Apple may have found the Holy Grail of computing – persuading web users to make micropayments to consume content – if a new survey’s findings are correct. The bad news for newspapers is that it could be harder to persuade customers to pay for news. According to the Olswang Convergence Survey, published by UK law firm Olswang, iPhone users are ‘amongst the heaviest users of digital content’ and are ‘also more willing than any other consumer to pay for a wide range of types of content’. The survey was conducted by Olswang and YouGov, which carried out an online poll of 1013 UK adults and 536 13-17-year-olds. If the survey’s findings are correct, Apple has found a way to make money from online digital content, rather than relying solely on online advertising, which few companies apart from Google have mastered. The survey found that iPhone users were ‘heavy users of services such as on-demand TV’: 19% of iPhone users watch it on their phones compared with 3% of the survey base. Interestingly, iPhone users are also heavier users of on-demand TV on their televisions at home: 37% of iPhone users compared with 26% of the survey base. Furthermore, Olswang found that 37% of iPhone users were interested in accessing on-demand TV on their phones in the future, compared with 11% of the overall survey base. Even more significantly, Olswang found iPhone users ‘demonstrated greater willingness to use micropayments and subscriptions to pay for access to a broad range of content’.
Source of Information : MacUser.January 2010
‘Schiller claimed 90%of rejectionswere for technical reasons such as bugs or functions that didn’twork as intended’
Faced with the exodus of some high-profile developers of iPhone apps, Apple senior vice-president for worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller granted a rare interview to explain the company’s App Store approval process, which has been variously condemned as confusing, arbitrary and controlling. Schiller spoke to BusinessWeek days after Joe Hewitt, who created the Facebook iPhone app, announced he would no longer develop for the iPhone. Hewitt, who also helped develop the Firefox browser, said his decision ‘had everything to do with Apple’s policies’, which he alleged were ‘setting a horrible precedent for other software platforms’. Another Mac and iPhone developer, Rogue Amoeba, also announced it wouldn’t develop any more iPhone apps after its Airfoil Speakers Touch app was blocked by Apple over alleged trademark infringement.
While Schiller promised Apple would be more flexible, he dedicated most of his interview to defending the company’s approach, and pointed out that Apple approves the vast majority of apps submitted to it by developers. Schiller claimed 90% of rejections were for technical reasons such as bugs or functions that didn’t work as intended. He said that when these problems were fixed Apple approved the apps. Schiller said the remaining 10% of rejections were rejected as ‘inappropriate’. ‘There have been applications submitted for approval that will steal personal data, or which are intended to help the user break the law, or which contain inappropriate content,’ said Schiller. ‘We’ve built a store for the most part that people can trust. You and your family and friends can download applications from the store, and for the most part they do what you’d expect, and they get onto your phone, and you get billed appropriately, and it all just works.’ Schiller pointed out that developers send Apple around
Source of Information : MacUser.January 2010
www.opera.com/browser
0pera has long been the most innovative of the big web browsers. The latest release introduces yet more new features and the software's rendering engine has been optimized to make it much faster at loading JavaScript-heavy sites such as Google Mail and Facebook. It's also had a stylish makeover from British designer Jon Hicks (creator of the Firefox logo). There are two versions of Opera available: the standard one and a Labs release which contains Unite, an add-on designed to transform Opera into a web server. This experimental edition is available to download from http://unite.opera com but for now we'll concentrate on the main browser.
BROWSE THE WEB WITH OPERA
Often overlooked, Opera is actually one of the top browsers for speed and features. Here are some highlights
It's now a standard feature in most browsers but Speed Dial made its debut in Opera. It displays your most frequently accessed sites as thumbnails on any new tab. Click a blank square to add a site. 1 The Configure Speed Dial 2 link lets you add a background and change the number of sites on display.
One of the most noticeable changes in Opera 10 is the addition of a resizable tab bar. Click and drag the handle 1 downwards and thumbnails of the open sites will appear above their respective tabs. Hovering your mouse over a tab will display a larger thumbnail of the site.
Opera supports widgets. To add some, go to Widgets, 1 Add Widgets and browse the selection. When you find one you like, click Launch. You'll be asked if you want to keep it or not. Widgets float above all windows, not just your browser, and can be toggled on and off (individually) from the Taskbar.
Opera Mail is a combined email client/newsreader. To use it, go to Tools, 1 'Mail and Chat Accounts'. Choose the type of account you want 2 and follow the set-up instructions. When you've finished, a Mail menu 3 and Mail panel 4 will appear. Opera 10 also offers separate integrated support for webmail.
You can download BitTorrent files directly in the browser using the program of your choice - Opera is the default. 1 Click the preferences button 2 to adjust the upload/download speeds and change the listen port. 4 Use the search box to search for BitTorrent files. Click the link to download a file.
Opera lets you subscribe to feeds using any feed reader. Click the RSS button in the address bar and the feed will be laid out across a page. Select a feed reader from the drop down menu. The default is Opera Mail but other options include Bloglines and Google Reader. Click the button to subscribe.
Opera is very standards-compliant but, if a website won't display properly, you can pretend you're using IE or Firefox. Go to Tools, Quick Preferences, Edit Site Preferences. Click the Network tab. 1 In the identification box, choose a browser to identify 2 or masquerade as. Click OK and then reload the page.
The Opera Turbo feature uses compression technology to speed up page loading on a slow connection. To activate it, click the Turbo button 1 at the bottom of the screen. However, it's not designed to run on a speedy broadband connection and may reduce the quality of web pages noticeably.
Source of Information : Ultimate PC and Web Workshops Winter 2009
Install updates without rebooting, constrain Windows Media Center’s drive space to a limit you prefer, and force apps to run full-screen.
THIS MAY COME as a shock to you, but Windows doesn’t always behave as it should. Fortunately, I know a few tricks that can rehabilitate your PC. This month, I’ll outline how to avoid automatic reboots after Windows Update runs. I’ll also describe how to limit the amount of disk space Windows Media Center can use. And I’ll share a trick for automatically opening apps in full-screen mode.
Stop Reboots After Automatic Updates
You step away from your computer for a little while, and when you come back, your windows and your work are gone. Why? Because Windows downloaded some updates and then took it upon itself to reboot without asking you for permission to do so. Gah! This very thing happened to me not long ago, and I lost some in-progress work as a result. More precisely, I had instructed the Windows Update pop-up to postpone re - booting for 4 hours—and I just happened to be away from the PC when that timer ran out. Unlucky me. A ridiculously easy fi x for this exists, and I’m kicking my - self for not applying it sooner. If you’ve been plagued by the same problem, here’s what you need to do:
1. In Vista, click Start, type Windows Update, and click Enter. In XP, open the Control Panel and select Automatic Update from the menu of options.
2. In Vista, click the Change Settings option at left. In XP, you can simply skip to step 3.
3. Change the setting to Download updates but let me choose whether to install them (in Vista) or Download up - dates for me, but let me choose when to install them (in XP).
4. Click OK.
That’s it. Windows may still nag you about installing up - dates, but at least it won’t reboot without your permission.
Prevent Windows Media Center From UsingYour Entire Hard Drive
I’m a big fan of the Windows Media Center software that comes baked into most versions of Vista and Windows 7. Specifi cally, I use it in conjunction with a TV tuner (four of them, in fact) to transform my PC into a DVR that rivals TiVo, in my humble opinion. Just one problem: If you use Windows Media Center to record TV shows, it can consume almost your entire hard drive. For example, suppose that you confi gure it to record 30 Rock, The Office, Mad Men, or whatever your favorite shows may be. By default, WMC records an unlimited number of episodes of each TV series you specify; but if a few weeks go by before you have a chance to sit down and watch anything (that’s what a DVR is for, right?), the accumulating shows may fi ll your hard drive to the brim—leaving you little or no room for anything else. The solution to this problem is to limit the amount of space WMC can claim for TV recording. Here’s how to proceed:
1. Start Windows Media Center.
2. Scroll down to Tasks, and then over to Settings, and click that option (or press
3. Choose Recorder, and then Recorder Storage. (These options will appear only if you have a TV tuner installed and configured.)
4. Use the minus arrow located next to the redundantly named ‘Maximum TV limit’ to decrease the storage maximum (in 25GB increments) available for Windows Media Center’s use.
5. Click Save to finish the operation.
Force Programs to Run at Full-Screen Size
Reader Bill has a problem with Internet Explorer 8, which he runs in Windows XP: Every time he starts the browser, it opens in a reduced-size window rather than at full-screen size. Then he has to maximize it manually every time. What a hassle! I encountered the same annoyance with Excel 2007. Fortunately, it’s easy to force any program to run maximized (that is, at fullscreen size) when you start it. Here’s how:
1. Right-click the program’s shortcut, and click Properties.
2. The Properties window will open with the Shortcut tab selected. Click the pull-down menu next to Run, and choose Maximized.
3. Click OK, and you’re done.
Henceforth, whenever you start that program using that shortcut, it should automatically give you a full-screen window.
Source of Information : PC World December 2009
HOW YOU MOVE your inbox depends on the version of Windows it’s moving to. I’ll focus on moving from XP to Vista; for details on how to go from one XP system to another or from XP to Windows 7, see find.pcworld.com/63937. First, you must copy your old PC messages. In Outlook Express, select Tools¨Options. Click the Maintenance tab, and then the Store Folder button. The resulting Store Location dialog box has a fi eld containing a folder path (probably starting with ‘C:\Documents and Settings...’). Select this entire path by clicking inside it, pressing
A Windows Explorer window will open, showing the contents of your store folder—the one holding your mail. Click the Up Folder icon to move to that folder. Copy the folder (probably called ‘Outlook Express’) to an external drive, a shared folder, or other media. In Vista, launch Windows Mail, and select File¨Import¨Messages. Select Microsoft Outlook Express 6 as the program in the resulting Windows Mail Import wizard. Click the Browse button, find and select the Outlook Express folder that you copied from your old PC, and click Select Folder. Complete the wizard’s remaining steps. To move the contents of your old inbox into your new one, click the Inbox folder inside the Imported Folder folder, press
Source of Information : PC World December 2009
MY WIFE’S PC came with a trial of Microsoft Office 2007, but I installed IBM Lotus Symphony on the system instead—in part because it’s free, and in part because I think it’s easier to use. But when the missus attempts to open certain file types (such as .docx or .rtf), up pops Office 2007, its trial period having long since expired. Why don’t these files open in Symphony?
For whatever reason, certain file types remain associated with Office, so
Windows doesn’t know that it’s supposed to direct them to Symphony. Fortunately, the problem is easy to fix. In Vista and Windows 7, click Start, type Default, and press
Henceforth, any attempt to open that file type (not just that file) will cause Windows to load the selected program. If the program doesn’t appear, click Browse to locate its executable on your hard drive. That’s not the easiest task in the world, but you’ll need to do it if you want to re-associate that file type. The most common file association hassle you’re likely to encounter involves media files—MP3s, videos, and the like—that refuse to open where you want them to. This solution works with those kinds of files as well as with document files.
Source of Information : PC World December 2009
