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Freeware Files: A Case of the Keyboard Krazies!

David Murphy — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:30:00 -0500

How jacked up is your keyboard? Do you have one of those super-fancy, 800+ button, LCD-screen, lit-up, wheeled contraptions that's less an input device, more a control panel at a nuclear power plant? If so, you're probably the kind of person who doesn't need the apps I'm about to list out in this week's freeware roundup. Unless, that is, you're also one of those people (including yours truly) who have a ton of buttons and options to play with, yet no resolve to actually go about mapping this to that.

And if you're just rocking a plain ol' keyboard, I hope you're sitting down because you're in for a world of difference. The applications I'm profiling today are all keyboard-focused, and they all seek to add some kind of additional, awesome functionality to (or based on) your default button layouts. Launch programs! Use your keyboard media buttons to control all of your media players! Look up every Adobe-related shortcut within the span of seconds!

All that, and more, await you in this week's freeware and open-source software roundup. Let's get started.

Media Keyboard 2 Media Player

If you've been a freeware and open-source aficionado when it comes to your media players, you might have found that a number of third-party programs just don't work with the media keys on your keyboard. You can jam play, pause, or skip track all you want--nothing happens. Although it's still in its infancy, Media Keyboard 2 Media Player allows you to get some use out of these dead keys by transforming your button-pushing into the actual hotkey combinations for your other media player apps. Unfortunately, only XMPlay, VLC, and Winamp are supported right now. Here's hoping a more universal solution will pop up in the future!

Download it here

Winlayout

The description of this one is simple. Winlayout lets you control your open windows using your number pad. The program doesn't work perfectly with Windows 7 right now, but other than that, it's a quick way to send windows flying around your desktop screen with the mash of a button. More than 30 separate actions, including window resizing, are launched by combinations of the windows key and number pad buttons

Download it here

ActiveHotkeys

So, suppose you're using a fancy program like AutoHotkey to build increased functionality into your keyboard through the use of customized hotkeys. Or, for that matter, suppose you want to change up the hotkeys of any given program? You can select whatever you want, but what happens when you pick a hotkey combination that's in use by another program or application? Short answer: Chaos. Avoid this fate by using ActiveHotkeys to check out which hotkeys on your system are in use or not. The app doesn't tell you which program has claimed the key combination, but at least you'll know that your freshly assigned ALT-T hotkey will load up a new tab rather than your favorite Mr. T application.

Download it here

Adobe Shortcut App

Design enthusiasts take note: If you're one of the lucky to afford any bits or pieces of Adobe's Creative Suite, you'll know that a wealth of functionality can be called up in these applications with but a few hits from your fingertips. And you should equally know that there's little more frustrating than your mad attempts to find the correct key combination for a feature you've previously used and since forgotten. The Adobe Shortcut App solves these problems with its easy-to-use search functionality for Adobe keyboard shortcuts. Not only can you search for and switch between PC and Mac versions of the shortcuts, but you can create your own favorites list for frequently used shortcuts that you want to keep fresh at your command.

Download it here

ControlPad

If you thought the aforementioned Winlayout was lame--the program that allows you to resize windows with your number pad--then perhaps you'll find a bit of joy in this other application that makes even better use of said number pad. In this case, ControlPad transforms your number pad into a launching station. Start by assigning a numerical identifier to a particular task, like opening up new applications or sending a particular series of keystrokes to the OS. From there, you simply have to hold the * key on the number pad for a second or so, then enter the code you just created in the window that appears. Your command then executes, opening up your favorite files or launching your favorite games in a fraction of the time it would normally take.

Download it here

David Murphy (@ Acererak) is a technology journalist and former Maximum PC editor. He writes weekly columns about the wide world of open-source as well as weekly roundups of awesome, freebie software. Befriend him on Twitter, especially if you have an awesome app or game you're dying to recommend!

Dell Already Offering New Zunes for 15% Off

Paul Lilly — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:08:50 -0500

Microsoft's new Zune HD doesn't launch until tomorrow, but you can already knock 15 percent off the pre-order price by going through Dell. Using coupon code 6FWJ247J1P44CK brings the 32GB player down from $290 to a little under $246 with free 2-day shipping. The same coupon code also drops the 16GB Zune HD down from $220 to $187.

Both models sport a 3.3-inch OLED touchscreen and Nvidia's multi-core Tegra processor inside to push high definition video and Flash content through a slim form-factor. If the Zune HD lives up to the hype, it will be the most powerful music and media player in its class. And with the above coupon code, one of the most affordable as well.

Still on the fence? The coupon is good until October 31, 2009 and also works on other electronics and accessories, excluding "power, batteries, monitors, Dell docking stations, cameras, camcorders, Samsung TVs, and storage."

"iPod Mechanic" Behind Bars for iPod Scam

Paul Lilly — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:05:31 -0500

As another reminder that crime doesn't pay, 23-year-old Nicholas Woodhams, also known as the "iPod Mechanic," faces 13 months in prison after pleading guilty to mail fraud and money laundering charges. Woodhams was also ordered to pay $648,568 in restitution to Apple and $8,066.85 to the U.S. Postal Service, Arstechnica reports.

According to the lawsuit, Woodhams ran a scam of exploiting Apple's advance replacement system for the iPod shuffle and reselling them through his own website. He also allegedly exploited Apple's iPod Warranty Service Program to get Apple to repair out-of-warranty iPods.

Woodhams' scam proved rather lucrative, but it's all going back. In addition to the above jail time and fines, Woodhams must forfeit about $750,000 worth of criminally acquired assets, including his house in Michigan, an Audi S4, an Ariel Atom 2, a Honda motocyle, and over $500,000 in cash. Ouch.

Zune HD Loaded with Powerful Nvidia Processor

Paul Lilly — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:55:50 -0500

Microsoft's upcoming Zune HD will get more than a little help from Nvidia in going toe-to-toe against Apple's iPod and every other handheld media player on the market. Providing extra processor oomph, the Zune HD will use Nvidia's multi-core Tegra processor.

"Nvidia brings power graphics to the portable media player. This is a unique capability," said Jeff Orr, senior analyst for mobile content at ABI Research.

What makes Nvidia's Tegra so special -- and the Zune HD so promising -- are eight independent processors, which will go a long ways in helping the Zune HD handle high definition video and Flash content on its OLED touch screen without necessitating a bulky formfactor.

"Apple probably builds a pretty good SoC [System-on-Chip], but in terms of what they have already enabled [on the iPod Touch], I don't believe it has nearly the graphics and power management that Tegra does," said Mike Rayfield, a general manager at Nvidia. "We've benchmarked against everyone out there, and we are the most advanced in terms of graphics and overall power management."

The Zune HD will be just one of many devices to make use of Nvidia's Tegra processor. According to Nvidia, there are about 50 other gadgets in design right now with Tegra.

Image Credit: Nvidia

Microsoft Conjuring Up App Store for Zune HD?

Paul Lilly — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:30:19 -0500

Besides putting the finishing touches on Windows 7 and Office 2010, what else has Microsoft been up to lately? Perhaps gearing up to open an app store for its Zune HD media player, if trademark application 77775625 for the trademark "ONEAPP" is any indication. The application covers:

"Computer software for allowing mobile device users to send messages, make payments and access and play music, games and videos on mobile devices; computer software platforms for developing mobile applications; computer software, namely, software development tools for the creation of mobile applications; computer software for runing retail store site for purchase and download of mobile applications over wireless networks."

It's all speculation at this point, but in one part of the filing, Microsoft specifically mentions "media players," which points squarely at the Zune HD. But if that is what Microsoft's up to, the company has a lot of ground to make up with Apple announcing its App Store surpassing the 1.5 billion download mark just three months after it recorded 1 billion downloads.

Image Credit: Microsoft

Windows 7 Feature Focus: Windows Media Center

Mark Edward Soper — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:00:00 -0500

In Windows 7, Windows Media Center is a more useful tool than ever before for working with audio and visual media. While at first glance, Windows 7's version of WMC doesn't look a whole lot different than its predecessor, it includes many improvements. In this article, we'll focus on improvements in WMC's TV setup process, support for digital broadcast TV, the program guide, Internet TV, WMC access from the desktop, RAW file support for photos, picture and music playback and sports.

Digital Broadcast TV Made Easier

In Windows Vista, ATSC digital over-the-air broadcast TV was handled clumsily. The already-long TV setup process took even longer if you had an ATSC antenna, and after you had set up your digital channels, they were assigned four-digit channel numbers that were located far from their analog counterparts in the program guide. Windows 7 makes the process of setting up and using digital broadcast TV much easier. When you run the Live TV Setup option from the TV menu strip, Windows 7 determines the digital TV channels that are in your area and assigns them .x channel numbers, such as 14.1, 7.2, and so on in the program guide. If you can view all of the digital TV channels Windows 7 assigns, you don't need to do anything else.

However, it's more likely, especially if you use an indoor antenna, that some channels might not provide a strong enough signal to be usable. In Windows 7, you have two ways to optimize your ATSC digital TV experience: Scan for More Channels and Digital TV Antenna Signal Strength. These options are found in Tasks>Settings>TV>TV Signal. Use Scan for More Channels to determine if you can pick up any additional digital TV channels. Next, use Digital TV Antenna Signal Strength to scan the assigned digital TV channels. During this process, adjust your antenna to improve signal strength, and uncheck any channels that are not strong enough to be usable. The channels you deselect are removed from the program guide.

Keep in mind that if you get a better antenna, you can run these wizards again to see if more channels are available to you.

Internet TV Turns 2

You can access Internet TV in three ways in Windows 7:

From your desktop via a gadget
From the Windows Media Center Program Guide
From the Windows Media Center Internet TV options in the Extras menu stripe

Whether you have a TV tuner or not, MSN "channels" are displayed in the Program Guide. Windows 7 now includes a new version of Internet TV, version 2 (beta).

The first time you select Internet TV Beta 2, you are prompted to update your desktop player. Click Update to download and install the 2MB update file. While WMC still includes Internet TV Beta 1.1 (a slightly updated version of the first-generation Internet TV found in Windows Vista's Windows Media Center), Internet TV Beta 2 is the better version to use - if you have a fast enough connection. It offers an interface that puts more emphasis on content than on categories and looks much more like WMC's other media menus, while offering higher resolution video than the original Internet TV.

However, keep in mind that Internet TV is still in beta, and works best with a fast Internet connection: I'd recommend Wireless-N or Gigabit Ethernet. When I tested this feature on my office PCs (connected to a 10/100 Ethernet network), there were a lot of timeouts, and some video clips played, but with scrambled video on my widescreen display.

Opening Media Center Content from Your Desktop

When you start WMC, you will be prompted to install a desktop gadget to access Internet TV on your desktop. Click Yes, and you can launch TV recordings and Internet TV from your desktop by adding the Windows Media Center gadget. When you add the gadget to your desktop, it displays your most recent TV recordings and Internet TV channels. You can specify how many to offer and what categories to display.

Click a category (1), click an item (2), and WMC opens and immediately starts playing the selected content

You can also access WMC content from the Start menu. WMC supports Windows 7's new jump list feature, so when you click Windows Media Center in the Start menu, you can choose from the latest TV recordings or from other recently-view media.

Working with RAW Image Files in Windows Media Center

In Windows Vista, you couldn't view RAW digital camera files from within Windows Media Center. Thankfully, with more and more photographers switching to digital SLR cameras and using RAW files, all you need to do to enable RAW support in Windows 7's version of WMC is to add the appropriate codec for your camera and operating system type (32-bit or 64-bit). For this article, I installed the Ardfry Imaging, LLC 64-bit codec for Canon CR2 RAW files, as Canon does not yet offer a 64-bit codec.

Creating a Slide Show You Can Edit and Reuse

In Windows Vista, the Slide Show feature in Windows Media Center was useful only for a quick review of the current folder or month's photos. In Windows 7, though, you can select the picture files and music files you want, change the order of the files, and create a show you can edit and replay again and again from RAW, JPEG or other supported file types.

The process is quite similar to creating a music playlist. WMC automatically syncs the music and photos for you, and, you can also burn your slide show to DVD.

Viewing Your Favorite Pictures

Windows 7 adds the option to play your favorite pictures. To use this feature, rate your pictures, either in Windows Media Center or other Microsoft apps, such as Windows Media Player or Windows Live Photo Gallery. To rate your photos in WMC, you can right-click the item and select the star rating from the right-click menu.

To finish the process for photos, open Tasks>Settings>Pictures>Favorite Pictures, select the criteria you want to use, and click Save.

To start playback, open Pictures + Videos>Play Favorites. The pictures you selected will be displayed in a screen saver that alternatively scrolls thumbnails of all selected photos in black and white across the screen and periodically zooms in on one photo and displays it in full color (assuming it's a color photo).

Listening to Your Favorite Music

You can also select your favorite music by star ratings or other criteria for playback with Music Favorites. To access the setup menu, open Tasks>Settings>Music>Favorite Music, select the options desired, and save changes. To start playback, open Music>Play Favorites. You can play favorite music and favorite pictures at the same time.

Customizing Sports

Windows Vista's version of WMC offered a strong Sports module, but Windows 7's version one-ups it by enabling you to select how much information you want to display for each league you follow, and now lets you keep an eye on the leading racing leagues: Busch, Truck, Nextel, and IRL.

Windows 7's version of Windows Media Center builds upon the best features of Windows Vista's version and adds plenty of refinements. It's just one more reason to take a closer look at Microsoft's newest operating system.

Western Digital TV HD Media Player

Michael Brown — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:00:00 -0500

Western Digital’s WD TV HD Media Player is missing two components commonly found in digital media players: a display and storage. What the device does have is two USB ports, HDMI and composite video outputs, digital and analog audio outputs, and the ability to play almost any digital media.

Since you provide the storage media, you can never fill up the WD TV. You plug the player into your TV and connect your USB drive or digital camera to the player; it then creates thumbnails for all the digital movies, photographs, and music it finds stored there. If you connect storage devices to both USB ports, the WD TV will index the contents of both drives as if they were one.

The device delivers much higher video resolution than most media players, all the way from 480i using the composite video port to 1080p using HDMI (576p, 720i, 720p, and 1080i are also supported via HDMI). The WD TV supports a host of video formats, codecs, and containers, including AVI, H.264, QuickTime, VOB, and Matroska. It does not, however, support DivX.

The player supports most digital photo formats, including BMP, TIFF, PNG, and GIF at resolutions up to 2048x2048; JPEG is supported at resolutions up to 4096x4096. Video quality via HDMI is excellent. High-res photos stored on the 250GB WD Passport drive we used took an average of 3.7 seconds to appear on the screen, which is plenty fast for slideshows, but the device’s browser software is ploddingly slow about generating thumbnails. And while it can play slideshows while simultaneously streaming music, you can’t queue up the music and start both at the same time.

Speaking of music, the WD TV supports almost all the popular file and container formats, including AAC, FLAC, MP3, Ogg, and WAV. We do wish, however, that it supported WMA Lossless. The player displays album art and artist, album, and track name information stored in id3 tags, but it doesn’t inform you about the codec and bitrate used to encode the track. And it’s a good thing the player has an optical S/PDIF output, because it has an atrociously bad DAC.

The WD TV is a ripper-friendly solution for anyone who doesn’t have an HTPC, media-center extender, or other type of media streamer—and doesn’t want one. It’s also useful for taking media on the go (provided there’s something to connect it to when you get there).

Western Digital Introduces Sneakernet Home-Media Device

Nathan Edwards — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:00:00 -0600

"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes speeding down the highway." - Andrew Tanenbaum

Western Digital's bringing back the sneakernet with a media player that displays video, audio, and photos from your USB devices on your TV - no networking required.

In fact, the WD TV HD Media Player doesn't have any networking capabilities at all. Instead, this little device plays files from your WD Passport (or other USB devices, although WD would love it if you used their portable hard drives) on your TV screen, in glorious 1080p resolution.

The WD TV includes an intuitive on-screen menu, not unlike a less-cluttered version of the PS3's home screen, wherein users can sort by filename, date, and other tag info. It also has a thumbnail and list view.

We had a chance to check out the WD TV last week at the W Hotel in San Francisco, and, although we were skeptical at first, the idea makes sense. After all, many people have huge amounts of music, video, and photos on their computer but lack either the time, the equipment, or the patience to set up media streaming in their home. Being able to drag your files to a USB drive and take them with you to the living room is a good move.

After all, non-techies understand taking media on a physical object into the living room and playing it. It worked for VHS tapes, CDs, DVDs, even laser discs. It's intuitive. Home networking, well, not so much.

The WD TV's outputs include RCA video/audio jacks, optical out, and HDMI.

It helps that the device will play a metric buttload of video formats, from .avi to .mov to XviD, DivX, H.264, even .isos and .vob rips. And that it supports HDMI.

The WD TV is on sale at shopwd.com starting today for $130. It's an interesting idea, but is it worth it? We're on the case. Look for a full review here within the next few weeks.