Vista Transformation Pack 9.0.1

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"Replicate the look and feel of Windows Vista on their Windows XP/2003."
BSEditor: Vista Transformation Pack 9.0.1 Keynotes:
New 3rd-party applications
ViSplore - Vista Glass explorer simulator
Vista Drive Icon - adding free space percentage in your drive icon like Vista explorer
Vista Rainbar - Lightweight Vista sidebar based on Rainmeter that even consume less resources than real Vista Sidebar

Improved 3rd-party applications
ViStart - Files indexing for documents search, improved reliability and compatibilities
ViOrb - Improved graphic and reliability (C++ re-written)
TrueTransparency - Improved reliability with improved AeroStyle's glass border
WinFlip - Improved stability and reliablity

New functionalities
Setup personization - Allow customizing Vista experiences upon installation without access to Welcome Center
Windows XP Service Pack 3 compatibilities - Now you can enjoy Vista themes after installation with Windows XP Service Pack 3
x64 compatibilities - More secured x64 installation without getting hurt by incompatibilities

There're also a lot of bug fixes and refinements in the program but let's just keep it simple with these for now. You can experience the rest later by yourself.


Changes in Version 9.0
-Added Gavatx's Vista Rainbar 4.3 (Slim) in place of Thoosje's Vista Sidebar
-Added large icon resizing option for high resolution monitors
-Added Personalization setup screen for configuring current user account before installation
-Added running ViStart, ViOrb and ViSplore to WindowBlinds and TrueTransparency's exclusion list (prevent stability issues)
-Added ViSplore project (Vista Glass Explorer for Windows XP/2003)
-Added Vista Drive Icon in place of Vista Windows Drive Icon
-Added Windows XP Service Pack 3 uxtheme patching compatibilities
-Added font customization feature in settings.xml
-Added indexing file search support like Vista (you can search for extension with .ext)
-Added "Reset shell " in menu option to reload explorer along with ViStart
-Added multi-DPI Support

you can free download Vista Transformation Pack 9.0.1 now.

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World's first eco-computer

Dublin, Dec 14: The world's first biodegradable computer, the iameco, has been manufactured in Dublin from bio-degradable wood panels made from waste products in the lumber and pulp industry.

During a visit to the company by Ireland's Minister for Science and Innovation, Jimmy Devins, the inventors of iameco, MicroPro Computers Ltd, said they could implant the seeds of native-tree species into the wood panels.

The minister's visit coincided with the announcement of details of a new Enterprise Ireland Green Technology Support for businesses.

"Our business is built around green technologies and using them to produce healthier, more energy-efficient and cheaper computers that have less impact on the environment," said Paul Maher, chief of MicroPro.

He added: "One advantage of iameco is that when the components are buried in landfill the wood gets wet, breaks down and new plants begin to grow from old computers."

In addition to the iameco computer, which uses one third less energy than conventional computers, the biodegradable wood can also be used to manufacture the computer monitor casing, keyboard and mouse.

Commenting on the success of iameco, Devins said: "The iameco computer story is a true example of innovation at work. Not only have MicroPro Computers developed a new, profitable product range but consumers now have the option of buying an environment friendly computer or TV."

He added: "Enterprise Ireland's GreenTech Support can help companies find ways to reduce air pollution and effluents, conserve water and save energy in the workplace as well as come up with new environmentally friendly products."

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Car key blocks mobile phone use while driving

San Francisco, Dec 13: A pair of US inventors are bringing to market a computerized car key that prevents people from chatting on mobile telephones or sending text messages while driving.

Key2SafeDriving adds to a trend of using technology to thwart speeding, drunken driving, and other risky behavior proven to ramp-up the odds of crashing.

Once slipped into a car's ignition, the key created by US university researcher Xuesong Zhou and Wallace Curry sends a wireless signal to a driver's mobile phone blocking calls or texting.

"If you're in driving mode, you can't talk or text -- period," a character tells a friend trying in vain to send a text message while driving a car in a YouTube video demonstrating how the keys work.

The keys are being pitched as a way for parents to stop teenage children from focusing attention on beloved mobile telephones instead of traffic.

A growing number US states are enacting laws against teenagers using mobile telephones while driving.

Traffic statistics support arguments that mobile telephones are on par with alcohol use when it comes to hurting judgment and reaction times of drivers.

In October, Ford Motor Co. unveiled a "MyKey" device which allows parents to control how fast their teenagers drive, limits the volume on the car radio and makes sure their seat belts are fastened.

Ford said that it will be a standard feature starting next year on the 2010 Ford Focus and other Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models.

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Gmail gets a proper PDF viewer

Gmail's integrated software-free PDF viewer has received a nice upgrade courtesy of Google Docs. Now opening up a PDF in Gmail won't fire up your native PDF viewer (like the slow-to-load Adobe Acrobat), and instead will send you to the document reader built into Google Docs.

There are two other benefits to this, the first being the updated page view which lets you hop around the document a whole lot faster. The other is the built-in zoom, which scales the text to fit your monitor with a higher degree of detail than the text resizer found in your browser.

Gone with the transition is the option to open up PDFs as HTML pages straight from the message, which still remains as a viewing option once you're in the new PDF view and in search results from Google.com. Presumably Google.com results will get the updated viewer next. This would be a huge benefit to Google Search users without access to a PDF viewer (like on public or shared computers) as Google's current HTML conversion wipes out much of the formatting that can keep fonts and image placement intact, which can make things like brochures and newsletters unreadable.

The updated PDF viewer in Gmail is now powered by Google Docs.

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Zannel brings media-rich microblogging to iPhone

Zannel, a media-rich microblogging service that launched in late 2007, has a new and free iPhone application that puts many of its features on to the popular portable device.

Called CityWatch, the app takes a similar approach to Loopt and Whrrl in allowing you to see and interact with what's going on in your general proximity. It does this by taking each item that's been posted to Zannel and overlaying it onto a map using its geo tag. This also includes items from other networks, like Twitter, Flickr, and eventually any other service that has an open API.

What's neat in Zannel's case is that this activity becomes exploratory and interactive, as you're able to both post and browse through new content in your city or anywhere else in the world. You can also reply to comments in threaded form, just like you can by using the social network on your computer. Eventually users will also be able to sort through all Zannel's content not just by location, but by topic across the entire network.

In my initial run with the application I actually got a little freaked out since the first photo to pop up in my neighborhood was one I had snapped just a few hours before and uploaded to Flickr. I hadn't even plugged in my Flickr credentials, which you can do, along with Twitter to cross-post the Zannel equivalent of "tweets" and vice-versa.

My only qualm with the otherwise very enjoyable application is that it relies a little bit too much on Safari when it comes to making changes in its settings menu. If you want to authorize Twitter or Flickr, you're kicked off the application and into the browser. The same goes for changing notification settings, which if you're signing up for the first time, are automatically set to opt-you in to a text message and e-mail every time another Zannel member: decides to follow you, publishes a comment, sends you a friend request, or replies to one of your messages. All this can be turned off, but it's annoying that it's turned on by default and must be managed outside of the application.

CityWatch by Zannel (App Store link)

CityWatch offers two views for geotagged content, both in list form and on a map so you can see where posts and photos come from.

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Ad-Aware gets an antivirus cousin

Lavasoft on Monday unveiled a new antivirus application it hopes will do as well as its runaway hit Ad-Aware.

The encore, Lavasoft Anti-Virus Helix, is Lavasoft's first full-fledged antivirus application, following the tracks of the company's popular adware and spyware-sniffer, as well as a lesser-known file shredder, firewall, and registry cleaner.

Lavasoft Anti-Virus Helix shares the most sought-after components of antivirus apps: malware blockers, on-the-fly detection, a scanner, malware removal, and protection from e-mail viruses and Web threats. It offers full system scanning and, in addition, lets you pick from preset scans or create a profile to scan a smaller portion of your PC, for instance, just your "C" drive.

The new Anti-Virus Helix scans fairly quickly and lets you get hands-on with the results.

Lavasoft's new antivirus app performed well in our tests. It beeped when encountering a suspicious file and wouldn't budge until we ignored, deleted, or quarantined it. While a good practice, the need to babysit the scan could undo the benefit of any overnight scans you schedule.

Lavasoft Anti-Virus Helix lets you do any number of things with the data, including print, save, and send reports. However, it could use an internal browser to look up information online about discovered threats.

Other extras can be found in the app's configuration menu. When you elect to enter expert mode, you'll be able to turn on rootkit scanning, scan outgoing e-mail messages, and specify MIME types to block (simplistically, any area of an e-mail where malware can hitch a ride). We appreciate being able to add suspicious files from the quarantine interface.

The fact that you have to manually discover and add STMP e-mail and specific MIME details points one of the app's biggest problems. Compared to Ad-Aware and others in Lavasoft's family, the dowdy Anti-Virus Helix is much less user-friendly in visual appeal, navigation, and organization. In fact, it bucks the trend most publishers embrace to favor icons over text lines in order to configure and start protections.

That's little concern for intermediate and advanced users who thrive on file trees and won't mind consulting the program's thorough help file when the tool tips aren't quite explanatory enough. Casual users who prefer to set it and forget it may wonder why Ad-Aware is so simple to schedule and run but Anti-Virus Helix takes more effort.

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The home stretch: Skype's third 4.0 beta

Those of you following the progress of Skype's beta series for version 4.0 already know that the seminal VoIP caller has been striving to get people interested in--and even aware of--Skype other features by rearranging its program's interface in time for version 4.0.

On Thursday, Skype released Skype 4.0 beta 3 for Windows, the third--and as far as we know, final--beta in the development series.

In addition to Internet telephony, Skype wants to make it easier to switch among IM and phone conversations, to place calls to non-Skype users' mobile phones and landlines, and to jump on board its video chats, which, the company admitted, most users either weren't using or didn't know existed.

At each of the three stages, Skype has daubed on more features that build from its very rough first attempt. In version 4.0 beta 3, the ability to scroll and search through your history is the punchiest addition; you can also filter by activity type.

There's also a new download manager for file transfers, a subtle visual "chrome" treatment when you switch into compact view (from the View menu), and a bandwidth manager. To keep Skype stalkers at bay, the company has added the option to report blocked users as abusive. As always, use this feature with care.

Laying it out on the table

While Skype is still accepting feedback to influence the final design, the essentials haven't changed much from the beginning, and the next release will almost assuredly arrive as the final version. Yet, there are still some visual flaws and an empty storefront. Skype's engineers may run out of releases in which to test new functionality.

(Credit: CNET)

Skype users, too, are calling for more visual personalization in the instant messenger, and are calling out against Skype's yanking of Skypcasts, which officially shut down in September 2008.

Beta number three is also missing birthday reminders and public chats, both slated for this release.

As seen from the air, Skype's 4.0 beta is shaping up into a communications tool that will fulfill its mission to streamline its app and make it more engaging on all fronts. Up close, however, the final release of 4.0 will need more cleanup if it's to really redefine how it's used.

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