feature

Windows Home Server to lose drive pooling

In the world of software, features come and go, though most of the time it's in the direction of growth.

Such has been the story of Windows Home Server--that is, up until now. Microsoft has announced that the next major version of the software, codenamed "Vail," will do away with what has arguably been one of the most user-friendly features: the drive extender.

This feature would let users take multiple hard drives of various sizes--like the ones that people might have left from old computers, or something they got at a Black Friday sale--and let them … Read more

WD TV network players get keyboard support, more features

Western Digital announced today that it added a few entertainment and social sites to the two latest revisions in its WD TV media player family, including the WD TV Live and WD TV Live Plus.

Users will now be able to connect with their friends and family through Facebook via the media player when connected to a TV.

The WD TV Live Plus can now also instantly stream rented or purchased movies through Blockbuster's Video On Demand service. All of these new features are made available via a firmware update; it will also add the following features:… Read more

Yahoo speeds up Mail, adds more Twitter

Yahoo wants to make its Web e-mail service a place you never want to--or more importantly--have to leave to get your social fix.

The company on Wednesday is releasing an overhauled version of its Yahoo Mail Beta client that it says is twice as fast as the previous version, while managing to tack on new features like an integrated Twitter client, rich media previews, and a more full-featured IM client.

Yahoo says this speed boost should be especially noticeable to users outside the U.S. with latency issues, due mostly to the new version making use of the company's … Read more

Revenue for Android beats iPhone on ad network

Revenue from mobile ads for Android outstripped that for the iPhone for the first time on Millennial Mobile's ad network in September.

For its September Mobile Mix report, the mobile ad network, which hosts ads on the popular smartphone platforms, found that ad requests (the number of times a mobile ad is clicked on) on Android phones rose 26 percent from August and have jumped 1,283 percent since January. In July, Android pulled ahead to become the second largest mobile OS tracked by Millienial and now grabs 29 percent of all ad impressions (the number of mobile ads … Read more

Tweak your Mac OS settings

TinkerTool is a small, free app that lets you tinker with your user preferences, allowing access to options that you can't find through System Preferences. These "hidden" preferences--extras like adding scroll arrows to both ends of scroll bars--exist for a variety of reasons, but are usually invisible to users without the help of an app like TinkerTool.

TinkerTool's preferences are organized under 10 main headings: Finder (for options like showing hidden files or restricting the Finder), Dock, General (a lot of useful options, including control over scroll arrows and screenshot file formats), Applications, Snow Leopard (with … Read more

SlideRocket gets interactive with polling, comments

Web-based presentation creation tool SlideRocket is rolling out a handful of new features today, all of which are aimed at business users. Together, they promise to make it easier to see how the people you're sending a presentation to are viewing it, as well as help those involved in its creation get and manage feedback both before and after it goes out.

That first bit of collaboration is a new commenting tool, which lets a presentation maker ask the viewer, or any colleagues, to leave a comment on any particular slide. Viewers can place these anywhere on a slide, … Read more

Easter egg in iOS 4: Remotes control music apps

One of my main uses for the second-generation iPod Touch was to connect it to a pair of docking speakers at home and then stream music using Pandora, Slacker, or Rhapsody. Not only am I sick to death of my own music collection, but using these services means I don't have to exert time and energy on making playlists. Of course, there was a major drawback: when a less-than-spectacular song came on, I couldn't use the speaker's remote to skip it from across the room, whilst I relaxed in the considerable comfort of my couch. It seems … Read more

Apple details iOS 4.2; ramps iPad production to 3 million per month

Apple has released a dedicated page on apple.com detailing some of the features of the forthcoming iOS 4.2 update that will unify the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad operating systems. The page highlights some of the most coveted features of iOS 4 (currently only running on iPhone and iPod touch) that will finally debut on iPad, including:

Multitasking. A simple double-tap of the home button brings up a quick-switch interface allowing users to easily jump back to recently used Apps. Multitasking also allows for Apps like Pandora to run in the background while you surf, e-mail, or catch … Read more

Google revamps contact management in Gmail

Google on Tuesday announced that it is giving the contact management tool found inside Gmail an "overhaul."

The enhanced version of Gmail's contact manager, which Google says is already in the process of going out to users, brings with it a number of small tweaks, the biggest one being automatic saving. So, if you're making changes to a contact, you can be halfway through making edits or additions and if you close the page, or move onto something else, those changes get saved without any user input required.

Also included now are Gmail's standard keyboard … Read more