Tag Archives: Software

Spotify introduces a new inbetweener package for non-mobile users

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Spotify has today launched a new go-between package, presumably to try and increase the amount of paying customers.

The new package sells at £4.99 per month. It includes unlimited streaming (see Free package below), abroad usage for more than 2 weeks and no advertising. However, it lacks the offline syncing and mobile use. I actually think that this is a clever idea – not everybody has a phone or device that works with the mobile system so it makes sense to have a cheaper PC only package.

The £9.99 Premium package remains unchanged. However, Spotify have now introduced a new free package that doesn’t require an invite. You essentially get the same as the old free package, but you are limited to 20 hours streaming per month. You also don’t get the Spotify radio mode, but I don’t believe that many people use it.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased. It won’t really affect me, but for those who don’t have a compatible mobile device it makes sense to just go for the cheaper option.

Internet Explorer browser ballot starts soon

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Internet Explorer’s web browser reign will soon be over!

I’ve just read on the internet that the long awaited browser ballot for Internet Explorer will start in just over a week (1st March).

It will mean that browsers such as Google Chrome and Firefox will be able to get a fairer split of the browser market share.

From the 1st of March, an update will be installed onto European Windows computers. The next time Internet Explorer is launched (after the update is installed) a screen will show with a random selection of browsers for users to try. In addition, Internet Explorer will be removed from the taskbar, but it can be put back later.

It finally gives users who don’t understand browsers the chance to try something new.

I’m really looking forward to the launch. Despite the fact Microsoft was very unwilling to launch the browser ballot, the EU has finally forced them to do it and Microsoft are playing ball.

We might actually start to see some genuine market share results now!!

Internet Explorer users are (yet again) at risk

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Will Internet Explorer ever be safe to use?

Once again, users of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser are at risk. Microsoft recently discovered a vulnerability that could allow a user to turn your system in to a fileserver for your private documents.

Most versions of Internet Explorer are affected. Microsoft has said that any system with a version of Internet Explorer lacking “Protected Mode” is at risk. The user is also at risk if “Protected Mode” has been disabled.

Microsoft are yet to release a fix for this vulnerability. They have said that they are unaware of any hacker currently making use of this potentially disastrous hack.

It’s looking as if Microsoft will (at the earliest) release a patch for this problem next Tuesday (the second Tuesday of each month is the day Microsoft usually release their regular patches and updates). However, I doubt they’ll release an update that soon.

Having not used Internet Explorer in a long time, I would suggest you move away from IE as soon as possible if you can. Try something like Google Chrome or Firefox.

iPhone/iPod Touch OS 3.1.3 firmware released

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It’s not 3.2, but it’s something…

This appears to be a minor update from Apple, but it has a few important fixes. Wikipedia quotes the following:

  • Improves accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS
  • Resolves issue where third-party apps would not launch in some instances
  • Fixes bug that may cause an app to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard
  • Fixes security bugs in webkit and recovery mode

Sadly, I won’t be able to download the update for the time being as my iPod Touch is out for repair for the second time!! Very annoying. I shall be complaining to Apple!

Anyway, head over to iTunes and see for yourself whether it is any good!

Which virtual host do you choose for virtual machines?

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I find this to be a very difficult decision. There are quite a few pieces of software that will, essentially, do the same job. However I seem to believe that some are better than others.

In this post I’m going to try and show which piece of virtual machine software I prefer any why I like it.

If you’re looking for free software (which I generally do – who doesn’t?) you’ve basically got three choices – VMware Player, Microsoft Virtual PC (which seems to be getting outdated, but still works fine), and VirtualBox.

Here’s the order in which I would choose them:

  1. VirtualBox – I have to say I like VirtualBox the most. It’s fast and has a very tidy interface that is easy to use. I tried all three pieces of software on the same machine and it was noticeable that this piece of software was most responsive and most effecient – especially when using Windows guest machines. It doesn’t have the handy quick install feature that VMware has, but the speedy performance definitely makes up for that. Sadly it doesn’t support FAT32 file splitting, which is a shame if the hard drive you want to run it on is FAT32 as you wont be able to make virtual hard drives bigger than 4GB. However, I do think that it does work most efficiently and has the best interface.
  2. Microsoft Virtual PC – Despite the fact that Microsoft seem to be trying to phase this out (with the launch of XP Mode in Windows 7) it is still a very good virtual machine host. It not only has a clean interface, but it’s native virtual disk format supports FAT32 file splitting, so you’ll be able to run virtual hard disks on drives that run FAT32 without the 4GB file size limitation. However, I find it to be quite slow. Even when you are performing simple tasks (such as clicking the Start menu in the guest machine) it can take ages to respond. Also, it seems to be designed more for Windows guests, as it’s “Other” host option is very vague. I like Virtual PC more than VMware, but I’d still choose VirtualBox any day.
  3. VMware Player – This is my least favourite piece of software. Despite it being a very popular company who makes VMware Player, I still think it really isn’t up to regular virtual machine jobs. The main thing I can’t stand about VMware Player is the interface – I find it so clunky and unhelpful. I also find it the slowest of the three in terms of performance. It seems to cope pretty well with most operating systems, but the lack of speed makes VMware annoying at times. It does have the Easy Install feature – which is designed to make OS installation much more simple by automatically running through the process, but I’ve never found that particularly useful.

So there you go – if you want a decent, free virtual machine host I’d recommend VirtualBox to you.