Tag Archives: free

we7 moves to “radio” service, proves there’s no money in music streaming

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On Thursday (29/9/11), we7 converted it’s free service to a “radio” service – being the latest online music service to do so. It follows Spotify, who moved to limited music streaming in April.

The new service for free users allows up to 50 “on-demand” tracks per month, and then a limited radio service. Premium and Premium+ users still have full access to the old site at http://subscription.we7.com and can choose between the two sites.

It does prove that there really is no money in free choice-based music streaming. We7 previously blamed the music industries high streaming fee – which was difficult to match with advertising.

We7 has argued that it believes people want their music to be chosen for them on a genre basis. According to The Telegraph, it denies the move is due to increased competition.

It’s a real shame, but it seems impossible to make money from advertised streaming services.

Prey–incredible free computer tracking software

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For many months now I’ve been looking for some good value tracking software to install on my netbook and (potentially) my portable devices. As much as I hope my netbook never gets stolen – you can never be sure what might happen and it’s better to be prepared.

It was only today that I’ve finally found the answer. It’s called Prey. It’s an open-source piece of kit that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed it, that’s the last you’ll see of it. Make sure when you install it to select the option not to install start menu shorcuts as it will make the software harder to find by an thief.

From here onwards, all of your settings for the program will be managed online. Log onto your account at the program’s website, and you’ll be presented with a handful of useful properties.

For example, you can get the program to take logs of any wi-fi networks it’s connected to, together with pictures from any connected webcam and screenshots of your display. These are then summarised in reports that are emailed direct to your inbox for your viewing pleasure. Believe me – you’ll be astonished at what it’ll pick up.

I happen to think this is an essential for anybody with a laptop that they care about – the software is totally FREE and could help you (and the police) in what would otherwise be a relatively hopeless situation. The program won’t hamper your computer’s performance at all (using just 5MB of RAM in Windows) and you’ll forget you’ve even installed it.

Encrypt Your Hard Drive for Free with Truecrypt

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Article first published as Encrypt Your Hard Drive for Free with Truecrypt on Technorati.

It’s worrying to think that the computer you’re using right now could be holding all of your personal documents, photos and videos. If your computer was stolen tomorrow, would any of the data on your hard drive be safe?

Backing up all of your data is one thing – and thankfully more and more of us are getting into the habit of doing so. However, have you ever thought about the personal data on your machine that someone else might find?

This is where Truecrypt comes in. It’s a free, open source utility designed to help protect you and your data in the event of someone getting hold of your hard drive. It works by encrypting your entire hard drive and then requiring a password (or encryption key) on boot up to access the data. As soon as the correct password is entered, your machine is fully functional. Without the correct password, the data is meaningless to anyone – even the most intelligent of hackers.

Getting hold of Truecrypt is very easy. Simply head to the download page on their website (here) and grab your copy.

Once you’ve got it up and running, simply follow the clear on screen instructions for getting your drive encrypted. The program will need about 20 minutes of your time to configure all of the relevant options, and then it will do the rest in 1-10 hours (depending on the hard disk size and computer speed).

There are many other paid solutions available, but if you’d rather not spend money this should be more than sufficient. Whilst expensive versions of Windows do include encryption as standard, you do have have a hard drive that supports it. If you don’t have a supported drive, you have to use a memory stick to boot your computer – which certainly isn’t ideal.

However, if you’re using a low powered machine such as a netbook,you might want to think twice before encrypting your drive. Bear in mind that your computer will have to decrypt your data constantly when it is in use – and this may have adverse effects on your computer’s performance and battery life. If you still want to encrypt data with a low powered machine, you might want to consider placing it on a memory stick and encrypting that instead (Truecrypt can encrypt portable storage too).

On the other hand, if you store vast amounts of data on your machine and need to keep it safe from unauthorized access – this is the ideal solution.

Don’t forget this year’s free iTunes stuff with 12 days of Christmas (2010)

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Apple has just set up their 12 days of Christmas website ready for Christmas 2010. The session will offer 12 days of various free music, videos, apps and books.

To download the app to your iPhone or iPod touch head here, or click here to go to the official site where you can sign up to email alerts.

The 12 days starts on December 26th, and finishes on January 6th – so don’t miss out! Last year I remember it was actually really good – some decent apps, films and music given out for free.

This really is a no brainer – something for nothing from Apple, for once!

RedLaser – best iPhone barcode reader!

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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!