New File Compression Technology by Infima

With the increasing popularity of broadband Internet rising almost daily, it is not surprising, that the amount of files we transfer have also increased correspondingly. File compression programs have been around for a long time and has not really changed all that much in the last couple of years. Recently, Infima Technologies Company, has developed a new patent pending file compression technology that claims to be able to compress files 10 – 85% smaller than current competitors – 7 Zip, WinRAR, WinZip, and PKZip. You can download a beta version by clicking here.

Managing Home Networks for Dummies

Just about everyone, today, has more than one personal computer at home. Most people have configured all their machines to share printers, storage and high-speed internet connections. Any novice, who have attempted to hooked all these devices up for the very first time will inevitably find out that it is quite difficult to setup and manage everything! A very innovate little company called Network Magic have developed an application that let's you:

• to easily monitor and repair your network.
• share printers and files.
• secure your network.
• securely surf your wireless network.
• access all your files from anywhere around the world with nothing but an Internet connection.

All this for a incredibly low price – free. You can this app by clicking here. If you only interested in securing your wireless network, you can download their other freebie – Wireless Intruder Protection.

Official: MS Windows XP on Mac by Apple

Apple Computers introduces Bootcamp for all MacTel owners who wish to run Windows XP on their new Macs. The download is available free of charge. This latest development by Apple is not surprising given the fact the Apple did the exact same thing with the iPod back in 2001/02 when hackers decided to post software enabling Windows users to transfer music to their iPods. Smelling a sweet opportunity, Apple followed suit by porting their iTunes music store application to Windows and offering their iPod to Windows customers. Result: the Apple iPod became a cultural phenomenon of the early 21st century. Can history repeat itself? Will the Apple reignite the personal computer revolution in the 21st century? I say let the revolution begin…

Users beware: Apple Bootcamp is still a beta version but is probably better than the version than the "homebrew" version released a couple of weeks ago, just because of the fact that all the necessary working drivers are included. The official version of Bootcamp is expected to ship within the next version of Mac OS X (Leopard), coming to a mac near you in 2007.

Click here for C|Net Video on Apple BootCamp.
Click here for Flickr Slideshow (Apple BootCamp on MacBook Pro) by Speedye

World’s First 1 ms LCD Monitor by Viewsonic

Today, LCD monitor/TV maker – Viewsonic announces the development of new a LCD technology that will allow its products coming out this Fall to have a refresh rate of 1milliseconds (ms). So, what is the big deal you say? Currently, the fastest refresh rates found in LCD monitors/TVs are around 4 ms or greater. A faster refresh rate simply eliminates ghosting and delays that are typical of LCD monitors/TVs. For many gamers, and action movie enthusiasts, this is the “holy grail” of monitor/TV technology. Because of the slow refresh rates, LCD monitors/TVs have often lagged behind their CRT counterparts. Beginning this fall, there will never be anymore excuses for not buying an LCD monitor/TV.

Photo & Story Credit: gizmag

Introducing: Sony Memory Stick Micro

So, you got a Sony digital camera, eh? If you bought your Sony digital camera a few years back, there is a good chance that you are still using the old “Memory Stick” digital memory card format. The original “Memory Stick” could not hold more than 128 megabytes per stick and had an incredibly slow transfer rate. So, to rectify matters, Sony introduced, yet again, another proprietary memory stick format – Memory Stick Pro. Today, Sony, again, announces the introduction of the Memory Stick Micro (M2) format for Sony digital cameras and Sony Ericsson mobile phones. Initially,the MC will come in 256, and 512 Megabyte flavours and will be available in March 2006. The bigger capacity model – 1 Gigabyte will follow in May 2006. Memory Stick Micro is expected to cost approximately the same as current Memory Stick Pros you get at the store.

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Available to the Public

For those of you who are curious and a bit adventurous, you can download a pre-release version of Internet Explorer 7 (next edition of IE) and take it for a test drive. You can do so by clicking here and following the instructions.

~Geekboy.

UNIVERSAL TRANSLATOR

Casio Computer Co., introduced an electronic dictionary with text-to-speech capabilities of translating 6 different languages (English, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese, and French) – XD-ST6200. The dictionary will be available in mid-February for around $400 CDN.

Other Features:

• 5″ black and white display with backlit for various lighting conditions (480×320 dpi resolution).
• 20 MB or internal memory
• SD card slot for future storage and added capabilities
• Uses just 2 AAA alkaline batteries (60 hours of continuous usage)
• Weighs around 250 grams (including batteries)
• Available in a couple of different colours: Champagne gold, black and red

Photo Credit: Casio
Info: Tech Japan

FREE HTML EDITOR

From Evrsoft, this little company has been offering free HTML editors to the world for a number of years. The program is very intuitive and relatively easy to user, even for beginner web page designers. This program is not feature rich like: Adobe Dreamweaver or slick and easy to use as Microsoft Frontpage, but a great program nonetheless. If you are interested in getting their latest release – First Page 2006, click here.

~Geekboy.

FYI: FIREFOX UPDATE!

For those of you who are using an older version of Mozilla Firefox, a new updated version (1.0.4) is now available on the Mozilla website. This version fixes a major security flaw in the program, all Firefox users of previous versions are advised to upgrade. If software update is enabled for your browser, you can see if there is a small icon located right next to the Mozilla icon at the top right hand corner of the browser (right under the minimize/maximize buttons). Alternatively, you can proceed to install the new version of the software, by first, uninstalling the old one through the “add/remove program” feature in your control panel.

~Geekboy.

FYI: SHAW INTERNET SERVICE UPGRADES!

Recently, Shaw Cable decided to one-up its main competitor Telus by improving all of their Internet Service offerings while keeping prices unchanged.

High Speed Lite Customers:

• E-mail account space has increased to 100 Megabytes

High Speed Internet Customers:

• Increased download speeds of up to 5.0 Megabits/sec (up from 3.0 Megabits)
• Create 10 e-mail accounts (up from 7 per customer)
• Space in each e-mail account has increased to 100 Megabytes (up from 30 Megabytes)

High Speed Xtreme- I Customers:

• Increased download speeds of up to 7.0 Megabits/sec (up from 5.0 Megabits)

For further information, you can check Shaw’s products/services site.

~Geekboy