5.8

Windows 8 touch-screen Acer laptop, desktop up for sale

An Acer touch-screen Windows 8 laptop has popped up on the Home Shopping Network, along with other systems.

Brace yourself: touch-screen laptops will not be cheap.

Most of the specs are pretty underwhelming: a 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-3317U "Ivy Bridge" processor, 750GB hard disk drive, DVD drive, a thickness of over an inch (that's considered plump in the age of the ultrabook), and a weight of 5.4 pounds.

But one hardware feature sets it apart from the Windows 7 rabble: a 15.6-inch touch screen to go with Windows 8's touch-centric interface.

And that … Read more

Free video conversion

The Free Convert to Divx AVI WMV MP4 MPEG Converter is an application for converting your video files into another supported format.

The features of this application are pretty simple. All you need to do is click Add to select a video and then click Convert to start the process. The time varies, depending on the file size. Also, the Format and Profile options that you choose will influence the conversion time. AVI video format seems to take longer (10 to 15 minutes for a 15-minute video), but MPEG-4 video is done in about 2 minutes for the same video … Read more

Robot runway

V-REP Player is a free tool that can run robotic simulations on any compatible Windows PC. It's based on V-REP, the Virtual Robot Experimentation Platform, a sophisticated tool for simulating the function and behavior of various robotics systems in a 3D environment. It's based on a distributed control architecture, and it lets users run control programs simultaneously in threaded or non-threaded fashion. You can't use V-REP Player to create simulations, only play them. However, it has many potential uses, such as remote monitoring, hardware control, fast prototyping, safety systems, factory automation simulations, and as a teaching tool. … Read more

Rumor: Analyst expects A5 and 8MP camera for iPhone 5

Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo released a note with details on what to expect in the forthcoming iPhone 5. Juicy features include Apple's A5 processor and a much-improved 8-megapixel rear camera.

According to AppleInsider, Kuo's note says the A5 processor will match the performance of the one currently found in Apple's iPad 2, though no mention of the RAM quantity was made.

"He has also been told that Apple will switch to a Qualcomm baseband for both GSM and CDMA models, along with an improved antenna design."

Echoing other rumors that production on the iPhone … Read more

Pleasantly puzzling

We love jigsaw puzzles, but we can't say we'd ever tried playing them on our computer before. It seemed like a good idea--no chances for our cat to abscond with our puzzles pieces--but we weren't sure how well an electronic version would really replicate the experience of completing a puzzle in real life. As it turns out, Everyday Jigsaw replicates that experience just fine.

The program's interface is attractive and easy to navigate. The program comes with seven free puzzles, and we quickly found ourselves sucked in once we started on one. Everyday Jigsaw does a … Read more

Apple issues security update to QuickTime, now version 7.6.9

Apple has updated its QuickTime software, now at version 7.6.9, to fix vulnerabilities where a maliciously designed file could execute arbitrary code or lead to the application terminating.

As Apple describes in its knowledge base article:

"Description: A heap buffer overflow exists in QuickTime's handling of JP2 images. Viewing a maliciously crafted JP2 image may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. This issue is addressed through improved bounds checking. For Mac OS X v10.6 systems, this issue is addressed in Mac OS X v10.6.5. Credit to Nils of MWR … Read more

Shopper's helper

If you believe in comparison shopping, do yourself a favor and download ShopSavvy. The free, ad-supported app seeks out prices for goods either by typing the name or scanning the barcode with your camera. ShopSavvy then spools out online prices and local offerings at major brick and mortar stores. You can read other peoples' product reviews, and can save what you like to a wish list. Too bad you can't e-mail that list out to others. ShopSavvy's price alert feature is a nice touch, alerting you when a product's price meets your criteria.

As neat a concept … Read more

Easy file converter

Free Convert M4A to MP3 AMR OGG AAC Converter provides a simple collection of tools for quickly changing file types. By breaking the process down into an easy-to-use layout, this program succeeds.

Its interface is impressively simple to operate, thanks to its plainspoken onscreen instructions and its intuitive command icons. Simply choose an M4A file from your collection and decide which file type to convert it to. That's about it. As the name implies, you can choose between MP3, AMR, OGG, and WAV files with a drop-down menu. The actual conversion was impressively fast, since it changed a 3-minute … Read more

Simple video converter

Free Convert All Movie Video Converter Gold is a free utility that takes any video format and converts it to something that's easier to use. Its simple layout and fast results make this a great tool for frequent video watchers and those who need to make old videos viewable again.

The program's interface was surprisingly intuitive, with few commands and well-labeled icons. Considering that we're at the novice level when it comes to working with video, we were surprised that we didn't need to consult the Help file's instructions to successfully complete a transfer. The … Read more