Opera 10 is quietly being sampled out to beta testers

Download Opera 10 Alpha

From the Opera Website:

“Note that this alpha release is not intended to show off the full feature set of Opera 10—that will be a while off. It is the first public release of the Opera Presto 2.2 rendering engine, which will be present in Opera 10, made available so you can start trying out some of the new Web technology support. ”

We love to play with shiny new toys so we downloaded Opera 10 alpha for a spin.  This is a nice browser.  Most of the compatibility problems with Opera’s famous strict standards adherence are gone.

Speed is way way up!

The classic Opera speed dial is even better.

While Opera 10 is probably, today, not a good choice for your default browser, this is absolutely worth a look. In fact, I have no bugs to report in my use and this story was just published using it.  That’s better than Apple Safari 4 with which I could not publish anything.

I will publish a speed test report comparing it to Explorer 8, Firefox 3.1, Apple Safari 4 and Google Chrome when it gets to be Opera 10 Beta instead of Alpha.

Related posts:

1. Safari 4 - Speed Test - Weird Results - Incompatible With Popular Sites and Software While Safari has great speed results (especially considering how bad...
2. Hot Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 Fastest Browser! No Problems or Install Issues In Our Tests - Download it Today Download the new Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 at : Firefox...
3. Apple has the DNA - Every Daughter Will Be A Prom Queen, But Without A Brain While the world is embracing Open Source and Open Standards,...

I saw that Apple has released Safari 4 Beta

I love the way that Apple approaches design and I keep hoping upon hope that they will someday deliver a better, faster  browser instead of one that seems fast for a few things but cannot be your day to day default browser.

I think Firefox is great, fast and ugly.  I know you can skin it, etc.  You cannot turn an ugly troll like Firefox and Explorer into a princess like Safari 4 Beta.  You also cannot teach that princess (Safari 4) to walk and chew gum at the same time.

The game changer might just be Opera 10 (now in Alpha) which I will cover in a separate review.

Here are the raw browser speed test results for Firefox 3.06, Safari 4 and Internet Explorer 8:

Now just wait a second, you say, that’s not right, I thought that Firefox was the fastest!

In actually fact, it’s the fastest stable/compatible browser and today, in my humble opinion the one you want to use as your day to day default browser.

If you want a car to go really really fast, just take out all the things that weight it down, like brakes for instance!

While Safari has great speed results (especially considering how bad they were before under Safari 3) it could not even post this article.  It’s simply not compatible with major web applications like WordPress.

Explorer 8 has continuous crashes and strange bugs relating to Adobe flash.

Firefox is the worker that needs no management.  It’s the only one I update this site with.

Related posts:

1. Apple has the DNA - Every Daughter Will Be A Prom Queen, But Without A Brain While the world is embracing Open Source and Open Standards,...
2. Opera 10 Is About To Rain On Explorer 8, Safari 4 and Firefox 3.1 Beta Parade Opera 10 is quietly being sampled out to beta testers...
3. Hot Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 Fastest Browser! No Problems or Install Issues In Our Tests - Download it Today Download the new Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 at : Firefox...

I’ve used Avid, Adobe Premier, Pinnacle and even open source/free video editors. What I have not used before is video editing software that is as intuitive as Sony Vegas 9 Movie Studio Platinum. Ok, so it’s probably only intuitive to people who have experience in video editing, but having had projects using many different systems, I am very impressed with Sony’s offering.

Without consulting a manual or reading anything about it at all, I’ve just assumed that it works like a video editing software and viola, it does.  No strange quirks or annoyances, just productivity. All the menus, structure and symbols in the user interface are easy to interpret and follow industry standards (possibly the first time Sony has bothered with things like that). It still lacks some of the features and third party plugin capability that you would find in Adobe Premier, but it’s just so instantly productive that I think I’ll be using it for a long while.

I did some test video editing on the Windows 7 Beta system and the performance was mind blowing! All video and rendering operations were noticeably faster. I’m not sure what to attribute this to, but that’s what we observed.

My project was to edit a YouTube video for another website essentially made from cut together YouTube videos, some pod safe music and some titles. It took me about 20 minutes to succeed with the project using this software. My project was super simple, but that fact remains that I’d still be at it with Adobe Premier.

When the project was rendered, I clicked ‘Upload To YouTUBE’ and it’s done! Fantastic! I love it! Have you ever tried to get Premier to output for YouTUBE? zeeaakks! Does Adobe not understand that the needs of MILLIONS OF YOUTUBE UPLOADERS can be very very profitable to meet? Sony get it. I’ve never been a fan of the Sony software, but I really have to give them credit on this one.

If you need a very high productivity, high performance video editing suite, you should at least give this a try. They have a free 30 day trial and you can download Sony Vegas 9 Pro or Movie Studio Platinum directly from Sony.

No related posts.

Windows 7 Beta - One Month In, What Do We Know Now?

It’s been about a month since we loaded version Microsoft Windows 7 Beta version 7000 (official Microsoft Windows 7 Beta) on our test computers here at the office.

I thought it might help people if I shared a list of what seems to work, what has problems and what we did to get things going.  Here is our list and our install notes.

At the end of the article we give our top tips for Microsoft Windows 7 Beta Compatibility for your applications and games.

If you have any additions, things you’d like us to test or problems, please use the comments and we’ll get you an answer on every single item.

Office Applications and Utilities On Microsoft Windows 7 Beta
Microsoft Office 2007 - No issues found
Adobe CS3 Master Collection (Tested Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Fireworks) - No issues found
uTorrent - No issues found
Thunderbird - No issues found
Winzip - No issues found
Mozy Backup - No issues found
Open Office 3.0 - No issues found
Winamp - No issues found
Power ISO - No issues found
Adsense Log - Cannot keep track of the current time in the status popup box, but works normally.
AVG 8 For Windows 7 - No issues found
Firefox (all versions) - No issues found
Microsoft Songsmith - No issues found
Abyss Web Server - No issues found
Xampp Web Server - No issues found
Sony Vegas Studio 9 Pro Platinum - No issues found
Adobe CS4 - Macrovision (we call it malwarevision) preventing correct install yet again
Adobe CS4 - Torrent Hacked Version -(Tested Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Fireworks) No issues found
Filezilla - No issues found
TightVNC - viewer works only in Java mode
UltraVNC - viewer works only in java mode
PC Anywhere v12 - installs, but cannot start
Slysoft Virtual DVD - does not work
Deamon Tools Virtual DVD - does not work
Games on Microsoft Windows 7 Beta
Spore - No issues found
Dead Space - No issues found
Far Cry 2 - No issues found
Fallout 3 - No issues found
Crysis - rocks - No issues found
Crysis - warhead - No issues found
Saints Row 2 - No issues found
Heroes of might and magic - No issues found
Brothers in arms - No issues found
Lord of the rings conquest - No issues found
Mirrors Edge - No issues found
Neverwinter - No issues found
Left 4 Dead - No issues found
Mass Effect - No issues found
Burnout Paradise - No issues found
Medieval 2 Total War - No issues found
Xplane all versions - No issues found
Womb Raider underworld - No issues found
Vampires edge - No issues found
The Witcher - No issues found
Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 - No issues found

Tips for getting business applications and games to run on Microsoft Windows 7 Beta

1) Turn off the aero interface
2) Only if you have a problem, tell Windows 7 to emulate Vista
3) Install and run as administrator

This solved 70% of all install and run problems for Microsoft Windows 7 Beta

Tips for getting the best performace from games

Get the WDDM Pre-release driver for NVidia from Microsoft Windows 7 Beta Update - Your frame rate will go up and your aero interface performance will also.

So that’s our list of what works and doesn’t work so far.  I am a bit surprised at how well all the game software works on Windows 7.  I am a bit disapointed at Adobe learning nothing from all the problems their customers have had installation and uninstalling the software.  To keep something as easily bypassed as Macrovision shows Adobe understands nothing about their users and nothing about copy protection.  The only things that did not work are the drive emulators which install a driver.

Please do us a favor!  If you find something on the working side or the non-working side in your own testing, please let us know in the comments and we’ll update the list.

Related posts:

1. Windows 7 Beta Review - Already more stable than Vista SP2 Beta I’ve got two computers here running Windows 7 Beta.  They...
2. Adobe CS4 / CS3 on Windows 7 Beta Problems With Macrovision And Aero - Adobe Management - Wake Up! It's sad I cannot write a great review about great...
3. Windows 7 Beta 1 Download - Fast and Stable Windows 7 Beta Shames Vista SP2 Beta Windows 7 Beta 1 was released to developers at WinHEC...

Having just installed Windows 7 Beta ,  I wanted to install my favorite applications that included Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Fireworks. I noticed that they have a new version CS4 and downloaded the trial to test them out.

Unfortunately none of the individual trial software packages would install. I tried Dreamweaver CS4 and Fireworks CS4 and they both fail about halfway through the installation.

I really wanted to try it the Adobe CS4 for versions so I downloaded them from a torrent site.  Stripped of their Adobe installation software they ran fine.  Attention Adobe: Get an instant upgrade of 20% or better in your software’s over all performance by outsourcing your install script to torrent freaks.  Oh yeah and the bonus is that your software will install on anything that can spin a fan.

Adobe CS4 for seems to conflict with the Windows 7 Aero theme and so I eventually grew tired of the new visual style of CS4 and uninstalled it.

I downloaded the Adobe CS3 trial versions and they installed and work perfectly on Windows 7 Beta. I like the stability and performance of the CS3 versions better anyway and think that Adobe still has more than a few problems to resolve in the Adobe CS4 lineup.

Adobe has always been famous for the quality and technical genius of it’s software and equally famous for the very low quality of its problematic installation and so-called protection software.

Continuing relationship with Macrovision is causing the same pain and same problems as with every previous release of their software. It appears that they have learned nothing from the pain experienced by their user base over the last three years.  The Adobe support forum is filled with complaints related to this and yet Adobe corporate management heads are apparently filled with nothing at all.

It’s sad I cannot write a great review about great software running well on the best release of Windows we’ve ever had, but I can’t and it’s not because Adobe doesn’t create great software.  It’s because they protect is using outmoded technology that hackers easily avoid and that same software causes very real operational problems to their equally real paying customers.  Does Adobe think that hackers will begin paying for the software if it’s protected?  Does Adobe really think that it’s corporate users should put up with problems and slow performance?  My advice to Adobe is to follow the money and serve your customers.  Get rid of the useless copy protection and move on with your business relationships with your real customers who will be happy to discover that by removing the crap you’ve added to protect your software, that it runs like a dream.

In the end I’m happy to use CS3. It is a version that I know and trust. It works perfectly under Windows 7 in all interface modes. It seems to benefit from the speed of Windows 7 and becomes even more useful than under Windows Vista previously.

Conclusion: if you are testing Windows 7 beta I highly advise that you use the CS3 version. The first reason is that it’s very stable and fast.  The second reason is that CS4 seems to have a lot of interface releated problems that are magnified by the Windows 7 Aero theme.

PS: Adobe Management (if you are even sentient) Please wake up! Macrovision problems plaque your real customers NOT hackers.  Nobody has ever bought a single copy of your software because of Macrovision protection.  Many corporate customers have had problems because of it.  Wake up, drink some coffee, take some geritol and read your customer support forums.  You’ll get it.  If you dont, then write me and I’ll help.

Related posts:

1. Microsoft Windows 7 Beta - Game, Application and Utility Compatibility - What’s Stable & Works, What’s Doesn’t Work and What To Do About It! I thought it might help people if I shared a...
2. Installing Windows 7 Beta How To and Problems Report In Depth Consider it a travelogue or your guide to installing Windows...
3. Windows 7 Beta Review - Already more stable than Vista SP2 Beta I’ve got two computers here running Windows 7 Beta.  They...

Spore, the latest release from EA (Electronic Arts) proves that imagination is in no short supply when it comes to new games.  In fact EA proves that the world of games can be not only stranger than you thought, but stranger than you can think.  The result is lovable, engrossing and dangerously time consuming.

You start life as a ‘cell’  You eat, mate and evolve to become bigger, stronger, smarter, faster and generally to eat more.  The more aggressive you are the more you evolve and the more other things follow you in your flock.  Periodically, you raid nearby camps, slaughter and eat them to gain power.  This is not dis-similar from my life in a large corporation.

Ever evolving, you soon select your own custom colors, arms, legs, mouth and singing ability.  Yes, singing.  You see, to evolve you also need some social skills and among them are singing, charming, posing and well… you’ll see.  Again, very similar to working for any large company.

Within 20 minutes, I was a large green ball with two legs, two arms, four eyes and something I still don’t understand called ‘porticles’.

Your initial objective is:

1) Do not get eaten by things bigger than you.

1b) Eat everything smaller than you.

2) Eat as much as you can.

3) Find new DNA so you can add new features to your body on the next evolutionary cycle.

4) Combine with another similar creature and create more powerful, more complex offspring.

5) Appear friendly by singing, posing, dancing, whatever so you can win allies.  Some of these relationships will also add to your DNA pool.

5b) Eat the people you befriended in step 5, but only when you need to.

You will note that these goals are not like working at a large corporation.  It’s more evolved than that.  These in fact are the governing principles that VC’s (venture capital investment firms) live by,  print and post on the walls so nobody ever forgets where they are in the food chain.

Every time you get enough DNA points, you “Call A Mate” and create offspring.  You fall instantly in love, sing to each other, dance and then pop out an egg.  Pretty much just like real life.  You spend the DNA points to upgrade your life form.

Like in real life you need to work pretty hard to build allies.  You need to be evolved enough to engage them and perform the skills they want to see in order to like you.  I found myself as a green two legged ball able only to bark at my potential friends.  They wanted singing and dancing.  I hopped up and down a lot, but that didn’t impress them either and then they just shook their heads and all the points fall off the friendship meter and you start again.  Mostly you need to imitate them and sometimes go a little extra.  If they dance, turn, bark like a dog then you’ll need to do the same.

That’s the game, except it isn’t it all. The range of choices available are so innumerable that this is not one game.  This is several million distinctly different games and they occur at many levels.

From simple biological development to society, culture and technology, the game simulates it all and it does it in a way that would make anyone smile.

I don’t get to play games, but I had to see what all the fuss was about.  This is great stuff.  I advise you provide it as a learning toy to your kids, grandkids, or even just get it for yourself.

The Spore series in true Spore style has evolved and spawned a whole family of additions (which I will no doubt be trying later this week)

SPORE - The Original Game

SPORE - Galactic Edition

We have very few product details as of yet.  We know it will include at least:
Additional Art, Making Of, Secrets To Creating Better Characters, Players Handbook and Fold out maps, etc.
This looks to be the ultimate collectors and players edition of the product.

Click to Check Out The Total SPORE Game Page at Amazon.com For More Now

Watch The Videos Below To Get A Real Sense Of The Game -

SPORE - You Are A Cell

SPORE - We All Go To Space

No related posts.

Attention Microsoft: We Don’t need 6 versions of your product.  We need at most two versions that work very well.

We got 6 versions of Vista and that was a nightmare.  I really just want one version of Windows 7 and that should be the best version.  After all, you don’t want people to experience less than the best when running Microsoft Windows right?  I mean, you really want people to be loyal, love it and potentially respect it the morning after they get their copy from the torrents.

Given the much needed boost to revenue and return to operating system credibility that Windows 7 should give to Microsoft, I’d expect that this thing is riding on fully greased rails towards the fastest release possible.  We’re guessing a release to manufacturing of July.  (gee… that’s exactly when the 7000 series beta expires… hmm..)

The Breakdown confirmed by Microsoft is as follows:

Windows 7 Starter

* Available worldwide to OEMs on new PCs
* Missing Aero UI tweaks
* Limited to 3 simultaneous applications

Windows 7 Home Basic (Vista equivalent: $200)

* Only available in emerging markets
* Missing Aero UI tweaks

Windows 7 Home Premium (Vista equivalent: $260)

* Available worldwide, to OEMs and in retail
* Includes Aero UI tweaks
* Features multi-touch capabilities
* Adds “premium” games
* Adds media capabilities (Media Center, DVD playback, DVD creation, etc.)
* Can create home network groups

Windows 7 Professional (Vista equivalent: $300)

* Available worldwide, to OEMs and in retail
* Includes all features of Premium
* Adds enhanced networking capabilities (Remote Desktop host, domain support, offline folders, etc.)
* Adds Mobility Center
* Adds Presentation Mode

Windows 7 Enterprise

* Available only in volume licenses
* Includes all features of Professional
* Adds Branch Cache
* Adds Direct Access
* Adds BitLocker

Windows 7 Ultimate (Vista equivalent: $320)

* Limited OEM and retail availability
* Includes all features of Enterprise

Related posts:

1. Microsoft Windows 7 Beta - Game, Application and Utility Compatibility - What’s Stable & Works, What’s Doesn’t Work and What To Do About It! I thought it might help people if I shared a...
2. Windows 7 Beta Review - Already more stable than Vista SP2 Beta I’ve got two computers here running Windows 7 Beta.  They...
3. Windows Media Player 12 On Windows 7 Beta 1 Is Cr-p Sorry, did I say “crap”. Yeah well I needed a...

Microsoft confirmed that there will be no updates to Windows 7 Beta until final release accoring to Steven Sinofsky, Windows Dev Chief, at Microsoft.

Sinofsky emphasized in his new post that Microsoft is not sharing any new ship date targets for Windows 7.  Microsoft will release a private beta to developers and hardware manufacturers a minimum of 10 minutes before they ship it to the general public.   The RC will be”Windows 7 as we intend to ship it,” Sinofsky blogged. More about the RC from his post:

“We will continue to listen to feedback and telemetry with the focus on addressing only the most critical issues that arise. We will be very clear in communicating any changes that have a visible impact on the product. This release allows the whole ecosystem to reach a known state together and make sure that we are all ready together for the Release to Manufacturing. Once we get to RC, the whole ecosystem is in “dress rehearsal” mode for the next steps.”

Microsoft refuses to comment on the release date saying that it will be before 2010.  Most insiders predict a fast track release and the internal pressure is mounting to get the Windows Vista that we all thought we bought out the door as quickly as possible.

The question is:  Will Microsoft’s strategy for fixing the ‘world worst software release’, Vista, be to rush Windows 7 out the door to soon also?

So far I have to say that the answer is, Windows 7 is ready right now.  There is not one thing I do in business or for my entertainment that is not working under Windows 7 Beta right now.  For me, it’s a complete environment and production ready.  Is it perfect?  No.  I’m no Microsoft fan boy.

My guess for a reasonable release date would be August/September.

The currently released beta expires in July right?  So with no further update planned, how big a gap would you leave if you were Microsoft?  I’m thinking that a release in the July time frame would be the final RC and that would take care of the beta expiration problems.

Related posts:

1. Windows 7 - 6 Versions? It’s all 6’s and 7’s from Microsoft Attention Microsoft: We Don't need 6 versions of your product....
2. Windows 7 Beta Review - Already more stable than Vista SP2 Beta I’ve got two computers here running Windows 7 Beta.  They...
3. Microsoft Windows 7 Beta - Game, Application and Utility Compatibility - What’s Stable & Works, What’s Doesn’t Work and What To Do About It! I thought it might help people if I shared a...

There are now three Antivirus / Anti-Spyware solutions approved by Microsoft for use with the Microsoft Windows 7 Beta 1 test program:

1. Avg 8 For Windows 7
2. Kaspersky 8 Windows 7 Beta Preview
3. Symantec Norton 360 v3 pre-release (beta)

After Hands on Testing Inlcuding Spyware and Virus Removal Here Are My Short Takes On Each:

AVG v8 for Windows 7 Beta and Windows Vista

This is the only one of the group that’s actually fully released.  I trust this solution because it was able to find and resolve a few things that other products didn’t.  It doesn’t feel like anything is running on your computer at all.  It never bothers you and it does it’s job very well without needing you to manage it.  It’s focused on protecting your PC and it does it very well.

Kaspersky 8 for Windows 7 Beta Preview

A company renown for quality solutions gets even better in the latest Kaspersky 8 for Windows 7 Beta technical preview.  They’ve got an updated scanning engine that can catch a lot more things including polymorph and mutating virus.  I have no doubt it’s a good product and it will be very good when it ships, but does it have to nag you ten times a day to buy it while you run it in preview mode?

Norton 360 from Symantec for Windows 7 Beta Pre-Release

The idea behind the Norton brand name is just that, it’s a brand.  Since it’s the most popular it’s also the one that all the virus and spyware can instantly defeat.  It’s the one that malware authors target and render ineffective.

Norton 360 v3 wants to ‘clean my registry’, ‘optimize disks’, ‘backup my files’,  scratch any itch and generally accomplishes very little.  In fact, my test pc was easily infected with common spyware within minutes of exposure.  Clearly Norton is an idea sold to consumers and not a valid technical solution.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it here again, there appears to be two Symantec Corporations.  There’s the one that produces the really excellent Symantec branded products and then theirs the Norton branch which is a marketing medusa.  Beware the snakes.

Conclusion

So having tested these guys, which one did I re-install on my Windows 7 beta  personal desktop?  Give me a dollar and I’ll tell.

Ok, I’ll tell for free since our readers are a bunch of really cool people and all….

AVG version 8 is the one I still use and yes it did clean up the mess that Norton left my computer with.  I installed also the excellent PC-Tools Spyware Doctor which always manages to surprise me with what it and only it can find.  I consider the two together to be the ultimate solution.
Additional Note:

Many many of your favorite solutions are known to work under Windows 7 Beta and that includes at least the following:

NOD32, Anti-vir, Symantec Corporate and last but never least, PC-TOOLS Spyware Doctor with Anti-virus (which I also use and fully endorse)

Get the free trial download now AVG Internet Security v8 Download

Related posts:

1. Windows 7 Beta Anti Virus Review AVG 8 and Kaspersky Antivirus Test After installing Windows 7 Beta I was unable to find...
2. AVG Anti Virus 7 Upgrade to AVG 8 Here - Free Download AVG 8 Sets A Whole New Standard Including Windows 7 Compatible A while back I posted on testing the Windows 7...
3. AVG Website Hacked - Famous Antivirus and Anti Spyware Vendor Suffers Attack On It’s Corporate Website AVG, my personal absolute best pick for Antivirus and Anti...

A while back I posted on testing the Windows 7 Beta 1 release to developers and how incredibly great it is.  Yes, It’s still much better than Microsoft’s Windows Vista SP2 Beta.

I got some good news from AVG on current owners of AVG Version 7. Many Current AVG 7 Anti-Virus and Internet Security customers will be able to upgrade for FREE to AVG 8 Anti-Virus including Microsoft Windows 7 Antivirus Compatibility.

I also previous wrote an article about how anti-virus and anti-spyware products are undergoing a radical change.  This product is the first true NEXT GENERATION resulting from that wave of changes.

I  advise you check out the FREE TRIAL of AVG 8 For Windows Vista and Windows 7.  In my testing, my computer is faster and it misses nothing.

You should also try out K7 Antivirus (home page).  The download link is here for a free trial:  AntiVirus.  K7 offers advanced protection against spyware, malware, trojans, virus and hacker attacks.  They also have a certification from VB100 (premier virus test lab), Checkmark and Microsoft Certification for Windows Vista.

Related posts:

1. Windows 7 Beta Anti Virus Review AVG 8 and Kaspersky Antivirus Test After installing Windows 7 Beta I was unable to find...
2. Windows 7 Antivirus & Anti-Spyware Review - AVG 8 / Kaspersky / Norton 360 3 Beta Tested There are now three Antivirus / Anti-Spyware solutions approved by...
3. AVG Website Hacked - Famous Antivirus and Anti Spyware Vendor Suffers Attack On It’s Corporate Website AVG, my personal absolute best pick for Antivirus and Anti...