If you can remember back to 2008, Comcast started to enforce a bandwidth cap of 250GBs. At this time, many popular “tech stars” like Chris Pirillo even revolted against the cap. Due to all the video stream we have done these past four years, a 250GB cap is ridiculous for all.

Comcast mentioned in their blog post a nice statement that they basically messed up:

So as the market and technology have evolved, we’ve decided to change our approach and replace our static 250 GB usage threshold with more flexible data usage management approaches that benefit consumers and support innovation and that will continue to ensure that all of our customers enjoy the best possible Internet experience over our high-speed data service.

However, like in any business, Comcast is out there to make money. And boy, does Comcast try to snag your money for any overages:

The first new approach will offer multi-tier usage allowances that incrementally increase usage allotments for each tier of high-speed data service from the current threshold. Thus, we’d start with a 300 GB usage allotment for our Internet Essentials, Economy, and Performance Tiers, and then we would have increasing data allotments for each successive tier of high speed data service (e.g., Blast and Extreme). The very few customers who use more data at each tier can buy additional gigabytes in increments/blocks (e.g., $10 for 50 GB).

But luckily, Comcast has some sense and has decided to bump all plans up to at least a 300GB cap:

The second new approach will increase our data usage thresholds for all tiers to 300 GB per month and also offer additional gigabytes in increments/blocks (e.g., $10 per 50 GB).

In both approaches, we’ll be increasing the initial data usage threshold for our customers from today’s 250 GB per month to at least 300 GB per month.

Comcast may still be doing it wrong, but this still won’t make people happy, especially Netflix. Realistically, I would set the low-end plan to a cap of 500GBs and all other higher-end plans to a full 1TB. Capping might help to prevent users downloading too much via torrents, but to cap at 300GBs is too low; I sometimes go through 100GBs+ in one day!

What do you think of Comcast’s move? They’re on the better track, but keep in mind it’s been four years since a change!

Wacom has done it again with the new release in their Intuos series, the Wacom Intuos5. Wacom is promising a productivity increase with the new multi-touch surface along with enhanced features; let us see how the new Intuos5 stacks up with the Intuos4 we reviewed sometime back!

After having a good chunk of time to use the Intuos5 in my overall work day along with in personal design projects, I can now say I have used the Intuos5 enough to write one of the typical full-blown reviews that you all know!

Enough jibber-jabbin’, let’s get on with the all new and snazzy Intuos5!

Design

When I reviewed the Intuos4 way back when, I was very impresse with the overall design. Although, like the recent Photoshop CS6 updated UI, the Intuos4 stood out a bit too much with its black bezel and lit up buttons; a designer wants to focus on his/her project and not the tools they use to achieve such. This is where Wacom realized they had to do something, and boy, what they did was fantastic!

The new Intuos5 features a very slick, matte black finish. With its new eight impressed ExpressKeys on the sides, you can now clearly feel what button you are pressing without looking down to the tablet. Not only did Wacom make the Intuos5 easier to use, they took it one step further; the entire “bezel” of the device is outlined with a rubbery, soft to the touch finish, making the Intuos5 easier to glide your hands across like never before.

One gripe I had with the Intuos4 was the tracking area… it stopped right at the edge of the drawing area, making it so whenever you are at the edge, your hand will be on the very edge of the tablet; quite the uncomfortable feeling if you ask me. Like many other improved features, Wacom has eliminated this in their design with having a bit of a bleed to the tracking area. This in turn allows for a more natural feeling of “drawing off from the edge” like you do on a piece of paper.

With good design, one might think build quality would be lacking… wrong! The Intuos5 features a very solid design when compared with its brother, the Intuos4. Everything thing seems more tightly compacted in the Intuos5, making it a very solid tablet to draw on.

 Input Devices

Just like the Intuos4, the Intous5 features all the same nibs (pen tips), the same pen, and the same styled holder, that feels more soft to the touch compared to the Intuos4′s pen holder. One thing I would like to point out is that Wacom has chosen to not provide the mouse like they did for the Intuos4, instead, replaced with an all new feature… multi-touch!

The multi-touch features work surprisingly well, granted that the implementation is 100% custom. There are very many types of gestures that you can achieve, ranging from one finger all the way up to five fingers. Now that’s what I call options! And with the typical Wacom shortcuts dropdown, you can assign anything that your heart desires. I also have to mention, Intuos4 users might know that when using the TouchRing (which we will get to shortly), zooming in and out was somewhat choppy (at least for me that is). On the new Intuos5, when pinching to zoom in and out, it is as smooth as it can be. It honestly feels so natural to work with your hands on the new Intuos5; some have thought that it is “unprofessional”, but in reality, it is the best feature Wacom could have ever added to the Intuos5. I have four-fingers down set up as a clipping mask; it is now so easy to create a clipping mask on a layer without even moving my cursor or hands! Now that is just awesome! Wacom is da bomb!

However, I have to admit, the multi-touch features are a bit sporadic for me. Throughout daily use of the tablet, the multi-touch features can disable at the most random times along with other odd bugs happening. To re-enable the touch features, I need to turn off and on the tablet. I have emailed Wacom on this one and hope to figure out why I am getting this. I had some speculation it might be the Logitech mouse drivers (the Logitech LX8 is by far my favorite mouse… ever) getting in the way, but I still have to confirm this with the tech guys over at Wacom. Very annoying when the touch features suddenly stop working, but it is most definitely software causing it.

And just like all the other Wacom graphic tablets, the Intuos5 is compatible with all the same extra accessories like the airbrush and art pen. Thank you Wacom for not pulling an “Apple-move” and forcing users to buy new accessories (hey, we know it’s true)!

ExpressKeys and TouchRing

One of the newly updated features, the ExpressKeys, along with the TouchRing, are some of the most important functions of the Intuos5. The layout of these buttons is the same compared to the Intuos4, but what is different is that there is no indication what these buttons do on the tablet (the Intuos4 had an OLED screen next to every button).

Wacom chose an interesting path on this one… they do not want you looking at the tablet, at all. As people using any graphic tablet should focus on the work and not the tools they use, this is a brilliant move on Wacom’s part that adds little distraction (and besides, when you draw on a real canvas on the desk, you do not really stare at one point… you look at the picture as a whole). Instead, when you hover of the buttons with you fingers, an information box will pop up on your screen informing you on what these buttons do. You will most likely remember what all eight of these buttons do, especially when Wacom has labeled them by feel to with the extruding dots and lines.

On the TouchRing, this has not changed at all, except for the fact that Wacom has now placed the indicator lights in all four corners instead of around the right edge, which in my mind, is brilliant as having four LEDs close to each other is just hard to look at.

And besides, this side of the tablet just looks so slick! It is so soft to the touch and your fingers glide across it with ease.

Wireless Freedom

When you just thought that the new multi-touch features are killer, that’s not all folks’! Wacom has decided to take it one step ahead and include a full wireless accessory kit for a mere $39.95. There is not too much to say except, it works and it does it well! If you are the type of designer that loves to work while on the go (I am one of them), the wireless accessory kit is a must for you. With the versatility factor, it is well worth the small investment.

It is also very easy to turn on/off along while storing the mini-USB receiver that plugs into your computer (to the right of the power button on the right hand side)

Despite how little it is, the wireless feature packs a punch:

If you have ever used Photoshop and needed to export certain layers, groups, and slices, you can quickly find out it is the most frustrating process in the design world. Whether you are a developer clipping images out of a Photoshop file to be used in a website or even an application or even a designer sending images over to your developer to use, you know exactly how long it takes to trim everything down… too long.

In fact, I personally have an Wacom Intuos4 to help speed up the process, and with a dedicated trim button (trim is one of my favorite features in Photoshop), it makes the process somewhat easier. Sure, Photoshop may have its slices feature, but to be quite frank, it is not powerful… at all. If you want to clip out a layer, but with a white background behind it, good luck. There is no way (from my knowledge) to set up Photoshop to remove certain layers before exporting your slices via the “Save for Web & Devices” menu (okay, you could set up special actions to do so and then save out, but even that would be tedious and a pain to manage).

This is by far the major downfall in Photoshop that adds a huge burdan on developers and designers. This is why one of my favorite companies who specializes in Mac web-development, MacRabbit, created Layer Cake, an application that can take the misery away from trimming and exporting all your layers.

Now just to let you know, wen I saw this application for the first time, I felt sudden rejoice. I have literally spent hours on end cropping, trimming, and exporting layers in Photoshop. Until Adobe gets their act together and realizes there is a need for a better system, Layer Cake will be here for us. With that said, let’s get on to the full review!

Simple but Powerful

Layer Cake features an incredibly easy to use interface; there are no complicated screens or directions to follow, “it just works”. The only thing you need to do is set up your PSD correctly to work with Layer Cake, and it will do all the work for you.

No mess of configuring the type of PNG to use, quality of the JPEG, or anything else similar. And this, by far, makes this application a critical tool to any Photoshop user.

Exporting Made a Breeze

After Layer Cake processes your PSD(s), it will throw up a screen listing all of your images. Not only will it list your images, you can preview them right in the application and even drag certain images to your desktop or  wherever you wish. If you would like to save all images, you can of course do that too.

Although I do wish these images can be grouped based on any subfolders these images might lay in. Let’s say if I had a layer named “Logo.png” in “Header->Top Section”, it would be nice to have some titles in the application telling me this image belongs to this area. This way, if I wanted to export only the images in the header area, it would be possible to do so whether than picking up every image in the header manually.

Even though Photoshop is quite the complex application, Layer Cake is not and is extremely easy to use; it is nice to have a bit of relief from all the complexity of Photoshop (and if you do not think Photoshop is complex, take a look at all the menus. You’ll get lost. )

So, how does this actually work?

Sadly, you cannot plug in any ordinary PSD and have Layer Cake work its magic; you have to specify what layers/groups you want to export first. If you have any PSDs you made previous to Layer Cake, you will need to go through the PSD again and set it up to use. But no fret, this entire process is entirely simple and easy to do while you are designing.

Simply, while you are designing (or afterwards) name your layers according to what you want to call them and what file format the will be. So for example, an icon may be named “My Icon.ico” and your logo may be named “Logo.png”.

But that’s too simple. Layer Cake took it to the extra step and added an entirely new feature, slices. Simply create an “@slices” group and a rectangle that signifies where you want to slice. And the best part about this, unlike the native slices feature in Photoshop, slices do not work as a “rasterized” image; that means you can have a slice be transparent… just what I wanted! If you are wondering of a real-world use, slices are amazing for repetitive textures; so if you have a gradient that repeats on the X-axis, simply create a 1 x (whatever) slice and you will have a repetitive texture. Awesome!

Let’s face it, this is AMAZING!

I have to say, Layer Cake is just remarkable; just a dream come true for Photoshop users. Not only can it export your layers in ICNS, JPG, PNG, and TIFF, but it can even export images from slices. Even though I do wish it had a bit more features like organizing the exported layers or even being able to specify if the image should be transparent (for PNG and TIFF), I am very impressed with Layer Cake; it is a must for all developers and designers out there as no one wants to spend countless hours trimming down graphics.

One feature that I would personally love being a web developer would be a way to turn all these exported images into a spritemap (an image of multiple images). This way, I do not have to worry about compiling the spritemap myself and have Layer Cake do it all in one application.

You can find Layer Cake on the Mac App Store for a mere $20. At first glance, $20 might be a bit much for such a program, but I will tell you right now, my clients will be much more happier with me now that I do not need to spend numerous hours trimming down their designs and making it into a website. It is well worth the money granted you are going to get more out of it than what you put into it.

Thanks to MacRabbit for letting me do this review. As I am always impressed with their apps, I wonder what they have in store next time around!

To view the Layer Cake website, check it out here:

http://macrabbit.com/layercake/

And to view Layer Cake on the Mac App Store, it can be found here:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/layer-cake/id512533449?mt=12

Last week we wrote about the QuickWeb Supa VZ1 VPS, which sported some amazing results for the price. However, like we mentioned before in the review, we wanted to give you the feeling of how fast their SSD VPSes are. I will tell you right from the start, these VPSes are some of the fastest I have ever used. They’re really fast… and I mean it!

As we already introduced QuickWeb in our former review, let’s just get straight on to the review.

Details

The QuickWeb Supa V8 VM2 VPS is quite the bargain for how much you get. For $15 a month, it will give you 512MBs of RAM with 768 swap, two CPU cores, 8GBs of SSD storage, 500GBs of bandwidth, and a 100Mbit port speed (which is actually less than than the Supa VZ1 I have). Of course, granted the price of SSDs nowadays (okay, they are not as much as they were a year ago, but they are still a good chunk of change), you do see some limitations compared to the hard disk based VPSes, like a lower port speed and less storage.

Although I would say for $15 a month, you are getting a great VPS for the money.

Network Speed

As the SSD can download data very fast to storage, I decided to download to the disk than to sending it off to /dev/null. The results are quite amazing.

wget http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test

--2012-02-12 05:37:23--  http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test

Resolving cachefly.cachefly.net... 205.234.175.175

Connecting to cachefly.cachefly.net|205.234.175.175|:80... connected.

HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK

Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream]

Saving to: `100mb.test'

100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 83.2M/s   in 1.2s

2012-02-12 05:37:24 (83.2 MB/s) - `100mb.test' saved [104857600/104857600]

83mb/s is incredible for a VPS! And as there is indeed less storage on a SSD, I am sure these nodes will be a little bit faster overall as QuickWeb cannot fit as many users as they can with the space hard disks offer.

SSD Speed

If you are looking to buy an SSD VPS, you are most likely doing it for the speed. This QuickWeb SSD VPS troops quite a bit!

dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync

16384+0 records in

16384+0 records out

1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 5.78825 s, 186 MB/s

root@ssdtest:/downloads/ioping-0.6# ./ioping -c 10 /
4096 bytes from / (simfs /dev/simfs): request=1 time=0.4 ms
4096 bytes from / (simfs /dev/simfs): request=2 time=0.2 ms
4096 bytes from / (simfs /dev/simfs): request=3 time=0.2 ms
4096 bytes from / (simfs /dev/simfs): request=4 time=0.2 ms
4096 bytes from / (simfs /dev/simfs): request=5 time=0.2 ms
4096 bytes from / (simfs /dev/simfs): request=6 time=0.2 ms
4096 bytes from / (simfs /dev/simfs): request=7 time=0.2 ms
4096 bytes from / (simfs /dev/simfs): request=8 time=0.2 ms
4096 bytes from / (simfs /dev/simfs): request=9 time=0.2 ms
4096 bytes from / (simfs /dev/simfs): request=10 time=0.2 ms

--- / (simfs /dev/simfs) ioping statistics ---
10 requests completed in 9009.6 ms, 4281 iops, 16.7 mb/s
min/avg/max/mdev = 0.2/0.2/0.4/0.0 ms

One might say that 186mb/s a second isn’t that much for an SSD compared to RAID, but if you think about it, this is one drive, not four or five drives combined together (RAID)! Not only are the dd results impressive, but the I/O ping is amazing at a nice 16.7mb/s a second (the VZ1 VPS got a low 0.4 mb/s). That’s like 40x faster compared to the RAID config! Hot damn that’s good!

CPU Performance

We know what you’re thinking! How’s the performance on this baby? As there is one more CPU core on this VPS than the VZ1, I’m thinking it’ll do better. Let’s see!

System Information

  Operating System      Linux 2.6.32-274.7.1.el5.028stab095.1 i686

  Model                 N/A

  Motherboard           N/A

  Processor                       Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz @ 3.39 GHz

                        1 Processor, 2 Cores, 2 Threads

  Processor ID          GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7

  L1 Instruction Cache  32.0 KB

  L1 Data Cache         32.0 KB

  L2 Cache              256 KB

  L3 Cache              8.00 MB

  Memory                15.6 GB

  BIOS                  N/A

Integer

  Blowfish

    single-threaded scalar   2192 ||||||||

    multi-threaded scalar    4699 ||||||||||||||||||

  Text Compress

    single-threaded scalar   3001 ||||||||||||

    multi-threaded scalar    5844 |||||||||||||||||||||||

  Text Decompress

    single-threaded scalar   3256 |||||||||||||

    multi-threaded scalar    6689 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||

  Image Compress

    single-threaded scalar   2464 |||||||||

    multi-threaded scalar    4827 |||||||||||||||||||

  Image Decompress

    single-threaded scalar   2439 |||||||||

    multi-threaded scalar    4987 |||||||||||||||||||

  Lua

    single-threaded scalar   4269 |||||||||||||||||

    multi-threaded scalar    8506 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Floating Point

  Mandelbrot

    single-threaded scalar   2837 |||||||||||

    multi-threaded scalar    5769 |||||||||||||||||||||||

  Dot Product

    single-threaded scalar   4670 ||||||||||||||||||

    multi-threaded scalar    9902 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

    single-threaded vector   5565 ||||||||||||||||||||||

    multi-threaded vector   12820 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

  LU Decomposition

    single-threaded scalar   3021 ||||||||||||

    multi-threaded scalar    6120 ||||||||||||||||||||||||

  Primality Test

    single-threaded scalar   4885 |||||||||||||||||||

    multi-threaded scalar    7831 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

  Sharpen Image

    single-threaded scalar  11411 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

    multi-threaded scalar   22952 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

  Blur Image

    single-threaded scalar   8862 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

    multi-threaded scalar   17800 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Memory

  Read Sequential

    single-threaded scalar   7839 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

  Write Sequential

    single-threaded scalar  12333 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

  Stdlib Allocate

    single-threaded scalar   5595 ||||||||||||||||||||||

  Stdlib Write

    single-threaded scalar   8842 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

  Stdlib Copy

    single-threaded scalar  17438 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Stream

  Stream Copy

    single-threaded scalar   7279 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

    single-threaded vector   8554 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

  Stream Scale

    single-threaded scalar   7696 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

    single-threaded vector   8242 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

  Stream Add

    single-threaded scalar   8067 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

    single-threaded vector   9028 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

  Stream Triad

    single-threaded scalar   8792 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

    single-threaded vector   6686 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Benchmark Summary

  Integer Score              4431 |||||||||||||||||

  Floating Point Score       8888 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

  Memory Score              10409 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

  Stream Score               8043 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

  Geekbench Score            7547 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

As you can clearly see, the score is about 1.4x faster than with one core. Logically, you would of expected 2x faster, but technology isn’t that persistent. Never alas, it’s for sure something to not complain about; that’s a very fast VPS right there! We have to test the UnixBench scores though to see how it can stand up with consistent load. This should be where the differences are.

TEST                                        BASELINE     RESULT      INDEX

Dhrystone 2 using register variables        376783.7 18826207.6      499.7
Double-Precision Whetstone                      83.1     1952.5      235.0
Execl Throughput                               188.3    12461.4      661.8
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks         2672.0   338868.0     1268.2
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks           1077.0    96341.0      894.5
File Read 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks        15382.0  2533936.0     1647.3
Pipe Throughput                             111814.6  2404133.8      215.0
Pipe-based Context Switching                 15448.6   774252.4      501.2
Process Creation                               569.3    36065.4      633.5
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                    44.8     1986.0      443.3
System Call Overhead                        114433.5  1811852.9      158.3
                                                                 =========
     FINAL SCORE                                                     516.4

With the UnixBench being 1.8x faster than the VZ1 VPS, I’d say the extra processor sped up the VPS by nearly two times, which realistically should happen. The performance for a two core VPS at only $15 a month is not bad at all!

Overall

I am very impressed with QuickWeb’s v8 VM2 VPS; it well exceeded my expectations on a high-performance VPS. If you are looking for a VPS that will handle database heavy applications with consistent load times, QuickWeb’s v8 VM2 VPS is for you! Hard drives might handle sequential reads very nicely, but these SSDs can handle random I/O way better than anything else can!

Overall, I give this VPS an A+ on everything. Despite the slower port speed, it is ironically faster than the one gigabit line as well; I guess that’s an SSD for you!

Sure, you might be getting a faster network, but for the most part, it is not entirely needed. This is where QuickWeb Hosting comes into play.

Introduction

Not only do the people over at QuickWeb know what they’re doing, they have been around for quite some time, four years to be exact. If a hosting company lasts for even two years, there is a good chance they are going to stick with it. With QuickWeb, you do not have to worry about them shutting down your VPS; I for sure never want to go through the data center to get my data again. I am not once so ever frightened about QuickWeb pulling any move like this, which adds a huge trust factor to the company.

QuickWeb is also very attractive to many VPS buyers as it seems that they always have some sort of sale going on. As for myself, I picked up the Supa VZ1 in Phoenix (512MBs of dedicated ECC RAM, 768MBs burst, 500GB of bandwidth, and 25GBs of hardware RAID10 storage). For $100 a year (when I picked it up) you just cannot beat this deal.

I have been with QuickWeb for a little more than two months now and have been very impressed with their service. But let’s not rush this review, how about a little more detail?

Reliability

Every server administrator out there knows that having a reliable server is more important than other factors. You can spend a ton of money on the fastest VPS with two dedicated cores and 2GBs of RAM, but if the server is not reliable, what is the point of even having it? With QuickWeb, the entire point of reliability won’t even come to your mind: it just works. In fact, I haven’t even rebooted my VPS since the day I set it up… now that is one reliable server!

The VPS itself is not the other thing that’s reliable, it would be their entire network as well! But we will get to that in the next section! But the main point of QuickWeb’s reliability is that it is just perfect. I have absolutely nothing to complain about.

Network

You know what, I think I will let this section speak for itself.

root@mirani:~# wget http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
--2012-02-12 05:03:35--  http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
Resolving cachefly.cachefly.net... 205.234.175.175
Connecting to cachefly.cachefly.net|205.234.175.175|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: `100mb.test'

100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 64.0M/s   in 1.6s    

2012-02-12 05:03:36 (64.0 MB/s) - `100mb.test' saved [104857600/104857600]

Yup, that’s right, QuickWeb can download a file from CacheFly at a mere 64MBs a second! Hot damn! That’s all I have to say.. it’s quite amazing. QuickWeb even happens to download this file faster than the Rackspace cloud! That is one fast network they have there… keep in mind this is only for $100 a year!

CPU Performance

One of the most important aspects to me has to be how fast the server can compute all kinds of information. For their lowest end “Supa” VPS package, it is not too shabby. Here are the GeekBench results (32 bit):

System Information
  Operating System      Linux 2.6.32-274.3.1.el5.028stab094.3 i686
  Model                 N/A
  Motherboard           N/A
  Processor                       Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31230 @ 3.20GHz @ 3.19 GHz
                        1 Processor
  Processor ID          GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7
  L1 Instruction Cache  32.0 KB
  L1 Data Cache         32.0 KB
  L2 Cache              256 KB
  L3 Cache              8.00 MB
  Memory                15.6 GB N/A
  BIOS                  N/A

Integer
  Blowfish
    single-threaded scalar   2080 ||||||||
  Text Compress
    single-threaded scalar   2699 ||||||||||
  Text Decompress
    single-threaded scalar   3233 ||||||||||||
  Image Compress
    single-threaded scalar   1795 |||||||
  Image Decompress
    single-threaded scalar   1445 |||||
  Lua
    single-threaded scalar   2808 |||||||||||

Floating Point
  Mandelbrot
    single-threaded scalar   2670 ||||||||||
  Dot Product
    single-threaded scalar   4290 |||||||||||||||||
    single-threaded vector   5218 ||||||||||||||||||||
  LU Decomposition
    single-threaded scalar   2852 |||||||||||
  Primality Test
    single-threaded scalar   4593 ||||||||||||||||||
  Sharpen Image
    single-threaded scalar  11566 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  Blur Image
    single-threaded scalar   8921 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Memory
  Read Sequential
    single-threaded scalar   7272 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  Write Sequential
    single-threaded scalar  11880 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  Stdlib Allocate
    single-threaded scalar   5255 |||||||||||||||||||||
  Stdlib Write
    single-threaded scalar   8599 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  Stdlib Copy
    single-threaded scalar  16893 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Stream
  Stream Copy
    single-threaded scalar   7470 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
    single-threaded vector   8336 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  Stream Scale
    single-threaded scalar   7294 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
    single-threaded vector   7876 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  Stream Add
    single-threaded scalar   7595 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
    single-threaded vector   8627 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  Stream Triad
    single-threaded scalar   7280 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
    single-threaded vector   6389 |||||||||||||||||||||||||

Benchmark Summary
  Integer Score              2343 |||||||||
  Floating Point Score       5730 ||||||||||||||||||||||
  Memory Score               9979 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  Stream Score               7608 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

  Geekbench Score            5582 ||||||||||||||||||||||

But you know what, that’s not enough. 5,582 is a great GeekBench score, but what does UnixBench say? GeekBench is a great performance benchmark, but UnixBench really stresses the entire I/O. How about we view the results below?

TEST                                        BASELINE     RESULT      INDEX

Dhrystone 2 using register variables        376783.7  8821539.9      234.1
Double-Precision Whetstone                      83.1     1827.7      219.9
Execl Throughput                               188.3     6025.7      320.0
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks         2672.0   189296.0      708.4
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks           1077.0    47406.0      440.2
File Read 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks        15382.0  1251688.0      813.7
Pipe Throughput                             111814.6  1223865.5      109.5
Pipe-based Context Switching                 15448.6   338243.3      218.9
Process Creation                               569.3    16766.7      294.5
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                    44.8     1107.3      247.2
System Call Overhead                        114433.5  1050716.9       91.8
                                                                 =========
     FINAL SCORE                                                     274.6

The UnixBench score isn’t too bad with only one core, but it could get up in the three-hundred range. Then again, I highly doubt you will ever stress the system so much like UnixBench does. In my mind, UnixBench isn’t a good representation of the performance as stressing the entire system for around twenty minutes is quite absurd. If you do that to the VPS, on any provider, I’m sure they’ll wonder why your load averages were so high.

With the performance in mind, I have not seen any struggles in performance; it is clear that whatever QuickWeb is doing, they are doing it right. I am sure they are not being like other hosting companies and cramming as many VPSes as possible.

Overall

I really like QuickWeb for their amazing service. But in fact, Roel, the main guy being it all, is one amazing guy; he is quite active on Web Hosting Talk and just a very kind person. Unlike other companies who are just in the hosting business for the money, I believe Roel is in it just because he enjoys his customers.

Overall, I am very impressed with the service thus far by QuickWeb, They have an A+ in my book and hope they will stay in my “top hosts” list.

More Coming Soon!

Thanks to Roel, he has also given me the chance to review his new Supa V8 Solid State Drive (SSD) powered Virtual Servers. If you’re looking for some of the fastest VPSes out there, these SSD nodes will be part of it! As SSDs are quite expensive (I just installed a 120GB SSD in mine for a discounted price of $200), especially server-grade, SSD VPSes are a bit more than the regular RAID10 VPSes, but the difference is huge. How huge? Wait for our review to find out!

With just a word of warning, Unity 3 Game Development Hotshot is far from a beginners book. You should be familiar with Unity enough and know your way around things.

With that said, let’s get right into the review! But first, I’m sure you want to hear a little of my Unity background. Without boring you, I’ve been a game developer for quite some time and started to use Unity around a year and a half  ago. I was able to pick up Unity very quickly as the way the Unity team implemented scripting is just perfect. I would not call myself an expert, but I would say I know my way around.

Topics Covered

Unity 3 Game Development Hotshot provides a ton of information. With its eight chapters and four appendixes about all kinds of info, this book is one of the most informational Unity books I have ever read.

But then again, in 380 pages, you can for sure cover quite a bit. Here are some of the main concepts that Jate has discussed:

• Basics like creating a camera, 2D, physics, and sound
• Using GUI Skin to create menus and tabs
• Exporting 3D models to FPX from 3D Studio Max
• Creating control scripts
• Forming rockets and particles
• Building a smart AI
• Optimizing code using the profiler
• Constructing a ragdoll
• Loading and saving high school data from and to a server
• Differences between C# and Unity JavaScript
• Explaining all the different ways to write shaders

As you can clearly see, Jate has put a great deal of work into Unity 3 Game Development Hotshot; he really knows his stuff. From artificial intelligence programming to working with particles, this book is massively informational.

The Analysis 

I really have to say, I am quite impressed with Unity 3 Game Development Hotshot. All of the chapters and appendixes fit together so well, that the entire book keeps you interested in the content page after page. Not only is it packed with more than I could ask for, the writing is very professional and organized.

Chapter One

Unlike other Unity books I have read from Packt Publishing, this book does not take the beginning approach at all. Instead, Jate decided to jump right on in on a platformer game, or commonly known as a 2D game. Even though this might not be a beginner’s book, starting of with a 2D game removes the Z-axis, thus virtually disabling the 3D part in Unity. This way, chapter one can focus more on the learning curve and not have to worry about the 3D aspects just yet.

From the basics of creating a camera and a level to creating a special character class to handle certain functions, this chapter is always crammed with helpful, real-world information.

In just forty-one pages, Jate has guided you though with building quite a fun 2D platformer.

Chapter Two

This chapter is all about the user interface tools, specifically the GUI class in Unity. With the chapter being split into five parts, it gives the reader a gist on how to apply GUI Skin into your game.

In fact, I would say that half of the chapter is simply using the Unity inspector to customize all kinds of properties. The other half is simply the code used to control the entire menu that is being built.

With Jate’s amazing guidance, you’ll quickly learn how to populate labels dynamically and to even use the powerful Unity GUI tools to create lists that can scroll.

This chapter is so practical as in every game, you need to have an user interface; you wouldn’t want the gamer playing a game with no UI! However, as there is no set way to create an UI, it can sometimes be a bit confusing on the best way to create the perfect UI. With Jate’s code and directions that just make sense, it just makes you feel so confident that you can build any UI that you see.

Chapter Three

Chapter three takes on an important concept in any 3D game, shaders. Writing shaders is very difficult as the entire concept of Cg/HLSL programming is a bit challenging, but Jate takes you along the path of writing a nice and simple shader.

He starts out mentioning that a shader is built up of six main parts (or textures). After he has all the main textures established, he starts to write about how diffuse/specular lighting work, which are two different algorithms in shader programming that do look quite different.

He then goes on speaking up how to export a 3D model to the FBX format for Unity’s use and then programming the shader itself. The programming isn’t too difficult, but I am quite glad that Jate goes on and discusses how how the vertex and pixel shader programing come together for a full blown shader. If you never knew how shaders really worked (which I’ll be honest, I knew how to create them just not the full on technical aspects of them), I’m sure this chapter will help correct that.

Chapter Four

The next chapter, chapter four, is all about animation to make your 3D character more realistic.

If you’re going to build a 3D character that’s interactive, you will need all kinds of animations to handle running, walking, jumping, and et cetera. Jate guides you the first part adding in all the animations into Unity.

After that, you somehow need to control these animations and adjust their speed based on the current condition, which would be done by a control script. Thing is, you cannot always change an animation on the fly so he used the CrossFade() function to blend the two animation clips together.

This chapter is so useful, that if you are going to buy any Unity book before you create your super-awesome 3D project, I’d buy it for this chapter. You’re most likely going to have some kind of character, and with this chapter, you’ll know exactly how to make you character more realistic than ever.

Chapter Five

We all like rockets in 3D games; it just adds the extra flare and fun to the game. Thing is, there are many things that need to be taken into consideration when adding a rocket into your game. Throughout this entire chapter, Jate will teach you how to set up your character for the rocket launcher, making sure movement is stopped in the character, creating the animations, creating the scope target, making the rocket launcher do its thing, and lastly making an object for the rocket launcher.

Sure, it might just be a few particles and a 3D model of a gun and a character, but in order to control everything and make sure the rocket is fired at the right time is a bit complicated.

All in all, chapter five is one big chapter achieving one solid concept, firing a rocket.

Chapter Six

Artificial intelligence is one extremely rough concept in any kind of game. For most games, using any kind of random function will help mimic artificial intelligence.

To keep things a bit short, this chapter is quite the chapter in terms of learning. Designing any kind of AI is quite tough, but Jate did one heck of a job with this random-based AI

Also, one intelligent think Jate did is create a Jump() function to make sure the enemy will jump when it hits a wall. So essentially, you will create a waypoint for the enemy to travel, whether in order or random, make the enemy follow the path, and if the enemy hits a wall, make the enemy jump. And of course if it comes near the character, start to shoot at it!

Quite a simple concept that really does not use any advanced concepts. And the author even combines some already created scripts together to control the movement of the enemy.

Chapter Seven

This chapter is one of my favorite chapters as it deals with optimizing scripts for ultimate performance and a bit more. Instead of creating one huge capsule around the capsule, it would make sense to create a ray cast (picture it as a line below the character) to check if the character hit something, in this case, the enemy hitting a wall.

As the capsule was being generated on every frame when the AI was walking, it was lowing the FPS quite a bit. Generating a ray cast saves a ton of processing power, which Jate clearly wrote about. Jate also spoke about a bit on Unity Pro’s profiler, which can be used to check how much processing power and resources everything takes.

Not only is optimization a key part of this chapter, there is also an added section about replacing the character’s mesh with a ragdoll prefab, so when the AI/player dies, its body will conform to the ground. And then he even adds in some extra things like making a wall destructible and also making an object, like a wall dynamically break by a trigger action.

Along with chapter four, chapter seven is also one of those chapters I would buy this book for. Knowing why your game is slowing down is critical to every game developer.

Chapter Eight

There is so much discussed in chapter eight, that it might be difficult to review this chapter. But anyways, I’ll try my best!

Chapter eight merges into a whole different subject, creating a high score menu and sending and loading the high scores. As this chapter deals with the internet, you get a slight break from the 3D world and learning how to implement a fully working high score system in your game.

Just a really nice added chapter that is really needed for any 3D game… like you can believe, there is a good portion of code in this chapter to connect with the server in all kinds of ways.

Overall

I really enjoyed reviewing Unity 3 Game Development Hotshot. However, I have to say, this is one of larger Packt book reviews I have ever written; it did take me a good portion of time to write this entire review as there is just so much in Unity 3 Game Development Hotshot.

This is, by far, the best Unity book I have ever read. As Jate is very intelligent in Unity programming, you will learn a ton from this one single Unity book. Even though it is 360 pages, this book packs a punch for how much info you’ll get out of it. Every page you read in this book keeps you connected and almost wants you to stop reading and try it for yourself!

As this is Jate’s first Packt book, I really do look forward to reading any oncoming Unity books of his. Although I do feel that I should mention that some of the grammar throughout the book, especially in his code comments, is a bit off. I am not sure if it’s just a programmer getting lazy, or just bad grammar:

//For toggle the open and close our menu window

Despite some of the grammatical errors in the comments, the overall book is written very professionally. Unity 3 Game Development Hotshot is not a beginner’s book (which is what is mentioned in the book and on Packt’s website), so please make sure you know the ins and outs of Unity first.

With all of that said, Unity 3 Game Development Hotshot is the book for you if you’re looking for a very informational Unity book that builds upon the basic skills that you already know in Unity. There is quite a bit talked about in this book and for the money, this Unity book is very much worth it.

With all of the hype being generated about SOPA and PIPA, Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, there have been a ton of huge outbursts with many of the major companies (both positive and negative).

One of the world’s leading internet browsers, Firefox, are about to change the whole debate and flip it over once again, positively of course. According to their recent press release one of Mozilla’s press partners have sent us, they plan on redirecting their main Mozilla.com/org pages for twelve hours to protest SOPA and PIPA, but not only are they redirecting one of the most hit websites in the world, they are also changing the default look of the Firefox startup page for tens of millions to see that SOPA and PIPA are just out right wrong.

View their full press release below:

In support of the virtual strike to protest Protect IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), Mozilla will be doing two things:

Mozilla is redirecting traffic from the main Mozilla.org and Mozilla.com English websites to an action page for 12 hours on Wednesday, January 18th from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm US Eastern Time.

Mozilla is also changing the look of the default Firefox start page so that the tens of millions of Firefox users will see a black page with a call to action message to increase awareness of PIPA/SOPA, rather than the traditional white page with the Firefox logo. (The search functionality will in no way be altered by this action.) We hope the blackout of our US sites will help bring attention to this important issue and encourage users to educate themselves about PIPA and SOPA. All users will still be able to receive security updates and access our technical support website. This will NOT affect Firefox users.

The Mozilla project is a global community of people who believe that openness, innovation, and opportunity are key to the continued health of the Internet. These new laws would give the US government and private business incredible censorship powers that would have effects globally, damage the Internet’s security and discourage innovation and investment worldwide.

Monica Caires | Senior Account Executive
Allison+Partners
505 Sansome 7th Floor | San Francisco, CA 94111
www.allisonpr.com
Facebook: Allison+Partners | Twitter: @AllisonPR | YouTube: apwest
Blogs: http://allisonandpartners.wordpress.com | http://www.naked-culture.com/
Personal Twitter @MonCaires

We are really hoping other major companies, just like Mozilla, will come out of that cave and defend against these awful laws. I can just picture how much hype the new Firefox default launch page will create; it is going to be massive.

What are your thoughts on SOPA and PIPA? As for us, like many, we are defending against it because we’re in the land of the free, home of the brave! I would do anything to protect my rights and privacy.

If you have been in school in the last couple of years, there is most likely a huge chance you have used the popular e-learning CMS program called Moodle. With the help of Packt Publishing, who is notorious from writing about open source projects like Moodle, they have taken it to the next level.

With their brand new release of Moodle 2 Administration not too long ago, Packt has now decided to offer a series of discounts towards their Moodle book collection.

• Buy any Moodle print book and get 20% off
• Buy any Moodle eBook and get 30% off

Overview of Unity 3.x Game Development by Example Beginner’s Guide

• Build fun games using the free Unity game engine even if you’ve never coded before

• Learn how to “skin” projects to make totally different games from the same file – more games, less effort!

• Packed with ideas, inspiration, and advice for your own game design and development

Read more about this book and download free Sample Chapter.

Overview of Unity 3 Game Development Hotshot

• Cool, fun, advanced aspects of Unity Game Development, from creating a rocket launcher to building your own destructible game world

• Full of coding samples, diagrams, tips and tricks to keep your code organized, and completed art assets with clear step-by-step examples and instruction

• Elite Unity programming for those looking to take their skills to the next level

Want to get yourself delved right into the 3D gaming world but never had the knowledge to do so? With Packt Publishing’s recent release, Unity 3.x Game Development by Example Beginner’s Guide by Ryan Creighton, it is a great read if you wish to get started in the Unity world.

If you have been following our reviews for quite sometime, you might of realized this is very similar to our previous Unity review we put out not too long ago. To keep the explanation simple, Unity 3.x Game Development by Example Beginner’s Guide is an updated book especially for Unity 3.x. Not everything is all the same (like the writing), but the main parts of the book are very much the same, except edited for Unity 3.x. Some new topics have been added as well, so keep a watch out for that in the review!

Before I start the full on review, I have to give my gracious apologies to Packt on this one. I have always been very adept in reviewing their books, but this review took some more time as I have been bombarded with work for the past two months. Working on school work, physical work, and even client work is extremely hard to manage and when you throw all my other work into it (like writing for Tech Cores), it’s near impossible to find the time. I should of planned this review better… so to Packt, sorry! I love you guys and never meant for this review to take so long.

Enough jibber-jabbin’, let’s just get on to the full review!

What You’ll Get

Unity 3.x Game Development by Example Beginner’s Guide has the similar outline compared to the previous version of the book, in fact, it’s so similar you might as well base the outline on the previous version of the book as well. But to give you a general run down, a basic outline is below on what you’ll get:

• Learning the basics of Unity 3D
• Possibilities of Unity 3D
• Understand the essentials of 3D in Unity
• Taking the built in physics engine to good use
• Adding some sweet sound effects
• Coding in JavaScript for Unity Scripts
• Advanced topics like quaternions, mipmapping, and prefrabs

Introducing Unity 3D

For all of Packt’s books on beginner’s guides, the author always seems to introduce the topic in a very broad way. In Unity 3.x Game Development by Example Beginner’s Guide written by Ryan Creighton, Ryan does an amazing job getting the reader understanding the main essentials of Unity all in the first chapter.

Just like in his previous Unity book, he introduced what has been done with Unity 3D before. As we all Unity developers know, there have been some amazing games developed using Unity, especially on the iOS platform.

Not only does Ryan introduce what can be done with Unity, he also describes what is feasible for a single developer (trust me, I’ve taken on near impossible tasks). As many of the projects he describes have over fifty developers dedicated to that one game, he states what is possible. But as reading Ryan’s previous books, I know he likes to go the extra mile; he even gives recommendations on how to take a game you like that might take a year to develop yourself, and turn it into a nice mini-game that could take a month.

Unlike some other books I have read before on Unity, Ryan does not overwhelm you with introducing all of the features of the Unity interface in the first few chapters. Instead, he takes the “slow but steady” approach and disperses it throughout the book. This method is quite ideal for beginning Unity developers as you’re not bombarded with a ton of information at the start of the book. In fact, Ryan does not even cover the 3D elements of Unity fully until the eighth chapter (there are a total of twelve chapters).

Examples are the Key

As most developers learn by example, having all kinds of examples in an Unity book is the key for success. A total of four games and three main concepts make up the main examples of Unity 3.x Game Development by Example Beginner’s Guide. And as this book is updated for the latest version of Unity, Ryan also decided to add in an extra game from his previous Unity book. So in other words, you are getting a ton of examples in this book.

Ryan covers quite a bit within these examples, but I’ll just list out the main concepts of each:

Ticker Taker (game) – a varient of the keep-up games

• Learning on how to come up with a practical game idea
• Adjusting the default lighting
• Enabling the physics engine and adjusting its settings
• Using the Unity interface to adjust key settings

Robot Repair (game) – a type of matching game

• Understanding the built in GUI tools in Unity
• Adding images and buttons to the game
• Using title scenes and connecting them with the main game
• Learning on how to use arrays the Unity way

Clock/timer (element) – many simple count-down timers

• How to create a simple text clock
• Upgrading that boring text clock to a progress bar
• And taking that progress bar to a flash pie clock

The break-up (game) – very unique, more of a concept

• Using animations from 3D models
• Making flashy particle effects
• Writing prefabs to use over and over again
• Learning how to write Unity scripts to control multiple objects
• Showing things dynamically on the screen

Shoot the Moon (game) – like space invaders but in 3D

• Using all of the concepts from the previous games and taking them in one simple game
• Displaying multiple cameras
• Changing prefabs to dynamically use different models
• Applying a custom mesh collider
• Skinning a different game into an entirely different one

Yes, I know, there are a ton of things covered in a beginners book, but please don’t let that scare you. With Ryan’s funny writing style (the beginning of the book is really funny – take a read of a sample chapter!), it makes Unity 3.x Game Development by Example Beginner’s Guide a smooth but informational read.

I can’t say this enough, but Ryan did one heck of a job taking all kinds of different topics and putting them in an updated book. From the structure of the book all the way to explaining how the code works, everything will be covered eventually. Sometimes, the next part of the chapter will be later discussed in the book as Ryan added in additional chapters to help you get the more advanced parts in an easy manner. The entire flow of the book just feels right and is extremely easily to follow along with.

Parallels are known for two main things: their high-end server software and their streamline consumer virtualization software. With their current release of Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac announced on September 6th, 2011, we had to get in on the fun.

Our thanks goes to Parallels for making this review possible! We hope you enjoy the full blown review on Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac!

Practical Uses

Virtualization software is there for a reason, but there are tons of practical uses that you can use Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac for! Some good uses (for both high-end techie and casual users) are below:

• Gaming – if you have a fast enough machine, you can play some Call of Duty right in your Windows virtual machine! Try it; it’s not as bad as you may think!
• Productivity – probably the most common use for using virtualization. Let’s say your using Windows software that has no Mac counterparts and you need to use that software, but you need to use OS X at the same time. Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac can fix this issue!
• Development – because I am in fact a developer, this is personally my biggest use of a virtual machine. I have a Debian server installed on Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac and I use it for all kinds of server development. It’s the best way to develop in my opinion. I also have a few pieces of development software that only work on Windows that I need to use.
• For fun! – this one was kind of a given, but who doesn’t want to have Google Chrome OS running as a virtual machine? Of course you want to be that cool guy on the block with Google Chrome OS running full screen on your Mac!

Operating Systems Supported

The most common operating system used with Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac would most likely be Windows. Let’s face it, most Mac OS X users want to stay in their Mac-friendly environment. It’s the main reason why virtualization is very popular among Mac users.

Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac supports all kinds of operating systems. In fact, you can basically install any operating system you can think of! Let’s list out a few below:

• Windows 7, XP
• OS X Lion
• Google Chrome OS
• Fedora
• Ubuntu

That’s only a few of the many supported  uses of Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac! In fact, Parallels just released an update recently (at the time of this writing) for Windows 8 Developer Preview support; they’re really working hard on making Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac awesome.

Not only does Parallels make it so easy to install any OS you like, you can even buy Windows 7 right in the main wizard via their convenience store! This feature is just great for the ones who need Windows but do not want to go out and buy it in the stores.

Installing Operating Systems

Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac makes it very easy to install some of the main operating systems like Ubuntu and Windows. During the set up process, it will do all sorts of things for you automatically:

• Download the operating system if necessary or asking you to select the install source
• Waiting for any product key if needed (Windows!)
• How you want your programs to work
• Customizing it to fit you

For Windows and other operating systems, Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac will actually do everything for you without you needing to press any buttons. So when you need to install Windows, you don’t need to select a partition to install on or enter user info. All of that can be handled with Parallels.

Parallels just makes everything seamless for you, including installing their own Parallels Tools software which makes the integration with the operating system and Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac more seamless.

Migration

The migration feature is what really makes Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac amazing. Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac comes with tools to help you take your current Windows machine, no matter what you have it installed on, and transfer that data to a virtual machine.

Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac has some amazing migration features. During the process of setting up your Windows virtual machine, you can select the “Migrate Windows from a PC” in the Parallels Wizard and use their three migration features:

• Parallels USB cable: This feature is sadly not free, as you need to buy the USB cable, but essentially, it is a cable that you plug in the computer with Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac installed and into your Windows computer.
• Network: The networking migration feature is simply letting Parallels connect to your PC via your network. It is by far the slowest method, as the other two are “direct” links, but it shouldn’t be too slow on one of ‘em fancy N-based routers!
• External Storage Device: if you want to go the easy way, Parallels makes a software called the Parallels Transporter Agent that can copy the data from your Windows PC to and external medium that Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac can read.

Boot Camp

Boot Camp has been such an acclaimed feature ever since it was released back in 2006 with the very first Intel Macs. Since then, Boot Camp has came a long way and with that, so has virtualization.

Parallels has realized the some Mac owners may have a Boot Camp install of Windows on their computer. What Parallels has done is added support to make Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac read your Boot Camp partition (and fully write to it even though NTFS isn’t capable of writing on stock Mac OS X – no idea how the developers solved that issue) and convert it into a fully working virtual machine!

I never had the need to have Windows installed on my computer natively up until doing this review. As I had to test the feature, I grabbed my Windows 7 disc, popped it in, and installed Windows 7 right onto my massive 1TB hard drive.  I then immediately went back into OS X, and  Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac detected the Boot Camp partition and gave me the option to run it as a virtual machine.

I waited for the set up process to complete and was prompted with this dialog that I had to reactivate Windows. It is unfortunant that this needs to be done (as Windows really doesn’t allow for too many activations), but I know this is entirely Microsoft’s fault. So I won’t dock off any points on Parallels parts for this issue. Microsoft: you need to be more like Apple; licensing an operating system is awful!

Either way, the Boot Camp virtual machine ran exactly how I had it before. It only needed to install Parallels Tools during the process, and after that, everything was working great!

Parallels really made it easy to make Boot Camp work fully in Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac!

Free Perks

Not only do you get killer virtual machine software, Parallels even offers you three free perks with your virtual machines!

• Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Mac: Kaspersky offers some great anti-virus software that is extremely simple to use. Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac will give you three months free and after the complementary period, you will need to pay for it. Either way, great way to try out some virus software on the Mac, even though I wouldn’t find myself using it.
• Kaspersky Internet Security for Windows: Just like the Mac version of Kaspersky that Parallels provides, they also provide the Windows version for your virtual machines. Just to note, Kaspersky is my second favorite virus software on Windows; my first is NOD32 if you are wondering.
• Acronis Online Backup: Something that I was not expecting in Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac, but they give you 25GBs for Acronis True Image Online Backup for three months like Kaspersky.

User Interface

Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac has a ton of software running in the background to have your virtual machine up and running, but with all of these features you can change, there has to be a clean and easy to use interface. Thankfully, Mac OS X has some amazing user interface tools to make sure your application will look the best.

When you fire up any virtual machine, it looks almost like a normal window, but with a toolbar at the bottom. This toolbar will be the main breading ground for changing your virtual machine as you see fit.

On the left side of the toolbar, you can do anything in terms of the power state to your virtual machine. You can suspend the virtual macine (saves the state of the virtual machine to the hard drive and closes it down, and of course, shut it down. You can even pause the virtual machine or even stop it. I wouldn’t recommend stopping it, as that’s just like holding down the power button for ten seconds (okay, not exactly, but close).

On the right hand side, you can do all all sorts of things.

• Send all sorts of keyboard commands - makes it easier on the Mac users as some keyboard shortcuts are difficult
• Connect your USB devices to the virtual machine - ever wanted to connect your flash drive to your VM? You can do it!
• Mount any CDs/DVDs you may have or even images - want to install a piece of software? Just pop it in!
• Tell the virtual machine what kind of network you have - very helpful to give your VM its own IP on your network
• Mount floppy images – I like the feature, but who would use it?
• Edit audio settings - allows you to change the input and output sources.
• See what virtual/physical hard drive is connected - I wonder if you could connect more than one physical hard drive to a VM. Can’t test this one…
• Configure sharing – makes it very easy to give your virtual machine access to Mac OS X
• And seeing if Parallels Tools is installed along with the view mode (which we’ll get to soon)

Viewing Modes

Sometimes you may not want your virtual machine in a window (like in the image above). Sometimes, you may want it to be part of Mac OS X itself. Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac offers four main viewing modes that are all useful:

• Windowed: The default view you see when you first start your virtual machine. This mode is quite simply your virtual machine in a window with the toolbar underneath.
• Modality: Simply put, it’s a mode without the toolbar but with an extra feature. The unique feature of this mode is the window will always be above all of your other windows (so you can always see it). If you had the extra screen space and would like to just keep a watch on your virtual machine at all times, you would use this mode. You would use this for if you were waiting for a long task to complete or something like that.
• Full Screen: Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac takes advantage of Mac OS X Lion’s full screen features. To simply make your virtual machine full screen, you can either enter it using a menu item or even the full screen button (the two arrows pointing outwards) in the upper right. This is now a standard of Lion to have the full screen feature like this.
• Coherence: Now this is where the fun begins! This mode will take your desktop and integrate it right into Mac OS X. If you want to open a window, it will add that window right onto your desktop and add it in your dock.

Peripherals

Connecting your external devices, or peripherals, have always been somewhat of a problem for virtual machines. In Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac, it changes everything and makes it a breeze. Every time you plug in a new device to your computer (as long as you di not make Parallels remember the choice), Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac will prompt you for a very user friendly dialog asking what the device should connect to.

In the image on the left, I connected my external hard drive and Parallels detected that I connected it. I can switch between my (native) Mac and my virtual Mac VM. And if I want, I can even tell it to remember what choice I picked so it will never ask again by simply holding down the option/alt key.

This one feature in Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac just made it awesome. I use virtual machines quite a bit on a daily basis, and sometimes, I really need a storage device connected directly into the virtual machine. It’s extremely helpful for me and I am sure it will be for you if you need external devices connected into a virtual machine.

MacLook

For the ones who are just too used to Mac OS X, and really do not want to look at the Windows interface, Parallels has created MacLook that takes care of this problem. MacLook simply applies a theme to Windows XP, Vista, or 7 and makes it look somewhat like Mac OS X.

To be quite honest, I personally did not like it. The bottom edges of every window are not rounded, which makes the window looks very bad (roundness adds a ton of eye-candy), and it just didn’t fit all too well in my opinion.

Support

Just a simple bit of Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac that I thought I would note, but Parallels did a great job with integrating support right into the software. They have added in this nicely styled report screen that drops right from the top of your virtual machine window that will take care of any reports you may have.

Personally, I have worked with software before where something like this was non-existent, and made it very hard to find where I was to submit bugs. I really love it when developers take the time to add this in; Apple is also notorious of adding dialogs like this.

On the flip side, if you do need to speak with support regarding a problem you may have (granted that you want feedback), Parallels has given you a nice support ticketing system built right in the software. This handles all the frustration of the support team at Parallels not seeing all your previous support tickets regarding yourself; I love it when companies build a system like this. You give them one simple number and they can see everything on your account. Saves time and makes suport an ease!

Customizability

Users love customizability. Fortunately, in any virtual machine, there are a ton of settings you can tweak for your benefit. You can tweak the settings of the software itself or even the settings used to run the virtual machine.  Parallels has done a great job providing its users with a ton of settings for the ultimate customizability.

There are plenty of things you can change in the main settings window of Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac, but let’s just list out some of the major ones:

• Changing the virtual machine folder location
• Altering the many keyboard shortcuts used throughout the program
• Tell the virtual machine what should happen when you plug in an USB device
• Connecting Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac with your mobile Apple device (more on this later)
• And some advanced settings that most people will rarely touch

Virtual Machine Customization

You do not only get a ton of settings to change how the application works, you can of couse change how the software interacts with your virtual machine. Some of the key settings to the performance of your virtual machine are lying right in here.

Update Maintainability

With a software that has to work with the latest and greatest operating systems, having it constantly updated is a must. Parallels has done a great job keeping Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac updated. In fact, during the reviewing process, they pushed out a very important update to Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac:

• Windows 8 Developer Preview (a new Windows 8 installation is recommended after updating Parallels Desktop 7) and other versions of Windows
• The Parallels Desktop 7 New Virtual Machine Wizard (select File, New) makes it easy to install new operating systems in just a few clicks including: Windows 7, OS X Lion as a guest, Google Chrome OS, Fedora, Ubuntu

This update also improves the general performance of Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac, including optimized CPU usage when Parallels Desktop 7 is idle, improved compatibility with Quicken 2011 personal finance software, and improved support for Autodesk 3DS Max 2012 3D modeling software.

They’re not only helping to support the new operating systems like Widows 8, but they are also improving support for specific software like 3DS Max. If Parallels puts that much effort to help improve a specific application, I am sure Parallels will have any updates released if there any problems. Now that’s what I call support! A++ on your part Parallels!

Parallels Mobile

Have you ever wanted to access your virtual machine when you are on the go? I know I have! Parallels has came up with a great solution to solve this issue. No longer do you need to set up a special VNC connection to your computer or do something to make it remotely accessible. Now, all you need to do is install Parallels Mobile and connect it with your computer.

As long as your computer is power up, you can access it from anywhere as long as you have access to the internet (whether that is via 3G or WiFi; you choose). This is one huge advantage. No longer do you need to go through your ISP to access your computer (like with a VNC), instead, you can access your computer through the servers of Parallels keeping your computer safe and secure.

So go ahead and fire up that virtual machine remotely! And if you want, you can even access your entire Mac remotely which is sweet!

Hey, Nothing is Perfect

Now I have to say, Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac is nearly perfect, but there are some flaws/annoyances that I have found that I think should be fixed.

• First up on my list would be scrolling in Parallels Mobile. It would be sweet if I took two fingers and dragged it up and down on a scrollable window, it would scroll with me. Just saying, that would be a nice addition.
• One very minor flaw I noticed, which is more of a Windows bug more than anything else, is when you adjust the resolution/window size of a virtual machine, the icons will move around correctly when sizing it down. But when sizing it up, they kind of stick there. I would really like some sort of anchoring system for my icons to tell to have these icons in the top left but these in the bottom left. I really wish Windows could detect the anchoring system automatically that the user creates. Come on you developers; if you give me access to the Explorer.exe code I’ll add it in for you!
• Now this may be asking a lot, but I’m wondering if it would be possible to view the status of a virtual machine (almost like the top application on UNIX) in an organized window. I’m the type of person who likes to have one screen filled with just top windows as I like to keep track of my servers. It would be great if I could have a screen for my virtual machine(s) as well. Almost like an Activity Monitor but explicitly for virtual machines.
• I would appreciate it if Parallels allowed me to set up a Linux server in one click. It would be sweet if it could install Apache/Nginx, MySQL, PHP, and maybe even Pyton on a Debian VM… maybe I can keep on dreaming. But it would help a ton for the web developers out there like myself!

Performance

I know you were asking for this, so I am sure you are wondering how fast Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac really is. The above picture is a GeekBench comparison between the popular VMWare Fusion (version 3) and of course Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac.

The results? Well, let’s just say Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac kicks VMWare Fusion right out the door. And I’ll be honest, I thought VMWare Fusion would be faster. VMWare has been out there for a long time in the virtualization world, so I would of thought they would have faster technology. But it looks like Parallels caught up really quickly! Watch out VMWare; you have one amazing competitor now!

That’s really impressie for Parallels. And yes, I know, those scores are really fast. Let’s just say I love my MacBook Pro 15″ i7 @ 2.0GHz.

Overall

I do not say this often, but Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac is by far one of the best applications I have ever used. Everything is very seamlessly integrated with the entire virtual machine environment. Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac offers so many features but yet it is so fast! With all of the new features in Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac, the support the Parallels team puts into it, and with all of the customizability options, I have to say that Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac is by far the best virtualization software I have used.

If you are looking for a high-class virtualization software for the Mac, look no further as Parallels has your back. You can try Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac for fourteen day, and if you like it as much as I do, I am sure you would be more than willing to spend the mere $79.99 it costs, which is nothing for a high-end software like this. I wish all of my high-end software was only $80… I would even be willing to spend $120 for Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac, it’s just that good!

Now if you still don’t believe me on how awesome Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac is, let’s just say it even earned the right to a permanent spot on my dock; I only put high-end and nicely crafted applications there.

Thanks again to the team over at Parallels for making this review possible!

If you want to take a look more in Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac, check out their product page below:

http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/

The entire point of Focus is very simply; all you have is a clean interface to add all kinds of blurring to your photo, which in the long run, makes whatever you’re targeting stand out more than ever.

It’s an interesting concept that I’ve never seen a dedicated app for. With that said, let’s dive right into the full review of Focus by Coppertino!

Interface

Without a doubt, the interface of any program is always important, even if it has a ton of features. Granted that Focus is a Mac-only application, Coppertino has done a great job utilizing all of the features that Apple provides its developers.

When you start up the program, Focus will ask you to simply drag and drop one of your images onto the program. One downside is that you cannot open dialog to navigate to your image. Sometimes I personally hate to open another Finder window and would like to use the open dialog instead built into the program.

At the bottom of the window, you have your main features of the program, place, the five blur modes (portrait, nature, architecture, macro, and tilt & shit), and the share button to deliver your images out to your friends and family.

Blurring Modes

As covered briefly above, there are five blurring modes. All five modes are named somewhat generically as they can be used for other reasons as well, but for the most part, they are named in a way that will suit most uses.

Let’s list all of the five blurring modes below while describing what they do and their normal uses:

• Portrait: This mode would ideally be used the give a very smooth blur in the background while showing off an objet  that’s the closest to the camera lens. Think of a picture of yourself… hence where the name came from.
• Nature: This is quite simply blurring something off in a horizontal direction. If you have a batch of flowers in a horizontal fashion, you can focus on the flowers and not the background.
• Architecture: This mode is made for, you said it, the tall man-made creations that live in our city: skyscrapers! Of course, there are plenty of others ways to use this, but it’s just like nature, but instead, it’s blurring vertically instead of horizontally.
• Macro: We all know what macro is, but sometimes, your photos don’t always turn out the way you would like in terms of blur. If you need a little extra blur on one of your macro shots, use the macro mode for additonal blur.

Editing

For every one of the five blurring modes, the sidebar/toolbar on the right will slide in with an aperture slider along with reset buttons to reset both the focus and the aperture to the default settings.

This simple sidebar is very useful in term of editing. The default aperture values seemed a bit high (the higher the aperture, the more you will see the blur and vice versa), so I lowered the blur to around 30% and it made most of the photos look fabulous.

I would really like to see some more settings available in this sidebar though. It would be nice to add some of the main features of Aperture (the photo editing software made by Apple) like the brightness, saturation, along with other features.

I can see Focus turning into a mini photo editing suite; it only offers blurring modes right now, but I would really love to see more features added into Focus.

Support

If you’re going to have any type of photo editing software, it should support all kinds of formats. Luckily, Focus supports all of the major formats so you will not have any problems getting your photos edited.

Focus supports all the main photo image formats like JPG, PNG, and even PSD for it’s import features. So far, Focus will only export as JPG with default quality settings, but Coppertino is planning on changing that to support TIFF and PNG export.

Sharing

After spending a good amount of time creating the photo of your dreams, you of course want to share that image with your family, friends, or maybe even your Twitter followers.

Focus gives you immediate access to save the photo to your hard drive, iPhoto library, or even to e-mail the photo.

But Coppertino didn’t decide to stop there. Just like the sharing features in Wallpaper Wizard, Focus will allow you to upload your photo to Coppertino’s servers at no cost to you and share the link with the rest of your friends. So for example, take a look at this image: http://focus.to/DdoWk

I really love that there is a special domain (focus.to) made only for your shared images. Now that’s exactly what I want in a photo editing software!

Some Slight Issues

(Will update as bugs are fixed.)

Nothing can ever be perfect, and I understand that. I have noticed some slight issues with Focus that have been brought to my attention during the reviewing stage.

The first slight issue that I have noticed was Focus was a bit sluggish. I noticed at first that the CPU usage was exceptionally high and wondered if it was even taking advantage of this very powerful 2011 15″ MacBook Pro. I contacted the developer, Ivan, on this one and he was aware of the error and fixed it promptly.

Now in the new update (all of this happened during the reviewing process), I noticed that Focus locks up quite a bit and becomes very sluggish (and even using quite a bit of memory as well). I contacted Ivan about the issue and he is also aware of it and an update will be available around a week of the original posting of this review.

Overall

I really have to say I love how simple and easy to use Focus is to use. It’s extremely simply to take one of your camera phone’s pictures and turn it into something that looks to be taken with a high-end DSLR camera. Focus supports all kinds of image formats making it useful for anyone with different skill-sets of photography along with its easy to use interface.

Overall, I really enjoyed reviewing Focus by Coppertino despite some of the bugs I have encountered. The developer of Focus is very active and prompt to his work, so I’m sure Focus will be getting updates to make it perfectly stable along with more features.

If you would like to check out the Focus product site, please click on the link below:

http://coppertino.com/focus/

And if you would like direct access to get Focus on the Mac App Store, check out the link below:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/focus/id432599692?ls=1&mt=12

During Facebook’s F8 speech on September 22 in San Francisco, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a new Facebook feature, the Timeline. Mark stated that the timeline will basically be a part of all 800 million user’s life scrapbooking their content throughout the day they were born and the current day.

Mark also stated what he thinks of the Timeline:

We wanted to make Timeline a place that you could feel proud to call your home. -Mark Zuckerberg

Not only did Mark address the new features, but F8 was also for the web-developers out there. During the conference, Mark mentioned of some of your favorite applications and services like Nike+ that will connect into the Timeline using their next version of Open Graph.

We’re going to connect all of those different graphs together to form the Open Graph, and when we connect all of those graphs together, the Web is going to get a whole lot better. -Mark Zuckerberg

Now I know what you’re thinking, how do I get it before release? Well, it’s very simple! Just do the following to make yourself a developer on Facebook and activate the new Timeline feature. Please note though, only developers will be able to see your new Timeline once you make it live.

• Enable developer mode. To do this, search for “developer” in the Facebook search box at the top, click the first result, and add the app into your account.
• Go to the app if you aren’t there. To get there, just go to the following line: https://developers.facebook.com/apps
• Create a new application. No, you really won’t be using this nor will anyone else will see it. Just fill out the app name, display name, and namespace that works for you. I probably wouldn’t write anything bad in there though…
• Do the legal stuff! Go ahead and agree to the Platform Privacy agreement to get your app verified by Facebook.
• Visit the apps settings page. Your app’s name should be near the top of the page.
• Enable Open Graph. Look for the Open Graph header and click on the “Get Started using open graph” text.
• Create the action and object. I’d just go for “play” a “game” or something like that…
• Save it out. You’re almost there! Just go ahead and save the object.
• Wait about 2-3 minutes. Now you simply need to wait for Facebook to recognize your account as an Open Graph developer…
• Click on your invite! You’ll see an invite on the main Facebook homepage (all of your walls of your friends…). Don’t be shy, accept it!

As that was nearly a year ago, I thought we should review another jQuery book from Packt Publishing. With the recent release of jQuery 1.4 Animation Techniques: Beginners Guide, the wonderful people over at Packt were more than happy to send out a book for a review!

With that said, let’s get right into the full blown review of jQuery 1.4 Animation Techniques: Beginners Guide! This was quite a hefty book (with 344 pages), so I’ll try to make this review a good wrap-up of the book.

My Experience with jQuery

I’ve been a web developer for just about nine years. Yes, I know, it’s hard to believe it… I even laugh at it sometimes. I first started working on web technologies back in 2002 creating extremely simple websites. Those websites then dived into CSS shortly after, and then I started working on server applications shortly after mastering CSS and HTML. Then not too long after that, I realized I haven’t picked up JavaScript at the time, so like you may assume, I started fiddling around with JavaScript. I picked up the popular client-side scripting language faster than anything else before.

After four years and much more knowledge about web technologies, jQuery was finally released. I didn’t pick up jQuery immediately, as I didn’t even know about it at first, but it didn’t take me long until I started to dabble with jQuery.

I started messing with jQuery just learning how it works and the workings of it. I learned a ton about jQuery, but the biggest problem was, I didn’t want to use it. Computers at the time ran JavaScript not all too quickly (we’re really spoiled with the V8 JS Engine nowadays), so I rarely used any JavaScript at the time. Up until about late 2008, after Chrome was released, JavaScript performance skyrocketed. I dived right back into JavaScript and been using it ever since.

With all of that previous experience out of the way, I’ve been working with jQuery for a long time, and quite honestly, I could never go back to any other framework.

What the Book Covers

jQuery 1.4 Animation Techniques really covers a ton of animation content that you could possibly ever need when creating a website. Just to get you familiar of what’s covered, here’s a create list of some of the significant topics:

• How animation can be used and when best to apply it
• Creating your very own loader (you know, those pinwheels?)
• The many types of fading provided by jQuery
• Working with animations while and after running
• Sliding animations with easing
• Creating one-of-a-kind animations
• Using jQuery UI to extend jQuery’s animations
• Page navigation/scroll with animations
• Pop-up type animations
• Using CSS3 animations to your advantage
• Using the canvas API for speedy rendering
• Graceful degradion when using animations
• Optimizations needed to achieve the best speed

Wow, This Book is Awesome!

I don’t call every book I read awesome, but jQuery 1.4 Animation Techniques really deserves the title! From the very start of the book, everything is finalized extremely nicely. As the book starts of with an introduction to jQuery  animation and some tips on when and not to use it, it makes it a chapter that’s not only an easy read, but also providing a ton of useful information about when and not to use animations.

One other thing that I really liked about jQuery 1.4 Animation Techniques has to all of the pop-quizzes in the chapters. It’s for sure no graded assessment, but it’s very useful just to read them through, get the questions right, and prove to yourself that you really are that jQuery master that you thought you were.

Not only does jQuery 1.4 Animation Techniques provide a ton of information like animating table cells, drop downs, and tons of other elements, Dan has done an excellant job of making sure all of the code is optimized to the fastest code possible. JavaScript can kill an internet browser if not optimized, and because jQuery does rely on the programmer having an understanding of good programming ethics in order for it to run at full potential, knowing the right and wrong ways of doing something is more than enough to the begineer jQuery programmers who pick up this book. In fact, one thing Dan does mention is the PNG transparency issues in the older versions of Internet Explorer and many fixes/workarounds for getting rid of them once and for all, or at least, making it better than before. Not related to animation at all, but can affect your animation a ton if your transparent PNG isn’t looking too good in IE.

Another big plus about jQuery 1.4 Animation Techniques is that all of the code within all the chapters is backed up on full commentary. Dan does one fantastic job of explaining the code being on what makes it work, and sometimes, the explanations can be two or even three pages long! To have that much detail in your explanations really make this book one to pick up if you want to learn some jQuery animation techniques.

Towards the end of the book, Dan has a single chapter on CSS3 animations and even the canvas API. Personally, I was never expecting for CSS3 animations to be covered, let alone the canvas API in HTML5; he really went the extra mile to inform the reader on how other animations can be used along with jQuery animation.

Just Some Slight Issues

There’s really not too much wrong with jQuery 1.4 Animation Techniques, but I really feel I should mention what I have found. During some parts of the book, I noticed seeing some code that was “misaligned” and not “properly” formatted. Basically, some of the code was tabbed in too far or not enough, making the code look somewhat messy in some spots.

Another smaller detail I noticed were some spelling issues. I noticed that an IE (AKA, Internet Explorer) abbreviation was spelled wrong, and made the entire sentence sound funny if you did not know what was supposed to be there.

Overview

All in all, I was extremely impressed with jQuery 1.4 Animation Techniques. Dan covered a ton of information in yet another jQuery book, and I have to say, I really enjoyed all of the content that was provided. Everything was very relevant to jQuery animation and all techniques were being built upon throughout the entire book.

The only thing I could possibly take off a few points would be for the editing errors throughout the book. There were numerous errors I found while reviewing and they easily could of been avoided with just a bit more proofreading.

If you would like to check out jQuery 1.4 Animation Techniques, please check out the link below to Packt’s website:

http://www.packtpub.com/jquery-14-animation-techniques-beginners-guide/book

Way back in April of 2010, we published a text review of ScreenFlow v2 as we knew we just had to review one of the best screen recording software for the Mac. Now, a little more than a year after our initial review, Telestream has done it again with their latest ScreenFlow version, version three.

Now that ScreenFlow v3 has been out the public for around a week now, we just had to get out full review published as we at Tech Cores really appreciate ScreenFlow for all that it can do.

The last review we put out just wasn’t enough because in a text review, we couldn’t target all of the amazing features of ScreenFlow. Instead, we now present you with a feature-length (no kiddin’! ) video review of ScreenFlow v3!

Anyways, we hope you’ll enjoy our in-depth review of ScreenFlow! What do you think about ScreenFlow v3? Please leave your comments in the comment section below!

Now that jailbreaking, or the unlocking of devices for custom software, is now one-hundred percent legal in the US, we haven’t seen too many phone manufactures do anything about this change just yet… except until now.

HTC has been known for their customizable phones. You can run many operating systems on a good number of their phones (seriously, just check out XDA-Developopers), and with all of these modifications, we haven’t seen HTC take any offense for any of this software modification, unlike other companies.

HTC has now official released full documentation on how to unlock for their 2011 model of phones and on. HTC has always been very kind to its developers; they just let practically anyone do whatever, but now that HTC has released the potential to do whatever you want with your phone, the possibilities are endless.

Sure, most consumer-end users won’t need to unlock an Android device as they’re already very free to begin with, but now that HTC is officially allowing it, I would love to see what some of the brillant developers are going to come up with now. Sure, there’s always those security issues when unlocking your mobile devices, but if you’re going to be unlocking your bootloader on your device, you’re probably already knowledgeable about those risks.

Anyways, what do you think about HTC finally allowing an official unlock of their bootloader? I can’t wait to see what will come in the future. I’m sure this is going to push some developers for further on expansion of HTC’s amazing devices. Sure, there might only be one phone supported (HTC Sensation (EU)FOTA 1.45.401.2) but HTC says the EVO 3D on Spring and the Sensation 4G on T-Mobile will be soon.

Question is, what will AT&T think about this major change? Please leave your comments below on this major change in the mobile industry! HTC is one huge company; it’s great to see them finally taking the stage for once.

There’s a video below on how to disable inverted scrolling!

There have been a ton of hype about the newly released Mac OS X Lion, but one thing Apple has tried to do with their brand new operating system is to give it more of a mobile feel. Because of everything Apple tried to do to make Mac OS X more like iOS is add in things like their mission control and inverted scrolling.

With the brand new inverted scrolling feature, lots of people weren’t too happy with this new “feature”. Basically, the inverted scrolling made it when you move down on your trackpad/mouse, it’ll go up and vice versa, just like on any mobile device. Some people may like this feature but personally, I am no one of them.

To simply disable this feature, it might be somewhat confusing as Apple does not mention anything about “inverted” scrolling, like they did in the developer previews. Instead, they renamed it it “natural” scrolling. On the contrary, I do not feel “natural” scrolling is the perfect name for this feature, as it’s only natural on a touchscreen device. Anyway, if you don’t like this feature and you’re one who wants to disable it, follow the steps below!

1. Open up System Preferences
2. Click on “Trackpad” (now the question remains, what will this be on a desktop computer with no trackpad? From my knowledge, this section should still be there, but if it’s not there for you desktop users, give us a holler in the comments below)
3. Go to the “Scroll & Zoom” tab (it’s the one in the middle)
4. At the very top of the list, you will see “Scroll direction: natural” and some more text below it. Disable it!
5. You are now back to the normal method of scrolling! No restarts or anything like that, just uncheck the check box and you’re all set!

Important:
If you have a computer that does not support all the gestures, your trackpad settings will be different. Click on the “When using gestures to scroll or navigate, move content in the direction of finger movement” instead at the very top.

If you are on a desktop computer without a trackpad, go under the mouse settings and click “Move content in the direction of finger movement when scrolling or navigating”.

 

WordPress’s extendability features, called plugins, have always been loved by WordPress’s users as they provide an elegant system to expand WordPress to do practically anything.

In this post, however, we’ll be speaking about how plugin development in WordPress 3 works. With Packt Publishing’s latest WordPress book, WordPress 3 Plugin Development Essentials, it provides a nice and fairly detailed (281 pages) description on how WordPress 3 handles plugins.

My Experiences with WordPress

The first time I worked with WordPress was around five years ago when I started to become more evolved in web technologies. Now I should mention that I was not by any means an expert at WordPress at this time; I was, in fact, just a “normal” WordPress user back then.

Forward some years later when I was about to release Tech Cores v1.0, I already had the new pre-made theme I was going to use on top of Joomla, another content management system, but I turned my back on Joomla and switched to WordPress. The thing is, at this time, I had absolutely no experience working with WordPress theme development. What I did have, in fact, was knowledge of the PHP programming language, which WordPress relies on.

I picked up the “WordPress way” within days and started creating the first custom-made WordPress theme for Tech Cores; from the Photoshop design all the way to the final product… now, years later, I can literally code a normal website and convert it into a WordPress-compatible site in a heart beat.

All and all, I can call myself a WordPress “genius”; I’ve been working with it for years and I can never switch back for many reasons. Enough jibber-jabber, let’s get on with the full review.

Thoughts on the Book

What I really love about WordPress 3 Plugin Development Essentials is that it starts off the first few chapters very simply. When just reading the first chapter, it explains on how setting up your WordPress development system, best coding practices (which can be used for no matter what you’re programming), and how handle testing, code versioning, security, along with other things. For anyone reading this book, they most likely already have programming experience, and because the authors decided to start this book out in a way that’s not too in a rush, it really means quite a bit. It’s a great way to start off a book entirely on development…

The Beginning

Just like the first chapter, the second chapter doesn’t rush you at all; in fact, it’s more of giving you baby steps to start building powerful WordPress plugins. Any kind of developing book can be boring with all that computer code. But the best part I love about WordPress 3 Plugin Development Essentials is that you’re not going to be seeing pages and pages of code; the authors give you some code, and describing what it’s accomplishing. I’ve seen books that have two or three pages, back to back, that’s filled with code only. No reader is going to give that code a good glance, it’ll just confuse them. So with WordPress 3 Plugin Development Essentials, it takes a completely different approach; it takes the main functions of a plugin, the anatomy of a plugin, and breaks it down in an easy to comprehend way.

In the second chapter, there’s one thing that rather surprised me in a WordPress plugin development book. In just the second chapter, the author has you making a plugin, that is, an “evil functionless plugin”.  The author includes some errors in the plugin, where to put the header() function, whether or not to close the PHP tags (this was my favorite part of the chapter. Some WordPress users may edit a plugin, put some whitespace at the bottom, and find that everything is not working right. I’m glad this was added.), and a brief explanation to hooks.

With WordPress 3 Plugin Development Essentials brief introduction to hooks, the authors did one amazing job describing how they work in a simple manner. Hooks are extremely important in WordPress plugin development, if you didn’t have it, your plugin wouldn’t be as effective.

We’re Making Plugins!

The next section of WordPress 3 Plugin Development Essentials is where everything starts coming together. The book guides you though implementing a Digg social media button next to each post. An easy concept, but ideal for learning how WordPress handles its plugins. The steps taken in this chapter to implement this feature is so nicely laid out, that you can practically use it as a guide when writing your own plugin. The authors don’t rush into things, they make sure what you’re going to implement will work, layout the general plan, create the main system, test it, add some more, and test it again. This approach was something that I really appreciated. As a programmer myself knowing many languages (really, don’t get me started), I can truly say you want to take programming step by step.

The next two chapters are very similar to the previous one. You learn how to create a content rotator in the widget (typically a sidebar) section, which is very popular among WordPress blogs, and using the power of custom fields to expand the attached content to a post. With the content rotator, they could have integrated some neat jQuery content rotator, but I’m sure the reader can figure that out after reading the chapter. This is actually a very crucial chapter though, you learn how to integrate a widget with custom settings into WordPress! After that, you’r going right to the custom fields. Custom fields in WordPress is simply a way to put more content into your posts and do something with it. Personally, I use custom fields quite a bit on Tech Cores to get many of the things done that WordPress can’t do out of the box.

What’s fairly ironic is the how WordPress 3 Plugin Development Essentials described on how to implement custom fields is nearly identical to the way on how I accomplished it. Anyways, when getting back to the topic, I was very thrilled to read over this section. If there’s one thing you should pick up from this book, it would have to be custom fields. With this small little feature, you can expand WordPress to do practically anything you want it to do. And yes, by the way, the way the authors described this is one of the best ways that I’ve ever heard. I have to give them an A+ on this entire chapter.

The next section is all about shortcodes. These are simply just like BBCode, but act as powerful extension to the text editor in WordPress. This was a fairly simple chapter, but using the function, register_post_ type(), the authors were left with very little documentation about it; they ended up writing a chapter that I think, should be available on the WordPress Codex. I’m glad that WordPress 3 Plugin Development Essentials decided to make it so it was easy to understand in a practical use. Also, there’s one thing that really let me down in this chapter. Like with many plugins, I see the plugins shortcode integrate with the TinyMCE text editor in WordPress to provide a GUI to shortcodes. I really think the authors should have added something like this as an example.

Additional Topics

WordPress 3 Plugin Development Essentials explains how to version your code using Subversion. Even though I prefer to use Cornerstone, the book explains how to do it the command line way, which will work on any operating system. This is a great chapter, it even discusses Google Code, but it seems a little out of place. I’m glad they added it, but I personally don’t think they needed a full chapter on it.

The next chapter, is a very crucial part of WordPress plugin development: getting your plugin ready for the world! The authors review some common mistakes that make the plugins glitchy on other systems, like conflicting names. This entire chapter is all based upon testing, discussing WordPress limitations, and more. This chapter really tells you the things you need to make sure of when turning a development plugin into a released one.

You guessed it, the next chapter is releasing your plugin for real! This discusses some more best practices and things like localization, getting your plugin noticed, along with some minor things. Great chapter with lots of information!

The last good amount of pages include the appendix which just provides extra reference material (the WordPress Codex is amazing!). Just many of Packt’s books, you can easily use this book as a reference guide when you need to. It only covers the essentials of WordPress plugin development, but enough for you to get practically anything done.

Overall, I really enjoyed WordPress 3 Plugin Development Essentials. It was a great short read and I learned a few extra tricks along the way. If you are a causal WordPress developer or you want to be, I highly recommend for you to pick up a copy. You may visit the book’s website at the below link:

http://link.packtpub.com/FKjtYN

Do you want access to over 100,000 amazing HD wallpapers for free? If you do, you’re in luck! We’re giving away fifteen copies of Wallpaper Wizard for Mac! Because of our recent review of Wallpaper Wizard, Ivan Ablamskyi, the developer of Wallpaper Wizard, decided to give us fifteen copies to give away!

We’re going to make this giveaway extremely easy! All you need to do is head over to Twitter and tweet the following:

Want to win a copy of @WallpaperWizard from @TechCores? Retweet to win! http://bit.ly/WallpaperWizardGiveAway

And because we’re super kind, if you have a blog of any kind, post about this giveaway to your blog and comment below with a link to your blog post for an even better chance to get a copy of Wallpaper Wizard! Just please remember, you need to tweet it too for a better chance of winning!

So what are you waiting for? The giveaway starts right now and we will end it once we hit a good number of entries.

I’ve recommended people to HP in the past, I’ve repaired HP computers myself, and I’ve even given support out to people in need of it. I’ll say this right from the get-go, I’m very knowledgeable on how HP works. Everything that’ll be listed are not only my experiences, but also ones coming from my peers.

Like any computer company, support is the biggest area of need. My experiences with HP customer support has been extremely negative.

First Experience

After around for months after buying my Presario laptop, it started having issues with its fan. The fan started to make clicking noises, which were fairly loud, and the processor started to overheat because of it. They ended up replacing the heat sink fan and reimaging the hard drive.

Second Experience

Three months after that my laptop started to have odd issues with its system motherboard. The ended up replacing the system board and replacing the hard drive with a louder one.

Third Experience

HP’s technicians ended up putting scratches on my laptop’s palm rest. With that, there was some nice fine and short hairs all over the keyboard and palm rest when I opened it out of the box. Thanks HP for making my laptop messy and having scratches! That left to another repair.

Wrap-Up

Now that might not sound too bad, but now let me get somewhat into the details. When talking with HP on one of the repairs (I believe it was the second one), HP customer support was denying my claim for repair. They would not seem to fix it… at all. After speaking with many support representatives and some managers, I was able to convince them into a repair. After many days, I was finally able to get that warranty-covered repair. Essentially, I told them I knew there was a problem and with their support policy, they were liable to fix it in the support period. They started warning me if they didn’t find an issue, they would change me quite a bit of money.

Not only did I have problems getting repairs, talking with the support representatives was extremely difficult. While many having thick Indian or Asian accents when speaking English, it was fairly difficult to understand them. I’ve spoken with enough people from different countries to understand them, but it’s still annoying that HP does not want to hire people who can speak English in a decent way.

Now the next part is something that really ticked me off quite a bit. One night, HP called my home phone very late at night. Not only was it annoying to my family, it was a very large disturbance to my father. HP’s support needs to adept to the customer’s local time zone. Every single time I call support, I give them my time zone and best times to call. HP neglected this information and asked for me very late in the day (actually, it was the next day so you could say very early too).

My Friend’s/Family Experiences

One of my friends owned two HP laptops. One of them being a low-end series and the other being an older NC8230. With his low-end laptop, which was also a budget computer, he had way too many issues to name. The main thing with that computer was in fact the graphics card. He had it repaired multiple times and still had problems. With his NC8230, let’s just say he had so many problems he ended up sending that machine in way more than it needed to be. It was easily over ten repairs… and yes, we both lost count on how many repairs it had.

On the flip side, when we were buying a laptop for my sister, I found a very good deal on the internet for a nice HP consumer laptop. The laptop is fairly large and heavy, but it handles a very large display with two hard drives. The thing is a beast… anyways, after nearly two years of my sister owning it, it is now having issues powering on and with its battery. The battery lasts not long at all and getting it to power on is next to nothing. As a computer geek myself, the laptop overheats very quickly. With this overheating, the fans get very loud (they’re running at maximum RPM a good chunk of the time) and the laptop BSODs, shuts itself down, and it’s nearly impossible to start back up. This has happened to my Presario, but not as often.

Summary

With all of these support issues above, you would think I would know of at least one good thing from HP support. Sadly, I cannot say I’ve ever heard of anything good coming out of it. HP laptops tend to break extremely easily. In fact, my Presario sometimes has difficulties turning on right now! After three years of owning it, you would think the computer would still be working.

HP’s quality of support is near minimum and quite honestly, it’s hard for me to say that being an HP fan. Their low-end consumer-oriented laptops are some of that worst I’ve seen and do not last long at all. Their modern business laptops are decent (as having worked with them before), but I’m questioning why they can’t put the same quality of a product from their business laptops in their low-end laptops.

With my HP laptop on its last leg, with my sister’s laptop started to break, and with my friend constantly sending in his NC8230 and myself needing to send my Presario in three times is just absurd.

With my warranty up for my Presario, I believe it’ll be dying very soon. I’m sorry HP, but your quality of laptops is not of the best and I’d really love to give you guys a second chance.

It’s without a doubt that we have been using IPv4 (the 192.168.0.1 addresses for example) for quite a long time. Just today, APNIC, the guys who operate the main “internet registry” in most of Australia, Pacific, and Asia, allocated the final /8 block of IPv4 addresses in its stash. With the last block being activated, 16,777,216 (2^32-8-2) IPv4 addresses have been reserved.

The bad thing about this, APNIC plans on rationing addressed to network operators for the remaining space.

Today the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) reached the last block Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses in its available pool, activating a major change in regional delegation policy.

This event is a key turning point in IPv4 exhaustion for the Asia Pacific, as the remaining IPv4 space will be ‘rationed’ to network operators to be used as essential connectivity with next-generation IPv6 addresses. All new and existing who meet the current allocation criteria will be entitled to a maximum delegation of a /22 (1,024 addresses) of IPv4 space.

Obviously, this is not a good thing. With IPv4 demand getting higher and higher with the mobile networks growing every day, many web hosting companies are having problems getting their hands on some IPv6 addresses.

Sadly enough, there’s not too much that APNIC can do at this pint with the IPv4 exhaustion date.

With no way to accurately predict IPv4 demand and the exhaustion date, APNIC instead published daily updates on the status of the IPv4 pool to keep the  informed. The implementation of a three-phase management plan would   absolute fairness in the final stages of IPv4 exhaustion.

I’m really hoping APNIC decides to tighten down on the IPv4 regulations. For example, if one isn’t using a block of IP addressed, they must give it up. There are plenty of IP addresses out there that haven’t been used in many years. I’m hoping with IPv6, APNIC might manage it a tad better to prevent business from having too many IP addresses.

With IPv4 rapidly approaching its limits, internet service providers really need to kick it into gear with providing IPv6. Without getting too technical, it shouldn’t be that hard to supply IPv6. The ISP would essentially need to change their DNS servers to work with the new IPv6 technology, and of course, maybe change some hardware along the way.

Anyone can use IPv6 right now, you can even set up your own DNS server, but what are the ISPs going to do about this? With time running out very quickly, I’d love to see IPv6 fully enabled on every major ISP within the coming months.

You may view APNIC’s press release at the below URL:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.apnic.net/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/33246/Key-Turning-Point-in-Asia-Pacific-IPv4-Exhaustion_English.pdf&pli=1

With the Galaxy Tab popping up in some retail stores recently, the hype of this device is continuing to grow faster and faster. Samsung has now finally released the launch date of the Wi-Fi only model of the Galaxy Tab.

Samsung has stated that they will be releasing the Wi-Fi only model on April 10th:

Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the No. 1 mobile phone provider in the U.S.1, announced today that several retail stores and Web sites will carry the WiFi-only Samsung Galaxy Tab™ by April 10, offering customers the opportunity to buy this powerful and compact mobile tablet for $349.99. Consumers can visit http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/galaxy-tab for a complete list of retail outlets selling the WiFi Galaxy Tab.

In terms of the specifications, it’ll be the same as the 3G edition. The same whopping 32GB of onboard disk space,  seven inch display, and with Android 2.2.

Will you be rushing out to the stores to purchase this $350 tablet computer? Personally, I think the Galaxy Tab has a lot going for it, but I really want to see how HP’s TouchPad will do with the all so amazing webOS!

You may view the press release below:

Samsung Galaxy Tab™ Available for Purchase at Multiple Retail Stores and Online Outlets

Consumers receive chance to purchase WiFi-only version of Samsung’s award-winning Android™ platform mobile tablet

DALLAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the No. 1 mobile phone provider in the U.S.1, announced today that several retail stores and Web sites will carry the WiFi-only Samsung Galaxy Tab™ by April 10, offering customers the opportunity to buy this powerful and compact mobile tablet for $349.99. Consumers can visit http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/galaxy-tab for a complete list of retail outlets selling the WiFi Galaxy Tab.

“The 7-inch Galaxy Tab is the first truly mobile tablet on the market, allowing users to comfortably hold the device in one hand while typing or navigating the Web with the other.”
The Galaxy Tab is powered by the Android™ 2.2 platform and has a 7-inch TFT display with a 1024 x 600 resolution. The super-light and sleek device weighs just 13 ounces, is 12 millimeters thin and easily fits in a pocket or purse. The Galaxy Tab includes 32 GB of internal storage and offers microSD expansion to allow for up to 32 GB of additional storage.

“We are excited to have the WiFi version of the Galaxy Tab join our growing portfolio of Galaxy-branded devices,” said Dale Sohn, President of Samsung Mobile. “The 7-inch Galaxy Tab is the first truly mobile tablet on the market, allowing users to comfortably hold the device in one hand while typing or navigating the Web with the other.”

Outstanding Entertainment Options

The Galaxy Tab supports Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 to deliver an enhanced content experience and allow users to engage with thousands of sites with rich Adobe Flash Player compatible applications and content including games, animations, rich Internet applications (RIAs), data presentations and visualizations, ecommerce, video, music and more. Plus, the device is designed with a rear-facing 3 megapixel camera for taking pictures on-the-go, and a front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera and camcorder for video chat.

In addition, the Galaxy Tab includes access to Media Hub, Samsung’s own content service, offering a vast lineup of critically acclaimed films and TV programs for rent or purchase. The biggest and best names in entertainment, including CBS, MTV Networks, NBC Universal, Paramount and Warner Bros. provide new release movies, next day TV episodes and full TV show seasons to the robust Media Hub library. Media Hub also promotes content sharing, including the ability to send purchased films and TV programming to as many as five devices that carry the Media Hub application.

Google Services & Social Hub

Services like Google Maps™ Navigation and Google Goggles are available on Google’s Android platform. With useful location-based services like Google Maps™, consumers can search in Standard English instead of entering an exact address. A search-by-voice function is just as intuitive, meaning searches can also be completed easily on the go. Google Goggles™ is a powerful, visual search tool that uses the Samsung GALAXY Tab’s camera to uncover information – an image of a landmark or artwork is automatically used to perform a search, delivering relevant content like a description or history. In addition, with a camera, users can enjoy various augmented reality services which are downloadable in the application market. Plus, Galaxy Tab users have full access to more than 150,000 applications available for download from the Android Market™.

The Galaxy Tab keep users organized and connected with Samsung’s Social Hub application. Social Hub works with the user’s Messaging and Contacts to initiate the sending and receiving of information, whether it is e-mail, instant messaging, social network updates or SMS messages. Additionally, calendar information from portal calendars, such as Google Calendar, and social networking services are displayed together in one calendar with two-way synchronization.

Samsung Galaxy Product Portfolio

The WiFi Galaxy Tab joins other popular products under the premium Samsung Galaxy brand, including the upcoming Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy 8.9, Galaxy Player 5.0 and Galaxy Player 4.0 and the portfolio of Galaxy S smartphones.

About Samsung Telecommunications America

Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC, a Dallas-based subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., researches, develops and markets wireless handsets and telecommunications products throughout North America. For more information, please visit www.samsungwireless.com.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2009 consolidated sales of US$116.8 billion. Employing approximately 174,000 people in 193 offices across 66 countries, the company consists of eight independently operated business units: Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, Digital Imaging, Semiconductor and LCD. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.

Android is a trademark of Google, Inc.

1 Number one mobile phone provider in the U.S. claim for Samsung Mobile based upon reported shipment data, according to Strategy Analytics, Q4 2010 U.S. Market Share Handset Shipments Reports.

Click to view the full image.

Quadrant Standard is an app that my friend good friend Jeff, an admin here on Tech Cores, showed me a while ago. Basically, it is an app that benchmarks your device’s CPU, memory, I/O, 2D graphics & 3D graphics. Overall, the test runs for about a minute and shows your results at the end compared to other phones. I’m currently using a Droid X with Android 2.2 Froyo with Motoblur. According to Quadrant, my Droid X has got A SCORE OF 1442, which is good considering the fact that this phone is a year old. It beats phones such as the Nexus One running 2.2, HTC Evo 4G, Samsung Galaxy S, and the HTC Desire.

What is your Quadrant score? Let us know in the comments!

Anyways, this chat eBay provided us (above) is very interesting. Apparently 65% of the iPad 2′s sold were domestically compared to the 35% were had rom iPad 1 sales last year. As it seems to be, more and more people in other countries really want the iPad 2. Just like last year’s release, so many countries did not have the iPad until months after. For many people in the Asian countries (and Indian countries too), I know quite a few people who ordered iPads from Great Britain. As it typically takes Apple a while to be shipping iPads to other countries than the US, many people decide to buy from eBay, even though the price is much above retail price.

Speaking about retail prices, take a look at the chart above. The iPad 2 16GB is around $198 above retail and the highest-end model iPad is $406 above retail! The funny thing is, people can get away with these crazy prices because for one… Apple fans are crazy… Apple fans want the newest iProducts, and Apple fans will do nearly anything to get the newest and greatest products.

Even when comparing these results from last year’s results, it seems to be that there’s more demand for the iPad this year. And what’s surprising, that the number one iPad sold is the 16GB Wi-Fi only model, but the surprising part about this is that in second is the highest end model. This just proves that Apple users have money in some way or another.

If you want to see the stats for last year’s iPad sales, you may do so by clicking here!

It’s no case that Apple usually charges more for their products outside the United States. It makes sense, but with currency being something changing all of the time, we sometimes find Apple products in other countries than the US being reduced. With the Australian dollar coming closer to our currency with only four cents off, Apple decided to lower prices quite a bit in their iPod line. I’m assuming Apple picked the iPod line because they sell quite a bit of devices; I’m quite sure an iPod is more common than a Mac.

• Anyways, the iPod shuffle was reduced just $4, from $69 to $65.
• On the other hand, the iPod nano was decreased from $199 to $179, $20 savings! Spend it on some ice cream and maybe a hair cut for one day.
• The iPod classic, being the one the most reduced product, has $30 taken off it’s rather hefty price from $329 to $299.
• And one of the most popular iPods, the iPod touch, was taken off $30 just like the iPod classic from $289 to $259.

As people are always buying new iPods after every September refresh, I’m sure more iPods in Australia will be sold this year because of the lowered prices.

Now if Apple can just lower the prices of their MacBooks, I’d be happy!