Category: Operating Systems

iOS 4.2.1 iPad Bug – Background Video Playback Broken

After coming back from a holiday in Cairns (where I had forgotten to pack my earphones and putting a dampener on my ability to listen to my podcasts) I updated my iPad to iOS 4.2.1 to finally access features that had been available on the iPhone for months – primarily the folders feature so I …

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Sleep and Hibernation Modes – What’s the Difference?

Over the years the humble shut down menu in Windows has been home to a number of options since it appeared back in Windows 95. If you can cast your mind back fifteen years, the usual suspects in the menu were: Shut down the computer Restart the computer Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode Close …

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Geek Toolkit Recommendation – CPU-Z

CPU-Z (SPD Screen)

Just a quick update for tonight. Sometimes the tech savvy amongst us are called upon to look at all sorts of computers belonging to friends, family, work colleagues and sometimes unwanted acquaintances. Trying to find out more about the computer with which you are dealing can be difficult especially for ancient hardware. Unless you know about the …

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HP Retires MediaSmart Server Line – Death Knell for Windows Home Server?

Windows Home Server “Vail” (the second version of Windows Home Server) slated for release by Microsoft next year already suffered a significant setback and subsequent public backlash last week after the announcement that its Drive Extender functionality was to be dropped. Drive Extender provided the very popular storage pooling and selective folder redundancy features found …

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Custom Ringtones for Windows Phone 7

Just a quick one for the night. A little while ago a piece of jailbreak software was released for Windows Phone 7 but there has been no actual use for it yet on consumer phones. Well, someone has been working away and has come up with a small homebrew application to fix an issue with …

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“Switch” for iPad – There Shouldn’t Be An App For That

My wife and I came across this article at SMH which skims over the prospect offered by yet another web browser for the Apple iPad. In a nutshell, Switch offers the ability for multiple users to maintain separate web browser profiles including bookmarks, passwords and history as well as a guest account for irregular users …

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Free Scrabble Derivative for the Masses

Another quick blog for tonight. If you like scrabble but don’t feel like forking out for the paid app on your iOS device there is a similar version called “Words with Friends”. There is one difference compared to Scrabble (presumably to avoid litigation) which is the placement of the bonus tiles on the board (for …

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Windows Home Server – Vail is Fail After Abandoning Drive Extender

Windows Home Server Vail Fail

In a hark back to the flop of the Windows Vista “wow is now” campaign Microsoft has seemingly shot itself square in the foot by announcing that the second version of Drive Extender (or DE) technology from Windows Home Server was being dropped. For those of you wanting to know about the original Windows Home …

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First Impressions – Google Navigation Arrives Down Under

Google Navigation (Traffic Conditions)

If you have been watching either the Twitter feed or Facebook page for Boydo’s Tech Talk you would have seen that Google Navigation was officially released yesterday. This is good news for those of you who have had to hack their Android devices with Brut Google Maps to get turn-by-turn navigation as there is now …

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BlackSheep – Detect FireSheep on an Unsecured Wi-Fi Network

Last week, I wrote about FireSheep,  a newly released add-on for Firefox, allowed everyone including amateur hackers and snoopers the ability to not only identify individual social networking sessions currently in progress but also the ability to impersonate those people. This was made possible by intercepting cookies being broadcast in the clear (i.e. completely unencrypted) …

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