Most people quickly answer this question in the affirmative. I certainly do. However, there are people out there who aren't sure. They look at the monthly cost of a SaaS application and compare it to the equivalent licensed product over an extended period of time. Given enough time, you will eventually hit a point when the SaaS product appears to be more expensive. Let's look at it from the perspective of the total cost of ownership (TCO). Sponsor The true cost of a licensed product is much higher than just the software. Here are other things to factor in: Hardware...
Filed under: Software Update, Apple TVApple has just released software update 2.3 for the Apple TV. Right now, we don't have the change log, but we'll update the post as soon as we get more information. It is important to know that as with all other Apple TV firmware updates, running the update WILL remove any non-Apple TV software. So if you have installed the USB boxee hack you might want to wait on running the update. Apple TV will eventually prompt you to run the automatic update, so boxee or XBMC users might want to check out the XBMC.org...
This post is part of Mashable’s Startup Review series, which highlights great unsung startups. The series is made possible by Sun Startup Essentials. Company Name OneRiot 20-Word Description This social search engine finds the pulse of the Web; results are based on what’s hot right now. CEO’s Pitch When you search with OneRiot, you’re finding the pulse of the Web. The OneRiot community - a group of more than 2 million people - share what’s important to them as they surf. They help us find the freshest stuff to read or watch in relation to any search query. Mashable’s Take...
Filed under: Windows Because no space in this world is immune from advertising, you're about to see ads start popping up in software installers. OpenCandy, the company providing the technology says software developers can use their software in one of two ways. During the installation process, users will either see: An option to install a similar application An ad But if you ask me, both options are an ad. Not that there's anything wrong with that. In one case, you may see a paid advertisement, while in another case you may see a recommendation to download an application. Whether the...
We don't write much about old boring installable software here on Webware. We're not about that. But a new company, OpenCandy, is taking a proven Web 2.0 model -- the ad network -- and applying it to software installation. It's very clever. And it will probably work. The concept is this: If you're a software developer, you can insert the OpenCandy library in your app's installer (Windows only, so far). When the user installs the app, they get a pitch to also download another app. As the host of the pitch, you can either hand-pick apps you want to...
Earlier this year the makers of Drobo, the very slick, easy-to-use “data storage robot,” announced an SDK that would allow developers to create additional software for the Drobo. And now the early fruits of those labors are available through the new DroboApps download center. The initial crop of Drobo software add-ons features some pretty cool stuff, like the Firefly iTunes media server, support for rsync, Perl, Bash and other utilities. There’s also a version of the Drobo dashboard for Linux. Sadly there’s still no version of one of our favorites — the SlimServer media server — for the Drobo, but...
A couple of months ago in May I wrote about an interesting Microsoft job posting that hinted at the idea of native Virtual Hard Disks (VHD) support in Windows 7 that would allow users to create, mount, unmount and even boot from these disk images without additional software allowing for interesting use-scenarios for not just enterprise users and home users as well. Well the good news is that the rumor is now confirmed as a recently updated WinHEC 2008 agenda touts a session dedicated to this particular functionality with one subtle difference - targeted at Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows...
Ten months ago YouTube provided its users with some downloadable software to allow uploads of multiple videos at once. Whether that influenced YouTube’s claim of seeing ten hours of video or more added to its archive every minute, we’re not so sure. What we can say today, however, is that the company is giving the public at large the ability to accomplish that very task without the need of a specially-crafted bulk uploader. Indeed, any and all uploads can now be done through a Video File Upload beta page. The excitement is palpable. Of course, this is really a minor...
Live Mesh is great if you want to sync entire folders across computers and devices but doesn’t allow you to sync individual files - it’s all or nothing. Or should I say it did, because you see where there’s a will, there’s a way. The way Rafael and I have come up with will allow individual files to be Meshed without any additional software or background processes. It’s not perfect but it works. Please note the following tutorial involves modifying your file system and may result in catastrophic data loss or corruption. Now harden up and try this at home....
From the developers of Game Key Revealer comes another software that aims specifically at applications and their serial numbers and registration information. Softkey Revealer is a portable application that scans the computer system quickly for locations where serial numbers are usually stored. It supports more than 700 different applications. A scan of the computer system does not take longer than a few seconds and the discovered serial numbers are listed in the main program window. The software developers maintain a list of all supported applications. Included are programs from Adobe, Macromedia, Ahead and Stardock plus additional software programs like Winamp,...
Virtualization is a big deal in the tech industry these days. So is open-source software. Sun Microsystems is hoping that combining those buzzwords can, well, generate some buzz. Sun is getting into the virtualization business Many vendors are jumping into virtualization, which saves money by helping companies run multiple operating systems at once on a computer–notably on so-called x86 servers that use a small fraction of their capacity when they are dedicated to running one piece of software. VMware’s virtualization software leads the field, but Microsoft and other suppliers are charging in. Sun is also stepping up its game. The...
Postbox is a new cross platform e-mail client for Windows and Mac computers. It's an alternative to Microsoft Outlook, and manages to bring some of the benefits of Web e-mail to a desktop application. Things like a conversation view, tagging, and search that indexes both mail and attachments are all features Gmail users have been enjoying for years. The problem is, those features and several others have not gone over to the desktop side of things without additional software plug-ins from third-party providers. Postbox is an answer to that by taking many of these single features sought after by...
Since there's an Apple event (read: new iPods) scheduled for later today, it's only fitting that Microsoft dropped a Zune press release. There's new hardware as well as additional software features involved: A 16 GB flash-based player and 120 GB hard drive Zune are added to the lineup. New pricing effective September 16th4 GB: $129.99 8 GB: $149.99 16 GB: $199.99 80 GB: $229.99 120 GB: $249.99 A "Buy from FM" feature which doesn't exactly let you "buy from FM", but is interesting. When listening to the FM radio, you can tag a song for purchase. Next time you...
Filed under: Video, Windows, Commercial RealNetworks, makers of RealPlayer and the company that brought you the Rhapsody subscription music service are expected to announced a new product called RealDVD today. What's RealDVD? It's a DVD ripper. But unlike most DVD rippers available today, RealDVD makes a complete copy of a disc right down to the menus, alternate audio tracks, and special features. Oh yeah, and the software only lets you play that copy on a single computer thanks to some heavy-handed DRM.There is a way around this restriction. You can transfer the file to up to 5 additional Windows PCs...
Virtual worlds Second Life and World of Warcraft (WoW) seem to be compared against each other on a regular basis, and have some crossover when it comes to userbase. However, in light of recent discussions of future improvements to WoWs game graphics, it's clear that the overall direction and operation of the sites couldn't be more dissimilar; the only thing they have in common is the concept of a "virtual world." Sarcastic Gamer notes that Blizzard's Tom Chilton talks about a gradual implementation of graphics improvements in yearly iterations released as expansion packs. What's that, you say? In addition...
