I’ve been using my “new” Logitech MX1100 mouse for several weeks now, and I must say I enjoy it very much, despite a few quirks. It’s the best mouse I have owned so far.

Features

The MX1100 is one of Logitech’s higher-end mice. It features a right-handed ergonomically-shaped body, dual-mode scroll wheel with “Hyper-Fast Scrolling”, Back and Forward buttons, a DPI selector, and a hidden button in the thumb rest. The mouse is wireless, although it is not compatible with Bluetooth or the Logitech Unifying receiver, and is not rechargeable.

Ergonomics

I generally consider myself left-handed, but I’ve grown up using a computer mouse in my right hand. Thus,the “right-handed” design of the MX1100 makes me feel right at home. Although I’ve yet to appreciate all of the ergonomic features, it feels significantly more “natural” in my hand than my venerable LX8 did. The mouse has a good amount of weight to it, which makes it feel like a well-built quality product; my LX8 feels cheap by comparison even though ironically I paid more for my first LX8 than I did for the MX1100.

Hyper-Fast Scrolling

The main reason I upgraded my mouse was because of the “Hyper-Fast Scrolling” feature – which allows the mouse wheel to spin freely for up to 6 seconds, allowing me to quickly scroll all the way through a document with hundreds of pages. The wheel features two modes – the free-spinning mode and the “MicroGear” racheting mode which feels more like a traditional mouse. Modes can be switched instantly by pressing a mechanical button immediately beneath the wheel. The wheel is a high-resolution version, which allows for a silky smooth pixel-precise scrolling experience similar to that on a Mac. In all, I’d rate the wheel a solid 9 out of 10.

Realistically, the smooth scrolling (which must be enabled in the control panel) works great in Chrome and Word (the two applications I use it in most), but it reverts back to “low resolution” mode when using Windows Explorer and Notepad, among others. It also has the annoying tendency to move a few pixels’ worth of scrolling when released, simply due to its light weight, and this is quite noticeable in Chrome when I take my finger off the wheel. Hyper-Fast Scrolling has proven to be extremely useful when scrolling through long programs consisting of many lines of code, despite Visual Studio not supporting high-resolution smooth scrolling.

I also wish there would be a third “smooth scrolling” mode of the wheel – no MicroGear, but with smooth resistance – as it would allow for silky-smooth pixel-precise scrolling without the wheel being overly sensitive.

Wireless range

As with my LX8, the wireless range of the MX1100 is not particularly amazing, though it is slightly better. I can actually use the mouse from my bed 10 feet away, though this still does not even come close to the 30+ range I can achieve with a $15 USB Bluetooth dongle and a generic $16 Bluetooth mouse which I use for my laptop.

Tracking and DPI Selector

Despite touting the same 848nm “Performance Laser” as my LX8, the MX1100 is able to effortlessly track on my glossy desktop (there is a layer of acrylic over the wood veneer) unlike the LX8. This is quite convenient since I can remove the mouse from the keyboard tray and place it on top of the desk if need be. However, the mouse does not track on glass, as is expected from a standard laser design.

This mouse features 7 DPI settings, ranging from 400 to 1600 DPI; two of these can be mapped to the DPI switch on the mouse itself. I set these to the extremes and use the 1600 DPI setting on a regular basis; I switch to the 400 DPI setting to slow down the mouse cursor drastically for more precision when working with graphics. This has proven to be an extremely useful feature as well.

Buttons

The MX1100 has a total of 8 clickable buttons, all of which can be at least partially programmed via the Logitech SetPoint software. There is a “stealth” button built into the thumb rest on the left of the mouse, which was not very obvious initially, but it is in a very useful location once you realize it’s there.

Use without SetPoint

Using this mouse without SetPoint is possible, but most of the buttons cannot be used. Obviously, standard clicking and scrolling functions work, as do the browser Back/Forward buttons, but that’s it. Additionally, high-resolution “smooth” scrolling does not function. Despite my overall dislike of SetPoint, I recommend having it installed for this mouse, as it does in fact add useful features.

Quirks

Smooth scrolling has a nasty habit of turning off every few hours. All it takes to enable is to open SetPoint and click OK, but this can prove to be quite an annoyance. An even worse quirk happens when SetPoint occasionally fails to detect the mouse at all, and resolving this issue involves unplugging the USB receiver, plugging it into another port for about a minute, and then plugging it back into the original port (which happens to be mounted on my Logitech G110 keyboard).

Conclusion

For a list price of $80, the MX 1100 offers a good deal of features despite being a few years old. Would I buy one for $80? Probably not, but for $30 refurbished on eBay, it is one of the best mice money can buy.

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/

http://www.kingston.com/ukroot/ssd/vplus100.asp

I hope you enjoy the video and please, if you have anymore questions please leave a comment below or contact me on Twitter

Today, Apple announced the continuation to the iPhone line. The iPhone 4S was unveiled, after tons of rumors and speculations.

The iPhone 4S is just like the iPhone 4 in design, being just that it’s a slight difference in weight. It’s also featuring the fabulous A5 processor, and an 8 megapixel camera. The 8 megapixel camera shoots in 1080p, producing great video’s!

It also has some great battery improvements, 8 hours talk time on 3G, 14 hours talk time on 2G, 6 hours of data on 3G, 9 hours data on WiFi, 40 hours audio, 10 hours video.

So what do you think of the new iPhone? Did you think it was going to be the iPhone 5 and not the 4S?

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

Metro

I am a fan of Windows Phone 7s UI, more technically referred to as “Metro”. It is great for phones, and even tablets for that matter, because it features large-enough UI elements for easy use as well as maintains a sharp-looking GUI. Here is where Microsoft hits the brick wall when it comes to Windows 8. They took the “Metro” style from WP7 and without much modification just slapped it into Windows. The reason a general computer user uses a mouse for precision; just in case you aren’t getting the point, you don’t need huge buttons when using a mouse.

File Browsing

Ever seen a project with a good design overuse it to the point where you wanted to barf? In Windows 7, Microsoft updated Paint and WordPad by adding the “Ribbon” bar which was first introduced in 2007 in their Office suite. After getting used to the ribbon it was really handy, but in Windows 8 they added this bar to Explorer. If you are part of the more novice group of computer users this is the application you use to navigate your neatly organized hierarchy of  files on your computer. Up until this point the GUI of Explorer was very basic, it is one of those applications that all you want it to do is what you need, and that is it. Well, now there is a ribbon in Explorer so all of those features you will never use are shoved in your face and are cluttering your view. Not to mention the changes in the theme that make all of the Windows sharp enough to cut through a diamond.

Layered

For the sake of interest, lets create an analogy. Picture an onion, fresh out of the ground; that layer of dirt and grime on the outside, that’s Metro. I feel the need to wash it off to expose the Windows experience that would be best for my productivity. With Metro in every way looking like an after thought, that I wish was never conceived for the desktop interface, I find myself scrambling to get back to the true desktop. The start menu, is now awkwardly replaced with the green jumble of everything you don’t need surrounding everything you do. Launching Explorer to a location like “My Computer” which once was a two click operation now involves opening the Metro interface, finding and clicking the Windows Explorer block, and lastly navigating your way to “My Computer”. It doesn’t just sound counter intuitive.

Menus and Panels

The Windows Control Panel, in its spread out view, is not something for the faint hearted novice user, but why not add two versions of it? Makes sense right? Through the Metro UI you can launch a Control Panel where you can toggle all of the basic settings like Windows Updates etc. but if you want to tweak some of the more “in-depth” features you have to navigate to the classic control panel. There truly is no better way to conjure confusion in a user than to give them two different ways to do one thing.

Inside of any of the pre-installed full screen apps the only way to access control is to right-click, each time you want to change something. It took me a while to even figure out how to do this, more or less a less tech literate user.

I want to reiterate that this is only the pre-beta developer version and these are solely my opinions. Anything could change between now and the release date.

The only good thing they changed in Windows 8: The BSOD

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!

We have been seeing some iOS 5 beta’s around for a little while now, but we see a new Apple beta rise, the iCloud.

During the WWDC conference Steve Jobs announced iCloud and that it would be free to your apple devices. Your Mac’s, iPhone’s, iPad’s and your Windows PC. You will also be able to back your device up wireless and store everything in the cloud.

This week apple finally announced that iCloud will now be available to use for developers, however some non-developers were also allowed a sneak peek. To see if you are eligible then just visit iCloud.com, you will be prompted to sign up. Also this will only work on OS X Lion and iOS 5.

Apple has released their next major release of Mac OS X yesterday exclusively through the Mac App Store. At the price of $29.99, it’s an appealing price considering a major OS upgrade. Lots of Mac users took advantage of the upgrade and today, Apple has announced that Lion has topped one million downloads, which is pretty impressive.

Here’s the press release:

CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Apple® today announced that in just one day, over one million users bought and downloaded Mac OS® X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system. Available through the Mac® App Store™ for $29.99 (US), users are buying Lion faster than any other OS release in Apple’s history.

“Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Lion is a huge step forward, it’s not only packed with innovative features but it’s incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we’ve ever made.”

Lion introduces more than 250 new features to the Mac, including Multi-Touch® gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on your Mac; the Mac App Store, the best place to find and explore great software; Launchpad, a new home for all your apps; and a completely redesigned Mail app.

Available in 123 countries, the Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to the Mac so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes® account, download and install them in just one step. The Mac App Store offers apps in Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity, Utilities and other categories. Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, see staff favorites, search categories and look up top charts for paid and free apps, as well as user ratings and reviews. The Mac App Store is built right into Lion and available for Snow Leopard® users through Software Update as part of Mac OS X version 10.6.8.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

After much speculation, a refreshed MacBook Air is finally here. There are no cosmetic changes, but the internals has changed. Both models have stepped up to a Core i5 and i7, Thunderbolt ports, backlit keyboards, Bluetooth 4.0, and Mac OS X Lion.

The new baseline 11.6 inch MacBook Air features a 1.6GHz Core i5 processor, 2GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM, and 64GB of flash storage. The higher end model doubles the RAM and the storage, pricing in at $1,199. The baseline 13-inch MBA has the same amount of RAM and storage from the higher end 11-inch model, but the CPU has been bumped to a 1.7 GHz Core i5 processor. Stepping up to the $1599 model bumps the storage to 256GB.

Next up, we’ve got the Mac Mini. Both of the Mac minis pack in an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, Bluetooth 4.0, Thunderbolt, AMD Radeon HD graphics and Mac OS X Lion. The $599 Mac Mini comes standard with a 2.3GHz Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost, 2GB of RAM, and a 500GB 5400-rpm drive. Stepping up to the $799 model will bump the processor to 2.5GHz and 4GB of RAM. You also have the option to get a 256GB SSD drive, or a SSD plus a 750GB 7200-rpm drive. For the Mac Mini Server, you get a Core i7 processor and 1TB of storage standard.

The most striking difference with the Mac mini is the lack of an optical drive. You can clearly see that Apple is enforcing digital downloads.

To enhance the new Macs, Apple has announced the Thunderbolt display, formerly known as the Cinema Display. The display still packs in a huge 27-inch 2560×1440 IPS display and a 2.1 speaker system. Apple has updated a few components such as the new Facetime HD camera and adds an extra Thunderbolt port and Gigabit Ethernet. It starts at $999 and will be shipping soon.

After many predicted launch dates, during Apple’s earning call, CFO Peter Oppenheimer has announced that Lion will be coming out tomorrow. Lion is Apple’s seventh major release of the OS X platform bringing elements from iOS. Lion will be a Mac App Store exclusive and will cost you $29.99.

If you’re upgrading to Mac OS X Lion, check out our guide to make your upgrade smooth!

Looking to upgrade your MacBook Pro or iMac to 8GB of RAM? You might as well upgrade now because Amazon is offering 8GB of Corsair RAM for $50. Don’t let the price tag fool you because this is DDR3 1333MHz RAM, which matches recent iMac and MacBook Pro specs. This is certainly a bargin if you do a lot of multitasking.

What you’ll need

• A Mac with the latest version of Snow Leopard (10.6.8)
• 8GB of free disk space
• App Fresh – A free application that keeps all of your software to the latest version
• Omni Disk Sweeper – A free application that shows large files on your hard drive
• OnyX – A free utility program, similar to CCleaner for Windows but with more options
• Backup your hard drive with Time Machine,  Carbon Copy Cloner, or any other piece of backup software you prefer

Here’s something that you might have done already, but if you’re not sure if you have the latest version, go to the Apple Menu > About This Mac. If you have anything lower than 10.6.8 (latest version), click Software Update.

OS X Lion will finally discontinue Rosetta support, so your Power PC application will no longer work. If you still use a Rosetta application, you should update to hopefully, an Intel version. If there’s no Intel version, you’re out of luck. To find out if you’re using a Power PC app, go to your Application Folder > Utilities > Activity Monitor.

Upgrading to Lion may cause incompatibility to some of your applications. Some apps are already pushing out updates that prepares it for Lion. To update all of your apps, it’s recommended to use App Fresh.

OS X Lion recommends at least 8GB of hard drive space, and possibly more for the recovery partition that Lion will put. If you already have 8GB or more free, it’s still a good idea to de-clutter your hard drive. By using Omni Disk Sweeper, you can see which folder or component in your hard drive is the biggest. You’ll be surprised how much clutter you might have on your hard drive.

There is an alternative to Omni Disk Sweeper called DaisyDisk. It has a hefty price tag of $19.99, but it gives you a graphical representation of your hard drive and it has much more features.

Another great utility application is called OnyX. OnyX is almost like CCleaner for Windows, but with powerful tools like checking the S.M.A.R.T status and maintenance utilities. There’s a lot more that goes with OnyX that you can check out.

Possibly the most important step to this guide is backing up all of your data.

Obviously with this step, you’ll need an external hard drive, which is relatively cheap. When picking out an external drive, you should always pick one with a bigger capacity than your current hard drive. There are two pieces of software that you should use for backup: Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner. I recommend Time Machine due to the simplicity and it’s built-in to OS X. If you’re tech-savvy, you can use Carbon Copy. 

Official video

Touch-friendly UI

The first thing you’ll notice about Windows 8 is its all-new finger-friendly user interface, which should look familiar enough to anyone who’s seen Windows Phone 7. This makes using Windows on a touchscreen device extremely intuitive, and puts the most important stuff right in your face when you first turn your computer on. The classic Windows Explorer user interface – with a ribbon in folder windows – is also available, in order to allow older programs to run.

Multi-architecture support

It’s old news by now, but Windows 8 will support ARM SoC (System on a Chip) devices as well as the traditional x86_64 platform. How is this feasible? The .NET Framework compiles CIL applications on-the-fly into whatever machine code the current processor supports, and the new Silverlight, JavaScript, and HTML-based features will obviously work anywhere.

What does this mean to the average Joe? More Windows-powered devices, including thin, light, and energy-efficient tablets that previously could only run Android, energy-saving thin clients, and battery-sipping laptops.

Performance

It used to be that the next version of Windows slowed your computer down to a crawl and mandated expensive hardware upgrades. While this is inevitable to some extent, the fact that Windows 8 is designed to run on low-power ARM tablets should say something about its performance on existing PCs. That new Core i3 just might last you longer than you expected.

Full-screen Apps: Tools or Toys?

Windows 8 seems to be designed with the “one app at a time” paradigm, with rich, beautiful, graphically-intensive applications taking up the entire work area. This is great for smaller tablet screens, and looks impressive on bigger screens… more on this later. It’s possible to multitask by just sliding your finger (or mouse pointer) inwards to “dock” apps to the sides and thus have instant access to vital information.

On the downside, this seems like a technological regression. I use 3 monitors and regularly juggle windows back and forth. While making many “tiles” is quite convenient on a single large monitor, I have no idea how well this will play out with multiple screens at different positions. The whole point of a larger monitor isn’t to stare at bigger pictures – it’s to fit more work in. Thankfully, Windows 8 still provides the mouse-and-keyboard-friendly Explorer interface as a choice.

Overall

Let’s face it: this is probably the biggest change in the Windows user interface since Windows 95. Unlike Windows 95, though, this one seems to simplify the user interface to an almost no-brain-required simplicity, which has its merits and pitfalls.

And myself? I’m pretty excited, but also a bit humbled. It’s a new Windows world out there, and that means it’s time to update my programming skills to match the new architecture. If I’m lucky, I’ll get my hands on a pre-release copy and then I’ll do a full review.

We’ve heard some late night rumors about Microsoft acquiring Skype for 8.5 billion dollars on May 10th, 2011. Well, it’s May 10th and guess what? Those rumors are true. With this acquisition, Microsoft is planning to integrate Skype into the Xbox, Kinect, and most importantly, Windows Phone 7. If you’re worried of Skype being only Windows only after this acquisition, you don’t have to because they will “invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms.” Interestingly, the acquisition price was set on April 18th, then signed off on May 9th.

For hosting see our list of Windows web hosting services suitable for your web development projects.

Back in February, we have gotten a sneak peek on HP’s future portfolio of webOS devices: the Veer, Pre 3, and the TouchPad. The HP Veer is one of the devices that will be hitting the shelves this month. With the Veer, you have a choice of black or white for a reasonable price of $99.

The Veer features a 2.6-inch display with a resolution of 320 x 400, an 800MHz Snapdragon processor, a 5 megapixel camera, HSPA+ capabilities, and to top it all off, we’ve got HP webOS 2.1. Because the Veer is so small (about the size of your credit card), HP couldn’t fit a microUSB and a headphone jack into the device itself. To solve that, HP will include a headphone and microUSB adapter, which will magnetically snap on the side.

Click here to view the video of Google Instant WebSurf in action!

Click here to see the Next Gen Snapdragon Chips in action!

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.

New View Later Features

When we set out to re-invent the browser, we quickly learned that bookmarking has really changed. With features like autocomplete, most-visited sites on the new tab page, and search built into the address bar, many people no longer use bookmarks.

On the other hand, we love services like Instapaper and how easy they make it to save websites to read when we have more time. These services inspired us to build View Later deeply into the browser.

With View Later, people can save any URL and any links from the App Edge to read later. This includes individual posts from Facebook, Twitter and other feeds.  Find something you want to come back to later? Just click the clock icon to add it to your View Later.  Of course, as with everything in RockMelt, View Later is sync’ed so you can access it everywhere you login.

New Twitter App

If you’re one of the 50% of RockMelt users who have connected their Twitter accounts, you’re going to love our new Twitter App.

It doesn’t just look better, it’s packed with new features. Now, in addition to your lists and @mentions, you can also edit retweets, view direct messages, reply to all users, and search Twitter easily. Did we mention that it uses the real-time API so you get updates instantly?

Chromium 10

RockMelt is now better and faster than ever with the latest Chromium updates.

We’ll start updating users to RockMelt Beta 2 today and everybody should have it in a week or so. We can’t wait to see what you think of the big changes.

Happy browsing!

(and no, this is not an April Fool’s joke)

P.S. In addition to all the great features, we’re on a never-ending quest to improve stability and performance. In this revision, we’ve fixed 78 bugs to make RockMelt Beta 2 the most stable and fastest version yet.

Bugs Fixed

• Improved support for Chrome themes
• Fixed issue with the Twitter App not displaying notifications for new tweets
• Fixed issues with audio playback when watching videos inside the Twitter App
• Improved reliability of sync for feeds
• Improved overall RSS feed reliability
• Fixed several causes of crashes

For the full press release please click the source link.

The biggest thing that mobile phone creators loved, is that Android is heavily customizable. With HTC Sense, HTC’s software that can customize Android, many users enjoy the software and say that it’s unique.

With many loving the user interface you see over to your left, Google doesn’t find this very heartening. With all of the variations of Android on many phones, Google wants to have a consistent interface and provide the same experience; in the long run, stabilizing the platform and ensuring quality among all Android devices.

Whereas I don’t disagree with Google, I can say they’re being very “pushy” of their open-source software. Android is free to use, free to download, and free to modify. But then again, if cell phone creators (I so want to say carriers, but they do not make the phones) are getting this software for free and essentially creating their own custom operating system out of it.

If you pick up an Android device from HTC and compare it with a Motorola device, you’re going to see some similarities, but most of what you’ll see is will be interface differences. You have so many launchers in Android that quite honestly, is getting out of hand.

I second Google with their idea of keeping it all the same, but locking us down to just one interface is limiting. But the great thing is, because Android is toppled on top of Linux, you’ll be able to freely modify it once you buy any Android device. So should we really be complaining? I think not. But for the cell phone carriers and creators, I believe there’s going to be much trouble marketing Android devices. People like different user interfaces; if we had the same Android on every phone, picking “the best” Android device out there would be nearly impossible.

What do you think about what Google is doing? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments below!