2009

100+ free games from Microsoft

November 13, 2009 5:28 am by Jal

100+ free games from Microsoft100  Games by Microsoft

Instead of exploring new things all the time, sometimes I dig into what I have already got and I always come up with something new. Very few of us might know that Microsoft also offers lots of free games to its users. ‘The Games’ section in Windows Vista and Windows 7 is often listed in the feature lists but rarely anyone plays the games offered. And if you have checked the link in the ‘Game providers’ subsection lately, then you will find that Microsoft now offers 100+ free games to its users. So if you think you’ve had enough of solitaire and minesweeper, I’d say you do the following:

Click Start StartButton > Games. In the ‘Game Providers’ subsection, click ‘More Games from Microsoft’.

Games by Microsoft

Alternatively, you can click here: Microsoft "Play Your Game"

And guess what, that’s it. Just click “Play Now” button to play your favorite games. You can also download trial versions of these games. Enjoy!

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Create slideshows online for free

November 13, 2009 2:37 am by Jal

Create slideshows online for freeWhile slideshows are easier and fun to watch, it is equally tough to make them appealing. Not all who think they can turn those vacation pictures into a stunning slideshow can actually do so. And displaying one photo after the other at a regular time intervals is not what I call a slideshow. So if you are agreeing with me on this and want to make stunning and spectacular slideshows for free, then you might want to check out these online slideshow generators.

7 awesome online slideshow generators:

Slideroll

ss1 » Lets you create flash photo and video galleries and allow other users to comment on them.

» You can embed the slideshow on your website.

» Optional downloadable desktop editor available.

 

Imageloop

ss2 » Easy. Recommended for beginners.

» Many presets to choose from.

» Intuitive interface.

 

 

Kizoa

ss3 » Easy to use.

» Creates flash based slideshows.

» Can get a little rough at times.

 

 

Moblyng

ss4 » You can add text, skins and music tracks to the slideshows.

» Embed code is available.

» Nice interface.

 

Smilebox

ss5 » Easy and quick.

» You can add captions and music to your photos and videos.

» Hundreds of templates to choose from.

 

Slide

ss6 » Various music and design options to glorify your slideshow.

» Designed specially for sharing slideshows to social networks.

» Easy and intuitive interface.

 

Animoto

ss7 » Creates extremely professional and stunning slideshows.

» You can add predefined music to your slideshow or you can upload your own.

» Very efficient and quick slideshow generator.

Use any of these awesome slideshow generators and let us know your experience with them. If you have found any other online slideshow generators, let us know in the comments.

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SeedPond – Simplest file hosting platform

November 11, 2009 13:43 pm by Jal

SeedPond – Simplest file hosting platformI love simplicity and I think that’s what really trending these days. Many new services that are popping up on the world wide web are getting simpler and simpler. And some of them are so simple that people usually give them an eye-squirming first look. It happened with Twitter when it started but now we know what an epic Twitter is! Now that I am done with a usual philosophical introduction let me introduce you to – SeedPond, a fast and simple torrent hosting (such goes its subtitle).

SeedPond Keeping the ‘torrent’ word aside for a while, SeedPond is basically a file hosting platform that stands different just because of its speed and simplicity. And I have tested it. It is ‘simple’ in a way that the SeedPond site has just a big water-drop like ‘Upload’ button and that’s all it has got. You upload any file and get a unique link to your uploaded file.

The link to the uploaded file can be shared and the file can be downloaded a ‘reasonable’ number of times. (Yes, the terms and conditions of SeedPond explicitly uses the word ‘reasonable’). The best think about SeedPond is that there is no mystery, no confusion, no mess. Just pure file hosting. It’s definitely recommended for beginners.

Coming back to the word ‘torrent’, I really have no idea why they used it. I even tried to upload a torrent file to see if it can display the individual files but it showed a plain vanilla description as expected.

SeedPond - file description

Pros:

» Really fast and simple file hosting.

» Excellent for beginners and can be equally helpful and quick hosting solution to professionals.

» Unlimited and free file hosting.

Cons:

» Uploaded files cannot be kept private.

» SeedPond states that the file can be downloaded for a ‘reasonable’ number of times which is little annoying.

» Bulk upload not possible.

If I were to sit and write every bit of detail, I would fill up the ‘Cons’ section and that would definitely kill the very purpose of SeedPond. It’s all about simplicity, right? So go ahead and check it out.

Microsoft SyncToy 2.1 for Windows 7

November 11, 2009 1:39 am by Jal

Microsoft SyncToy 2.1 for Windows 7Microsoft SyncToy 2.1 for Windows 7 Microsoft SyncToy needs no introduction. It is an excellent freeware utility that syncs files and folders and is mostly used for sharing multimedia and documents across computers and also used for backing up important data.

Microsoft has released its updated version, SyncToy 2.1, with some new features and improvements to meet the Windows 7 standards. The new SyncToy 2.1 has native 64bit support and is available for both (x86 and x64) architectures.

SyncToy 2.1’s help section enlists these new features:

» New Platform: SyncToy 2.1 uses the latest synchronization engine from Microsoft Sync Framework 2.0.

» Better Performance: File copy speed is significantly increased.

» Exclusion Filtering Based on Name: File exclusion based on name with exact or fuzzy matching.

» Improved Robustness: Instead of failing the whole synchronization session on an unknown single file error (including network issues), SyncToy 2.1 flags the error and continues with the remaining files.

Download Microsoft SyncToy 2.1 / 3.5mb

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Facebook attacked…again!

November 10, 2009 13:08 pm by Jal

Facebook attacked…again!Facebook attacked…again! Recent news is coming by that Facebook has been hijacked by some rogue organization called ‘Control Your Info’. As of now, it has attacked a particular feature of social networking site called Facebook Groups. The thumbnail picture of the attacked groups have been changed to a unique and symbolic logo and the group ‘name’ and ‘type’ have been manipulated to show some vague text.

Facebook attacked! Picture courtesy: CNET

However, the organization states that they are just bringing out a major flaw in Facebook. As mentioned by this website, the Facebook groups that were attacked were having administrators who have stepped out of their rights and thus creating a void at the administrator level. The organization clarifies that when the administrator position becomes void, anyone can take over the group and can control it the way they want. ‘Control Your Info’ says it just wanted to bring this into everyone’s attention so that Facebook can take some serious steps to iron out the flaws.

[Thanks to CNET]

Motorola Droid Unboxed

November 9, 2009 5:01 am by Jal

Motorola Droid UnboxedAs you must have read everywhere about the Motorola Droid that just entered the market, there is nothing much to talk about it. However, unboxing the Motorola Droid is something that you don’t want to miss out.

The official Nokia Blog has done a video of unboxing of the new Motorola Droid phone.

Motorola Droid Unboxed

A quick revisit to the features of Motorola Droid smartphone:

  • 3.7 inch touchscreen display.
  • 5 megapixel camera
  • QWERTY Keyboard
  • 16GB microSD card
  • GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth
  • Runs on Android 2.0 OS.

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Blogger Buddy – Gadget for bloggers

November 9, 2009 0:47 am by Jal

Blogger Buddy – Gadget for bloggersBlogger Buddy widget for Windows Vista and Windows 7 Blogging is amazing when it is unrestricted and hassle-free. And to make blogging a smooth experience, there are many desktop blog-publishing applications available but most of them are ‘typical’ softwares that you need to install. Some might require you to download a suite in order to get a simple blog-publishing application. Here is something for those who love blogging on Blogger and hate installing a blog-publishing software – Blogger Buddy.

Blogger Buddy is a Windows Vista/Windows 7 Gadget that lets you create new posts and publish them to your Blogger blog. It also lets you preview the content before you publish.

Although a mere 120kb download, this small utility has full fledged text editor where you’ll find everything you need.

Blogger Buddy widget for Windows Vista and Windows 7 

Features of Blogger Buddy:

» Unlike a typical blog publishing software, Blogger Buddy is a Windows Vista/Windows 7 Gadget.

» Just 120KB download size and low on resources.

» Rich text editor.

» Post previews are available before publishing to Blogger blog.

So, if you are a Blogger user out there, I would recommend you to use thisgadget for posting to your blog just because it is too hassle-free and has a footprint of an ant.

Download Blogger Buddy / 120kb

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