TeknologikL

I've been running the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Ultimate for just over 3 months now, since the RTM build was sent to manufacturing. From other reviews and write-ups that I've read, critics' praise for Windows 7 seems to be as high as their disdain for its predecessor, Windows Vista.

Windows Vista 2.0?
The odd thing about the great disparity in reviews for the two operating systems is that their similarities greatly outweigh their differences. For all intents and purposes, Windows 7 could be called Windows Vista 2.0. In many cases, a casual user might not even be able to differentiate whether a PC is running Windows 7 or Vista at first glance. Because of this, Vista users will have no trouble adapting to Windows 7. For those of you still running Windows XP, however, you might have a steeper learning curve for adapting to the new operating system.

Upgrading from Vista or XP
Users who upgrade from Windows Vista won't have any trouble; however, if you're upgrading from XP, you might want to consider a fresh install after backing up and wiping your hard disc.

The main reason critics seem to approve of Windows 7 is that Microsoft's new operating system does fix a lot of Vista's flaws and adds some really cool new features, too. Recently, ETOB posted some of his favorite features in Windows 7. Here are some of mine.

Improved Search
With the improved search capabilities in Windows 7, you simply have to click the start button and begin typing. It can be the name of a program, file, picture, favorite website, or even text within a document. You no longer have to browse through the start menu looking for a seldom-used program, or a directory of folders for that picture of Cousin Jimbo.

Every folder also has a new search box in the upper-right corner with the same functionality. Windows will give preference to results relevant to the folder you're searching from. If you don't see what you're looking for right away, there's a link to a complete search results page.

Smart Taskbar
The new taskbar for Windows 7 is much improved as well. You now have the option for a slightly wider taskbar showing larger icons without the text next to them. Similar programs are still grouped together, but you can now hover over the icon for the program group and a preview of each window will pop up, enabling you to select the one you're looking for much more quickly. (These thumbnails will even display live video running inside a webpage or application.)

The quick launch taskbar has been removed, but you now have the ability to pin your favorite programs to the taskbar, which adds a permanent shortcut to that program. The show desktop button has now become a small area on the right of the bar which you can hover over to turn all programs into transparent outlines, or click to minimize all windows.

Upgraded Media Center
Microsoft has been touting the benefits of its Media Center software for years. It provides the ability to replace your DVR by recording television shows directly to your computer's hard drive and streaming the videos wirelessly throughout your house. Microsoft has also added a Netflix Watch Instantly button to the Movies section of Windows Media Center, enabling streaming from your Netflix account without a browser.

Microsoft Media Foundation
A new backend framework called Microsoft Media Foundation is supposed to be a replacement for the aging DirectShow framework. Although DirectShow is still implemented in Windows 7, the addition of the Media Foundation enables developers to take advantage of a brand new suite of tools.

Windows 7 has only been out for a few weeks, but DivX has released a tech preview of their latest software, which enables MKV support in Media Center. As I posted previously, the fact that MKV files were incompatible with Media Center was a deal breaker for me and forced me to use a Popcorn Hour for video streaming instead of my Xbox 360.

MultiTouch
Although you may not have the hardware to take advantage of it yet, Microsoft has implemented a new MultiTouch control scheme for users who have a MultiTouch Touchscreen Monitor. Touchscreen monitors are just starting to hit mainstream computing, but prices are falling rapidly and they will be common in many households in a few years time.

Have you tried out Windows 7 yet?
Are you planning to upgrade or happy with your current platform?

More Info:
A Clutterbug's Guide to Staying Organized in Windows 7
How to Prep for an XP-to-Windows 7 Upgrade
DivX Plus Tech Preview: MKV on Windows 7

You don't need to pay a lot to get a useful iPhone app. In fact, many of the best apps in the iTunes store are free. Here's a list of my favorite free iPhone apps.

1. Shazam is definitely one of my favorites. It's been around for a while. If you've ever listened to the radio or been at a party where you couldn't remember the name of a song that was playing, then this is a great app for you.

Shazam is a music identification program that lets you hold your iPhone up to the music that's playing. Then, after a few seconds of recording, Shazam sends you the name of the song and the artist, along with a link to iTunes so that you can purchase the song if you wish.

2. Bump is the perfect app for quickly and accurately exchanging contact information with someone on the spot. Bump is as easy to use as selecting which information you want to exchange with another person, and then "bumping" your phones together. You can choose which information you want to trade, including phone numbers, email addresses, photos, or the entire contact list.

3. Remote allows you to control any iTunes playlist or Apple TV on the same network as your phone. By connecting speakers to a computer that has an iTunes playlist, you can change songs and control the volume as long as you're connected to the same network.

4. Pandora is a must-have for anyone who loves music. The Pandora app works the same as the full computer version, allowing you to create radio stations based on artists, genres, or individual songs. If you don't like a song, then simply give it a thumbs-down and Pandora won't play that song again. But if you give a song a thumbs-up, Pandora will try to add music that is similar.

5. Weatherbug may not be the most entertaining app out there, but it is very useful when you need to know what the weather is or will be. Weatherbug gives you live access to a network of professional weather stations. With this app, you can get live local weather conditions, seven-day forecasts, national weather alerts, and a radar map of an area of your choosing.

What iPhone apps are your favorites? Which apps do you think should be made?

Hard drives fail. It's inevitable, but you can save yourself a huge amount of headache and heartache by being prepared for a worst case scenario. The sad truth is that there is no single backup solution. Everyone has different needs and the correct solution for one person might not work for another.

Ideally, you would want multiple backups with different methods to ensure redundancy and data safety, with at least one copy stored off site. Below we'll take a look at the options available and weigh the pros and cons of each.

(These backup solutions all work more efficiently when storing your files on a disk other than your operating system drive.)

Internal Hard Drive
Backing-up your data to a second hard drive within your computer's chassis is one of the most efficient ways to backup large quantities of data. There are a few major flaws with this method, however.

Internal hard drives can be setup as a RAID-1 array or added as a second drive with files copied to it manually. RAID-1 is a hard drive setup that duplicates all data on two separate hard drives. This has the benefit of being automatic with no extra effort needed by the user.

RAID-1 can save a lot of time making manual backups of your data, but has many risks as well. One consideration for choosing this setup is that your hard disk space is cut in half due to the mirroring of data. Another drawback is that this method won't protect against files that are deleted accidentally or corrupted, as the corrupted file would be copied to both disks.

External Hard Drive
External hard disks have a lot of the same positive features as internal hard discs, but also contain a few extra advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages are that external drives are less reliable than internal drives and need more manual steps in the backup process. On the positive side, external drives are portable, which means you can bring them to a separate location for off-site backup. This will ensure protection against fire, theft, or other natural disaster.

Burnable Media (DVD, BD)
Backing-up your data to disc is one of the safest and most secure ways to save your information. The only problem with burning to DVD is that each disc will only hold 4.7GB (or 8.5 if you have a dual-layer drive). If you're backing up pictures and word documents then that amount should be more than enough. But some of us have hundreds of GBs worth of information we'd like saved; this would take almost a whole spool of blank DVDs and hours upon hours of disc burning.

Blu-ray discs, although available in sizes up to 50GB, are still expensive and provide much less space for your money than hard drives.

Online Storage Services
There are companies who offer data backup services for a fee (sometimes smaller accounts are free). With these companies, your data should be safe as far as loss is concerned, since they are storing your data off-site and probably have their own backup solution in place as well.

One major concern some people have with these services is privacy. Yes, almost all of them use encryption so outsiders on the internet won't be able to get into your data, but if using an encryption key provided by the backup service, they would still have full access to your data. Providing your own encryption key would be more secure, but if the key is lost, no one will be able to help you recover your files, thus making them inaccessible. If you are not concerned with the privacy of your data and don't mind paying the monthly fee, then this might be the best option for you. (Call me paranoid but I don't want the contents on my entire hard drive floating around on some company's server!)

Automated Backups
Backing-up your data manually can be time consuming and inefficient. Even if you do a manual backup once a week, you still have 6 days worth of data that is unprotected.

Surprisingly enough, your data can be compressed, encrypted, password protected, and sent to an off-site location for storage automatically by a little program you might have heard of called WinZip. To send your data to a remote location, you must have an alternate location to send to - such as a web domain, online storage service, or even a friend's computer who is setup to receive FTP files from you.

What methods do you use to backup your data? Or do you not care about your family pictures and MP3 collection enough to make the effort?

More Info:
The Best File Backup Scheme
How to Set Up RAID on Your PC
Make Free Online Backup Part of Your Data-Security Plan

If you are one of the millions of people who store your files on your computer's default C:\ drive, the same drive occupied by the operating system, you could be putting these files in grave danger. In most cases, an advanced user will be able to recover these files if their system fails, but not without a hassle. As for the casual user, prepare to pony up some serious cash to a local computer shop if you want to see your files again.

Computers have long had internal hard disc drives (HDD) to store the operating system and installed software files, along with personal files such as documents, pictures, music, and more. Usually all of these types of files are stored on a single drive, but while convenient, this method does come with a number of drawbacks and safety concerns.

The biggest of these concerns is experiencing a crash that your operating system can't recover from, causing your computer to freeze on boot-up. In a worst case scenario, you might have to physically remove the hard drive from the computer and connect it to a working PC to recover your files.

Another issue is that when all your files are lumped together on a single drive, they are competing for the same space. If your OS drive runs low on available space, you will notice a significant decrease in your computer's performance.

Yet another reason to keep your personal files on a separate drive is to optimize your system for quick and easy data backups.

What Other Options are Available?
There are two options to consider when choosing somewhere other than your operating system drive to store files. The first option is buy another internal hard drive to install in your computer. You'd be surprised how cheap hard disks are, and virtually all desktop computers have bays to add extra drives. The other option is to partition your current hard disc drive. By partitioning your drive, you are splitting the drive into two (or more) virtual drives, which act the same as if they were separate pieces of hardware.

Data Management / Partitioning Software
To partition your hard drive in the past, you would use a program such as Partition Magic to divide it up; but with Windows Vista and Windows 7, Microsoft has included its own Data Management tool, which gives you complete control over the setup of your disc drives.

Before splitting the drive, you should carefully consider its overall size and how much free space you currently have. Will one partition meet your needs or would you benefit from splitting the drives up even further? Will each of the drives have enough free space to grow as you add more files? Although you can adjust the size of these partitions later, it is still best to think about these things before making your final decision.

Moving Your My Documents & Desktop Folder
I have long advocated for use of the My Documents folder, mainly because it is easily accessible from a link on the side of almost any folder window. The problem with this is that all of these documents are stored on the OS drive. Luckily, moving the location of your My Documents folder is easier than you think.

Simply right-click on the My Documents folder and select Properties. Click the button that says Move on the Target tab and select the drive you would like to store your My Documents folder. Make sure the new drive has enough free space to allow for more files as they are acquired.

Moving the Desktop folder can be a little bit trickier, but is still possible. If you are running Windows XP, you have to download a program from Microsoft PoyerToys called TweakUI. After installing the add-on, you can select Special Folders under My Computer, which will give you access to move the location of the Desktop. Although TweakUI is not available for Vista, a 3^rd party publisher has a similar program, TotalIdea's TweakVI.

Although you might have to change the setting for a few programs that store files in the My Documents folder, most programs will already know the new location.

Separate Drives Makes for Smooth Backups
Storing all your data on a different drive makes backing up your data quicker, easier, and more efficient. (You DO backup your data right??)

There is virtually no reason to backup your operating system or program files, as the event of a crash will likely require a reinstall of those programs anyway. This way you won't waste valuable backup space and time by copying files that aren't essential for backup.

Check back next week when I take a look at the various methods of data backup and try to help you determine the best one for you.

More Info:
Resize a Partition for Free in Windows 7 or Vista
How to Move the My Documents Folder
Free Up Space on your "C" Drive (System Drive) and Protect My Documents too

Note: My experiences are with the PCH A-110, the PCH C-200 will be released soon and have all the features of the A-110 plus much more.

A few weeks ago I posted about Media Center Extenders, and explained the features and benefits of having such a device to act as a bridge between your computer and television.

The most popular media center devices are the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, mostly due to the fact that many people already have one of these consoles in their home and there is no need to buy extra hardware.

Although I started off with using the Xbox 360 and then used the Playstation 3 media capabilities, I found they were not sufficient enough for my needs. Neither console supported the MKV Video Container, which has quickly become the standard for high definition video.

To playback these HD videos on one of the game consoles, the files would have to be converted to another format such as MP4, VOB, or WMV. This is a waste of time and hard disk space; plus, converting adds in the possibly of quality loss.

This is where the Popcorn Hour (PCH) comes in; the device is able to play back almost any type of video you throw at it without a hiccup.

Download TV and Movies without a Computer
Although the Popcorn Hour doesn't come with any internal storage, there is a bay for the user to install an internal hard drive of their choosing.

With a hard disc installed, you will not only be able to store your movies on the device, but also download directly from the internet to your Popcorn Hour's hard drive by installing the Vuze Bittorrent client. With this method, you don't even need access to a PC on your network.

PlayOn - Stream Hulu to your TV
If the Popcorn Hour is used in conjunction with a software program called PlayOn, you can gain access to all the shows and movies on Hulu as well as YouTube, Netflix Watch Instantly, and other on-demand internet video services.

One drawback is that the Popcorn Hour is not officially supported by PlayOn, and sometimes you will get the dreaded "No Content Found on Server" message when trying to use the program. This can be fixed by resetting the Popcorn Hour, which is a little annoying but not the end of the world.

New Features of the Popcorn Hour C-200
Sybas, the company who develops the Popcorn Hour has released specs on the new model, the Popcorn Hour C-200, which will be available for sale very shortly. The new device incorporates an upgraded processor for decoding and playing video.

One of the biggest draws of the new device is that in addition to being able to install an internal hard drive, you can now install a Blu-ray drive, making it a very cheap Blu-ray player. (PC drives are nearing the $50 mark)

The Ethernet port on the new C-200 model has been upgraded as well with Gigabit Ethernet connectivity. This should reduce the amount of buffer time before playback starts, which was not even too bad on the older model.

Fast Forward / Rewind
Most video types have no issue with fast forwarding or rewinding but there are a few types of HD videos that won't let you. The reason for this is that the processor isn't capable of decoding the frames fast enough for these tasks. Although support for FF/R has improved with firmware updates, it is still not available for all formats. Hopefully the upgraded processor in the PCH C-200 can help remedy this issue. (Some relief is had with the ability to skip anywhere from 0%-90% in the video by pressing 0-9 on your remote.)

Customizability
Features that draws techie-types to the Popcorn Hour are the customization options available for the device. Sure, there are tons of choices in the options to tweak the device's audio, video and network settings but those options are just the tip of the iceberg for the advanced user.

Since the Popcorn Hour runs on an HTML interface, you can create your own custom menus and features with minimal web programming experience. There is also a dedicated web forum for Popcorn Hour users to ask questions or discuss advanced usage of the device.

Sybas also recently released a Popcorn Hour API and Dev Kit, which makes the possibilities for programmers almost limitless.

Final Thoughts
Since canceling my cable service from Time Warner six months ago, the Popcorn Hour has become the primary content provider for my living room. As far as I can see, this device is a must for anyone who wants to free themselves of the high monthly fees charged by the cable companies without losing their content.

More Info:
Welcome to Popcorn Hour
Networked Media Tank Forums
PlayOn Digital Media Server