Computeractive! Latest updates

Ubuntu 8.04.1

Tim Smith — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:04:00 GMT

Tim Smith, Computeract!ve, Saturday 5 July 2008 at 17:04:00

Complete Linux distribution, with support

Ubuntu Linux is a very popular distribution ideal for both newcomers and seasoned Linux fans. It is easy to set up and comes with all of the software you are...

Quicksys RegDefrag 1.5

Chris Wiles — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:57:00 GMT

Chris Wiles, vnunet.com, Saturday 5 July 2008 at 09:57:00

Simple, well-designed free Registry optimiser

Most of us like testing new software, even we go on to remove from our computers only a few days or weeks after installation....

Flock 1.2.3

Lee Collins — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Lee Collins, vnunet.com, Saturday 5 July 2008 at 00:00:00

Browser with social networking features

Flock is a new web browser that combines integrated photo sharing with RSS support. Bloggers are a target audience for Flock, which is based on the Mozilla Firefox, because it...

EssentialPIM Free 2.7

Chris Wiles — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Chris Wiles, vnunet.com, Saturday 5 July 2008 at 00:00:00

Personal information & task manager

EssentialPIM is a free and multilingual personal information manager which includes three components: a calendar, note taker and contact manager....

Agnitum Outpost Security Suite Pro 2009

Chris Wiles — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Chris Wiles, vnunet.com, Saturday 5 July 2008 at 00:00:00

Complete Internet security suite

Outpost Security Suite Pro provides the first line of defence against rogue software by pro-actively controlling how programs behave and interact on a PC....

Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro 2009

Paul Rowlingson — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Paul Rowlingson, vnunet.com, Saturday 5 July 2008 at 00:00:00

Powerful protection for home users

This firewall offers a good level of protection for home users, and is powerful enough for advanced users yet simple enough for beginners....

EssentialPIM Free Portable 2.7

Chris Wiles — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Chris Wiles, vnunet.com, Saturday 5 July 2008 at 00:00:00

Take your diary & contacts on the road

Back in the 80s business people carried around a huge Filofax full of information. It stored their diary, 'to do' list, business cards and contact information....

All-in-one Eee Monitor PC on the cards

Guy Dixon — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:05:00 GMT

Guy Dixon, vnunet.com, Friday 4 July 2008 at 13:05:00

Asus unveils iMac-style ultra-cheap PC

Asus is fleshing out its rapidly expanding Eee brand with an all-in-one Eee Monitor desktop PC. 'Official' product shots of the device appeared on the French-language site Blogeee.net suggesting that...

UK online fake goods market worth £800m

Ian Williams — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:54:00 GMT

Ian Williams, vnunet.com, Friday 4 July 2008 at 12:54:00

Legal experts warn of dramatic rise in 'e-fencing'

Around £800m worth of counterfeit goods pass through online shopping and auction sites in the UK each year, new research has claimed....

Smart sat-nav warns of traffic jams

Guy Dixon — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:28:00 GMT

Guy Dixon, vnunet.com, Friday 4 July 2008 at 12:28:00

Device can help avoid nasty queues

Scientists have unveiled a hi-tech sat-nav gadget aimed at predicting and avoiding traffic jams. The Congestion Avoidance Dynamic Routing Engine (Cadre) gathers information from sat-nav devices in other cars and...

Roberts launches solar-powered digital radio

Andrea-Marie Vassou — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:29:00 GMT

Andrea-Marie Vassou, Computeract!ve, Friday 4 July 2008 at 11:29:00

The solarDAB will help save on disposable batteries

People can now listen to the radio without having to worry about the batteries running out. The Roberts solarDAB has a solar panel that recharges the batteries for up to...

Review: Sony Vaio VGX-TP2B home entertainment computer

Anthony Dhanendran — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:00:00 GMT

Anthony Dhanendran, Computeract!ve, Friday 4 July 2008 at 10:00:00

Entertainment in a strange new shape

While most computers follow a standard design pattern with little deviation, media centre or home entertainment models often throw up some entertainingly bizarre shapes....

Adobe Flash Player 10 Preview 2

Chris Wiles — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:51:00 GMT

Chris Wiles, vnunet.com, Friday 4 July 2008 at 09:51:00

Preview the web-based Flash player

Adobe Flash Player 10, code-named "Astro," introduces new expressive features and visual performance improvements that allow interactive designers and developers to build the richest and most immersive Web experiences....

Microsoft plans low-key Patch Tuesday

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:57:00 GMT

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Friday 4 July 2008 at 01:57:00

No 'critical' fixes for July

Microsoft is planning to issue a relatively low-key monthly security update this month. The July instalment of the Patch Tuesday update will contain four bulletins, each addressing vulnerabilities rated 'important',...

Google ordered to reveal YouTube logs

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:28:00 GMT

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Friday 4 July 2008 at 00:28:00

Viacom wins request to see viewing data

Google has been ordered to disclose a whopping 12 terabytes of logs which detail every video watched by every user of YouTube....

PrettyMay for Skype 3.0.5.18

Lee Collins — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Lee Collins, vnunet.com, Friday 4 July 2008 at 00:00:00

Answer-machine for Skype

This is the software publisher's description. PrettyMay is your personal voice assistant for Skype, which will enable you to record and replay any Skype-based call easily and simply....

MediaCoder 0.6.1.4130

Chris Wiles — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Chris Wiles, vnunet.com, Friday 4 July 2008 at 00:00:00

Encode or decode AV media

Working with video and audio codecs can be a real pain, for the professional media designer and for the home user who wants to playback old video they've downloaded from...

Fresh UI 8.10

Chris Wiles — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Chris Wiles, vnunet.com, Friday 4 July 2008 at 00:00:00

Optimise and tweak Windows

There are many options in Windows that are hidden and unavailable to the average user. Unless you know what you're doing, and are prepared to manually edit your Registry (not...

FoxyTunes 3.0.3.1

Chris Wiles — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Chris Wiles, vnunet.com, Friday 4 July 2008 at 00:00:00

Control your audio from Firefox

You're busy working, occasionally browsing the web, while listening to your music via your favourite audio player (such as iTunes)....

HDClone Free 3.6.1

Paul Rowlingson — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Paul Rowlingson, vnunet.com, Friday 4 July 2008 at 00:00:00

Make 1:1 copies of a hard disk

This free version of HDClone can be used to make an exact copy (or clone) of a hard disk (IDE/ATA/SATA)....

Ashampoo Burning Studio 8

Chris Wiles — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Chris Wiles, vnunet.com, Friday 4 July 2008 at 00:00:00

Comprehensive disc burning suite

This is the software publisher's description. Ashampoo Burning Studio keeps the power and simplicity that made version 6 such a runaway success and adds several major new functions, including DVD...

Microsoft touts Office subscription plan

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:44:00 GMT

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Thursday 3 July 2008 at 20:44:00

'Equipt' bundle offers Student versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote

Microsoft has unveiled a new subscription service for Office aimed at consumers. The Equipt offering will combine the Student versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote in a single package....

Ofcom pushes next-gen broadband dialogue

Dinah Greek — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:31:00 GMT

Dinah Greek, Computeract!ve, Thursday 3 July 2008 at 17:31:00

Regulator says industry must debate the critical issues about rolling out super-fast broadband

Ofcom aims to set out details of the regulatory framework for super-fast broadband in September. The regulator said that because the investment needed to bring about the next generation of...

Virgin Media sends warning letter to file sharers

Andrea-Marie Vassou — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:11:00 GMT

Andrea-Marie Vassou, Computeract!ve, Thursday 3 July 2008 at 16:11:00

Disconnection threat an "administration error", says internet provider

Virgin Media has sent around 800 letters to customers warning them to stop sharing music on file-sharing sites. The letters are part of a 10-week campaign the internet service provider...

Police DVD explains stop and search

Tom Royal — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:28:00 GMT

Dinah Greek, Computeract!ve, Thursday 3 July 2008 at 14:28:00

Developed to give public an idea of their rights if stopped by police

The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) has launched a DVD to help find out what young people think about the policing technique....