Portable media players, shortly known as PMP, are more and more popular each day, and they are not the only portable devices able to play videos. The problem appears when you have to convert data into the format supported by a certain gadget, because, unfortunately, there isn't any good video compression format compatible with the PSP, iPhone, XBox and so on. This is where an entire army of converters comes into play, and today's pick is called Aplus Video to iPod PSP 3GP PPC PMP (try remembering that, now!).

Setup

Aplus Video to iPod (and all the rest that follows, but I'll only call it this way from now on) reached version 8.68, and comes in a setup package as large as 4.4MB. Since downloading it shouldn't be much of a problem, let me tell you about the setup process...

Once you run the setup package, you shouldn't have any problems, as long as you're not using Windows Vista and have UAC enabled... Anyway, I installed Aplus Video to iPod on my good-old Windows XP, and it all worked perfectly.

If you're wondering about the limitations of the trial version I used, the answer is that you can only convert 20MB output files or smaller using it. Other than that, you get 2 buttons allowing yopu to purchase this program placed in the main window of the program, right next to the Play button, and I think one would've been enough. At last, the price required to register this program is $29.95, so let's push forward and see if you get enough for your money or not...

Interface

Aplus Video to iPod looks good, and that's all I need to say. While it's very easy to use, its interface, which is covered by a nice skin, doesn't allow you to customize it or at least install additional visual themes, but let's not forget the purpose of this program - it's here to help you convert movies, so the lack of 200 custom skins for it is no big deal!

Features

According to its producer, this program automatically detects your hardware and adjusts the conversion speed. Sounds good, but I don't understand why they didn't optimize it right for dual and quad core systems, because conversion speed was slower than my X2 4000+ is capable. Also, I couldn't find any Settings area, but I know a lot of people who enjoy programs that don't ask many questions, and they will surely love this one!

Aplus Video to iPod supports drag and drop, but be careful to choose your output directory first. Why? When I converted my first file, it was set automatically to D:\, but I don't have any D drive(my DVD Writer is currently RMA'd due to some problems)! The most funny part came when I ran a search for that file on my entire 320GB drive and couldn't find it. Anyway, no big deal...

To convert a file, simply drag it over the window of the application, choose one of the existing conversion presets, and press the Play button. What's not so obvious about the Play buttons in this program is that the one located in the toolbar below the small preview window allows you to view converted content, while the big Play button converts the original. Not quite straightforward, I must say.

Well, I know something must be added, and I am sure you'll help with comments. No, I didn't forget to tell you about the supported video files, because virtually all popular ones are supported, including AVI, Divx, ASF, WMV, WMA, MPEG or MOV.

The Good

Aplus Video to iPod is very easy to use, supports a wide range of file formats and it even has a very useful batch processing feature.

The Bad

I already said what I don't like, so I will repeat - it seems there's no multithreading optimization, so multi-core processors won't work much faster than single ones, and there are no options available for those that want to really get "in control". Also, price could be lowered with 5-10 bucks...

Conclusion

Aplus Video to iPod is a program worth trying, at least. It does not match my tastes perfectly, but I am sure a lot of people would consider it worth buying, and since it's free to try, you can hit the download link below and give it a go for yourselves!

Developer: Aplus Software
Price: $29.95
Trial Link: Download

Read more No comments

Microsoft is no strange to delays, and the fact that Microsoft SQL Server 2008 got delayed shouldn't be a surprise. Now, I only wonder how did this happen? Were they too happy about the last financial report and "forgot" to complete their work? It really doesn't matter, as long as the outcome may hurt some of their clients more than Microsoft. Now, let's see the details of this story available at this time...

Previously, Microsoft announced that SQL Server 2008 should become available in the second quarter of the year, but now they got back to that statement, adding a quarter to the initial estimation. Since the original goal was to provide the next SQL Server edition between 24 and 36 months after SQL Server 2005, they may reach this goal even if SQL Server 2008 is released in the third quarter.

According to sources from the Redmond giant, the delay of SQL Server won't get in the way of the Visual Studio and Windows Server releases, scheduled for the 27th of February. "Our goal is to deliver the highest quality product possible and we simply want to use the time to meet the high bar that you, our customers, expect.", declared the company.

Hopefully, Visual Studio and Windows Server will managed to arrive and time and with as less bugs and security flaws as possible. These being said, let's bid Microsoft good luck and two software releases that arrive as scheduled, on the 27th of February, so that their largest business software concurrent release turns into reality!

Read more 2 comments

Advertising is one of my "little hobbies", and I always enjoyed following different campaigns, online or offline. One of the things I hate most when it comes to promoting products or people (in electoral campaigns, for example) is when a product or a candidate uses other's weak points in its campaign, and sometimes it all ends up with a "mud battle". The Internet is one of the places where everyone can throw mud at others, especially by taking advantage of the fact you can easily hide behind a nickname, and use a proxy server to access the Web and hide your real location. Well, Google takes a first step in trying to stop such things to happen, at least by using its services...


If you want to laugh at your friends by paying to publish ads with fake facts about them...that could be probably done, but I don't recommend it. Anyway, Google recently changed its policy on political ads published using the AdSense network. Basically, it all gets down to 5 big facts -

1. Each ad must comply with the usual AdSense editorial guidelines (no copyright violation, no violence, no counterfeit goods, and so on).

2. Google promotes ads for all candidates without any discrimination, as it should be normal, but it's good they wrote this down, so none could come and say "hey, this is not right, I paid more than x and got less exposure".

3. "No attacks on an individual's personal life." There are sooo many possible interpretations for this...

4. If an ad asks for donations, the landing page must clearly state the donations are not tax-deductible(what a pity!).

5. Misleading ads are not allowed, so when you click on John Silver's ad, you shouldn't end up on Little Big's page, obviously...

No matter how good may prove these new rules to be in the end, and how well is going to work the third one in practice, I welcome Google's decision. By taking such small steps, maybe one day, the Web could be a much cleaner place than today...

Read more No comments

What? Windows exceeded financial expectations for the last period? Windows Vista sales are going high? I don't want to be rude, but I only have one answer to the above: so what? As always, their marketing department gets all my respect for being able to sell in large quantities a product that's far from being the best on the market, and having an incredibly low customer satisfaction rate! Today, news emerged about another hole in one operating system from Microsoft, and this time we're talking about a product for the Enterprise market!


First of all, I have to say that reports regarding the flaw I am going to tell you about today appeared related to other Microsoft operating systems, including Vista. Anyway, being given the fact that only a few companies switched to Vista and didn't get back to XP, I am not worried about Vista now... The problem today is extremely serious, because the flaw that threatens Windows Small Business Server now was discovered some time ago and already patched on Windows XP and Vista.

While the flaw described by Microsoft here was considered to be "critical" for other Windows systems, on Windows Small Business Server, they only said this problem is "important", and not "critical".

Being given all the above, the interesting part is that either Windows Small Business Server is the most secure Windows system available, and a critical flaw affecting Vista and XP is harder to exploit on this operating system, either Microsoft tries to minimize the unexplained delay in providing the patch by minimizing its importance.

Anyway, no matter what's the truth, I am sure we're going to have an interesting year when it comes to IT security, since operating systems that once had a very small user base (Mac OS X and Linux, of course) are becoming more and more popular, and so become targeted by malware more often than before...

Read more One comment

Leaving aside the problems that emerged in the last few days, Skype remains a solid, easy to use and very popular solution for people that want to have the oportunity to chat with their friends over the Internet without having to pay the fees usually required when using a regular phone line. Since there's no build-in voice recording feature, third party applications allow you to do this, and today I want to tell you a few things about one of them, called MX Skype Recorder.

As you can see above, this program's interface is not brilliant, and it doesn't come for free, either. The last version, labeled 3.5.1, was released earlier this week, so I thought it would be nice to give you a hint, because I guess you didn't heard about it so far. So...what's special about MX Skype Recorder?

According to the (not so great) official site, this program can work in automatic or manual mode, uses Lame Encoder to compress audio data to MP3 files, but can also save WAV PCM files. While conversations can be recorded in single or dual track, and the evil side of this program shows when I tell you about the spy mode (think about a keylogger, it's exactly the same thing, only that this time audio conversation is recorded without the knowledge of a Skype user - be careful with this!).

Other than the above, it's good to know that other VoIP applications are also supported, including Google talk and Yahoo Messenger. At last, you should know that MX Skype Recorder can work with PC-to-PC, PC-to-phone and skypecast conversations.

Supporte operating systems are Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista, and the program only needs 1MB of space for installation, but additional space is required to store recorded data, of course. The trial version can be downloaded from here, but if you want to purchase the program, you should know there are 2 different versions available - the Standard, priced at $14.95, and the Professional Version, sold for $24.95. Details about their features can be found on this page.

Read more No comments