stats

Space maker

It's always a terrible feeling when you realize that you're about to run out of room on your hard drive, and it's even worse when you have no idea what's taking up all that space. WinDirStat Portable is a lightweight program that lets users quickly identify the biggest space hogs on their machines and then take action to tidy things up.

The program's interface is plain and utilitarian. When the program is launched, a dialog box asks users to select the drives or folders they want to analyze. The program then scans the selected locations … Read more

Over 2 billion baseband cellular devices to ship in 2014

The move to 4G and the longevity of 3G will kick off a rise in the number of devices shipped with baseband cellular modems to more than 2 billion annually in another four years, according to a report released Thursday by In-Stat.

Devices with baseband modems--wireless chipsets that enable the connection to cell towers--include traditional mobile phones, smartphones, Netbooks, notebooks, tablets, and e-readers. Though Wi-Fi will continue to be a practical technology for short-range connections, baseband devices will still offer greater coverage by tapping into cellular networks, according to In-Stat.

As the current onslaught of mobile devices taxes existing 3G … Read more

Mobile apps a gold rush for providers

The mobile apps market has become a cash cow for carriers such as Apple but is turning increasingly competitive for developers trying to make a profit, according to a new In-Stat report.

Mobile subscribers are downloading apps in ever increasing numbers as they learn more about the capabilities of their smartphones, said the report, released Wednesday. As the company that set the standard for mobile apps, Apple and its App Store are seeing the most action, with iPhone and iPod Touch users downloading 2.4 times more apps than the other smartphone owners.

But although the news may be bright … Read more

Vimeo rolls out 'stats' feature for paying users

Since being acquired by Google, YouTube's had a target on its head. This has been true both from a legal perspective, as well as from competitors that have done as much as possible to put out more features, or simply do things better. Web video host Vimeo's latest feature--called stats, which rolls out to paying Vimeo Plus members Tuesday afternoon--is a mix of both.

Stats has been in the works since 2008, though the project got sidelined for more pressing matters like better categorization, a mobile interface, 1080p video, and an HTML5 video player. Though not as sexy as most of those things, stats is probably the most important feature in helping Vimeo's video creators know more about how well their content has been received, as well as who's watching it.

Stats gives users a visual and numerical breakdown of:

Referrers (where videos are being watched from--including the individual sub-domain pages) What country viewers are from A breakdown of user likes and comments How many times a video has been downloaded How many times a video has been played versus how many times the player was simply loaded. How many of users actually finished the video (both on the site and in embeds).

The tracking that goes into making these numbers available works even for non-paying Vimeo users. The feature simply turns on once you become a Plus member. It can also go as far back as to when you joined the site, which for me was in June 2007. Although in a phone call with CNET a few weeks ago, a Vimeo representative said the tracking has only been going for the past year.

Beyond these metrics, many of which can be found on other video hosts, Vimeo's secret sauce is that it can further break out each metric by the quality of the video. So if you want to get an idea of how many viewers watched a standard definition, versus a high-definition copy of your video, you can do that. It can also spit those numbers out on a spreadsheet-friendly .CSV file. 

The stats feature should be going live to Vimeo Plus users in the next few hours. Below, and after the break are some shots of what users will get. … Read more

Monitor your Mac

CheckUp is an easy-to-use multipurpose maintenance utility that can help you monitor and improve your Mac's performance. Its very visual interface uses colorful and dynamic icons, graphs, and dials to display performance and data over eight different categories: Profile (including uptime and a bandwidth tally), System (especially great for seeing which OS your Mac can handle), Processors (twin dials for dual processors, plus a temperature monitor), Memory (configuration, usage, and testing), Disks (all partitions, with an option for repairing permissions), Network (showing input and output in a customizable graph), Processes (a prettier, more flexible version of OS X's … Read more

On-the-go flight updates

FlightStats is a travel tool that provides a wealth of flight-related information based on real-time data and past statistics. On the main page, you can check on scheduled departure and landing times, as well as actual take-off and projected landing. You can also elect to receive an e-mail or SMS alerts if the flight status changes, which is highly useful if your carrier or Web-ticketing service doesn't offer such a feature. Plus, there's a map view that provides at-a-glance on-time info for airports across the country.

In addition to gathering information by flight number and date, you can … Read more

Hazzardous poker

NowStat Texas Holdem Poker is a simple but strange game of five-card draw. Its basic play and easy opponents make it a great game for new players, but it might disappoint experienced card handlers. Unless, of course, they're Jessica Simpson fans.

The program's interface is simple to operate but very odd to view. There's a nice poker tutorial that runs through the rules, and all the command buttons were easy to understand. However, the game's theme is based on the "Dukes of Hazzard" movie and features one of the film's stars, Jessica Simpson, … Read more

Free map maker

StatPlanet Map Maker provides a simple set of tools for creating a detailed map. While the main function was more tedious than we originally hoped, the results were still useful in the right situation.

The program's interface is simple to grasp, and its controls are intuitive. StatPlanet Map Maker's layout reminds us of pop-up maps we've seen on news Web sites. The program also includes an extensive User's Manual, which is helpful for inputting your own data. It gives you full control over your map view, with options such as choosing to view the entire planet … Read more

AndroidStats helps users keep up with growing number of apps

As the number of apps and games continues to grow for Android, it's getting harder to keep on top of everything. Rather than trying out every title that enters the Android Market, I like to look for specific genres of apps.

For instance, I really enjoy casual games on my T-Mobile G1. I always find at least a few minutes of downtime throughout my day so I'm constantly trying to get a new high score or unlock a new puzzle. However, as much as I'd love to try out every brain game that's released, it's … Read more