Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Hardware-accelerated Flash almost here

Hardware-accelerated Flash almost here

Hardware-accelerated Flash almost here

Posted: 06 Apr 2010 06:34 PM PDT

Adobe Systems has announced that the latest version of the Flash plug-in, required to run most video content on the Web, is now available as a release candidate. Users of the Flash 10.1 Release Candidate for Windows, Mac, and Linux should see significant resource reduction while watching H.264 video and playing Flash-based games. Along with performance improvements, Adobe claims that the new version will drain your battery less.

Although smartphone support is anticipated this year in Flash 10.1, it won't be shipping just yet. The full list of changes to Flash made between the last beta and this release candidate is available as a PDF.

Miro 3.0 debuts with video converter

Posted: 06 Apr 2010 05:59 PM PDT

Open-source music and video jukebox Miro gets a serious signal boost in its recently released third version. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, the update debuts an overall zippier program, along with automatic subtitle support, a higher maximum volume, and better file info support.

You could watch Voltron and an educational TED video simultaneously in Miro 3.0. But should you?

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Quickly messing around in the new Miro, and having used it since it's days as the Democracy Player, it's impressive how far the program has come. As audio and video content continues to come from increasingly diverse sources, Miro provides an excellent clearinghouse from which to manage and play back content from your torrents as well as your feeds.

Gone are the days when Miro's memory-hogging ways would drag your computer to the ground. Even when streaming two videos simultaneously, Miro only used 280 MB of RAM. That's not a lot for two high-resource tasks. Of course, that reveals another problem with Miro. It won't stop you from playing two differently-sourced pieces of content at the same time, unless they're both using the built-in media player. You can stream a classic Voltron cartoon while watching an educational TED lecture on AIDS, but why would you want to?

During installation, Miro also forces you to choose to opt-out instead of opt-in to several services: the Bing-powered MiroStart, Miro Search Toolbar 1.1, and changing your default search to Bing. These are a bit surprising given Miro is not only open-source, but even used the crowd-sourced fundraiser Kickstarter to fund the new subtitles feature.

The new Miro Video Converter.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Miro's new open-source video converter, available for Windows and Mac, will hopefully be integrated into Miro itself at some point. The converter looks to be similar to the better-known HandBrake as reputable, all-in-one video converter with built-in mobile device settings. The Miro Video Converter supports most Android phones, including the Nexus One, Droid/Milestone, and G1, Apple's iPhone, iPod Nano, and iPod Classic, and Sony's PSP. While it can take nearly any input format, it currently can output video only as Ogg Theora, MP4, or rip the audio out of a video file into an MP3.

While HandBrake and others offer far more in the way of customization, the Miro Video Converter's simple interface reflects the limited choices. For most users, though, this should be more than enough.

First Look: Avira 10 treads water

Posted: 06 Apr 2010 02:44 PM PDT

The popular antivirus suite Avira AntiVir Free updated to version 10, but there's surprisingly little new here. Users will get a faster, simpler installation and a refreshed skin, but feature-wise the latest from Avira merely holds its own rather than pushing ahead.

That's not to say that Avira isn't one of the best free antivirus apps out there, because it is. It remains easy to use, with a robust selection of preset scans, and it continues to fare well in efficacy tests. Don't take our word for it, though: watch this First Look video and tell us what you think in the comments below.

Microsoft creates Office plug-in for Moodle

Posted: 06 Apr 2010 08:29 AM PDT

The Office add-on for Moodle allows those using Office 2003 or Office 2007 to save documents directly to the popular open-source online education system.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft is releasing a free add-on that could make life easier for teachers, professors, and others who use the online educational system Moodle.

The plug-in, which works with Office 2003 and Office 2007, allows users to save Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents directly to the open source online service. It also allows users to edit directly in Office a document saved on Moodle, which is widely used in colleges and at some K-12 schools as well.

"We know that it's out there in force," Jon Perera, general manager of Microsoft's Educational Products Group, said of Moodle. "It became a really logical and thoughtful step to make those two systems work better."

The Office add-on for Moodle also allows people to use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to directly open documents stored on Moodle.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Saving documents to Moodle from Office used to require up to eight steps, but the new add-on cuts that in half. Opening an Office document from Moodle is now a single step, Perera said.

The add-on helps those using the current version of Office for Windows PCs, but doesn't help the many educational users on a Mac. Perera said Microsoft is evaluating how to support Moodle in Office 2010, which also includes browser-based Office Web Apps that run on both Macs and PCs.

"At this point the only thing we are announcing is the add-in for Windows," Perera said. "As we ship Office 2010, we'll look at how we integrate (that version of Office)."

Microsoft is trying to pay closer attention to the trends in schools, since it knows that shifts in computing often show up first within colleges.

"Students in particular, and I think universities as a whole, are really hotbeds for innovation," Perera said.

The Moodle add-on for Office is a free download from Microsoft's Education Labs group, which recently also offered a chemistry plug-in for Word.

Originally posted at Beyond Binary

Today only: Free software rips Blu-ray, DVD movies

Posted: 06 Apr 2010 06:45 AM PDT

Normally $43, LeKuSoft DVD Ripper (which also rips Blu-rays) is free--today only.

(Credit: Rick Broida)

Regular Cheapskate readers know of my fondness for Giveaway of the Day, the site that serves up a daily helping of free software.

Regular readers also know that I'm always on the lookout for a good DVD ripper, as I like to archive my discs for viewing on my media-center PCs and convert them for viewing on my iPhone, iPod, etc.

Today's giveaway, LeKuSoft DVD Ripper, has one ace up its sleeve compared with other rippers I've featured: it decrypts and rips not only regular DVDs, but also Blu-rays.

To grab this freebie for yourself, follow these instructions:

  1. Before midnight tonight (PT), head to the product page, scroll down a bit, and click "Download LeKuSoft DVD Ripper now."
  2. Also before midnight tonight, open the downloaded file, then open readme. Next, run Setup.exe. When it's done, launch LeKuSoft DVD Ripper.
  3. When presented with the Registration box, copy the registration name and number from the readme file into the appropriate fields. Click Register and you're done!

I should point out that a number of commenters on the GotD product page encountered an error when trying to rip a disc. I just ripped a couple tracks (in iPod Touch format) from my "Schoolhouse Rock" DVD, and the program worked without a hitch. That was on a Compaq laptop running Windows 7 64-bit.

I've yet to try a Blu-ray, so I don't know how it'll fare with that kind of media. I do know that I have one gripe with the program: it insists on assigning a "chapter" filename to each ripped movie, so you have to manually rename your files after the fact.

On the other hand, it includes profiles for just about every output format imaginable, and did I mention it's free? If you've yet to snag yourself a DVD ripper (to say nothing of a Blu-ray ripper), you've got nothing to lose by giving this one a try.

Originally posted at The Cheapskate
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