Miro Media Player 5 Release Candidate Out, Final Version Soon

The developers of Miro have released a first release candidate of the upcoming Miro 5 version. Miro at its core is a media player with Internet connectivity built right into the software. The software can play back media formats and supports the playing and downloading of media from the Internet.

You can use it to manage your local video and audio library, go to video hosting sites like YouTube from within the program interface to watch and download videos from there,  subscribe to podcasts, download torrent files, or make use of the channels and shows offered by Miro. Channels include the ever popular Ted Talks, Buzz out Loud or the Discovery Channel Video podcast. You can subscribe to these channels to receive updates when new items are published.

A lot has changed since our initial review in 2008 and last year’s update to Miro 4. The developers behind Miro have now released the first release candidate of the upcoming version 5. This is a test version which is not suited yet for productive environments. While the majority of features work without larger issues, you will come upon  a few bugs in that version, like the inability to minimize the program version using the button at the top of the window.

When you look at the program interface you will notice that it looks more or less identical to previous versions. The developers claim massive updates to the Windows backend of the software.

The new version of Miro now supports downloading HD videos from Vimeo feeds, faster device syncing and format conversions, song information and album art lookup, and a new album view mode that groups together songs by album and artist.

Interested users can download the release candidate of Miro 5 from the official blog. Downloads are provided for Windows and Mac Os X, and the source code.

New users should check out the Get Started section for an overview of some of the things that Miro allows them to do.

Are you using an all-in-one media player like Miro, or do you prefer to keep things separate?

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Wednesday March 21, 2012 -
Tags:mac software, miro, windows sofftware

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Google Chrome: First Metro version is out

A few days ago I mentioned that Google was about to release the first Metro version of the Chrome browser. As you all know, Windows 8 will ship with two user interaces, the desktop interface that you are all familiar with, and the new Metro interface that is limited in terms of functionality when compared to the desktop. Software developers are now in a position where they need to create special Metro-versions of their applications to support that part of the operating system as well. And while they simply could plant an icon there that launches the desktop version, some believe that it is better to create special Metro versions instead.

Microsoft is for instance providing a copy of Internet Explorer 10 for Metro that is limited in functionality. It for instance does not support plugins, and seems to have been optimized for touch-based devices. Mozilla too has been working on a Metro version of Firefox for some time now and seems to have made great progress so far.

And now it is Google with the company’s Chrome browser. The latest Chrome Dev release is now featuring the first public implementation of the Metro-version of the browser. Windows 8 users who have Chrome Dev installed on the system will notice that the browser is now opening up in Metro when executed there.

The browser itself does not look that different from its desktop counterpart, at least not when you first start it.  What you will notice though is that there are no window controls to maximize, minimize or change the size of the window in the Metro version. You can however use Metro’s feature to drag the Chrome browser to the left or right sidebar of the screen to display another application besides it. The menus seem to be larger and optimized for touch-input.

Themes, extensions and all that good stuff work in Chrome for Metro. What you will notice however is that the Metro version and desktop version of the browser do not share contents or information right now. When you install a theme or extension in Metro, it won’t be available on the desktop and vice versa. The same is true when you sign-in to Chrome, as you need to sign-in in both versions of the browser if you want to use the functionality in both. You can however make use of the browser’s synchronization feature to sync data between the desktop and Metro version.

When you look at the Chrome user directory on Windows 8, you will notice that Metro has its own directory in the root folder. Basically, the two applications are completely independent from each other at this point of development.

Interested users who want to check out the Metro version of Chrome need to install the dev version of the browser on their Windows 8 system.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Tuesday June 12, 2012 -
Tags:google chrome, metro ui, windows 8

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Mozilla Begins Work on Firefox Metro Version

If you have followed the development progress of Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 8 closely, you may know that it ships with two different versions of the Internet Explorer browser. First a standard desktop version of Internet Explorer 10, and then a second version for the new Metro user interface part of the operating system.

This opens up a new predicament for other browser developers as their browsers suddenly only work in one part of the operating system, and not the other. While it is possible to install browsers like Chrome, Firefox or Opera in Windows 8, they only work in the desktop environment and not the Metro UI part of the browser.

Mozilla were the first to announce that they would start to develop a Metro UI compatible version of the Firefox web browser to make the browser available in the Metro interface as well.

Development has begun on the new version, and the developers plan to release a proof of concept demo in the second quarter.

In order to deliver a compelling Firefox for Windows 8 Metro experience, we need to understand what’s possible. A technology proof of concept is the first step. This is not a Alpha or a Beta, but should demonstrate the feasibility of Firefox in Windows 8 Metro. (Timing here is dependent on when Microsoft releases their Windows 8 consumer preview and developer documentation.)

Mozilla developer Brian Bondy revealed additional information about the Metro version of the Firefox browser in a blog post. According to this post, Mozilla can build a Metro browser that is equally powerful as the desktop browser. One restriction seems a bit odd.

Unfortunately a browser can only participate in Metro mode if it is the default browser. So if Firefox is not the default browser on a system, you can’t use it in Metro mode. This is a decision made by Microsoft.

This basically means that Firefox can only be used in the Metro UI if it is the default system browser. It is also not clear at this point in time how the web browser will be distributed.

Mozilla’s move to develop a Metro UI version of Firefox makes sense in a number of ways, including usability and consistency. Firefox users who work with the browser on the desktop, may for instance prefer to access their browser bookmarks and information in the Metro version, instead of having to work with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 10 there.

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Mozilla Checks Flash Version After Firefox Updates About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Saturday March 10, 2012 -
Tags:firefox news, metro ui, windows 8

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Mozilla To Release Firefox Version For Windows 8 Metro UI

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 8 will ship with two different interfaces. First a classic interface that is more or less identical to what current Windows users are working with, and the new Metro user interface that is more tablet centric and minimalistic.

You cannot just use desktop applications in the Metro interface and the other way round, which means that you may also access two different versions of the same application depending on the interface you are in. A special version of Internet Explorer 10 has been designed for the Metro UI that is in many regards fundamentally different from the classic desktop version of the browser. Among the changes are a minimalistic interface, the lack of browser plugins or the fullscreen mode.

Mozilla has published two new Wiki pages that detail how the company intents to cope with the changing design requirements.

The Windows 8 wiki describes that Mozilla plans to release a Windows 8 Metro-specific Firefox browser, to complement the classic version of the browser. This Metro-specific version would be accessible on Windows 8's Metro user interface only.

The wiki page describes some of the challenges that the developers face at this point in the planning stage:

Firefox on Metro, like all other Metro apps will be full screen, focused on touch interactions, and connected to the rest of the Metro environment through Windows 8 contracts.We will need to determine if the Firefox front end on Metro will be built in XUL, C/C++, or HTML/CSS/JS (I’m assuming for now that .Net and XAML are off the table.)Firefox will have to support three “snap” states — full screen, ~1/6th screen and ~5/6th screen depending on how the user “docks” two full screen apps. Our UI will need to adjust to show the most relevant content for each size.We’ll need to handle being suspended by the OS when out of view.We may want to offer a live tile with user-centric data like friends presence or other Firefox Home information updatesIdeally we’d be able to create secondary tiles for Web-based apps hosted in Firefox’s runtime.

The second Wiki page, Windows 8 Integration, highlights additional restrictions or challenges:

Unlike Desktop, Metro apps will ONLY be available through the Windows store.There are no overlapping windows, nor traditional popup windows, everything is chromeless, everything is designed to be consistent across applications.Not possible to simply and easily port existing apps to Metro. A significant amount of conventional desktop functionality will not be available.Some interprocess communication is possible within Metro, but it is very limited.

It appears as if Mozilla is currently in an information gathering stage to find out if and how they can create a Metro UI version of the Firefox web browser.

No release related information are provided on the two wiki pages. It is however likely that we won’t see alpha or beta versions before the release of the Windows 8 Release Candidate, or maybe even later.

There is a lot of uncertainty. Users for instance might want to know if they can use their extensions in the Metro UI version of the browser, or if that would be prevented somehow.

Windows 8 users with the intention to use Metro UI will surely welcome options to switch the default interface browser.

A Firefox Metro UI version, would that be something that you are interested in? Or do you think that Mozilla should concentrate development on the desktop version of the browser?

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Tags:Firefox, metro ui, windows 8

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New Scribus Version Released After Almost Four Years

The open source desktop publishing software Scribus has just received its first big update after nearly four years of development. Scribus 1.4 brings along more than 2000 bug fixes and feature requests that the developers managed to squeeze into the new version. One of the biggest improvements over previous versions of the application is that Scribus 1.4 is based on the application framework QT4, which not only makes the software run more reliable on all platforms but also on Apple Mac OS X 10.5 or later operating systems.

The list of feature changes does not stop here though. The developers have added support for additional vector import filters (including Adobe Illustrator EPS and PDF, Macintosh Picture and Windows Metafile), PDF 1.5 export support, new vector object features like a line style editor, advanced text and typography options like character styles, or enhancements to Scribus’ pre-press features that include printing marks and ink coverage display.

A list of all major enhancements and improvements is available here at the Scribus Wiki.

The team is now concentrating on stabilizing the 1.5 version of the program, and promising that it will come with support for PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-4 and PDF/E, native PDF import and Mesh Gradients.

New Scribus users should take a look at the Quick Start Guide that walks them through setting up their first document and several core features of the desktop publishing software.

Additional information are available in the – extensive – documentation that offers information about the program’s core functionality and advanced concepts like color management, pre-press features or integration of additional fonts in the program. A How To section in the Wiki offers additional tutorials, with some being available for multiple languages.

Interested users can download the latest stable version of Scribus from the project page over at Sourceforge. The program is available for Windows, Mac and Nix based operating systems. (Thanks Paulus for the tip)

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ZC DVD Creator Platinum [Free Full Version] About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Wednesday January 11, 2012 -
Tags:desktop publishing, windows software

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How To Run The Advanced Disk Cleanup Version In Windows

The Disk Cleanup tool offers a great way to quickly free up some disk space by deleting temporary files that are no longer needed. It is in no way as complete or thorough as third party tools like CCleaner, but it gets the job done and does not require you to install another software on the system for that operation.

Most users do not know that Microsoft has integrated an advanced version of the cleanup tool in the Windows operating system. The core reason for that is that it can only be started from the command prompt, and not from menus or by clicking on a program icon on the desktop.

Lets first take a look at the standard version of Disk Cleanup. One of the easiest ways to start the Disk Cleanup is to use the shortcut Windows-r to bring up the run box, enter cleanmgr in there and tap on the enter key afterwards. This opens the program right away. There are other ways to launch it, for instance by entering disk cleanup in the start menu search form.

The standard Disk Cleanup tool can delete the following temporary files on the system. Included in the deletion are temporary files, thumbnails, or downloaded programs.

Check out How To Clean Hard Drives In Windows 7 for general information about the cleanup software.

Compare that to the options the advanced cleanup tool offers.

Included now are debug dump files, system and user queued error reporting files, files discarded by Windows upgrade or setup and windows upgrade log files.

Here is how you can load the advanced Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows. Open the run prompt again with Windows-r. Now run the following command to bring up the advanced version.

Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & /sagerun:65535

Just click ok afterwards to load the advanced Disk Cleanup Tool interface.

Note that not all items are selected by default, which means that you need to look through the options to enable and disable items until you are satisfied with the selection.

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. Schedule Regular Disk Cleanup in Windows 7 and Improve Performance
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Disk Alignment Test, Advanced Format Hard Drive Check About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Monday January 9, 2012 -
Tags:disk cleanup, windows tips

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