I’ll start off by saying that I’m very stuck in my ways when it comes to Google. I have three main search preferences that I just have to set on any computer I’m using: use Google.com (although I’m in Spain, I hate the results that come up with a .es query); display 100 results per page; open results in a new tab.

As far as I’m concerned, these preferences are essential. So I was pretty annoyed a couple of months back when my Google preferences started to ‘disappear’ about once a week. This was happening in Firefox (pretty much the only browser I use for day-to-day work) and it was happening at work (Windows XP) and at home (OS X).  For a while I wondered what could be causing the problem - I never tell Firefox to delete my cookies when ending a session - then I decided to look for a way of fixing this annoying bug so I’d never again have to go through the hassle of resetting my search preferences.

The best solution I found is the Firefox addon CustomizeGoogle which includes a feature aptly named ‘Sticky Google Preferences’. This feature allows you to ‘force’ Google to use your preferred language and locale, SafeSearch settings, number of results per page, opening results in a new window and query suggestions. Choose your optimal settings and you can then delete your Google cookies as often as you like without losing your configuration.

In addition, CustomizeGoogle lets you tinker with plenty of other Google tools and features, including optimising search results, hiding ads, forcing secure connections,  custom site filters and much more. It’s a great add-on and well worth a look if you’re interested in honing your daily Google experience to perfection.

OK so today may have been the day that the mouse was first shown off publicly, forty years ago, but that doesn’t change the fact that Douglas Engelbart had a working version of the device four years before the Stanford demonstration.

Here’s the version he had in 1964, which looks remarkably similar to the model ‘born’ four years later, and not that much worse than the rubbish Dell one I have to use at work.

(Image via ITKnowledgeExchange)

So while we can’t really say ‘happy birthday’ to the mouse today… I suppose we can at least wish it a very happy unbirthday.

Oh, and for those still not convinced by the veracity of this claim (it has caused some uncertainty in the office), I quote as my sources, the infallible Wikipedia and the 2008 calendar for the Autonomous University of Barcelona which happened to include the above picture with the caption “The first mouse, 1964″ as its November picture. Case closed.

Today, in case you hadn’t noticed, is the day of the United States general election. Many pundits are already calling today “historic”, so there are doubtless many people out there keen to keep up-to-date with the results as they come in. We’ve found some cool apps and widgets you can use to do just that on your PC, Mac or iPhone.

First up, check out this page at NPR, which is packed with links and tips for tracking the election. Our favourite suggestions are the BallotVox plugin which you can place on your own website or on your desktop, and the Engage 08 Budget Hero widget for websites, which allows your visitors to play the Budget Hero fiscal management game from your site.

Google has some cool apps available, including this .kmz file which you can use to see voting data by county for the last seven Presidential elections in Google Earth, as well this special map which will show election results, live as they come in (starting around 6pm EST). Google is also providing a special new mobile app for voters with directions to voting centres in your local precinct. Just go to (http://m.google.com/elections) in your mobile phone’s browser. If you’re an iPhone user, you should take a look at the US Election & World News app, which is available for download now from the AppStore.

Meanwhile, the best-looking interactive site for election results is probably Yahoo’s Political Dashboard. Though it doesn’t have any downloads available, it features some pretty cool interactive elements, including the ‘Create Your Scenario’ tool which allows you to become the pundit and predict the outcome of the election state by state. You can also share your predictions and check out some celebrity scenarios from observers like Arianna Huffington and Newt Gingrich.

In the world of blogging, there are few articles more intended to generate response and debate than that sturdy perennial, the “blogging is dead” post. Paul Boutin’s recent post at Wired with its silly generalisations, sweeping statements and deeply pessimistic predictions, is blatant linkbait. No question. But that doesn’t mean that those of us who blog shouldn’t respond to the errors he makes. That’d be playing into his hands, after all. I thought I’d tackle a few of his points head-on and at the same time, explain why I think blogging’s in a better place than it ever has been.

Thinking about launching your own blog? Here’s some friendly advice: Don’t. And if you’ve already got one, pull the plug.

So, Boutin starts with two pieces of silly advice: don’t start blogging and if you already did, quit now. It’s worth noting that as of this moment, Valleywag is still up and running, and more confusingly includes posts published the day after Boutin offered those handy tips. We trust his resignation will be announced soon.

The blogosphere… has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths… Scroll down Technorati’s list of the top 100 blogs and you’ll find personal sites have been shoved aside by professional ones.

This is Boutin’s main recurring point, known to formal logicians as the “It ain’t like it was in the old days” argument. Closely related to the “You kids don’t know lucky you are” argument, it’s based on a fictitious, rose-tinted view of the olden days along with a paean to some lost hero (in this case “amateur wordsmiths”)

If you look at Technorati’s top 100 from 2005, you’ll see a hell of a lot of names you recognise. A lot of them are still in the top 100, like HuffPo, DailyKos, Gizmodo, Michelle Malkin. Some are new, like Wired and ValleyWag. And some have disappeared because they’ve either been retired (Scobleizer, Baghdad Burning), don’t get updated very often (Maddox) or are just less relevant now (Instapundit). Of course there are some others in there that have gone… but most of them were boring or rubbish anyway. And anyway: Technorati top 100? What is this, the nineties?! Read the rest of this entry »

One of the traditions now associated with the coming of autumn is the release of two big football titles: FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer. As any fan of gaming will know, these two games go head to head each year, with PES usually coming out on top. The latest edition, PES 2009, will be a huge seller on the Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION®3 consoles but how does it perform on the PC, a format notoriously unsuited to sports simulation games?

 I’m not going to lie to you: the PES 2009 demo for PC isn’t exactly revolutionary when it comes to the old problem of porting console titles to Windows. All the old problems are there but the horrendously clunky controls (caused by lack of analog sticks) are the biggest barrier to enjoying what would, on the correct platform, be an enjoyable and well-designed game. Another weak point in the PES 2009 demo is the lack of any game options whatsoever. With no way of adjusting graphics, sound or controls, the demo has a very rigid feel to it. Sound controls in particular would be a welcome addition, if only they allowed you to turn off the awful music Konami has selected for the menu and intro pages, and the tinny, poorly rendered chants during the game. Read the rest of this entry »

Windows: If you ever need to sync files or share documents online, this app may be the perfect choice. Dropbox synchronizes the contents of a given folder with its online servers, making it accessible to any computer linked to your Dropbox profile. Use it to share photos, work on common projects or have a permanent online backup copy of your files.

Java phones: Capturing data for quantitative field studies can be a real chore. However, if you’ve got Handylearn Counter installed on your mobile phone, then things get much easier.You just assign a key to a particular feature or variable then hit this every time this variable occurs. This makes it great for things like measuring traffic.

Mac: The world’s best open-source multimedia player just got updated. VLC Media Player, now on version 0.9.2 is one of the most popular programs on Softonic and it’s not hard to see why. VLC is lightweight, compact, easy to use and will play just about any video you throw at it, from DVDs to broken WMV files. What’s more, it’s totally free and open source. All in all, one of the truly great little apps out there.

Much has been made of the cool comic book that Google used to inform the world about Chrome. But something spotted by our German colleagues is perhaps much more sinister than Google merely trying to control the Internet. It looks like they’re redrawing the world map!

Seriously: Denmark (which they even mention in the frame in question), Switzerland, Austria, Hungary and Slovenia have either disappeared or had some of their territory… redistributed by the search giant. The question is: how long before Google apply these changes to Maps?

As you will probably know by now, last night saw the launch of Google’s new web browser, Chrome. Somewhat confusingly trumpeted by Michael Arrington as a ‘Windows killer’, Google Chrome is clearly designed to take on not only Microsoft’s Internet Explorer but also Mozilla’s Firefox. We spoke to Mozilla Europe board member Zbigniew Braniecki, to get the open-source giant’s first reactions to the new kid on the block.

Talking about the launch, Braniecki told us:

I am happy that a new browser has entered the market: Google has very talented developers. They are creating a browser according to our (Mozilla’s) values - openness, standards, security and privacy. What the final result will be is hard to say.

But Google is a very different organisation to Mozilla, so their aims differ too:

We believe that the key for Mozilla is to stay in the role of the non-profit organization that aims to provide innovation and choice on the Internet. In short: Google is just a company, like Apple, Flock and so on. Whereas the Mozilla Foundation has a special position and responsibility in the development of the Internet.

Regarding the new browser and its features (much has been made, by Google and by other commentators of Chrome’s use of individual processes for each open tab):

Parts of [Chrome] are already implemented in Firefox, Safari, Opera or IE8. Some bits are really innovative and we’ll look at these with great interest. But for example, tabs as independent processes are very greedy when it comes to memory. Every Gmail tab loads everything. In Firefox we can optimize memory in such cases, but independent processes in Chrome do not offer such flexibility.

Much has been made of the fact that Google provides up to 70% of Mozilla’s funding. Is Mozilla going to take action against Google to protect Firefox’s market share?

Regarding business, it won’t be possible for us to erase Google Chrome ads from Google results that are shown to Firefox users. But for sure it is too early to say that Chrome is real competitor. It is an experiment, and not as professional a product as it looks in the press. There’s a long way to go before this is a product that can be responsibly offered to large groups of users. Firefox is an established, complete browser that works for millions of users every day. We have just extended agreement with Google for next 3 years.

We do not have any “silent deals” with Google, just partner agreements similar to what Opera has. Google does not prefer Mozilla in any way.

So perhaps some of the predictions about what will happen at the end of this new three year deal are correct? Only time will tell whether Googleis really happy to keep funding what is now a competitor.

In previous articles, we’ve often dedicated time to extolling the virtues of Linux. However, as with Windows and Mac OS X, there are plenty of reasons why the OS with the penguin mascot might not be the best choice for your PC.

Here are our top 10 reasons why you should leave Linux to the geeks and stay loyal to your current OS.

1. Because you’re happy with your current OS

Open source software is all well and good, but when you think of what we actually do with our PCs (reading email, browsing the web, listening to music), there are equally good solutions available for Linux, Windows and Mac. So, why change?

2. You don’t need to know how to build a car if all you want to do is drive

If you can build, program and understand source code then you’re highly-skilled and well done to you. But not everyone wants to do that, nor does everyone have the time to learn. If you can turn on your PC, click a couple of icons and access your favourite programs with no fuss, that’s enough.

3. So as to not look like a geek

All those tech terms might sound cool to someone already using Linux, but let’s face the truth: almost nobody in your circle of friends knows much about this kind of stuff, and you sound weird when you start talking about Gnome, Gimp and Synaptic.

4. Plenty of software, but what about quality?

There are hundreds of applications for Linux but at the end of the day, how many do you really need? We’d rather have one (easy-to-install) program that works perfectly than dozens of tricky, complicated apps that only ever do half of what they’re meant to.

5. The terminal is the Antichrist and wants to destroy us

Linux has changed considerably, and in most cases everything is done via windows and mouse clicks. But the terminal is still there, lurking in the darkness just waiting for the moment when you’ll have to use it, so it can respond with messages like “Incorrect command! I don’t know what you’re saying to me…install more packages while you still have space, I’m telling root! Mount point! Mount point!”. Don’t do it. You can lose your patience and your friends if you spend too long in the Terminal Zone. Read the rest of this entry »

So the pomp and publicity is over. Firefox 3 was downloaded a gazillion times in 24 hours and was given a big gold medal by everyone (including Softonic). But just how good is Firefox 3.0? In my opinion, it deserves most of the praise it receives but it is still far from perfect. In fact, there are at least three things I really hate about Mozilla’s latest browser.

1    Firefox 3 crashes all the time

I haven’t used a program this prone to critical errors since Firefox 2.0 was released. In the last seven days, Firefox has crashed on me about 10 times. And like the very best program crashes, Fx 3’s problems seem impossible to predict. Sometimes, I’m editing a bookmark’s properties and Bang! Or maybe I used a search box on a frequently used and perfectly stable website and Boom! This happens on my Mac and my work PC but most specifically on the Mac, I also get frequent hangs due to other applications working. None of this happened during my extensive testing of the betas for Fx 3, so why now?

2   The memory hog that grew and grew

Everyone knows that the main problem people faced with Firefox 2 was that it was prone to gobbling up all your system resources like a fat, greedy, RAM-eating pig. We were given assurances by Mozilla and various reviewers that this problem had been fixed but… I still see Firefox using up a hell of a lot of memory for just two open tabs. Of course, extensions can be the root cause of this kind of problem but as far as I’m concerned, it’s mad to say “Well, as long as you don’t install any extensions, you should be fine”. If I can’t install extensions without Firefox turning into Mr. Creosote then I don’t want the option to install them. Read the rest of this entry »

Since time immemorial, computer users have had problems sharing large files. Whether trying to fit Sim City on floppy disks, uploading binaries to newsgroups or sharing home movies via email, you may well have suffered the inconvenience of a file that’s just too big for what you’re trying to do.

This is where HJSplit comes in. It’s a remarkably simple and easy-to-use little application which can split any file you like into parts of a predefined size, so that sharing them or storing them is made easier. It can also join split files back together and compare parts to see if they’re the same.

Based in just one small executable (there’s no installer for this old school app!), the utility weighs in at a piffling 300kb and doesn’t have the world’s best design. But it works surprisingly well and splits files into chunks of your chosen size, very quickly indeed. Its joining, comparing and MD5 tools all work just as efficiently.

A small but very effective little utility which will split and rejoin any file you like.

Softonic rating: 8/10

I remember when I first used Windows XP. As a poor student in 2001, I wasn’t likely to upgrade to the new OS and instead had the glorious Windows 98 SE installed on my laptop, a device with the physical characteristics of a London telephone directory made of black lead. So it wasn’t for a few months that I actually got to grips with XP, on a new machine at the company I’d started working for between classes.

From the beginning, XP represented a clear improvement on its predecessors. Its massively improved user-interface, for example, made XP feel like an operating system made by a company that finally understood something about what users wanted. Other new features like smart new graphical effects, fast user switching, faster startup and so on really added to a general feeling that XP was good.

Then the years started to pass. And some of the things I hadn’t worried too much about back in 2001 started to look like major problems. Security, especially, became a concern and it didn’t feel like Microsoft was doing anything to deal with the problem. I remember doing the research for a decent free firewall (ZoneAlarm), anti-virus (Avast!) and anti-spyware tool (Ad-Aware). And all the time I wondered why Microsoft themselves weren’t providing this protection. Also, the user-interface, which had once seemed like a bright new world of smart usability, began to feel sluggish and out-dated. XP crashed all the time.

As more time passed, and I ventured upon my 3rd or 4th reinstallation of XP, I started to tire of the system. I was using it all day at work by now and felt that I’d rather have something different to come home to. The obvious alternative was Ubuntu Linux, which seemed to offer vast security improvements, lots of interesting new software to try and a more, ahem, attractive price tag. Ubuntu is… alright. But the number of things an intermediate level user can do with it are, unfortunately, limited. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re anything like me, you’ll find iTunes to be an essential part of your working day. Whether I’m listening to my favourite podcasts or concentrating with the help of some soothing music, iTunes stays running all through the day. Which is why I started to become pretty worried when a recurring error started to appear recently. Each time I start iTunes, I receive an error warning stating that “The iTunes Library file cannot be saved. An unknown error occurred (-48)“.

It took me a bit of time to work out how to fix this problem, so I thought I’d pass on what I found. This error basically stems from iTunes not being able to write its Library file to your iTunes folder. To fix it, simply find your iTunes folder (located in My Documents > My Music, in my case), right click the folder’s icon and choose ‘Properties‘. From here, click ‘Advanced‘ and make sure that Fast indexing is switched off for the folder. Also, make sure that in the main properties dialog box, ‘Read only‘ is completely unchecked.

This worked for me, but let me know if you’re having further problems with error (-48).

If you thought it had been a little quiet around here of late, that’s for a very good reason. We’ve all been hard at work implementing and testing a new codebase for Softonic English which makes the site smarter and easier to use, as well as adding some great new features for users.

The homepage, while appearing quite similar to its previous version actually includes numerous changes and enhancements, including a new high-visibility zone for blog posts like this one; much better category listings; dynamic charts which show whether programs have moved up or down since last week and a smoother, cleaner design.

Our program page has also undergone some important changes. Apart from some cosmetic adjustments and enhancements, we’ve also made it much easier to interact with programs, meaning that the tools that let you rate, review, bookmark and track your favourite software are always easily accessible.

But the biggest new feature for the site is our new user profile page. Visitors to the Spanish Softonic will already be familiar with the features available in the new profile page. Now you can pick an avatar, visit other profiles, see your visitors and more. We’ve also got the Soft-O-Meter, a popular feature on the Spanish site which shows your level activity on Softonic.

Finally, we’ve launched Softonic Deluxe - a premium edition of Softonic designed for true fans of software. Deluxe members get access to a special edition of Softonic, free of advertising and with 100% guaranteed high-speed and secure downloads. For more info about Softonic Deluxe or to get a free trial, click here.

We’re always working on more features and already have loads of exciting new stuff in development… but we’ll let you know about that later. For the moment, take a look at the new, improved Softonic. And as always, please let us know if you’ve got an opinion on the site or an idea for making it even better!

Some more great news for our readers from around the world: we’re pleased to announce the launch of yet another new edition of OnSoftware, this time in German! As you might have guessed, the German edition of OnSoftware has been in the pipeline for quite some time, so the blog’s already packed with handy tips and software reviews, completely auf Deutsch.

So if you’re a German-speaking software lover, check out our new German blog now! Even if you don’t speak German, this is good news for all our readers as it means that we’ve got an even bigger team of writers working to make OnSoftware a great software blog.

As usual, there are loads more features and announcements on the way, but to tell you about them now would ruin the fun! In the meantime, why not drop by and say “Hallo” to our new sister blog, OnSoftware in German?