One of the great things about Snow Leopard is that you no longer need Cisco’s VPN Client to connect over a private network. Snow Leopard has its own Cisco VPN network configuration tool that works within OS X 10.6. Cisco’s VPN client doesn’t even work with Snow Leopard so if you’ve still got it on your system, you can dump it in the Trash. However, setting up a Cisco VPN network might be a little tricky for those doing it for the first time so here is a simple guide.

Go to System Preferences and select Network:

Use the “+” symbol at the bottom of the list of network connections on the left-hand side to add a new network. Read the rest of this entry »

Having your very own Karaoke nights doesn’t mean you have SingStar or spend lots of money on equipment. If you’ve got a Mac, you can turn it into a Karaoke machine complete with videos and all. Although there is a definite lack of decent karaoke apps on Macs, here is a selection of some of the better ones to give your vocal chords some exercise.

iStar Ok, it might sound a bit too much like SingStar but iStar is much more flexible than the latter. Why restrict yourself to SingStar discs when iStar can import almost anything including CD+G, KAR, AIFF, and MP3 files. So you’re not restricted to buying expensive songss like you are with SingStar. Because it can burn CD+G discs too, you can create your own karaoke videos to go along with songs.

SingSong Karaoke: Do you want a SingStar style app without the SingStar style price tag? SingSong Karaoke might not be as powerful as iStar but it is more fun by allowing you to measure your voice against the original artist of tracks. In the trial version of SingSong Karaoke, you can choose from Madonna, Eric Clapton and Gloria Gaynor but you’ll need the original MP3 file to sing them. Lyrics can be downloaded from the database.

kJams Although kJams (formerly known as kTunes) itself is free to download, you have to pay for a special burning plugin to burn CD-G discs. However, for those serious about karaoke, it may well be worth it. kJams is about as professional as it gets allowing you to rip, mix, play and burn CD+G format discs in a very easy to use iTunes style interface. kJams creates karaoke playlists, sorts tracks by name, artist, album etc.

TunePrompter While kJams can be a bit complicated for those just wanting a bit of fun, TunePrompter makes creating your own Karaoke videos an absolute cinch. Best of all, its absolutely free and a pleasure to use. Although it was originally designed for use with Griffin Technologies iKaraoke hardware, there’s absolutely nothing to stop you creating your videos, exporting them to QuickTime and then burning the results to disc.

KaraTunes is not strictly a karaoke application but it can very easily be adapted for karaoke sessions. KaraTunes puts all your lyrics data in one single database, letting you save, modify, and search lyrics with an easy-to-use interface. By supporting the LRC lyrics format, KaraTunes allows you to view lyrics synchronized with your songs. KaraTunes automatically displays the lyrics of the song being played while you sing.

It’s taken us just over six months but we’ve finally got our hands on one of the hottest download tickets in town - an invite to test Voddler. In July we had an exclusive interview with Voddler co-founder Mathias Hjelmstedt and couldn’t wait to give it a go. Now, we’ve finally had the chance to try it for ourselves and can safely say, Voddler looks like a genuine contender for the future of movie distribution in the same way as Spotify is for music. From a huge selection of films and documentaries to an easy to use interface and stunning video/audio, Voddler is all I expected and more.

Unfortunately for most, at the moment its still only available in Sweden but we’ve been able to give it a proper test run for you.

If you’re lucky enough to receive an invite, you can install the beta client for Voddler on Windows or the Alpha client on Mac. I installed the Mac client but it works exactly the same on both platforms.

When you install Voddler, it takes you through a quick setup wizard which checks the suitability of your connection. The test takes a few minutes but if you’ve got a 2.5Mbit connection or more, you’re good to go.

When Voddler launches for the first time, it goes straight into full-screen mode. I would prefer to have been prompted whether I wanted to open in windowed or full-screen mode but you can revert back to windowed mode (so that you can access the rest of your Mac normally) by pressing Command+F.

The first thing to note is that you can’t use your mouse when Voddler has started. Everything is controlled via the keyboard - mainly the Cursor, Enter and Esc keys - which is a bit disorientating and awkward at first. Alternatively, you can use an Apple remote instead which is a bit easier.

The reason for this is that in future, Voddler plan to launch a box that connects to your TV without a computer (known as a Voddler box) and presumably you’ll be able to use a virtual keyboard. However, I think it would still have made more sense at this stage to have allowed users on a computer to use a mouse.

Once you setup a profile and log-in:

You are presented with three options in front of a scrolling background displaying iconic movie stills. The options are Settings, Movies and Quit. Use the left and right arrow keys to scroll through them: Read the rest of this entry »

If you want to get your personal finances in order, then the good news is there are plenty of options on Macs. Whether it’s sorting it out your own personal debts or just keeping a tighter grip on whats coming in and out, there is plenty of financial software to suit all budgets and experience. With the recent news that Quicken for Mac might well disappoint dedicated users, here are five excellent alternatives:

iBank is probably one of the best finance apps there is for Macs and a serious rival to Quicken. iBank’s Aqua interface not only looks great but it allows you to manage bank accounts, credit cards and investments, analyze income and like Quicken, can directly connect to your bank to download transactions. The latest release has been made even better by the addition of an iPhone app too.

Squirrel is an excellent alternative to iBank if you prefer something that still allows you to connect to your bank account but uses a stunning iTunes or Front Row style interface. Squirrel allows you to preview accounts, reports and budgets and most importantly, supports online bank connections. Reports created in Squirrel can be printed or saved to PDF and you can import files in OFX format.

Moneywell is all about setting targets and simplifying how you manage your personal finances. Your money is displayed in buckets listed down the left side of the program window to give you a clear overview of your finances. You can create buckets for any sort of income and expense such as transportation, education or clothing. The right part of the interface shows details for a specific item while the center shows general info.

iFinance is an elegantly-presented and highly-polished finance application that allows you to monitor your income and outgoings, as well as stocks, in a very easy to use interface. Down the left-hand side you have your Funds, Budgets and Stocks, followed by Diagrams according to the period you want to monitor. Click on each subsection within these categories to display data on the right-hand side, which is the main window.

Debtinator lets you handle all of your debts in one single place. It collates several accounts into one tidy window so that you see where your money is going every day. Adding new entries is simple and fast and you can setup handy transfer rules which prevent you from worrying remembering to move money from one account to another.

It’s come to something when even the State has to speak out on how atrociously bad a piece of software is. In this case, the French and German governments have seen fit to declare Microsoft Internet Explorer a security threat and issued official statements advising users to switch to Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.

Surprise surprise however; the British government has decided to go along with the Americans on this issue. The Americans being Microsoft and the issue being the gaping security holes in IE.

The British government have decided not to endorse this view and recommended that instead users take a look at getsafeonline.org. And would you believe it, apart from sounding like some kind of online contraceptive, getsafeonline.org has been set up by both the British government and Microsoft, amongst others.

While I don’t generally agree with states sticking their nose in on such issues - and most are absolutely years behind on this one - I do think powerful interests need to take a stand against Microsoft. They have cunningly managed to ensure that Internet Explorer has found its way into almost every home computer by bundling it with Windows and it’s taken until the release of Windows 7 for users to be spared having it pre-installed when they purchase their machine.

Ok, so I’m a Mac user and a bit biased on this issue. But today I’m once again a little ashamed of my government: so vive la France and well done Germany!

Using an external monitor with your Macbook is beneficial in many ways. Firstly, it’s much easier on your eyes to use a bigger display than a Macbook screen. Secondly, it makes it much easier to spread-out your work and organize your desktop. Thirdly, if you are video editing or need a large working space, an external monitor expands your screen estate. Finally, it can extend the lifetime of your Macbook monitor because you can work with your Macbook closed.

Note that Macbooks are designed for use with DVI monitors but you can connect a VGA monitor by using a Mini-DVI to VGA Adapter cable.

However, when you attach an external monitor, you might find that the colors and resolution are a bit amiss. Fortunately, OS X has a very simple to use calibration tool which makes sure you are getting the best out of your external monitor.

To open the screen calibration tool go to your System Preferences and select Display.

Select the Color tab and then Calibrate:

The calibration wizard then takes you through a series of configuration tests. The first step is to ensure that your contrast and brightness settings are set to their highest levels on your monitor: Read the rest of this entry »

In the many hours of software research and reviewing we do at Softonic, one issue that constantly crops-up is that of paid software updates.

Personally, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve read complaints by disgruntled users that they are being asked to shell-out yet more cash to update an app.

Currently, developers can charge what they want for any kind of update even if it’s a simple bug fix or security update meaning they’ve got users over a barrel. Of course, in reality, most developers aren’t as unscrupulous as this and usually only charge when they’ve added significant new features to a product.

However, this is where the controversy lies. What constitutes simply a new feature and what constitutes a radically new product? Recent trends suggest that users are becoming increasingly demanding about what should constitute a paid update and how much they’re prepared to pay for it. For example, almost half of all iPod Touch users refused to pay the $5-10 to update to iPhone 3.0. Chikita Research found that:

Despite its hype, iPhone OS 3.0 had very little to offer iPod Touch users. Push notifications? MMS? Tethering? Essentially useless on a device that relies on WiFi for a connection. iPod Touch users are essentially asked to pay for copy/paste, in-app purchases, and the ability to buy a segment of the latest apps from the app store.

Apple meantime insisted that the update did add new functionality to the iPod Touch in a typical example of how user and developer opinions differ. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever wanted to open an ISO, IMG or CCD file but either didn’t want to burn it, didn’t have a blank DVD spare or didn’t even have a DVD burner? Well you can by mounting the file for free using a virtual drive cloning tool.

Virtual drive cloning means that you effectively create a new DVD drive for your computer - but it exists only virtually on your desktop. It’s pretty much like getting a new DVD drive for free with the added bonus that you don’t have to mess around with DVDs or burners.

I used the excellent Virtual CloneDrive although you can use any drive cloning app such as DAEMON Tools. When you install it, you’ll be asked whether you want to associate appropriate file types to it such as ISO, IMG, CCD, DVD and UDF files.

If you don’t intend on using an application to burn discs regularly using your physical DVD drive, it will make your life a lot easier if you select them all so that whenever you encounter one of these file types, Virtual CloneDrive will mount them automatically. Alternatively, you should see an option to mount the files in Explorer or failing that, right click on the target file and select Virtual CloneDrive from the context menu and then Mount. Read the rest of this entry »

One thing that I’ve always thought is woefully inadequate in Windows is the Add/Remove Programs console in the Control Panel.

Firstly, I often find that it doesn’t even display everything that’s installed on my computer. Secondly, it usually does a pretty poor job of removing programs because it leaves behind registry entries and temporary files.

More importantly however, if you encounter a program that can’t be removed for some reason, it’s absolutely useless.

I recently had a problem where a program I’d installed wouldn’t uninstall. I simply kept receiving a meaningless Windows error message that gave no clue as to what the problem was. And I couldn’t re-install it until it had been uninstalled from my computer. I usually resort to CCleaner’s program removal tool in such instances but even that couldn’t help on this particular occasion.

Then I tried the free version of Revo Uninstaller and was so impressed, I’m using it as my default removal tool. Within a minute, Revo Uninstaller had not only removed the program but had located and deleted all the registry entries and temporary files that would normally have been left behind.

Using Revo Uninstaller is very simple. As soon as you open it, the main interface displays which programs are installed. Simply select the one you want to remove and Revo proceeds to perform a very through removal process including making a backup point in case anything goes wrong or it removes something you don’t want it to. Read the rest of this entry »

One thing that’s always annoyed some people about the iTunes Store is that simply to preview a track, you have to download or open iTunes first to do so. However, Apple have finally seen sense on this issue and decided to allow users to preview tracks in their browsers whether or not they have iTunes installed or open.

You can try for yourself by going to the iTunes top 100 albums charts, selecting the album you’d like to preview and then pressing the play button.

The play button doesn’t appear until you hover your mouse cursor next to the track and you still get an annoying prompt to open it in iTunes first but at least you can dismiss it. If you decide that you want to buy a track or album, just click on the “View in iTunes” link on the right.

Previews are performed using QuickTime in 44.1 AAC 300+ kbits/second quality and limited to 30 seconds per track.

Could this be a sign that Apple are willing to move towards a more universally accessible and convenient web-based iTunes rather than a standalone application? It would certainly make sense to do so with all the different mobile devices now on the market which can all browse the net and are thus able to use a browser based iTunes service without having the actual application installed. Apple definitely have to be a little bit more innovative about how they take iTunes forward in the new decade especially in light of the success of other music apps such as Spotify.

Those who have made a new year resolution to keep their finances in check this year will be pleased to hear that Quicken for Mac 2010 is due for release in February. The popular financial app, which allows you to track and monitor your finances, hasn’t been updated since 2007 and a revamp is long overdue. However, the app is likely is receive a frosty reception from disgruntled Mac users.

One problem with Quicken 2007 is that there are very few other financial apps that you can import data into meaning Quicken users have had no choice but to wait for the much delayed update. It is the decision to drop certain features though that may disappoint many.

Annoyingly, major features such as the ability to pay bills, store investment transaction history and export to TurboTax have been dropped in the 2010 version. It will however continue to import data from previous versions of Quicken including Quicken Windows.

If you’re one of those that’s had enough of Quicken or aren’t too happy about some of the changes that have been made, I suggest you try iBank which offers most of Quicken’s features with a much lower price tag. However, it won’t import data from Quicken and if this is a priority for you, try using Fortora Fresh Finance which can although it is a bit limited.

While Windows users are busy getting their teeth stuck into lots of new Chrome Extensions, Mac users as usual have to wait although we’ve kind of come to expect this second-class citizen treatment from Google.

Earlier this week, James told you how to start enjoying extensions for Chrome on Windows. Unfortunately, even though Chrome for Mac is finally in Beta stage, Mac users can’t start doing the same yet - well not officially anyway. Google say that Mac users can expect to see extension support in Chrome by early 2010 but if you can’t wait that long…

Try installing the Developer Release of Chrome for Mac or even better, the latest build of Chromium for Mac which is the open source version of Chrome. Both of these versions support extensions although note that Google seem to keep activating and deactivating support on the Developer Release of Chrome for Mac so you never know if it’s going to work from one release to the next.

TechCrunch report a clever work around which allows you to install any extension currently available. Normally the “install” button is greyed-out in Chrome for Mac but by simply dragging a bookmark applet to your toolbar, you can activate it.

As I say though, make sure the Developer Release you’ve downloaded definitely supports extensions. Otherwise, just use Chromium and it should definitely work. There are other advantages to sticking with Chromium too such as native bookmark sync as Kevin Tofel explains. Take a look at which extensions are currently on offer and let us know which ones you’d like to see Google add. So far, I think things are looking pretty exciting and I’m very happy to see Xmarks there:

If these extensions prove to work efficiently with none of the notorious instability caused by extension RAM leakage in Firefox, 2010 may well be the year I finally switch to Chrome.

Linux has come a long way since the days when you needed to be an astrophysicist just to install it. Nowadays its so easy to install, I reckon even my mum could do it especially since Ubuntu even installs from a self-extracting EXE file. Just download it, double click and Ubuntu installs automatically - partition and all. With this in mind, I recently decided to try breathing new life into an old ailing Acer Aspire 1410 laptop by installing Ubuntu using the above method. Everything went absolutely fine - until it came to hardware support.

The installation process is amazingly quick and easy. I’d estimate from start to finish it took less than 15 minutes. To be precise, it was exactly one half of the Pop Idol final which I was kind of watching at the time - and I have to say the installation process was far more entertaining and much less painful.

The first thing that struck me was how slick and lightning quick Ubuntu is. And just because it’s free, it’s no ugly duckling either. Using Ubuntu is now as intuitive as using Windows. Sure, things are in slightly different places, menus are slightly different but it’s easy enough for anyone to work out. The problem however, comes when it doesn’t work with your hardware.

Unfortunately, my 5 year-old Acer Aspire isn’t one of the models that Ubuntu supports. This doesn’t mean I can’t use the Ubuntu, it just means that I have to install drivers for each component separately - and that’s where the fun stops. Read the rest of this entry »

One tool that former Windows users miss when they switch to Mac is WinRAR. WinRAR is a powerful archiver that seems to have been with us since the dawn of time and the good news is there is Mac version - simply called RAR. However, it’s an absolute pain to use because there’s no Graphical User Interface - it only works from the command line in Terminal and it’s not even free.

For those new to Macs, this is obviously really annoying so here are a few free alternatives to archive and unarchive RAR files on your Mac.

Zipeg Exactly what a RAR archiver should be on the Mac. Simply drag and drop a file onto the main interface and Zipeg unzips them in a jiffy. There’s also a cool preview function which allows you to see what you are going to decompress before you do it. This is great if you can’t remember what’s in a file or are suspicious about its contents. It supports a huge variety of archive formats from ZIP and RAR to TAR and 7Z.

RarMachine If Zipeg is too complicated for you, then you can’t really go wrong with RarMachine. This simple tool is rather limited by the fact it only handles RAR files, but all you have to do is drag and drop files into the small interface to archive and unarchive RAR files. It’s not free to use anymore but for a modest $7 to upgrade, it’s hardly going to break the bank.

RAR Expander This is another tool limited to RAR formats but unlike RarMachine, it is completely free to use. It has a simple user interface with which you use to open archives by browsing to them. It supports both single and multi-part archives, and has support for password-protected archives as well. It also uses the official unRAR library internally so it is fully compatible with archives produced by WinRAR.

If you’ve got yourself a spanking new Magic Mouse for your Mac, you may be more than just a little bit disappointed with some of its functionality.

Fortunately, a mini-cottage industry of Magic Mouse software is already developing to fill the gap left by Apple. There still isn’t much out there at the moment but here are a few essential software downloads to get the best out of your Magic Mouse. Note that all of these work for Trackpads too:

BetterTouchTool

This is completely free to use and amazingly simple. BetterTouchTool is the work of a single German developer who has produced an easy way to customize Mighty Mouse actions. These include the all important pinch in/out (zoom), single finger taps and even three finger swipes. Note that it only works with Snow Leopard.

MouseWizard

A more polished Mighty Mouse enhancer software which adds three extra buttons, namely, ‘pinch’, ‘bloat’, and ‘tap to click’ gestures and allows you to customize almost every aspect of your Mighty Mouse. You can even put your Magic Mouse to sleep using it. The main interface is very easy to use, allowing you to configure which type of clicks do what such as configuring a middle-click for Exposé or a fourth click to open Spotlight etc. If you get stuck, a handy wizard takes you through the configuration process by telling you where to place your hands on the Magic Mouse. The disadvantage is that it’s not free (although only costs a modest $2.50). Read the rest of this entry »