SiTs - CareFree Technology Blog

New Channels for Sky Player

Darren McCarthy — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:48:00 GMT

We've got a lot of time for Sky Player. Many hours, in fact. Not only does it make your Sky package available to you over the Internet, it's also integrated into both Windows Media Center and the Xbox 360 dashboard. Until now, live channels have been rather limited, but yesterday Sky launched Sky One as a streaming TV service, and today announced that Sky Movies Premiere and Sky Movies Showcase will be added later this month.

Sky also promises more channels will be arriving on the live-streaming Sky Player service soon. Both Living and Bravo are signed up to get involved.

Sky Player subscriptions cost around £15 a month for the entertainment-only pack that includes Sky One. If you want everything, expect to pay around £41 a month for movies, sport and entertainment. Quite a wodge of cash for a Web-streaming service, but also an excellent way to see Sky if you can't have a satellite dish for some reason. Existing subscribers to Sky can use the service for free, up to their current subscription level.

Skype Pulls Windows Mobile Clients Until Further Notice

Darren McCarthy — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:12:00 GMT

Skype has decided for some reason to pull Skype and Skype Lite support for Windows Mobile phones, at least for the time being. The official excuse is the fact that Skype wants to offer a better Skype experience to Windows Mobile smartphone owners. The new Skype app should bring Windows Mobile owners an experience similar to the iPhone Skype experience:

We've chosen to withdraw Skype Lite and Skype for Windows Mobile because we want to offer our new customers an improved mobile experience much like the version that has proved so popular on the iPhone, and which is now available on Symbian phones"

Why on earth do that Skype! Sometimes your methods really are just plain odd!

TVCatchup

Darren McCarthy — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:28:00 GMT

I have completed testing of a new plugin for TVCatchUP and Windows MCE. What can I say "awesome" broadband telly at a flick of a remote.

The interface looks good and east to use....now where's the GUIDE and recording features...

Go check it out

http://plugins.tvcatchup.com/~mce/

You'll never look back!

Create a Master Control Panel shortcut and explore the all tasks aka God Mode

Darren McCarthy — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:12:00 GMT

It’s much similar to Windows 7’s Control Panel (Classic View) or you can say, it’ll explorer more controls and tasks than Windows 7 Control Panel.

1. Create a new folder and name it Master Control.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

2. The icon will be changed automatically to Control Panel’s icon. Now open the folder and see the magic of Windows Registry!

Applies To:

Windows Vista x86 editions
Windows Vista x64 editions
Windows 7 x86 editions
Windows 7 x64 editions

Windows Home Server – Custom Domains Failure

Darren McCarthy — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:04:48 GMT

If you’re seeing this message on your home server..

then don’t worry, you’re not alone. Looks like this is a widespread issue, courtesy of Microsoft. Hold tight, don’t make any changes at your end. I’m sure Microsoft are aware of the issue and will have it resolved soon.

Kindle for PC Now Available

Darren McCarthy — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:55:17 GMT

Amazon.com today announced the availability of "Kindle for PC," the free application that lets readers around the world enjoy Kindle books on their personal computers (PC). The U.S. Kindle Store currently offers more than 360,000 books which are typically $9.99 or less. The Kindle Store is the only place to find some of today’s most popular books in digital format. Kindle books can now be read on the Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch and PC. Kindle for PC is now available as a free download to readers in over 100 countries at www.amazon.com/KindleforPC.

Kindle for PC features Amazon’s Whispersync technology that automatically saves and synchronizes bookmarks and last page read across devices. Whether you read Kindle books on a Kindle, Kindle DX, or one of the free Kindle applications, you can always have your reading with you and never lose your place. With Kindle for PC, you can read some on your PC, read some on your Kindle, and always pick up right where you left off. Whispersync helped make the Kindle for iPhone application the most popular books app in the Apple App Store.

A Great Windows Mobile Handsets

Darren McCarthy — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:54:12 GMT

HTC have finally got the new HTC HD2 handset ready for market. The Windows Mobile 6.5 phone looks simply awesome. If you are thinking of getting a new phone they this could be the one for you!

If you want to tether your iPhone

Darren McCarthy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:41:50 GMT

If you to stay with O2 and your happy with the useless service and coverage then go ahead and get a good deal!

For more information

E-Book Readers

Darren McCarthy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:47:25 GMT

If you are thinking of purchasing one of those E-Book readers then I would think again.

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/0,39029552,49304199,00.htm?s_cid=33

Is a great review of the perils of jumping on board now. HD_DVD and Blu-Ray springs to mind. Its a real shame that there’s just isn’t one file format and 1 open standard for reading novels.

FireFox 3.6

Darren McCarthy — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:53:43 GMT

Firefox 3.6 is due to be the next major version of Mozilla's popular browser, but some people inside Mozilla are pushing to reclassify it as a "minor update." It's not that 3.6 isn't a big deal, it's just that users adopt minor updates at much higher rates than major new versions. That's because Firefox prompts users to install minor updates when they come out, but you're on your to download and install a major one.

Anyone for Windows 7

Darren McCarthy — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:17:17 GMT

Microsoft have formally launched the new Windows 7 operating system today. Its the biggest pre-ordered operating system in the companies history.

Windows 7 Delivered Early to beat postal strike

Darren McCarthy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:58:22 GMT

Some lucky Brits received their pre-ordered copy of Windows 7 yesterday -- several days before it goes on sale -- proving that there is at least one good thing to result from postal strike

National Rail Outlook Add-in

Darren McCarthy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:54:15 GMT

From time to time you discover real nuggets of good plugins. This is one of them.

The National Rail Enquires Outlook Add-in.

The National Rail Enquiries Outlook Add-in is a Microsoft Outlook® Add-in that enables UK train journey planning from within Microsoft Outlook® using your existing calendar appointments and creates new appointments with your travel itinerary.

See here for more information

Nintendo's limited-edition black Wii launching in UK in November

Darren McCarthy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:49:55 GMT

It'll launch here on 6 November and come bundled with Wii Sports Resort and the original Wii Sports.

Other black accessories, including the Wii Motion Plus adaptor and Classic controller, will be available individually from 20 November.

No price has been confirmed.

MSE after one week: 1.5 million downloads

Darren McCarthy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:46:03 GMT

A post on Thursday on the Microsoft Malware Protection Center blog reports that not only were there 1.5 million downloads of MSE, but almost 4 million malware detections from 535,752 machines were encountered!