Archive for the ‘Computer Gadgets’ Category
Thursday, August 20th, 2009 |
A new feature which became available since Vista has been released and can be also found in Windows 7, is Microsoft’s Desktop Gadgets application. Gadgets became very popular, and they are very useful in their form of small application which brings information on your desktop. They are practically mini-applications which run on the desktop while you can do anything else, and they bring you the specific information you need. Microsoft didn’t become more popular with this additional feature, and he isn’t the first to use these mini applications, but they are a good improvement on the system, and they help a lot the users. Now it’s easier to create gadgets, and there are a lot of people developing their own gadgets, and then offer them to the public.
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If you want to add Microsoft Desktop Gadgets on your desktop, the method is quite easy. You should right click on the desktop, and then choose the Gadgets option in the appearing menu. This action will bring you a dialog windows, which will show you the gadgets installed on your system. In the following image you can see a print screen of this dialog, and you can observe that the interface is user friendly, and quite well organized. You can add some of the gadgets in the sidebar, or you can get more gadgets from Microsoft website.
A very simple gadget is the Calendar, and I chose it to explain you some details about Windows 7 gadgets.
Each
gadget has the possibility of customization, if this was intended by the designer, and if he made it available. Here you can see the standard buttons which can be used in customizing the gadget. First button is for closing the gadget, so if you want it to disappear from the Sidebar, you just click it and the gadget is gone, you can make it smaller (there are gadgets which have expanded form, larger than the sidebar’s limits, and you can press on the second button to make it smaller, so it can fit inside the Microsoft Sidebar. The third button is for positioning the gadget inside the sidebar or on the desktop. All gadgets can be used inside the sidebar, or anchored on the desktop. The last button is for settings, and the dialog which shows up varies from gadget to gadget.
Here are the default gadgets which come with
Windows 7, and short descriptions for each of them. More than these, you can download any time new gadgets, which fit your needs and preferences.
The Digital Dutch Clock is the default clock which comes with the installation of Windows Vista or 7, but the Dutch Clock is the better version. It has an analogic clock and an additional digital time with seconds, in the lower part of the clock, and it also shows the day and the date. It allows you to name it, and you can have more clocks, for various cities or time zones.
Weatherbug is great for weather geeks, and it shows you the weather for the next three days for the location you set up. GMail is the decent way of managing you GMail account, and it also has sounds for alerting you on various events. CPU meter is a very useful gadget in my opinion, and it helps even the people who know least about computers to take care about their devices. It shows information about the CPU and it can work with eight, quad, triple or dual core machines. The image here is for a quad machine.
Another interesting metering gadget is Wireless Network Meter, and it shows the SSID, the quality of the wireless signal you receive, your IP and the up/down speeds.
Social networking hasn’t been forgotten and there is a default gadget called Facebook Explorer, and it shows notifications and news without having to check the website all the time.
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Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 |
A lot of people who use laptops like to listen radio on Pandora, and they can be happy now, because there has been released a new gadget for Vista, which allows them to listen to radio directly from desktop. This Pandora is a version of the website, but comprised into a small square, on the right side of your desktop. Next to the weather bug, notepad and CPU meter, you can add this useful gadget which will bring your favorite radio utility on your computer. This gadget allows you to log you into your Pandora account, and access all the stations you have previously saved, and it is nice because you can also customize these stations by approving or disapproving songs and artist. Users have the possibility to do this even in the gadget, and it is a very simple system: thumbs up or down.
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This gadget is organized in tabs, and there is the first one, where you can see all your favorite stations. The next one allows you to search for new radio stations, and it’s very simple. You just have to type in the search bar what you are looking for, and then, after the search is done you can save them or delete them from your search history. The search bar appears like a pop-up bar when you click on the Station tab.
Pandora allows, on the website, to email the radio station to friends, and the option is present in the gadget too. There are more options related to stations, like bookmarking. Clicking on Bookmarks will take you to your bookmark page on
Pandora website, and there you can see your profile and the bookmarks you have previously saved. Video series feature isn’t available in the gadget version, but I think it is enough, it is perfect for listening to music and it is pretty cool for this purpose. In the gadget version, you cannot find other listeners, like you can do on the website, but if you are the simple type of user, who just navigates to Pandora to listen to music, the gadget is perfect for you. There are no visual ads on the gadget, and this is pretty cool, though they aren’t annoying on the site either.
When going to the website, while the gadget is running in background, the site remembers the last station you were on the site and it starts streaming for music on that station, while the gadget continues streaming from the station chosen in its window. Something interesting, when you set up the website and the gadget on the same station, users reported that both played the same artist, but different songs. This gadget also offers you the possibility to buy the tracks you like, from Amazon or iTunes, and this is great for people who want to listen music while working or just browsing the Internet, and it is the best alternative to illegal downloading.
Installation is very very simple. You have to click here, ‘
Download the Pandora Vista Gadget‘, and then choose from the alternatives shown ‘Open with Windows Sidebar’ and then ‘OK’. When prompted click on ‘Install’ and then ‘OK’. After you installed it, you can manage the stations, the playlists, you can thumb up or down the songs right from the gadget. Pandora developers continue improving their radio system, and all the features, almost all, are transferred to the gadget too
If you have Vista 64 on your computer, you should do some extra steps. Following information is from Pandora’s website.
- Right-click the Windows Sidebar and select Properties.
- Un-check the “Start Sidebar when Windows starts†option and hit OK. Then…
- Click the green Windows Start Button in the lower left of your screen.
- Click “All Programsâ€
- Scroll down until you see the “Startup†folder
- Right-click the “Startup†folder and select “Exploreâ€
- In the window that pops up, right-click the empty white space and select New->Shortcut
- Copy the following text, including quotes:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exeâ€
- Paste that copied text into the Shortcut’s “Location†field.
- Click “Next” and then click “Finish.â€
- Restart Windows Vista 64
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Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 |
The most visible aspect of a computer system is the case and it says a lot about your personality, but it also is important for a fault-free functioning of the system. Computers have changed dramatically fast over the years, not only in the aspect of technic specifications, but also in the design and features matter. The materials, sizes, shapes and colors evolved and they became more and more customizeable, bringing up on the industry’s market new competitive advantages for the producers. This article will point out the most important elements which should be taken into consideration when purchasing a computer case.
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Computer cases can range in size from mini all the way up to full tower, and most of the computer cases sold now in shops have the tower shape. The important aspect is that in a tower shaped computer case the space available for components is better organized and in a tower case fit more components than in a flat one. A huge difference is made between the cases by the material the case is made of. Plastics and acrylics can be used for computer cases, and steel or aluminium too. The material has a great influence on how much heat is kept inside or how much is distributed out of the system. This heat cycle depends also on the computer’s portability and always make sure that the case is well fixed so it can correctly protect the computer. An important aspect is the position of the fans and of the coolers inside the case.
Many of computers users like to customize it and they like to express their personality through the devices they own. The case reflects a lot of our personality, if we pay attention to details, if we are geeks, if we are joyful people (if we like colorful cases), and many other things.
PC Gaming is an online domain with an interesting evolution along the time, and this is because PC gamers are making upgrades constantly on their systems and they always like to have the latest and the coolest components in their computers. This specific hardware is very expensive and a PC Gaming Case has much more features than the standard PC. and the difference is about supports for watercooling and easy access to USB and other ports.
NZXT has on the market a case that offers a gamer almost everything he would like, including a $100 price. The features that NZXT is offering to its customers include dual radiator support and an aditional space for the fan in the cooling system. It has support for E-ATX and it allows more compatibility with high end components including graphic cards with larger dimensions than the normal ones. It is great because it offers easier access to the cables and components and the cable management is much better than at a normal case. The PSU mounted at the bottom of the case allows more security and separates the heat from the CPU. The fans for the HDD have a larger capacity than can hold up to 8 HDD’s and can maintain the proper temperature for these HDDs successfully.
All in all, I like very much this case because with its extended capabilities it offers computer users more safety in computer usage and its functionality is best for satisfying its customers.
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Monday, August 3rd, 2009 |
If you are a Vista user, you might be familiar with the sidebar, and with the gadgets, but if you don’t know what they are, in this article you will find a short description of the concept, and what types of gadgets you can find online.
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Gadgets are mini applications that offer you information at a glance and provide easy access to tools you use often. Windows Sidebar is the place where the gadgets are organized and located. If you use the computer to gather various information, do your work and have fun too, you might feel that your computer is overloaded as you use more than one application to check the weather, make a booking for your flight, organize your calendar and use also a computer calculator. Windows Sidebar is associated with some mini programs, called gadgets, which are specialized on the information you need, and provide it in real-time, very easily.
But what is Windows Sidebar and why is it so important? This is the pane on the side of the Vista desktop where all the gadgets can be centralised and available all the time. Windows Sidebar works very good on all standard displays and on widescreens too. It makes use of space in an ergonomic manner and it can be easily customized to fit with your needs. It can be always on top, or not, and the gadgets can be kept there or docked anywhere on the desktop.
Gadgets are mini applications, which have a very large palette of uses: they can get connected to Internet to get business data and deliver it to you, they can bring weather information and news updates, traffic maps as well, radios and slide shows of pictures stored on your computer or in your online album. The gadgets come in many forms and they can have more dedicated purposes: they can calculate things for you, they can be sticky notes and they can control your media player. Windows Vista gadgets offers you a set of basic applications, and as you learn more about them, and you want more information, you can download more in time.
Windows Vista Sidebar pays a lot of attention to customization, so you can download all the gadgets possible from Windows Vista Library, according to your needs. Short time after Vista was launched, there weren’t too many available for download gadgets, but in time, the library started to become populated, and many users started to create their own gadgets.
I think it’s very interesting that Windows Vista gadgets are used as marketing tools too, because there are companies which create their own gadgets, which offer them the possibility to communicate to fans their promotions, news and products releases.
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Thursday, July 30th, 2009 |
I understand that technology has reached a level that is very difficult to be assimilated by most of us, because there are many areas where development is way beyond the normal capacity of people’s comprehension.
But from what I’m able to understand to the presence of all sorts of devices in places that you wouldn’t have dared to think about, it is a long way off. Have you ever seen, for example, portable DVD players inside mini vans and any other vehicle that has appeared in the last couple of years? I’m sure you did, because such vehicles are almost everywhere.
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Those which aren’t equipped with the players are old-fashioned and their owners are trying their best in order to somehow bring them to date. But it’s expensive for some of us to focus our attention on something that we can’t use outside the car. So the only choice we have left is to find a solution, a cheaper one.
Laptops are all the rage these days and you can’t find a household that is not equipped with one. Therefore, why not use the laptop while driving the car? One of the reasons might be the fact that it is difficult to set up.
But here you have the CradleVue, “an ingenious, patent-pending device which is designed to securely suspend your notebook computer between the front seats of your vehicle – positioning it perfectly for unobstructed backseat viewingâ€.
So, the CradleVue gives you the possibility to watch a movie if you like, to play your favorite computer games or even do your homework while going from one place to another. A great advantage is that it can be installed in less than one minute and can be adjusted to cars, mini vans, SUVs and trucks.
The CradleVue is available right now for $19.99. However, the normal price of of $24.99.
(Source: Coolest-Gadgets)
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