Writing by Anandhan Subbiah on Wednesday, 23 of April , 2008 at 7:29 pm
I wrote an article about Norton 360 a while back http://anandhansubbiah.com/blog/norton-360-not-compatible-with-norton-confindential/.
Someone in Symantec actually did make the changes that most of us were asking them to do. They have reintroduced the password manager as Identity Safe . This new program actually is actually a tool bar on both IE and Firefox. It will store passwords in a secure way and it also has the option to display the passwords in clear text. I was so mad that Symantec did not support this feature in their newer releases and I was very reluctant to use other applications .
One of the main issues if you are migrating from the password manger is that you cannot import the passwords and no other program other than the password manager can actually import the data exported from the software.Hopefully the symantec folks won’t make the same mistake and allow all future versions of Identify safe to be backward compatible .
These are the major features of Norton 360 2.0
Antivirus
Antispyware
Firewall
Intrusion Prevention
Vulnerability Assessment
Phishing Protection
Web Site Authentication
Background Scheduling of Scans and Backups
Password Encryption and Security
Local Backup (CD/DVD/External Drives)
Online Backup
Encryption of Backup Data
PC Defragmentation
PC Cleanup
Integrated Support
Single license supports up to 3 computers
Norton 360 also keeps PCs optimized and tuned for peak performance and protects the data on them by making it easy to back up photos, music, and financial records and restore them at any time. I really like the disk optimization and temp files cleanup feature.
It works slightly different in Vista but the functionality is actually the same. The memory footprint is smaller than the previous version and it boots up a lot faster.
Any company which listens to customer feedback and acts upon it deserves a pat in the back and symantec has earned that now.
Category: Cool Products, Technical Articles
Writing by Anandhan Subbiah on Wednesday, 2 of April , 2008 at 7:17 pm
I wanted to write about this for a while now. The SVP of my company, Charlie Herrin presented me with this Linux based Personal Music Player . Before I go any further with my own experience of the product here is the list of awesome features of this player from Heir.
1) Rhapsody support
2) Wifi
3) FM Radio
4) Updatable skins via AirSkins
5) Web Browser
6) Video support (AOL)
7) Podcast
The player supports up to a max of 30GB which is quiet impressive. It can connect to any wi-fi network and stream rhapsody music on the fly. You can store photos and the 2.5-inch LCD screen is very good to watch photos. You can transfer any format you want (my favorite is Youtube videos) using the Rhapsody software. The software actually encodes the videos so they are suitable for viewing in the player. There is no visible glitch when watching the videos mainly due to the linux kernel and the processor.
If you are a Comcast customer like me you can download the Real Rhapsody software for free and listen to up to 25 songs for free. You can actually enter your rhapsody information in the device and listen to songs straight from the device without having to actually download and transfer them. If you have a Rhapsody All subscription then you can download as many songs as you want directly using the device or transfer songs from your computer. The songs will be licensed and you will have to connect the device the computer every 30 days to make sure they don’t expire.
The AirSkins feature is really good as it gives you lot of skins you can choose from and most of the skins are actually very easy to use and pleasant.
The only thing that can work against this player is the appearance. You will either love it or hate it. The User Interface could be better but once you are used it, the experience is not all that bad. The battery is the killer though as it drains very fast. The player actually ships without any equalizer support but the latest update seems to have fixed the problem. The quality of music is not all that great but I think the player works very well with Bose Headphones. There is not too much bass from the player and any typical Bose speaker enhances the bass at Zero to have a good audio experience in the car.
Overall the player is worth the price ( around 250$’s) as it is packed with a lot of cool and useful features.
Category: Cool Products
Writing by Anandhan Subbiah on Tuesday, 25 of March , 2008 at 7:21 pm
Category: Cool Products
Writing by Anandhan Subbiah on Saturday, 26 of January , 2008 at 8:19 am
Category: Cool Products, Technical Articles, Videos
Writing by Anandhan Subbiah on Wednesday, 5 of September , 2007 at 12:00 pm
The Sandisk - Sansa e250R Rhapsody is a great product for any Rhapsody To Go subscriber. The configuration is not that easy but the player does deliver on the rhapsody integration. I had to try several times to finally get the whole thing to work.
This is all I had to do
1) Install the Rhapsody player ( I have the comcast Rhapsody which is free for every comcast.net user). I purchased the Rhapsody To Go subscription. This model allows you to download songs from Rhapsody ( you can’t burn them to a CD) and transfer them to Rhapsody compatible devices.
2) Plug in the player and the Rhapsody software will automatically detect it and display it in the left panel. You have to then authorize the device to transfer the songs.
3) You can configure the player to either automatically sync the songs or manually transfer them.
4) You can only transfer songs which are part of the “subscription” . The player has difficulty with purchased tracks.
The good news is that you don’t have to buy Audio CD’s anymore . You can download any song you like and transfer them to the Sandisk player or allow streaming and play it using the Roku Soundbridge anywhere in the house.
The Rhapsody software as such sucks big time. It does not work in vista and it crashes a lot in XP . The most weird behavior is the sign out issue , the player just signs you out for no reason.
You can connect the device to your car audio if it supports auxiliary inputs (Acura MDX 2007 with the entertainment package supports Auxiliary inputs). You can also buy the charger so the device is charged for the entire trip.
Personally I think the subscription mode for music is the way to go for the future. This will also help avoid piracy.
The major issue is with the Rhapsody software , it is too clunky and Real should really work on creating a more reliable experience for the user.
Category: Cool Products
Writing by Anandhan Subbiah on Friday, 24 of August , 2007 at 9:24 pm
I recently purchased a Roku SoundBridge M1000 Network Music System from Amazon and it was one of my best purchases ever.
I have a subscription to Rhapsody and I also have a HP Media vault which can stream both audio and video to compatible devices. Roku worked with nearly Zero configuration with Rhapsody. This is all I did
1) Enable or start the Rhapsody server
2) Connect Roku to my receiver and switch on the device. It asked me for the language and timezone and then the wireless settings. I have a Belkin wireless router which can support data transfer rates of upto 300 Mbps.I had to enter my WEP key and it was really a pain to navigate through the keyboard.
3) As soon as Roku was able to connect to my wireless network it automatically updated itself .
4) Then it searched for compatible streaming inputs and it recognized both my Rhapsody and media vault server.I stored only my Rhapsody tracks in the rhapsody server and all other songs in my media vault to be streamed by the media vault server.
5) The display is cool and precise. It displays the time when it is switched off and it is sitting really pretty in my bedroom on top of the TV. My amplifier is right below the TV so all the wires are neatlly tucked in the back
6) Ok . Here is the cool part my wife finally fell in love with an electronic device I bought. She wanted to listen to Elliot Yamin’s songs . All I had to do was go over to my rhapsody and download the subscription tracks. I went to Roku and searched for the artist and then played the songs . All this happened within a span of 5 minutes
The audio is crystal clear . I did not even use the Digital Out which was provided as an option as I am using the Digitial In in my receiver for the DVD player.
The most efficient way to use Roku is to create your own categories as playlists and use the Roku device just to play them. Navigating through thousands of songs is not going to be easy.
My verdict : Roku Soundbridge rocks !!!
Category: Cool Products
Writing by Anandhan Subbiah on Wednesday, 11 of July , 2007 at 9:32 pm
Real has launched a new beta player at Real 11 Beta. It is a really cool product and it also installs a plugin for your browser which allows you to download any streaming audio or media source. I know there are plugins out there which can do the job but I like this plugin better.
The UI looks much more sleek and there seems to be a decent integration with Real and Rhapsody even though I have not figured out how to use this feature. If the real designers are looking for feedback this is the most important one as the UI is so confusing and they have still not figured a clean upgrade path and you can still show links to previous versions of the software which will confuse the user ( at least I got confused).
There is lot of integration with other sites on the net which host video content . The collaboration is a welcome sign to all users who want to see the best content at a single destination.
The other really nice feature of this release was that the player instead of associating itself to any video/audio format known to mankind asks if it can just associate real player with the formats not associated with any player ( Microsoft should read this blog a million times not that they will learn but atleast they will know that the “live and let live “concept is not all that bad and will be welcomed by most consumers)
Note - It does not work for me in Vista. The player loads and works for the most part but it hangs whenever I try to go to my Library and play songs. I was really hoping that the Comcast Rhapsody player will work in Vista after this installation but I was disappointed.
Category: Cool Products, Music
Writing by Anandhan Subbiah on Monday, 25 of June , 2007 at 11:33 am
There is lot of excitment around this new phone from Apple and I am really excited as well. Let us hope the phone is worth the hype. I am only concerned with the charge from the cellular provider . The phone will be as cool as advertised only if the user has access to all the data and there will be a price associated with this model.
The official launch of the iPhone is June 29, 2007, at 6PM local time. It will be available only AT&T corporate owned stores. The cost ranges from $499 to $599 for the 4GB and 8GB models respectively.
The battery will feature up to eight hours of talk time, six hours of Internet use, and seven hours of video or twenty-four hours of audio playback. There is a 2 Megapixel camera for those quality shots, and wireless web access, as highlighted in the popular commercials.
The most awaited feature is the ability to see You Tube Videos. I am very intrested in how well the streaming works.
The phone also features POP support so you can use the mail client to most major provideers like yahoo , gmail etc.
The phone is definitely on the pricey side so I would assume most consumers will wait before they jump in. Also this will also require most consumers to upgrade their service plan which means shelling out more money to the cellular provider.
Category: Cool Products, Events and News, Technical Articles
Writing by Anandhan Subbiah on Tuesday, 8 of May , 2007 at 7:08 pm
DFX is a audio enhancing software . It uses Digital Signal Processing to improve audio quality. I used DFX years back when I was in India and I loved it . Now DFX 8 is much better and sounds better than ever. It improves the sound quality of all major music types mp3,wma and even internet radio. The whole quality of the sound just changes with this tool. It is more like transforming your computer audio into an expensive stereo system. There is more bass , more depth and also a 3D feature which gives a surround sound experience to the user.
The software supports
- Windows Media Player
- RealPlayer
- Winamp
|
- Musicmatch Jukebox
- J. River Media Center
- Yahoo! Music Jukebox
|
DFX contains patent-pending technology that compensates for the compression of Internet-based audio distribution. DFX also compensates for the limitations of PC based multimedia audio playback systems. Internet audio systems using DFX yield much higher perceived audio quality and user satisfaction.
The latest DFX software supports Windows Vista as well.
Price : 39.99$ for the master pack.
Verdict : A must buy if you love music
Visit the official web site at DFX
Category: Cool Products, Music
Writing by Anandhan Subbiah on Saturday, 5 of May , 2007 at 11:50 am
I recently bought this really cool software muvee . muvee is a video creation tool . It allows creation of videos from your photos and has slick styles to make your home videos look better. Audio integration is easy as well. This product also features can also encode videos to most of the popular formats including the DVD format. You will need a seperate DVD writing software . I use Nero to write DVD’s.
Pro’s
Easy to Use
Audio Integration is excellent
Really nice styles to make videos look really cool
Con’s
Video editing tool needs improvement
Price
A brand new muvee software is $129.95 . I bought a HP Media Center PC and muvee was preinstalled so I upgraded to the full version for $69.95
Here are some videos I created.
http://www.anandhansubbiah.com/downloads/Ria-Subbiah.mpg
http://www.anandhansubbiah.com/downloads/Ria-Photos.mpg
http://www.anandhansubbiah.com/downloads/Aishwarya-Rai.mpg
http://www.anandhansubbiah.com/downloads/Anandh-Amy.mpg
Category: Cool Products, Technical Articles, Videos
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