Windows only: Free application Comodo EasyVPN creates a virtual private network between your computers for a hassle-free, secure private network. That means you can access, for example, anything on your home computer from work as though you’re on the same local network.

Comodo EasyVPN, like previously mentioned VPN app Hamachi, is simple to set up. Just install the application, register for an account, and then log in. Once you’ve got the app running on a couple of computers, you can easily (and securely) access one computer from the other as though you’re on the same local network.

As we mentioned in our guide to Hamachi, a VPN comes in handy when:

• You’re on the road with your laptop and want secure access to your PC’s files.
• Your office or dorm room computer is behind a restrictive firewall that doesn’t let you reach it from the internet.
• You want to add encryption to insecure network protocols like VNC.
• You want to set up a shared folder of files for friends and family to access.

We showed you how to set up secure VNC with Hamachi, and the same basic steps would apply with Comodo EasyVPN. So is EasyVPN better than Hamachi? Not necessarily, but since LogMeIn bought Hamachi, it’s only free for non-commercial use. If you want or need to use a VPN for work purposes and don’t have the extra budget, Comodo EasyVPN will do the job nicely. Update: Apparently EasyVPN is also only available for non-commercial use. This information was not on the main page, but I missed it on their download page. Apologies for the confusion. Apart from the basics, EasyVPN also comes with a built-in, secure chat tool.

Comodo EasyVPN is a free download, works with Windows XP and above with support for 32- and 64-bit systems.

Windows: Panda Cloud, the constantly updated, cloud-run antivirus app that promises almost real-time protection from burgeoning web threats, is out of beta and available for a free download.

As the How-To Geek detailed in his beta write-up, Panda does most of its computing, file-checking, and threat updating on its servers, leaving a very light and agile app presence on your system. It caches its threat database offline with a minimal bit of hard drive space, and the interface is far from cluttered, as you see above. In general, it's a very polite anti-virus app, and if the Geek considers it worth mentioning, well—he's far from calmly objective on the topic of anti-virus apps, so consider it a recommendation.

During the beta process, Panda appears to have focused on tightening up CPU and memory usage even more, as well as fixing the “stuck” errors encountered by some users. If you’re already running a beta, Panda recommends uninstalling that, and installing the 1.0 final.

Panda Cloud Antivirus is a free download for home users and educational groups on Windows systems only.

Crutches. In a thousand years, their design hasn’t fundamentally changed. And for something as minor as a sprained ankle or broken foot, the Freedom Leg looks like a welcome alternative.

A light, 2.5lb exoskeleton, the Freedom Leg moves all of your body weight from your injured foot to the prosthesis frame and your upper leg, meaning that you can walk pretty much like your used to while you heal up. And while I welcome resident doctors to list all of this product’s flaws in the comments, to my pea brain, the idea seems so obvious and simple that it just might work. [Forward Mobility via medGadget via OhGizmo!]

I’ve started to buy vinyl records again. It’s not because of the sound. It’s the touch and the pretty pictures. Obviously, vinyl is not why CDs are dying. Zoom-zoom in, digital boys and girls.

What surprises me about these facts and figures—apart from iTunes skyrocketing again after the introduction of variable pricing—is the fact that CDs are not completely dead yet. They are clearly going down, but I had this mental image in which all of those round mirrors were destroyed, melting like Dali clocks in a desert of indifference. [Mint]

330 million users and 7,000 add-ons

Calgary’s Jarome Iginla was named the NHL’s first star of the week Monday after scoring five goals in three games, helping lead the Flames to three consecutive victories.

Google has bought VoIP service Gizmo5, according to tech news weblog TechCrunch. If that’s true, we’re thinking it could mean some seriously cool things for Google Voice.

We detailed a few months back how to make free VoIP calls from Google Voice with Gizmo5, so connecting Google Voice with Gizmo5 seems like a no-brainer. Right now when you sign up for a Google Voice account, the service can only ring phones you’ve already got. As TechCrunch points out, Gizmo5 integration could give your Voice number its own endpoint.

That said, none of this is confirmed at this point. Let’s hear your thoughts and pie-in-the-sky predictions for Gizmo5 and Google integration in the comments.

We just received a set of screengrabs from an anonymous source giving us a glimpse at what appears to be Google’s (and thus, the world’s) future interface to its web applications, Gmail in particular. While we were originally tempted to ignore them, communications with the tipster would indicate genuine insider knowledge. Regardless, we can not independently confirm the authenticity of these images. Having said that, the pics demonstrate a more unified apps interface based on Google’s Wave and accessible from any browser (as they are now). Specifically, we’re told that “the goal is to provide a consistent experience throughout all Google Apps and blur the line between the browser and the website (e.g. drag and drop, right-click, etc.).” Something that certainly makes sense to us based on what we know about Google’s tender approach to its Chrome browser and its future “lightweight” Chrome OS. If true then this “work in progress” also hints at the importance of Wave to the future of Google. Then again, it could be just one of many possible interface concepts from Google’s burgeoning developer’s sandbox.

Filed under: Software

Google making Waves across all its Apps? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

A second person has been fired for allowing members of the Calgary Flames to receive the swine flu shot while Albertans had to line up for hours at vaccination clinics.

The Yorkton, Sask., doctor at the centre of a review of thousands of medical tests does not have the skills or knowledge to practise radiology, the College of Physicians and Surgeons announced Friday

Microsoft’s research division is doing tours across college campuses and rather than turning them into snoozefests they’re showing off a prototype straight outta Iron Man fantasies. It’s a clear glass display which accepts input through voice-control, touch-less gestures, and eye-tracking.

iStartedSomething has videos showing the prototype in action, and it looks like it’s got quite some potential, whether genuinely useful for manipulating data or for just plain fun. I can’t wait until displays like this come out so that I can control my computer by staring it down after some foolish hand waving. [iStartedSomething via Slashgear]

Consumer Market Research firm NPD has confirmed that initial sales of Windows 7 have surpassed those of the Windows Vista launch. According to NPD's weekly tracking service, Windows 7 software unit sales in the U.S. were 234 percent higher than Vista's first few days of sales. The most popular choice for consumers was the Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade followed by the Pro upgrade and Home Premium Family Pack. According to NPD, software sales of Windows 7 were strong compared to Vista's sales partly due to early discounts on pre-sales and a wide range of promotions.

Read full story…

When Apple TV 3.0 came out, we were unimpressed. Readers asked what else they could use to play their many videos. Here are five nice ones to suit different needs—nearly all cost less, and do more, than ATV.

The goal here is simple: Play all the videos that I have ripped from DVD, downloaded from the web, shot with my own cameras or obtained in some other manner, no matter what the format. It sounds simple, but Apple TV can’t do it. Neither can the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. Video codecs and containers are a nightmare to keep track of, and even more of a nightmare to convert.

This isn’t about photos and music. Apple TV is better at both of those than any of this stuff. It’s also not about renting movies or buying movies, or even streaming movies from Netflix. Roku has a nice cheap box for that, and Apple TV is suitable if you just want to live inside Steve Jobs’ media store. This is about playing non-DRM movies, pure and simple.

The names might be familiar to you: The Popcorn Hour C-200 by Syabas is quickly gaining cult status (and has its own hacker wiki), while the other four smaller boxes come from brands you probably have experience with, including WD, Seagate, Netgear and Patriot. None have built-in wireless, but they all have Ethernet ports.

My two main tests were simple—I loaded PC and Mac formatted external hard drives with a variety of files ranging from H.264 MP4s to WMVs of several vintages, from raw AVCHD files in MTS wrappers to the hot new DivX 7 MKV. Then I browsed through my local network to a NAS that had a cache of similar files. Could I see them? Could I play them? These shouldn't be issues, but they're big issues.

Here’s a rundown of each machine, and how they fared in testing:

As you can see, there were clear leaders given my criteria above, but what struck me was how each one differed. Truth is, depending on who you are, any one of these might be the best fit. Here’s what really separates them:

WD TV Live – $150

I would have given this thing the solo spot at the top if it weren’t for a few dings that might very well be fixed in a firmware update: It won’t show you DVD menus on ripped DVD images, and when you play files with the suffix .m4v, it won’t fast forward or rewind. Weird bug, and can be fixed if you just change .m4v to .mp4, but since that’s the default file naming for Handbrake’s “Apple TV” profile, it could be a problem for people, like me, who spent months ripping their entire DVD collection that way.

WD’s strengths include a friendly user interface with handy video previews, some promising early online services (including Pandora), and the most reasonable photo and music handling I’ve seen in this cluster of gadgets.

Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ – $150

I loved this when I tested it a few weeks ago, despite its fugly interface, and it holds up under testing. It does better with ripped .ISO files than WD, doing both DVD menus and chapters (and it doesn’t have that weird .m4v bug either). Video was better, especially when running 1080p content. And when it came to browsing my Linksys NAS in search of movies, it could reach more and read more than the WD.

The tradeoff is that the interface is bad, and there’s almost nothing in the way of online services. It gets points for making an attempt at sorting music, and displaying photos, but if that’s a priority, WD is the better call.

Popcorn Hour C-200 – $300

Hardcore AV nerds love this thing, and I understand why. There are more ways to get at video content than in any other set-top box I’ve ever seen, and if you really know how to hack, there’s really not much it can’t do.

It's a big ole thing—they call it a "network tank," and despite remind me of the far cooler ones in Tron, I get it. It has an internal BitTorrent client and you can plug in a Blu-ray drive, for God’s sake. I found very few video formats that it wouldn’t support (FLV was one) but I had to take major points off because for being so big, it has a lame interface, and it comes with an RF remote that only worked when I stood within 3 feet. They even mention that there might be problems with interference, and that if people experience that, they can buy the IR remote. Great, thanks.

My only question—and, commenters, it's not rhetorical—is why spend $300 on this (plus extra for the optional internal HDD and the IR remote) when you can just buy a home-theater PC?

Patriot Box Office – $130

This was the dark horse of the group, being a late entry by a company known only for computer memory. I was surprised at how well it held up. It actually could decode more tested formats than any other device in this lineup—it did Flash video (FLV), which the three above can't render. Only the WD and the Patriot show you video previews, too. As small as it is, there's a space for a 2.5" SATA drive in there, and even a BitTorrent client. You can copy files to and from different drives and the network, and it's the cheapest of the lot, at $130.

So why did it come in a distant 3rd? Unlike the three above, it can’t read Mac formatted hard drives, and its video quality was noticeably the worst of the batch. That said, if you are a hacker sort and want something to play with that doesn’t cost as much as Popcorn, set your sights on this.

Netgear Digital Entertainer Live

As you can probably tell by now, Netgear had the most disappointing box of the lineup, despite its Apple TV ripoff of a look and feel. Lack of Mac media support and the inability to read key file formats, like DivX 7 and AVCHD, meant it couldn’t pass muster with real video fanatics. Its biggest point of woe was the fact that it didn’t support any file over 720p in resolution—whether that's a software thing or a hardware thing, it's sure not future-proof, and probably best to stay away.

I also didn't like the fact that its interface is laid out entirely for retail, like an Apple TV without the panache, or a Roku box that costs more and doesn't do Netflix. Local files were not a priority, and despite the friendly interface, it doesn't even make an attempt to differentiate photos and music. I did give it a gold star for online services, but only because it had the most in this group—if online services are what you love, buy a Roku, or a TiVo, or an Xbox, or a friggin' Apple TV.

Still not sure what you’re looking for, check the spec comparisons here:

Last week we highlighted the benefits of having a Windows Home Server, including seamless backups and system restoration. Now let’s take a closer look at five great add-ins for making the most of your home server.

In our overview last week, we briefly touched on the idea of using add-ins to enhance your Windows Home Server experience and get more out of the console. This week we’re highlighting five add-ins and providing a little more detail on their functionality and how they make your Windows Home Server experience even better.

First, for those who haven’t installed any add-ins to their WHS before, the process is simple. When you find an add-in you want to use, save the .MSI file such as AwesomeAddOnForWHS.msi to the /Software/Add-Ins/ folder on your Windows Home Server. The next time you open up your console, click on Settings (located beneath the Windows Home Server icon in the upper right corner of the Console window), then click Add-Ins once you’re in the Settings menu. You’ll see two tabs, like in the screenshot above, that show your Installed and Available add-ins. All the add-ins you saved will be under the Available tab.

Note: For ease of use—some of the add-ins homepages are forum posts or in foreign languages—we've linked to the reviews at WHSPlus, a Windows Home Server enthusiast blog. It's a great resource for finding more add-ins and each review has a link back to the author's site.

Windows Home Server Disk Management

WHS Disk Management provides a more detailed look at your disk storage than the basic view included in the console. You can use existing server wire frames (most commercial WHS frames are available) or create your own if you have a DIY build. WHS Disk Management makes it easy to see what’s going on with which physical disk in your server. The wire frame model includes disk bays in your tower and external drives for a comprehensive picture of what’s going on with your disks. Eventually when you have to replace a disk or want to upgrade one for additional space, having a detailed model like the one in WHS Disk Management makes it easy to make sure you’re unloading and extracting the right disk.

AutoExit for WindowsHomeServer

AutoExit makes it easy to send commands to Windows machines connected to your Windows Home Server through your home network. You can send messages to machines on the network, and perform a variety of shut down functions like suspending, hibernating, rebooting or completely shutting down the remote machine. When you have access to your WHS console remotely it’s a great way to have control over other machines on the network.

Remote Notification

Remote Notification makes sure you get updates about your WHS even when you’re away. You can always remotely login to your console to view the notifications in the console itself, but Remote Notification will send systems notifications to the email address of your choice. If you have an email address for your cellphone’s SMS account, it’s simple to plug that in and get notifications directly on your phone.

One of the great things about Remote Notification is that it forwards all notifications—not just the default system notifications. If you have 3rd-party plug-ins that handle things like downloads and you have them configured to issue system notifications, those will be forwarded to your email or cellphone via Remote Notification too.

LightsOut

While you may opt to run your WHS 24/7, many users opt to power their home servers down at night to conserve energy and cut down on their energy bills. LightsOut is a fantastic add-in for WHS that allows granular control over when the server is awake and when it is suspended, hibernating, or completely shut down. In addition to giving you control over the up and downtime of the server it also tracks the up and down time of both the server and the machines that connect to the Windows Home Server. Even if you’re intending to run your server night and day, if you’re a sucker for graphs and feedback about your network you might consider installing LightsOut just to see what the uptime patterns across your network look like.

Grid Junction

It's the least glamorous of the add-ins we're featuring today, but it's a handy tool to have around if you've got an Uninterruptible Power Supply hooked up to your home server—and you do have one hooked up to your server, don’t you? Grid Junction issues power alerts through the console, makes it easy to monitor the UPS, and lets you easily set up custom shut down scripts and test them. It’s not loaded with bells and whistles but it makes it simply to manage your UPS on a headless system.

---

Have a favorite add-in for Windows Home Server? Let’s hear about it, and your other WHS tips, in the comments.

Dell’s finally run its finger along the edge and unhinged the last bit of details for its enigmatic, 0.4-inch-thin Adamo XPS. As it turns out those leaked specs weren’t entirely off. We’re looking at a LED-backlit 13.4-inch, 720p widescreen display, 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ultra-low voltage processor, GS45 integrated graphics, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 128GB thin-micro SSD, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. In terms of connectivity, there’s 802.11a/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, location awareness, DisplayPort, two USB 2.0 ports (one on each side). The 20WHr Li-Ion battery can last up to 2 hours and 36 minutes, or you can get the optional 40WHr version instead for 5 hours and 17 minutes of claimed, lab-tested use. Other packaged goods include dongles for ethernet and VGA / HDMI, and for an added fee you can nab a DVD+/-RW drive, a Blu-ray drive, or an external hard drive measured at 250GB or 500GB in capacity.

At $1,799, the price isn’t as bad as originally thought, but it’s still far from great if performance takes any precedence for you over style. Earlier this week, we got to spend some time with the ultra-thin chez Dell’s PR firm — not enough to really get a feel for how it performs, but enough to admire the hardware and enjoy unboxing what we’re told is the final retail packaging. We saw an expected launch date listed for this month, but a rep was quick to note the current line is officially “in time for the holidays” — just in case the company misses Black Friday, of course. Read on for some more impressions and video unboxing / hands-on!

Continue reading Dell Adamo XPS coming ‘in time for the holidays’ for $1799 (unboxing and hands-on video!)

Filed under: Laptops

Dell Adamo XPS coming ‘in time for the holidays’ for $1799 (unboxing and hands-on video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Ever wanted to take a step back and look at all the Google apps and data you’re hooked into? Google’s offering that top-down view with Google Dashboard, a central clearinghouse for app settings, privacy information, and use statistics.

The main value to the average user at the Dashboard, reachable at google.com/dashboard when signed into a Google account, is a peek at all the services you use, the data Google’s acquired from you, and quick links to each app’s settings. You also get direct links to your Google calendars, your most recent Gmail messages and Google Docs documents, and secondary settings, like changing your personal information in apps that use that data. Those with privacy concerns also get quick links to the policies of every app they’re using.

Here’s how Google explains their Dashboard in animated video form:

What features would you want to see added to a Google Dashboard? Personally, I’d like to see a single, secure place to suspend or recover passwords from certain accounts, assuming you could log in with stronger-than-normal verification.