Just a quick thank you to all our loyal readers, contributors, members, and commenters over the years. Our most popular blog post on the site has just reached the über-geeky number of 2048 comments in the 2 years 3 months and 23 days since it was posted. For more geeky conversions, read on.
Obviously 2 years is a long time… but 2048 is an equally great number.
Thank you!
If you were to believe the latest headlines at Business Insider, Android is a fragmented mobile platform and has a negative effect on the applications, for developers and end-users alike. Android is currently in a heated battle with the other two big names in mobile technology (the iPhone and the BlackBerry being the other two), and this is a serious matter definitely worthy of discussion.
But Dan Frommer’s allegations in his latest post on BI don’t really add up. Frommer contends that the official twitter app for Android, which only works on Android v2.1 and up, is proof that Google’s mobile OS isn’t as “unified” as the competitors, and that this is a sign of early-onset serious fragmentation that will only get worse down the line. The thing is… it’s not.
It’s true that Android, available for deployment on any device manufacturers are willing to bundle it with, faces certain compatibility issues. With a multitude of devices, each with its own mostly-unique set of hardware and features, creating software that will run the same for everyone isn’t as easy as it is on the iPhone. But it’s nowhere near as much of an issue as Frommer makes it out to be.
Hot on the heels of the iPad release comes news that Apple has just (very likely) purchased another processor design firm (via EDN). Intrinsity, the chip design company in question, is a designer of RISC-based CPUs and is rumored to have had something to do with the design of Apple’s new A4 processor. The A4 is Apple’s key ingredient for a smooth user experience in the much-hyped iPad.
Those keeping track of Apple’s purchases will remember that, almost exactly 2 years ago to the day, Apple bought California-based CPU designer PA Semiconductors. However, PA Semi specializes in PowerPC-based designs – a platform that Apple abandoned almost 5 years ago now. But Apple’s most recent acquisition is directly applicable to its current needs in the hardware market, and in particular, its forays into the ARM market. In the official iPad video, Apple engineers and executives discuss their need for a custom CPU in order to let them dictate where the ooomph and power will go, and to what purposes the transistors will be biased.
With all these buyouts and different chipsets in question, it’s easy to get confused. So what is the difference between the ARM, the PPC, and the x86, and where does it matter?
A lot of people have been asking where I’ve been the past several months: why the blog has been void of updates, why EasyBCD 2.0 is taking so long, why the image gallery still hasn’t been properly updated, and so on and so forth. With university was over and done with, I was supposed to have more time on my hands to dedicate to NeoSmart Technologies. If I had to point the finger of blame, it would rest squarely on Genie Timeline 2.0.
For the past year, Genie-Soft (my current employer) has been working on a revolutionary new — and free — backup program. Anyone that has ever searched for a professional backup solution has probably experienced firsthand just how difficult it can be to find something fast, powerful, and easy to use… and forget about being free, too.
Timeline 2 pushes the idea of “constant data protection” with real-time monitoring of changes to your data and intelligently scheduled backups of your files. You don’t schedule backups, they just happen in response to the modifications you make. You just run Timeline in the background, and you’re instantly protected. Files are versioned, clustered, and indexed then intelligently purged as needed to save space.
Google Chrome 4.0 went live a couple of weeks ago, and it has a feature that’s been missing in most mainstream browsers ever since the Web was invented: a progress bar that actually shows, well, the progress of uploads. It’s really frustrating to be uploading a large file to a website or as an attachment to an email or forum post and not know whether or not it’s taking this long because it’s just slow or because it’s really stuck.
Chrome 4.0 now shows the status of file uploads as a percentage, making it very clear just how quickly (or not) your uploads are progressing – and it’s something that all browsers should add ASAP. Many social websites rely heavily on uploads of photos, videos, music, and other files and are forced to implement nasty workarounds (such as using Flash upload forms) to present a more user-friendly upload system.
Google is now unfortunately hiding the URIs for certain search results far more often than they ever have done in the past… and it’s quite annoying. The Google search site is the pinnacle of function over form: it is sparse, plain, simple, and yet contains tons of information. But it seems that they’re taking it a bit too far now, hiding valuable data making the results pretty useless. Marissa Mayer, where art thou?
As an example, search Google for “libmhash” right now. The first result is the result you want, but you’d never know it from looking at the search result:
Running on Mac or Linux and tired of Adobe Flash eating up all your CPU cycles while you’re watching YouTube? Buggy plugins that crash your browser and freeze your PC? Proprietary formats that get in the way? Want to embrace HTML5 and the future? Well, now you can… one YouTube video at a time.
We’ve written an HTML 5 Video Viewer for YouTube, and you can use it to browse YouTube in true 21st Century HTML5 quality. And it’s super-simple to use.
Flash has been the bane of online websurfers ever since the 90s, especially on platforms where Adobe doesn’t bother to go the extra mile to ensure that their proprietary, binary implementations are stable and efficient. On Linux and Mac OS X, the flash implementation takes up over half the available CPU and at high-resolutions stuttering occurs. HTML5 poses the answer providing a way for browsers to use the native implementations to render videos directly in the browser without resorting to ActiveX and 3rd-party browser plugins… it just has yet to be embraced.
But now you can uninstall Flash and enjoy your online videos in peace. Just go to http://neosmart.net/YouTube5/ and enter the URL of a video to watch it in the embedded HTML5 viewer. Yes, you can skip, skim, pause, resume away to your heart’s content.
Even better, we’ve written a GreaseMonkey/UserScript to add a link to all YouTube video pages that points to the HTML5 version, leaving you with no excuse to still use the Flash interface!
All modern browsers that support basic HTML5 are supported. You’ll need to have an MP4 decoder installed on your PC. Happy viewing!
Update:
It’s been brought to our attention that Firefox does not support streaming MP4 content due to licensing restrictions, and as we mention above, an MP4 decoder is a minimum requirement.
Download our recovery and repair disk for Microsoft Windows 7 (also available for Windows 8, Vista, XP or Server editions) that can be used to access system restore tools.
It comes with our exclusive Automated Repair feature, option to access System Restore, tools to backup and recover your most important files, a built-in antivirus scanner and a command-line for advanced recovery options.
Download recovery disk for Windows 7
Looking for recovery disks for other Windows versions?
Contents
Our recovery disk supports x86 and x64 platforms and all Microsoft Windows 7 editions, including 32-bit and 64-bit editions: Ultimate, Enterprise, Professional, Home Premium, Home Basic and Starter.
Easy Recovery Essentials (or EasyRE), is a 55 to 135 MiB ISO image ready to be downloaded.
You can burn this ISO image to any CDs, DVDs or USB drives and boot from it to recover or repair your broken computer. We provided instructions on how to do this below, see Burn to CD, DVD or USB.
With the Easy Recovery Essentials you can (see list of features here):
Easy Recovery Essentials comes with powerful tools that computer technicians or IT experts can use straight away:
You can read more about EasyRE for computer repair professionals here.
Major PC manufacturers no longer give customers a real Windows 7 installation DVD along with their purchase of a computer.
A Windows 7 installation DVD can be used to recover your PC, not just install a Windows 7 copy. The DVD has a “recovery center” that gives you options to Automated Recovery (attempts to fix automatically any errors found), System Restore (restores your computer to the last working state) or you can access a command-line for advanced recovery options.
Instead, customers are expected to create a recovery media themselves – on a CD, DVD or USB drive.
Your computer’s hard drive might have a recovery partition added by the manufacturer, but what happens when your PC or Windows isn’t working or you’ve lost the disks you had?
If you can’t boot into Windows or your PC isn’t working, only a bootable recovery and repair CD/DVD/USB can save you.
Easy Recovery Essentials, our recovery and repair disk, uses a non-destructive repair process that can recover your PC without formatting your hard drive or reinstalling Windows.
It comes with our powerful Automated Repair feature, an antivirus scanner built-in, the ability to access System Restore, tools to browse the Internet (a web browser) and back-up your most important files (documents, videos, pictures, music and so on), memory diagnostics and a command-line tools for advanced options.
Some of its features include (see list of features here):
Update: Please note that this disk is no longer free, due to licensing restrictions imposed upon us.
Download Easy Recovery Essentials for Windows 7
Our recovery disk supports x86 and x64 platforms and all Microsoft Windows 7 editions:
It works with any Windows 7 that has Service Packs installed:
The disk is in ISO image format that you can burn to any CDs, DVDs or USB sticks and then use it as a bootable recovery CD/DVD/USB. We provided step-by-step instructions how to burn the ISO image below.
It’s a 120 MiB download file.
You cannot use a recovery or repair disk to install or reinstall Windows 7.
NeoSmart Technologies has published a guide on how to burn an ISO image to CD or DVD. This ISO image can be burnt to any CDs or DVDs and even USB drives.
You can burn the ISO with your favorite burning program. We published step-by-step instructions and guides on how to do this:
If you prefer to have a recovery USB instead, follow our guide on how to make a EasyRE recovery USB drive here.
Our recovery and repair disk works with any desktop computers, workstations, laptops, notebooks, ultrabooks, netbooks or servers computers from all major PC manufacturers, Dell, Asus, IBM and more.
It works with older or no longer on the market PC brands, such as Gateway Computers or eMachines PCs.
Dell recovery disk
This disk is compatible with Dell PCs and its manufactured series:
Do you have a Dell computer running Windows 7? Read our recovery and restore guide for Dell.
HP recovery disk
Easy Recovery Essentials works with your HP computer, including any of these series and models:
Do you have a HP computer running Windows 7? Read our recovery and restore guide for HP.
Asus recovery disk
It works with any Asus computer model that runs any of the following Windows versions:
Do you have an Asus computer running Windows 7? Read our recovery and restore guide for Asus.
Acer recovery disk
Acer users can download our disk. It’s compatible with all Acer models:
Do you have an Acer computer running Windows 7? Read our recovery and restore guide for Acer.
Lenovo
Lenovo computers are supported by our disk, including any of the following series:
Essentials series for laptops and desktop PCs are also supported.
Do you have a Lenovo computer running Windows 7? Read our recovery and restore guide for Lenovo.
Toshiba
The disk is compatible with any Toshiba computer model: Satellite, Qosmio, Portege, Tecra, Kira family series and All-in-One desktop series.
Do you have a Toshiba computer running Windows 7? Read our recovery and restore guide for Toshiba.
Samsung
Samsung users can download our disk. It is compatible with any Samsung laptops or desktops:
IBM
Lenovo acquired IBM’s personal computer division in 2005. You can download Easy Recovery Essentials if you own a IBM computer.
It is compatible with IBM desktops and laptops models, like the ThinkPad series.
Compaq
The Compaq company was acquired by HP in 2002.
It is compatible with Compaq notebooks and desktops, including the Compaq Presario series.
Gateway and eMachines
Gateway Computers was acquired by Acer in 2007. If you happen to have a Gateway computer, you can download our disk. It is compatible with its manufactured series:
Do you have a Gateway computer running Windows 7? Read our recovery and restore guide for Gateway.
eMachines computers were available on sale until 2004 when Gateway Computers (above) brought the company. Gateway was acquired in 2007, but the eMachines brand was used until 2012.
If you own a computer from eMachines, you can download our disk as it is compatible with eMachines PCs.
Easy Recovery Essentials is compatible with other Windows versions, not just 7.
Windows 8
Read more about our recovery disk for Windows 8. It supports Windows 8 and its update, Windows 8.1.
Windows Vista
Read more about our recovery disk for Windows Vista. Easy Recovery Essentials supports all Windows Vista editions, from Vista Starter to Vista Ultimate, and the 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
Windows XP and Server 2003, 2008 and 2012
Windows XP is supported by Easy Recovery Essentials. This includes Service Packs of XP too: SP1, SP2, SP3.
Easy Recovery Essentials supports all Windows Server editions, such as Server 2003, Server 2008 and Server 2012 and the updated versions: Server 2003 R2, Server 2008 R2, Server 2012 R2.
Easy Recovery Essentials supports all Service Packs (SP) of your Windows:
Download Easy Recovery Essentials from here.
Please don’t ask for help below, it’ll get real cluttered real soon!
Open a support thread at https://neosmart.net/forums/ and we’ll help you resolve your problem ASAP.
If you have a bunch of old Java applications lying around in your Mac’s /Applications folder, chances are, you’ll come across this message box when you attempt to run them on Snow Leopard:
To open JavaApplicationStub, you need to install Rosetta. Would you like to install it now?
Personally, I try my best to avoid legacy Mac OS apps and haven’t found the need to install Rosetta on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard as of yet. Whether you have need of Rosetta for your other applications or not, there’s no reason you should be running your Java-based applications through the Rosetta environment — they’ll run just fine on native Intel Java on OS X… with just a little bit of a prod in the right direction.
Java applications are CPU agnostic (hence the “write once, run everywhere” Java motto). The Java applets you download and use can theoretically be run on any PC machine that supports Java; be it Intel, PPC, ARM, SPARC, or more. The native Java virtual machine will translate the “Java bytecode” into the equivalent machine assembly that your PC uses and understands, and therefore, Java code written for legacy Mac OS should run just fine on Snow Leopard
PCWizKid of PCWizKid’s Tech Talk has been kind enough to create an über-cool EasyBCD video tutorial that covers the basics of bootloader configuration and manipulation via EasyBCD. The video’s been an instant-hit on YouTube, and we’ve embedded a copy of it below.
Note that in the video, PCWizKid is using EasyBCD 1.7.2, which is the latest stable version of EasyBCD… But there’s a secret 2.0 version out currently in beta — we recommend you download yourself a copy and be the coolest kid on the block. It’s been rewritten for stability and reliability, and will feature a ton of new Windows 7-only features for your itching, tweaking fingers. :-)
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