VSCD Free Video Converter review

View the original article here

Blackberry Playbook Tablet Review

Last year I picked up an HP Touchpad in the fire sale that resulted in the model, and all of HP’s tablet plans, being discontinued.  Now RIM appear to be doing similiar with their Playbook tablet, with prices being slashed around the world.  You might think then that now would be the right time to pick up your first tablet, after all a great many people believe that tablets generally are just too expensive at the moment for what they offer.  I thought then that I’d review the Playbook and give my verdict as a seasoned tablet user.

I’ve used quite a few tablets in the last year, and indeed I now own three of them (don’t ask!) including the Touchpad and now the Playbook.  So which is better and how does RIM’s model stack up against the competition?

The Blackberry Playbook has a 7 inch screen, a 1GHz processor, 1Gb of RAM and comes with either 16Gb, 32Gb or 64Gb of storage.  It weighs a dinky 425 grams.  By comparison the HP Touchpad has a 9.7 inch screen a 1.2GHz processor, 1Gb RAM and either 32Gb or 64Gb storage, weighing a heftier 740 grams and the iPad 2, also with a 9.7 inch screen contains a 1GHz dual-core processor, 512Mb RAM, 16Gb, 32Gb or 64Gb of storage but weighs in at a much more reasonable 610 grams.

The Playbook does have certain advantages over the competition however which start with a micro-HDMI socket and include extras such as a touch-sensitive bezel, clearly labelled controls on the outer edge and two cameras, a 3MP affair on the front and a healthy 5MP camera on the rear.  This is compared to the woeful 1.3MP webcam on the Touchpad.  The battery life on the Playbook is also excellent, being a match for the Touchpad, but perhaps not the huge battery life of the iPad 2.

The screen is excellent but the resolution is only 1024 x 600 and this results in a fair amount of scrolling being necessary in order to read a full web page or document.  The included software bundle is generally speaking bog standard with apps for the camera, mapping (using the on board GPS which doesn’t work anywhere near as well as the TouchPad), music and music store, video (and YouTube), pictures, video chat (but only with other Playbooks which seems pointless), Calculator, Adobe Reader, Weather, Facebook, Twitter, Hotmail and Gmail (the last three are simply links to the relevant websites), app store and voice notes.  There is also DataViz’ excellent Documents to go for creating and editing Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

I encountered a significant problem with my Playbook however in that these apps aren’t delivered in flash memory with the OS itself but are rather downloaded from the cloud and Rim’s own servers.  The update server was down when I got my machine and so for almost an entire day my tablet had nothing more on it than the web browser.  This is the achilles heel of RIM’s services as their servers do seem to go down with some regularity.  To have a hardware device that you’ve bought and paid for so tightly integrated with the company’s own servers is something of a worry.

The software is missing a few key apps.  There are currently no native email and calendaring apps (though these are coming later this month with the next OS release so this shouldn’t put you off buying one) and the machine and screen lock feature doesn’t work properly, it asked me for a password every time I turned the machine on even though I had told it to only lock after 30 minutes.  Hopefully this is something else that will be sorted out.

The app store is well stocked but not quite as well stocked as I might have hoped and it can be difficult and fiddly to navigate and find what you want.  I thought the app store on the Touchpad was fairly barren but the Playbook’s store is not much better.

With the OS itself I found some simple tasks, such as closing a browser window, took two actions where on other devices they would only take one, and the left-right swipe action needed to select a running app on the home screen to open was often over-zealous and swiped straight past the one you wanted.  Despite these niggles though the OS is certainly polished, very fast indeed and very responsive.  I really like it.

One of the problems I faced with my Touchpad was being unable to hold it in one hand when using it, it’s just too heavy and bulky for that, as is the iPad.  I was hoping then that a smaller 7 inch tablet would solve these problems.  Alas it’s still just a little heavy and left my hand aching between my thumb and forefinger after holding it for moderate periods.  Resting it on the knee doesn’t work too much either as it’s just too small for that and suddenly you find it’s too far away.  It can also get a little hot in extended use.

You might think then that I don’t like the Playbook and wouldn’t recommend it.  In fact quite the opposite is true.  For the problems and niggles there is also much to like.  RIM’s QNX operating system is very similar to WebOS in many ways, almost always in ways that make it intuitive and simple to operate.  It’s nice to see that RIM have put a great deal of focus on ease of use and they’ve certainly succeeded.

It is very small and light too, so if you’re looking for something to use on the daily commute this won’t get in the way and will be very comfortable to use in an airline seat too, where larger tablets can be too big.  I’d have liked to have seen a 3G/4G slot on something so portable, and this is a complaint I commonly make about tablets and laptops, but for these new super-cheap prices I couldn’t really complain.

It’s this new low price though that really sells the tablet to me.  In build quality, form factor and weight it’s every bit the competitor to Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablet, but now it also competes keenly on price.  With that excellent screen it’s a very capable eBook reader but doesn’t have the Amazon Kindle-store-focused front-end.  If you’re after your first tablet you won’t get any better for the price.  If you want a tablet to use seriously though and don’t mind spending more, then you might be better looking at the available Android machines.

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter. Is the Blackberry Playbook Fire Sale Beginning?
Which Should I Keep, an HP TouchPad or a RIM Playbook?
Curry’s cut PlayBook Price by £150 in UK, but why?
How RIM Spoiled my first day with a Playbook
Which is the Best Tablet Form-Factor – Review About the Author:Mike Halsey is a Microsoft MVP for "Windows Expert". He is also the author of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out from Microsoft Press and the Windows 7 Power Users Guide, a how-to guide for non-technical Windows users on how to get the best out of Microsoft's new operating system, with step-by-step and quick guides. You can follow Mike on Facebook, Twitter or on his own website The Long ClimbAuthor: Mike Halsey MVP, Monday February 6, 2012 -
Tags:blackberry, playbook, review, rim

You are here: Home » Hardware » Blackberry Playbook Tablet Review

Click on the following link(s) to read more about Hardware

View the original article here

Which is the Best Tablet Form-Factor – Review

In the last year I’ve reviewed and owned a fair number of tablets covering just about every aspect of the market.  These have included the monster 12 inch ASUS EP121 complete with a Core-i5 processor and 4Gb of RAM down to my latest arrival, a 7 inch Blackberry Playbook.  But what is the best size and form-factor for a tablet?  Having used a fair few now I thought I’d share my thoughts with you on what the different screen sizes mean in terms of usability, weight and portability.

The first thing I need to say here is that personal choice comes into this in a sizable way.  I for instance like using large computer screens, 23 inch and above, on which I can see complete web pages and other programs and documents simultaneously.  I extensively use Windows 7's Aero Snap feature which allows me to pin programs and documents to the left and right of my screen so that I can compare them.  That’s when I’m working however.  A tablet for me is something that I will commonly use lounging on the sofa or sitting on the train.  It’s purely an entertainment device and, currently, will only be used for checking my email, a little light web browsing and gaming.

Weight and portability will also factor in largely depending on your own personal view.  Some people won’t mind having a slightly larger and heavier tablet with them as they commonly carry a bag that suits it.  For other people who might carry a smaller bag, or dislike such things, then portability and even pocket-ability is a major factor.

In the image below you can see three different tablets.  The 11.6 inch EXOPC Slate running the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, the 9.7 inch HP Touchpad running WebOS and the 7 inch Blackberry Playbook running QNX.  This will not be a review of usability of the individual devices and their operating systems, just of their size, weight and form-factor.  So which do I prefer and why?

Clearly if you are using a tablet for light duties anything above a 10 inch screen is going to make for a weighty machine that you simply won’t be able to hold comfortably in one hand.  The EXOPC weighs in at around one and half kilos and the ASUS EP121 was just as heavy, if not slightly more so.  I would say that these tablets aren’t for using casually or for travel.  They are for people who take their computing seriously and want a tablet they can actually do some work with.  I’ve seen people using iPads with docks and bluetooth keyboards on trains and it can safely be said this is by far the best way to use a tablet over the size of 10 inches.  In a way this actually negates the point of it being a tablet as it’s easy to argue that adding a keyboard to a tablet turns it into a laptop, or at least means that it suddenly isn’t a tablet any more.

So what of the 10 inch tablets.  Now this category includes many Android machines and also, most famously Apple’s iPad and iPad 2.  It is in this arena that Apple are on to a winner as weight does become an issue.  You might remember Steve Job’s address when he first unveiled the iPad.  Many people criticised him for resting it on his knee while he was working on it.  While this might have been necessary it still remains that the iPad and iPad 2 are two of the lightest tablets available in their class.  The HP Touchpad, seen above, is almost a third heavier than the iPad 2 and it shows.  In use I almost always have to rest it on something when using it, but as I’m usually relaxing on the sofa it doesn’t really bother me.

On the plus side, that 10 inch screen does allow me to see an entire web page or a whole document at one time.  There’s no swiping and scrolling around all the time so that I can read everything.  This is a huge plus for people who just want to be able to relax with their devices.  This form factor is really very portable too, though you’ll quickly notice the bulk when carrying it in your luggage for a trip away and for using it on a train.

One of the reasons that 10 inch tablets are more bulky is that this is the size of tablet that still uses the traditional 4:3 screen aspect ratio.  It’s very true that this allows you to see much more at one time, but if you’re after an entertainment device to, for example, watch movies then you will be using electricity to power parts of the screen that won’t be doing anything.  If you’re in an airline seat too this aspect ratio can get in the way and make what is in effect a small device suddenly feel bulky.

So it must be the 7 inch tablet then that wins?  Well, let’s not be too hasty as while these machines are certainly small and light, some will even fit in an ‘oversized’ jacket pocket, that small screen isn’t very suitable for today’s modern web browsing.  You will find yourself scrolling around a lot to read the information you want, though in portrait mode they can make excellent eBook readers, being the only tablets you can comfortably hold with one hand.

One major advantage of the 7 inch tablets is also one of their largest failings.  I feel with the Playbook that if I go out, perhaps to walk the dog, I want to take it with me and carry on web browsing while walking round the common or sitting on the bus.  Alas far too few tablets these days come equipped with SIM card slots and this is where these ‘mobile’ devices begin to fail.  If you’re after a tablet, whatever size you want, I would strongly advise getting one that’s 3G or even 4G enabled.  Mobile data costs are plummeting and a device such as this, unless you watch video on it, will use much less data in general usage than you might expect it to.

I firmly believe that all mobile computing devices these days should support mobile broadband, it’s a no-brainer given how we now work and play.  It is a shame though that too many manufacturers don’t include this, or charge significant premiums for it, when it’s such a cheap and accessible technology.  My EXOPC for example didn’t come with it, but the company fitted it for me for just £40 (around $55).

It’s this lack of portability on some 7 inch tablets that makes me ask why I should use that if I’m going to be tied to my home, why shouldn’t I use a 10 inch tablet instead?  For this reason I believe the 10 inch tablets are the overall winner, and clearly Apple believe this too as they currently make no other sizes.  If you can get a 7 inch tablet with a SIM card slot then I would advise to think seriously about it, but if a SIM card slot isn’t available, or is out of your budget, then 10 inch is definitely where the best value for money lies.

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter. Acer Iconia Tab W500 Windows 7 Tablet Review
Sony Prepares for Tablet Launch As Verizon Leaks a Peek at the Motorola Xoom 4G
Is the Amazon Kindle Tablet Coming September 28?
Lenovo U1 Convertible Tablet finally goes to the FCC
Dell Plans To Show Windows 8 Tablet In Q1 2012 About the Author:Mike Halsey is a Microsoft MVP for "Windows Expert". He is also the author of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out from Microsoft Press and the Windows 7 Power Users Guide, a how-to guide for non-technical Windows users on how to get the best out of Microsoft's new operating system, with step-by-step and quick guides. You can follow Mike on Facebook, Twitter or on his own website The Long ClimbAuthor: Mike Halsey MVP, Sunday February 5, 2012 -
Tags:tablet

You are here: Home » Hardware » Which is the Best Tablet Form-Factor – Review

Click on the following link(s) to read more about Hardware

View the original article here

Invisible Dash Review ?EUR" How Does Invisible Dash Work?

Is the new Invisible Dash horse racing system a scam? This betting system works on a "bet-low, win-high" mentality, finding high value bets that require small capital to generate high returns on money. Since beta-testing, the system has also been pretty consistent in generating returns every week, which is very much in line with the consistency of the historical results shown on the main website.

1. How Does the Invisible Dash Membership Work to Deliver Daily Selections?

By joining this site, I am basically able to receive all the daily selections made by th selection criteria of this system directly in my email every day. These are based on a set of rules that were developed the many years of research by its owners. In total, I am able to spend about 5 minutes every day to place my bets by following the step by step instructions in the email, though it will definitely take a longer time if you are still a beginner with online horse race betting.

2. What Does the Invisible Dash System Teach Me to Do to Make Money from Betting?

If you are like me, and you are keen in learning more about the steps involved in the selection system used to pick horses to bet on, you will be able to find this information in the guides provided in the membership area. It runs through a set of statistics that have been found to be accurate and influential in determining horse race results. However, looking at historical data is one thing while knowing how to make sense of it and get knowledge out of it is another thing.

3. Will the Invisible Dash System Work for You Too?

If you would like to learn horse race betting and earn another income, you would certainly want to take a look at this system. It has changed the way I analyze horse betting data which has also resulted in an increase in my betting win rate. By learning the rules of the selection methods, I have also learned how to separate the races and only focus on the ones which have outcomes that are easier to predict and profit from.

After identifying these races, each horse is then run through the set of rules to analyze their probability of winning relative to the odds being offered on those horses to look for high value bets. By constantly picking and betting on high value selections, it statistically generates profit in the long run, but losses can still occur in the short run, thus money management is very important.

View the original article here

Thalamus Publishing Review Scam

You know how a lot of Violin beginner music is rather uninspiring, or it doesn't fit into your teaching curriculum - wrong keys, too hard, too easy, totally ungraded, doesn't flow readily from one teaching point to the next.....

A few years back, I read an impassioned plea from a violin teacher:

"What can I give my beginners to play?"

Well, I was using Folk songs with my 6 and 7 year old beginner violin classes (the same Folk songs that their Headmaster had taught them to sing at School Assembly) and they just loved them, especially the rollicking ballads!

So I kept right on using Folksongs for all my beginners, from Kindergarten through High School teenagers to adults, and they all still love Folksongs, and so do their families!

And here is something that is important to me, and I'm sure it will be to you too:
I am never BORED with Folksongs. Even the simplest Folksong is a miniature masterpiece.

*Folk music is the basis of all music.
*School children sing Folk music.
*School recorder bands play Folk music.

So, following the old educational theory of proceeding from the known to the unknown, it makes good sense to begin violin education with Folk music.

* Folk Song and Folk Dance are the foundation of all music.
* Folk music is pure music - quality music in good taste.
* The study of Classical Music begins with Folk Music.....

"Folk Music is the Basis of All Music. Every form of vocal and instrumental music we possess has developed out of folk song or dance..." (Oxford Companion to Music)

Grab A Copy Click Here
Folk music was the most popular music of its time. It has survived because it was popular with many generations of singers, instrumentalists, and their audiences. It has been preserved in aural history, and collected by many collectors who did not want it to be lost. Beethoven, Haydn, Weber, and others were even employed to arrange Scottish and Irish folksongs to preserve them.

Folk Music is the purest music that we have, because it has been edited as it has been passed down through the generations, and all the "rough edges" - sour notes, etc., have been worn away by the passage of time.

The list of famous Folk music collectors includes:

*Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
and
*Robert Burns (1759-96), who wrote new words to old Irish and Scottish melodies (respectively),
with
* George Thompson, who collected old Scottish and Irish songs and Welsh harp tunes, and engaged the foremost composers of the time, including Haydn, Beethoven and Weber, to write accompaniments for them.

*From the "Folk Music Movement":
*Revd. Sabine Baring-Gould (English)
* Revd. John Broadwood; Miss Lucy Broadwood (English)
*Frank Kidson (chiefly English); Mary Neal (English)
* Mrs Milligan Fox (Irish)
* Mrs Kennedy-Fraser (Hebridean)
*Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
and especially
*Cecil Sharp (1859-1924) (Southern Appalachians, USA, (with Olive Dame Campbell))
and in Europe:
*Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
*Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)
and many others

They can be a very useful additional resource or a remedial tool at various stages of study, and can help to lay down, or consolidate, a good foundation for violin playing.

Grab A Copy Click Here

View the original article here

Beat Making Secrets Review

The simple fact of the matter is that 9 out of 10 aspiring producers HAVE NEVER, and WILL NEVER make a single penny from their efforts.

What most of them don't know is that making money from beats does NOT have to be hard.

Sure enough, after a couple of years of intense work, he uncovered "the formula" for making "platinum beats".

As soon as he figured it out, he had the best artists knocking down his door, literally offering him piles of cash to use his beats in their songs!

He took me under his wing, offering to teach me the secrets that had taken him years to learn.

Sure, if you're brand new, there are basics you have to learn. But I can tell you from my own experience YOU can easily make beats and generate thousands of dollars a month selling them.

Why is it that 90 out of every 100 people who dive into beat-making, with big hopes, big plans and big dreams, never seem to manage to make even a LITTLE money?

After several months of struggling to GIVE AWAY my beats, I was frustrated at seeing how much money other local producers were making.

It just didn't make sense ... They spent LESS time making their beats than I did... They had way LESS musical capability than I did ... and they sure as hell had NO knowledge of music theory.

Grab A Copy Click here

Sure enough, after a couple of years of intense work, he uncovered "the formula" for making "platinum beats".

As soon as he figured it out, he had the best artists knocking down his door, literally offering him piles of cash to use his beats in their songs!

He took me under his wing, offering to teach me the secrets that had taken him years to learn.

Once he showed me his 'formula', I couldn't believe how simple it was to make great sounding beats. All this time I was doing it the WRONG way ...

Instead of taking years to figure it out like him, he was able to teach it to me in a matter of days!

It sounds simple … and it is … but ONLY if you know what you are doing.

If you try to figure all of this out for yourself, without following a proven blueprint, you'll be doomed to slaving away in your dead-end job, tired, frustrated and jealous as you watch producers who "get it" hit the big time.

Grab A Copy Click here

View the original article here

Forel Publishing Review

This manual contains complete service information for all 1955 Ford Passenger Cars and the new Ford Thunderbird. Step-by-step procedures for trouble shooting, cleaning and inspecting, repairing, and re-placing the various parts, assemblies, and systems on these vehicles are presented here. This manual also contains maintenance and lubrication data as well as a tabulation of service specifications.

This product is produced in Adobe Reader (pdf) format to retain the exact look and feel of the original manual. Simply scroll through the pages and sections like reading a normal printed manual. In addition, unlike a printed version, each page can be printed (or reprinted, if damaged in the garage), zoom in to over 1200% to see the exact details, and you can search for keywords.

This 6000+ page manual is the original manual used by Ford technicians in the 60's and 70's to identify the correct service part for Ford cars. It contains a comprehensive list of part numbers, diagrams, illustrations, cross-references, and other valuable information necessary for any restoration project.

Detailed illustrations of many of the service operations are given here. Disassembled views of the principal units show the various parts in the order of their disassembly or assembly. In many cases, a glance at these illustrations will tell you all you need to know about how the parts go together. Grab A Copy Click here

This product is produced in Adobe Reader (pdf) format to retain the exact look and feel of the original manual. Simply scroll through the pages and sections like reading a normal printed manual. In addition, unlike a printed version, each page can be printed (or reprinted, if damaged in the garage), zoom in to over 1200% to see the exact details, and you can search for keywords.

This 6000+ page manual is the original manual used by Ford technicians in the 60's and 70's to identify the correct service part for Ford cars. It contains a comprehensive list of part numbers, diagrams, illustrations, cross-references, and other valuable information necessary for any restoration project.

This is not the same as a "Shop Manual". A shop manual is very useful, but simply does not provide the details necessary for most restorations. For example, a shop manual does not provide the full part numbers (i.e. C5ZZ-1007-B), when a part changed, nor diagrams specific to your model car. Instead, it contains partial numbers and only a handful of general illustrations (most may not even be for your model car).

Grab A Copy Click here

View the original article here