Device Doctor is a Free Driver Update Scanner with Promise [Downloads]

Windows only: Driver update utility Device Doctor finds outdated drivers on your PC, and helps you download the latest version—without charging you a dime.

Using the utility, which can be installed or used as a portable application, is about as easy as it gets—just click the Begin Scan button, wait a couple of seconds, and you will be shown a list of drivers that can be updated. The download button for each driver will take you to their web site, where you can download the drivers for free, without signing up for anything at all. Most of the drivers come with setup programs, but some of them are nothing more than zip files, and would need to be installed manually—hopefully something they can improve on in the future.

During our testing, we used the application on half a dozen PCs, and had varied results—on our XP test system, Device Doctor worked well and accurately found new drivers, but for Windows 7 we didn't have as much luck, with a few incorrect drivers being thrown at us. That said, Windows 7 was only released recently, so expect that support to improve in the future.

Device Doctor isn’t perfect yet, but as a completely free, portable application that you can toss on your thumb drive, it’s well worth a look. It might even save you some time searching for new drivers while you are fixing mom’s PC.

Device Doctor is a free download for Windows only. Be sure to check out the full How-To Geek review for a more in-depth look, as well as instructions on installing drivers manually.






Google Reader Adds Favicon Support [Updates]

Users of our very own Better GReader Firefox extension have been able to turn on favicon support for their feeds in the Reader sidebar for a while now (a favicon is, for example, the little ‘lh’ that displays next to the address bar when you’re visiting Lifehacker); now the folks on the Reader team have caught up, adding favicon support for your subscriptions. It’s not enabled by default, so you’ll need to head to your Reader Settings page and tick the Show favicons for subscriptions checkbox to get it up and running. Good times. [Google Reader Blog]






Gmail Now Lets You Add and Send Attachments Offline [Gmail Tip]

Writing emails while offline can help keep you on top of things, especially while on the go. As of today, Offline Gmail allows you to add attachments to an email while you’re offline, bringing essentially the full offline experience to Gmail.

No one likes sending out the “Oops! I forgot my attachment!” email following an incomplete draft. If you work offline with regularity, Offline Gmail’s new offline attachment feature means less chance of forgetting. For those who have held off using offline access, here’s how to get things started:

If you haven’t tried offline access yet, visit the Labs tab and follow these instructions to get started:

  1. Select Enable next to Offline Gmail.
  2. Click Save Changes.
  3. After your browser reloads, you’ll see a new “Offline” link in the upper righthand corner of the Gmail page, next to your username. Click this link to start the offline set up process and download Gears if you don’t already have it.

If you aren’t using Offline Gmail just yet, take a closer look at what else it gets you.

Send attachments while offline [Official Gmail Blog]






Microsoft releases “Fishbowl” Facebook Windows 7 application

Microsoft demonstrated SilverFace during the Silverlight 4 announcements at PDC 2009 last week. Although SilverFace is not available download, Microsoft has made Fishbowl available. Fishbowl is a WPF desktop application that uses the Facebook stream APIs to allow access to Facebook in a clean and impressive UI. Fishbowl also includes Windows 7 only features, including taskbar notifications, jump-lists and taskbar previews. The interface fully supports multi-touch navigation too and image gestures to navigate and view your photos. Fishbowl was created by the UXLabs@Microsoft to showcase the Windows Platform. Exploring photos is one of the best features of Fishbowl, you can flick using touch gestures or flip through images with your mouse scroll-wheel.

Read full story…

Brain Scan Finds Man Was Not in a Coma—23 Years Later [Neuroscience]

Rom Houben has been trapped in a series of worst nightmares, including trying for 23 years to alert those around him that he was not in a coma. A new report suggests he’s not alone in his experience.

In 1983, Belgian engineering student and martial arts enthusiast Houben, then 20, was in a car accident that was thought to have left him in a vegetative state. Doctors relied on the widely-used Glasgow Coma Scale, assessing his eyes, verbal, and motor responses. What they failed to notice was that Houben was actually conscious—but completely paralyzed.

“I screamed, but there was no one to hear,” he says in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel. Three years ago, neurologist Steven Laureys used modern scanning techniques to discover that Houben’s cerebral cortex was, in fact, functioning. (The doctor has only just now made Houben’s story public.)

Houben, who communicates via a computer with a special keyboard activated with the slightest movement of his right hand, is now 46. He has spent more than half his life trapped in his own body, and says he only survived this excruciating existence by dreaming himself away. In the interview, this is what he typed:

I am called Rom. I am not dead. The nurses came, they patted me, they sometimes took my hand, and I heard them say "no hope." I meditated, I dreamed my life away—it was all I could do. I don't want to blame anyone—it wouldn't do any good. But I owe my life to my family. Everyone else gave up.

I studied what happened around me as if it were a tiny piece of world drama, the bizarre peculiarities of the other patients in the common room, the entry of the doctors into my room, the gossip of the nurses who were not embarrassed to speak about their boyfriends in front of “the extinct one.” That made me an expert on relationships.

According to Laureys, Houben’s case may be far more common than we’d like to think. The doctor, who leads the Coma Science Group and Department of Neurology at Liege University Hospital, says that while Houben’s doctors were “not good,” he’s not sure better ones using this same coma scale would have detected brain activity either:

In Germany alone each year some 100,000 people suffer from severe traumatic brain injury. About 20,000 are followed by a coma of three weeks or longer. Some of them die, others regain health. But an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people a year remain trapped in an intermediate stage—they go on living without ever coming back again.

In his paper, Laureys writes that in about 40 percent of “vegetative state” cases he has analyzed, current brain scanning techniques reveal signs of varying levels of consciousness. A case is being made, it seems, to stop relying on the Glasgow Coma Scale and start looking more closely at brain scanning images.






Backupify Makes Regular Backups of Your Online Data [Backups]

Think about how much of your important data is stuck in the cloud. Web service Backupify backs up all your online accounts (including WordPress, Facebook, Gmail, and Flickr) so if a service you rely on suddenly goes poof!, your data won’t.

Backupify is a spiffy service that automatically performs scheduled backups at one of the 10 online services they support. Supply the login credentials of the sites you want backed up, and Backupify takes care of the rest. Once you’re up and running, if your Gmail, Google Docs, or FriendFeed account flakes out, you won’t have to freak out because all your important stuff is stored safely somewhere else.

Backupify offers Twitter backups for free and three additional premium plans that range from $3.95 to $14.95 per month, depending on how much storage you need. Seems like a reasonable price to pay for the comfort of knowing the data you store in the cloud won’t disappear into the ether some day.






BMW's Diesel Plug-In Hybrid: 63 mpg, Faster Than an M3

BMW_Vision_Hero_7421.jpg
BMW’s EfficientDynamics Vision concept car combines the best of all worlds with incredible fuel efficiency, breaktaking performance, and sensational looks. It’s powered by a three-cylinder turbo-diesel engine, lithium polymer batteries, and electric motors front and rear. The BMW Vision gets a U.S. unveiling next week at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Dec. 4-13. The only bad news: The BMW Vision is more vision than production-ready concept car. What you’d most likely see on sale would be the key components such as the drivetrain and battery technology transplanted to a more mainstream body.

 

On a stopover from Europe en route to L.A., BMW held a series of press briefings at its Chestnut Ridge, N.J., U.S. headquarters. According to BMW, the goal was to create a car that would be as quick as BMW’s V8 M3, yet tread lightly in terms of environmental impact. Here’s how the BMW Vision has the potential to win the hearts and minds of hot-rodders, environmentalists, and techies alike:

Total output from the engine and electric motors is 356hp, and peak torque is 590 foot-pounds (a lot). Acceleration to 100 kph (62 mph) takes just 4.8 seconds and speed tops out at 155 mph. Average fuel consumption is 62.6 mpg or 3.76 liters/100 km in European figures. The fuel economy translates to CO2 emissions of 99 grams per kilometer; getting below 100 is the holy grail by EU standards.

The Vision has a range of 431 miles, BMW says: 31 miles in all-electric mode, about the same as the Chevrolet Volt, plus 400 miles from the 6.6 gallon fuel tank. BMW hasn’t yet tried to play the U.S.-automaker mpg numbers game, saying that since most trips are less than 30 miles, and since big powerplant generation is more efficient than using a combustion engine, the effective mileage is up around 200 mpg. What is clear is that electric motors are extremely efficient, as are big power plants, so the effective cost of energy is less than half that of diesel or gasoline fuel.

The three-cylinder, 1.5-liter engine alone produces 163 hp. BMW says the output of 109 hp per liter is the most power produced by a diesel engine. It’s small enough to fit ahead of the rear axle for better weigh distribution. Power travels to the rear wheels via a six-speed double-clutch transmission.

One electric motor, in back, sits between the diesel engine and transmission and produces 33 hp (51 hp peak). It can run on its own, without the combustion engine, making the Vision what’s considered an active hybrid, as opposed to a mild hybrid where the combustion engine always powers the car. The second motor powers the front axle; it produces 80 hp (continuous), 112 hp (30-second bursts), or 139 hp (10-second bursts). The two motors also act as brakes and regenerate power into the lithium polymer battery pack that runs in a tunnel along the floor of the car. Fuel for the diesel engine is in the rear of the tunnel (separate compartment; it doesn’t just slosh around the batteries).

The battery pack has enough juice to bring anyone back from cardiac arrest (or cause it): 98 lithium-polymer cells deliver 30 amp/hours at 3.7 volts, or 111 watt-hours. So each cell is about equal to two laptop batteries. For periods of up to 30 seconds, each cell develops 1,200 amps. Plug the Vision into a standard (in Europe) 220-volt, 16-amp circuit, and the car fully recharges in 2.5 hours. Uses 380 volts and 32 amps and you’re back on the road in 44 minutes. Conversely, you’d be looking at overnight plugged into 120 volt U.S. power.

Since it’s a concept car, cost and practicality aren’t the main concerns. BMW has provided some stunning visual touches:

Windshield and Roof From One Piece of Glass
BMW_Vision_Glass_P90047123_highRes.jpg

The windshield and roof are a single piece of glass (or polycarbonate). The body is carbon fiber and the chassis is aluminum, all of which yields a weight under 3,000 pounds, a third of a ton less than the BMW M3.

Glass Cockpit
BMW_Vision_HUD_P90047173.jpg

The instrument panel consists of both a small display in front of the steering and a big head-up display.

iDrive in the Center Console
BMW_Vision_iDrive_P90047161.jpg

Since it's a BMW, there's iDrive. Of course.  

Alloy Wheels Help Channel Airflow
BMW_Vision_Wheel_MG_7422.jpg

The alloy wheels look like a child’s pinwheel, less so to extract heat from the brakes (regeneration means the brakes don’t work that hard on this car) but to help move air in a continuous boundary layer over the bodywork. There’s also a small slit in the front fender that channels air around the wheels. BMW says the tires are a new generation that provides low rolling resistance without giving up handling.

Airflow Over the Body
BMW_Vision_Airflow_P90050695.jpg

The trademark BMW kidney grille opens and closes to channel airflow at different speeds for reduced wind resistance.

Thin Seats Save Space
BMW_Vision_Seats_P90047164.jpg

The seats are meant to be supportive but almost wafer thin. Don’t carry whiny 5-year-olds in back if they’re prone to show displeasure by kicking the front seatbacks. Not that you’d want kids in a car with white and light-color upholstery anyhow.

 

Twitter use declines further

After a huge rush of success at its birth, the social networking website Twitter is seeing substantially less tweets as time goes on for US users. According to an article at eMarketer following spectacular initial growth, fall 2009 is proving to be a difficult time for Twitter. Although it has not been unusual to see changes in the amount of traffic Twitter gains, one thing remains plain to see: traffic to the Twitter.com website is declining month over month after a period of huge gains. According to data provided to eMarketer by Nielsen, traffic to Twitter.com was down a substantial 27.8% between September and October 2009, falling to 18.9 million unique visitors.

Read full story…

Bitch-Busting, Ammo-Counting Aliens Gun Is Real, Scary [Guns]

At Milipol, I was walking around FN Herstal‘s booth, playing with futuristic-looking P90s, Five-Sevens and F2000s when I noticed a camera-toting tourist pretend-blasting with something very very cool: The Armatronics “Black Box” suite with Moving Red Dot Fire Control.

They’d taken a SCAR assault rifle, and put a “black box” inside the handgrip, networking it with the soldier (“with a kind of Bluetooth” according to the PR guy), and also to home base. The grip is a sealed, 10-year unit that logs the number of bullets fired and remaining ammo a la Aliens. They’re also working on pairing to specific soldiers, perhaps using biometrics. Deactivating it if the Taliban get it, for instance? “In the near future,” said PR man enigmatically.

The second part of the suite is the Moving Red Dot Fire Control Unit, which is a networked firing solution computer for the grenade launcher. You press a button next to the trigger to activate the laser rangefinder, then the computer calculates the solution, shows it to you in the LED display, then moves the red dot to aim it. That's right—laser-guided grenades. You are your own air support. [FN Herstal]

Apoorva Prasad is a freelance writer and photographer based in Paris, France, who covered the Milipol 2009 military-police expo for us. He has a thing for holo-scoped assault rifles, and sounds disappointed when admitting he’s never been Tased.






Dell’s Net Income Drops 54% [Dell]

Bad news for Dell. With quarterly earnings reports in, their year-over-year revenue has dropped 15% to just shy of $13 billion, and their net income dropped 54% to $337 million. Surprisingly, Dell’s home PC business is up 17% from last year, but they’re making less money off it, with revenue in that sector down 10%. [Electronista]






Windows SteadyState

If you have a shared access computer, it can be aggravating when other users make a bunch of changes to the settings. Today we take a look at SteadyState for Windows Vista and XP which lets you return the computer to the original state after a user session.

Windows SteadyState

Not only does SteadyState return the PC back to its original state, but you can set it up to restrict what the user can access. You can lock down virtually every aspect of the computer from programs to websites and more. Of course you’ll need to be the administrator, and the first thing to do is install current drivers and Windows Updates. Then install programs and configure settings you want to how you want the machine to be every time it’s restored. Once everything is set up and you create different user account, you can let the public have at it. Any changes they make to the configuration will be undone just by restarting the machine. Here we take a look at SteadyState running on a Windows XP machine.

When you install SteadyState you’ll need to validate your copy of windows with Genuine Advantage. If you don’t have the WGA tool already on your machine you will be prompted to download and install it.

2-stead

Add and Restrict a New User

When SteadyState starts you’ll get an overview of User Settings and Global Computer Settings. Now the fun part begins, you can make access as strict of lenient as you want.

5stead

In the first part of the SteadyState wizard, add the username, password, and picture. Notice you can create the user on the system drive or an alternate partition or drive.

4-stead

In the next step you’ll start with General settings and adjust the time the user can spend on the system. Make sure to lock the profile so they can’t make permanent changes themselves.

6stead

In Windows Restrictions you can restrict them from several aspects of the OS. You can set the restrictions from High, Medium, Low, none or customize them according to your needs. You can hide certain drives from the user as well, so they can’t mess around with any data on them.

7stead

In Feature Restrictions you can lock down Internet access through IE and program menus and settings. The cool feature here is you can set the user home page and also create a Whitelist of sites they will have access to.

8stead

In the Block Programs section you determine which programs a user can access.

9stead

Windows Disk Protection helps protect system settings and data on the drive where the OS is installed. It is turned off by default and to turn it on click Protect the Hard disk.

2disk

In the next screen you can turn it on and to complete the process a restart is required.

1-disk

After the restart you can choose a level of protection for the disk from always removing changes, retaining them temporarily, or allowing all changes.

4disk

You can change the cache file size if you need to free up disk space. The minimum amount of space you can use is 2GB.

5disk

Schedule Windows Updates and other program updates. You can also use your own script to schedule a time.

6disk

Getting this to work in Windows 7 is rather tricky. I installed it using compatibility mode on Windows 7 32-bit, however not everything worked. Right now I see no official support for it. They were going to include a similar feature but it was scrapped. If you still have a public XP or Vista machine however, it is still a great choice.

2222-11-19-[21-15-56]

Conclusion

This is a great program for a public computer at a coffee shop, at a school, a library or just from keeping your young ones messing things up. It officially works with XP and Vista…Maybe some of you have gotten it to work on Windows 7? Leave a comment and let us know.

Similar Articles Tinyhacker – Tiny Geek Hacks
Latest Software Reviews Super User Daily
Geek Arcade Popular Forum Threads

Windows SteadyState Returns Your PC to Normal

If you have a shared access computer, it can be aggravating when other users make a bunch of changes to the settings. Today we take a look at SteadyState for Windows Vista and XP which lets you return the computer to the original state after a user session.

Windows SteadyState

Not only does SteadyState return the PC back to its original state, but you can set it up to restrict what the user can access. You can lock down virtually every aspect of the computer from programs to websites and more. Of course you’ll need to be the administrator, and the first thing to do is install current drivers and Windows Updates. Then install programs and configure settings you want to how you want the machine to be every time it’s restored. Once everything is set up and you create different user account, you can let the public have at it. Any changes they make to the configuration will be undone just by restarting the machine. Here we take a look at SteadyState running on a Windows XP machine.

When you install SteadyState you’ll need to validate your copy of windows with Genuine Advantage. If you don’t have the WGA tool already on your machine you will be prompted to download and install it.

2-stead

Add and Restrict a New User

When SteadyState starts you’ll get an overview of User Settings and Global Computer Settings. Now the fun part begins, you can make access as strict of lenient as you want.

5stead

In the first part of the SteadyState wizard, add the username, password, and picture. Notice you can create the user on the system drive or an alternate partition or drive.

4-stead

In the next step you’ll start with General settings and adjust the time the user can spend on the system. Make sure to lock the profile so they can’t make permanent changes themselves.

6stead

In Windows Restrictions you can restrict them from several aspects of the OS. You can set the restrictions from High, Medium, Low, none or customize them according to your needs. You can hide certain drives from the user as well, so they can’t mess around with any data on them.

7stead

In Feature Restrictions you can lock down Internet access through IE and program menus and settings. The cool feature here is you can set the user home page and also create a Whitelist of sites they will have access to.

8stead

In the Block Programs section you determine which programs a user can access.

9stead

Windows Disk Protection helps protect system settings and data on the drive where the OS is installed. It is turned off by default and to turn it on click Protect the Hard disk.

2disk

In the next screen you can turn it on and to complete the process a restart is required.

1-disk

After the restart you can choose a level of protection for the disk from always removing changes, retaining them temporarily, or allowing all changes.

4disk

You can change the cache file size if you need to free up disk space. The minimum amount of space you can use is 2GB.

5disk

Schedule Windows Updates and other program updates. You can also use your own script to schedule a time.

6disk

Getting this to work in Windows 7 is rather tricky. I installed it using compatibility mode on Windows 7 32-bit, however not everything worked. Right now I see no official support for it. They were going to include a similar feature but it was scrapped. If you still have a public XP or Vista machine however, it is still a great choice.

2222-11-19-[21-15-56]

Conclusion

This is a great program for a public computer at a coffee shop, at a school, a library or just from keeping your young ones messing things up. It officially works with XP and Vista…Maybe some of you have gotten it to work on Windows 7? Leave a comment and let us know.

Download SteadyState

Similar Articles Tinyhacker – Tiny Geek Hacks
Latest Software Reviews Super User Daily
Geek Arcade Popular Forum Threads

Gifts for Angry, Rant-Prone Apple Haters [Giftguide]

There are loads of Apple haters out there (even some among our commenters), and they deserve great tech gifts just as much as that guy who thinks all PMPs are called iPods. Here are some very un-Apple gift ideas.

BTW, if you hate the gallery format as much as the Grinch hated Christmas, click here.


Zune HD + ZunePass and HD Dock: If your Apple hater is in the market for a PMP, there’s no better option than the Zune HD—in terms of media capabilities, it kicks the iPod Touch's standard-def ass with HD radio, 720p video output, a killer OLED screen and a gorgeous, media-centric UI. It'll play any file your iPod can (that aren't iTunes protected), and can also handle video up to 720p. (iPods can't go there yet.) The ZunePass, which gives unlimited music downloads for $15 a month, is a killer supplement, and the HD dock, which outputs high-def video to TVs, is a must-have add-on. Put them together and you will bestow your Apple hater with bragging rights over those poor, deprived iPod owners. $290, $70 (dock), $15/month (ZunePass). [Link; Zune HD, HD Dock, ZunePass]


HP TouchSmart 600: The new iMac is nice and all, but try poking it in the face and see what happens. Here, I'll spoil it for you: Nothing. The HP TouchSmart 600 isn't perfect, but its multitouch media capabilities offer a wow factor no Mac desktop can boast. And that's what it is now—there's no telling what developers will do with Windows 7's integrated touch. Plus, it's comparatively cheaper, spec for spec, than the iMac, and you can get a Blu-ray drive built-in, with no philosophical kerfuffle from Apple about the future of digital media. You want to watch Planet Earth in HD on Blu-ray right now, dammit, and you shouldn’t have to wait for the HD stream to trickle in. $1,110. [Link; Amazon]


Whatever the Hot PC Game Is Right Now: I don’t play videogames that don’t feature Mario prominently, but even I know that anyone with a passing interest in computer gaming has to have a Windows PC. Apple haters will love a copy of Dragon Age: Origins or Left 4 Dead 2 on PC, not just because they're great games (or so I hear—thanks Will!) but also because you can't play 'em on the Mac OS. $40 each. [Dragon Age: Origins, Left 4 Dead 2]


Motorola Droid: Sure, Matt may have called the Droid "the second best smartphone you can buy," the best being the iPhone 3GS, but Apple haters will find plenty to love about the Droid—and plenty to loathe about the iPhone. I won't rehash our review (or Verizon's intimidating "Droid Does" ad campaign), but anybody who's into tech enough to hate Apple will really be into the distinctly un-Apple Droid. Multitasking, open-source, a ballsy industrial design, and a hardware keyboard: Droid's got it, iPhone doesn't. $200. [Link; Verizon]


Logitech Performance MX Mouse: I don't care if Apple's Magic Mouse is the best Apple mouse ever—in my opinion, one shared among Apple lovers and haters alike, Apple's mouse pedigree is nothing to be proud of. Style over ergonomics, awkward touch scrolling, high price—the Magic Mouse is an easy gadget to hate. The Logitech Performance MX isn't. Logitech crammed in an amazing new laser technology that even works on glass, it fits comfortably in the hand and has real buttons, dammit, like in the good old days. If you're not desperate for something to match your Mac, and certainly your Apple hater is not, the Logitech Performance MX is the right choice. $80. [Link; Amazon]


Acer Aspire One: Apple doesn't think netbooks match up with their premium brand reputation, but the public doesn't care—netbooks are huge sellers, and the Acer Aspire One AOD250 is one of the most interesting yet. It dual-boots not one but two non-Apple OSes (Android and XP), offers a whopping nine hours of battery life, and its diminutive 10.1-inch size is just right for travel—perfect for somebody who wants to point out the gaping 8-to-12-inch hole in Apple's lineup. $330. [Link; Amazon]

Note: In an earlier version of this post, I accidentally described a not-yet-released notebook from Asus, not this sweet little netbook. Sorry for the confusion.


Tickets to a Girl Talk Show: Aside from putting on a damn fun show, mash-up artist Girl Talk (real name Gregg Gillis) is not only one of the most prominent electronic musicians working today but the only exclusive Windows user in that genre who comes to mind. Plus, a major part of his shows, since there's no, you know, band, or anything, is inviting the crowd up on stage in a sweaty, hipstery, dancey mass while he mixes music live on his PC—with Saran Wrap taped all over it, for protection against flying perspiration. Girl Talk proves that Apple doesn't have a monopoly on music production, and your Apple hater will have a great time to boot. $15-25. [Link; Girl Talk, Image from Pedestrian.tv]


DON’T BUY HP Envy 13: But why not buy this well-reviewed, recently released, Windows-7-running laptop? I'll tell you why. The HP Envy 13 is a photocopy of a photocopy of the 13-inch MacBook Pro—same aluminum case, same black bezel around the screen, same chiclet keyboard with reversed Fn keys, same multitouch clicking trackpad. It's definitely not a bad laptop, and does have a few advantages over the MacBook Pro (like a better screen and crazy battery life) but it's also got weaknesses: No optical drive, for one, but also an unforgivably high price. The Envy 13 starts at $1700, $500 more than the MacBook Pro. Although if it were one day given the Hackintosh treatment, it would be the creepiest Mac clone ever, it’s currently quite un-Hackintoshable (if that’s a term). [Link; HP]

Don't forget to recommend your own favorite Apple-hating gifts in comments—include pics and pricing if possible.

All Giz Wants is our annual round-up of favorite gift ideas, including amazing attainable objects and a few far-out fantasies. We’ll be popping guides catered to different interests several times per day for the next week, so keep checking back.