released the new iTunes 9. Sadly I wasn’t able to get it right away as I’m going through small problems with internet bandwidth, which also explains why I haven’t been able to post reviews on the new iPod Touch/iPhone firmware yet – don’t worry I will get round to it as soon as I get my unlimited bandwidth back which, as far as I know, should be next week.

Anyway, as for the new iTunes, I am surprised to say that I’m actually very impressed with the new release. The new features aren’t ground breaking, but the new performance upgrades have finally arrived.

The new iTunes packs new features such as Home Sharing, which allows you to share your music between other computers in your home, and a brand new redesigned iTunes Store. Both of which work very well. I haven’t checked out the Home Sharing yet but from what I’ve read online it looks very good. The new iTunes Store is certainly very tidy and works very efficiently and I much prefer it over the previous version.

But I’m happiest about the much smoother performance. The load-up time has improved dramatically and actually browsing through the application is much more speedy.

What used to be a misery is now much easier to use and much less time consuming. I still don’t think iTunes is brilliant, but the new version has definitely made syncing my iPod much less of a chore.

Well done Apple, this is a big improvement.

If you’d like to download the new version, open up iTunes and click Check for Updates in the Help menu. Otherwise, you can head over to apple.com and download a copy from there for free.

Allway Sync – sync files from drive to drive with ease!

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A couple of days ago, I was looking for a quick easy way to sync my files to and from my network drive. It’s a pain usually, because I end up manually copying and moving files every couple of weeks, and after a while it just becomes a hassle.

So, I went browsing around the internet to find a good, free piece of software to sync all my files. And I found one.

It’s called Allway Sync. It’s a free application that will sync all my files to and from my internet and external hard drives. Not only that, but it will also sync my files from my FTP server or USB drive.

It works really well, and since it’s free it can’t be beaten! It’s received many reviews from various download sites saying exactly what I do – that it’s a brilliant program.

If you don’t like manually syncing files via copy and paste, this is the program for you!

Update 4.10.09 – I liked this program so much I actually went online and bought the software. The only reason I bought it was because the free version only gives you a certain amount of usage per month. If you use the software excessively it will warn you before locking you out of the software’s features. You then have to pay for the software. I found a website that would sell me the software for £11.00 and it worked fine. Just click buy from regnow.com and all should be fine. The purchase gives you access to all updates in the future.