How to get back to the Windows 8 Start screen

Feeling lost in Windows 8's Desktop mode? Not sure how to get back to the Start screen? It's simpler than you think. We've got three ways to get you back home to the colorful safety of Metro's tiles.

Use the Charms, Luke. Open the Charms bar, Windows 8's new super-powered sidebar. If you're on a touch screen, you can do this by swiping in from the right edge. If you've got a mouse, move the cursor to the upper righthand corner of your screen. Wait a moment, and the Charms will appear. Move the mouse down to the Windows icon, the Start button, and click or tap to return to the Start screen.

Use the Switch List. Accessible from the left edge of your screen, the Switch List gives you a thumbnail list of your recent apps. If you swipe all the in from the left edge to the center, though, you'll jump into your most recently-used app. To get the Switch List to appear, swipe in from the left edge slightly and make a U-turn back to the edge. At the bottom of the list you'll see a Start screen thumbnail. Tap that and you're home.

If you're using a mouse, move the cursor to the lower left corner and the Start screen thumbnail will appear. Click and you jump to the Start screen.

Use the keyboard. If your most recently-used "app" was the Start screen, and you're in Desktop mode, the Windows (Win) key on your keyboard will take you back. You can also use Win+C to open ... [Read more]

(Credit: Google )

Finally, starting today, the greater Android community can download the official Google Calendar app straight from Google Play. Previously available only on select devices like the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus, the official calendar app provides a robust hub for managing all of your calendars, including those associated with different Google accounts.

With today's release the app also gets a few feature updates, including a "snooze" function, predefined messages to quickly notify event attendees of your status, pinch-to-zoom in and out of single-day view, and a home time zone setting. Also, you can now review events up to a year in the past, right from the app.

The official Google Calendar app is available for free download on Google Play now.

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Apple has released a couple of Java updates for OS X, which bring the supported Java SE 6 runtime to the latest version (1.6.0_37) in order to tackle multiple vulnerabilities that were found in Java 1.6.0_35, the last version of Apple's Java runtime.

Most of the vulnerabilities addressed were those that allowed untrusted Java applets to run code outside of the Java sandbox. Similar vulnerabilities have been found in past versions of Java and are not uncommon bugs in programs; however, Java has recently gained a bit of a marred reputation following several outstanding vulnerabilities that have led to malware outbreaks in OS X and other platforms.

Recently I wrote about another Java vulnerability that affects all Java runtimes and therefore has the potential to affect numerous PC systems; however, this update seems to have not yet addressed this. According to Kaspersky Labs, this vulnerability will likely be addressed in Oracle's next quarterly update to Java in February 2013.

The Java updates are for OS X 10.6 and OS X 10.7, and should be available via Software Update if you already have Java installed on your system.

... [Read more]

Pokki for Windows 8 offers its own version of the classic Start menu.

(Credit: Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET )

Pokki for Windows 8 joins a growing list of Windows 8 Start menu utilities. How does the program fare?

SweetLabs' Pokki for Windows 8 fills in the gap for Windows 8 users who still want the traditional Start menu on their desktops. And you'll have to place me in that group.

Through I've become more accustomed to the Start screen over time, I still find the Start menu a quicker and more efficient way to launch any application installed on my PC.

I know you can open a program or file just by typing its name at the Start screen. I know you can place your Start screen tiles into groups to better organize them. But the folder structure of the Start menu remains the easiest way for me to find a specific program, especially if I'm already working in the desktop.

OK, so what about Pokki for Windows 8?

You can download the free utility at the SweetLabs Web site. Once installed, Pokki for Windows 8 works like other Start menu replacements.

Just click on Pokki's Start orb in the lower left corner of the Windows de... [Read more]

A look at Color.

(Credit: Color )

Color, a mightily hyped mobile application that tried for more than a year to gain a loyal fan base, has finally decided to close its doors, according to a report.

The company yesterday sent an e-mail to employees saying that its board and shareholders last week decided to "wind down the company," Venturebeat is reporting, citing a source. That e-mail, which was not published in its entirety, didn't say when the company will officially shut down its operation, but it did ask employees to immediately cancel "any existing commitments."

Color made a splash last year as a location-based photo-sharing app for iOS and Android. In its first iteration, the app would allow users to see photos taken by other Color users in close proximity.

The idea was highly touted by investors, who dumped $41 million into the project before its launch. The app also earned some hype because it was developed by Bill Nguyen, founder of streaming-music service Lala, which was bought out -- and quickly shuttered -- by Apple.

However, Color was unable to attract a broad audience, forcing the company to reinvent the app last September as a social-sharing tool for Facebook users that es... [Read more]

Adobe's DNG 1.4 image file format now accommodates transparent pixels, shown here with the checkerboard pattern, a key move in enabling stitched panoramic images. The company hopes to see software supporting panoramic DNGs, though the maker of the highest-profile image-editing software on the market isn't itself committing to do so.

(Credit: Adobe Systems )

Adobe Systems isn't making any promises, but an update to company's Digital Negative (DNG) image format paves the way for two important features in Lightroom: panoramas and high-dynamic range photography.

Lightroom is for editing, cataloging, and publishing photos, especially those shot in higher-end cameras' raw formats. Raw photos consist of data captured directly from the image sensor without in-camera processing into a JPEG. Although raw photos offer better quality and flexibility, they're also much less convenient than JPEGs.

One aspect of their inconvenience is that raw photos usually arrive in proprietary formats from camera makers. Adobe has been trying for years to ease some of the difficulties with its own DNG format, which the company has openly documented and is trying to standardize. Only a relatively small number of cameras can record photos directly in DNG format, but Adobe offers conversion tools in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Related st... [Read more]

Apple's Mac App Store, which was introduced in OS X 10.6.6, has become Apple's central location for distributing new software as well as managing updates to the OS and purchased applications. Though in most situations the Mac App Store works fine to download and run a specified installer, there are times when errors occur and even persist regardless of how many times you retry the download.

MacFixIt reader Silverio recently wrote in with such a problem:

I've been experiencing problems to install updates for iMovie through Apple Store. The error message says that the product distribution file could not be verified. Is there an easy fix for this?

To protect application integrity, Apple includes various checksum routines, which simply treat any downloaded file as a lump of raw binary data and perform summations of the bits in this raw data according to a specified algorithm (MD5, SHA1, etc.), after which you get a large number that represents a unique characterization of the file's integrity. Developers and Apple create these signatures by running the checksums before the applications are distributed and include them with the program.

When you download and open the checksummed program on your computer, the same summation algorithm is run on the file and its results are checked against the stored signature. If they match, you have an installer that is assumed to be intact, but if not, then an error occurred that may have compromised the integrity ... [Read more]