Byzone

MobileMe... The Next Generation Of Online Services.

2008-06-25T20:22:00.007+08:00

Wow... From .Mac (Dot Mac), a beginning online service that basic things (Well basic, compared to MobileMe), now upgraded to MobileMe!

This is a revolutionary new service (The best offer I have ever seen before for this type of service... Well, this is the only service of this kind I have seen so far...) created by... *Drum Rolls* Apple!!!

Email, contacts, calendar, applications, files, all located on your technology-Windows, Mac, iPod Touch, iPhone.

You got all your mail from the two different operating system synced together:
Microsoft Outlook, on Windows, and Mail, on Mac. The mail function, the calendar, and the address book, both in Mac OS X and your iPod Touch/iPhone.

And the applications from .Mac (Excluding the bookmark function) are also included in the MobileMe service. Mail, with a redesigned interface online, calendar, address book, photo sharing, and iDisk.

"It's your desktop on the Web."-Apple.Com
"Safe. Secure. And no spam."-Apple.Com says, commenting on the Mail feature.
"Your personal hard drive online."-Apple.Com

I think this will be an excellent service, and I look forward to using it.

(This doesn't count as a review because I haven't used it yet... Hopefully, I will though. :D)

All pictures are from Apple.Com.

-Fyre Vortex
-Byzone Founder and Contributing Editor

The Intel Chip... For Macintosh.

2008-06-24T06:51:00.001+08:00

Wow, that's a really awesome video/advertisement created by Apple... :)

Snow Leopard: More News

2008-06-13T13:17:00.003+08:00

From what I heard, Snow Leopard seems to improve the current speed of Macs that currently have an Intel processor.

Security fixes will be included, nothing graphical... (Well, not much...)

And did I see up to 16 Terrabytes of RAM on the Apple Snow Leopard page?! Wow?

-FyreVortex
-Byzone Founder and Contributing Author

iPhone 3G

2008-06-11T21:15:00.002+08:00

Ever heard of the new iPhone 3G? New GPS, thinner, slimmer, and compatible with the new and reborn .Mac (Dot Mac Suite) service... MobileMe.

MobileMe is .Mac, but will be competing against Windows Live Mesh (That's the name, I think)... I think MobileMe will be more successful... People who currently have and are using the .Mac service will be "upgraded" for free to the MobileMe service.

The iPhone 3G comes in black or white, a new look, and a cheaper price.

-FyreVortex
-Contributing Author of Byzone

Snow Leopard?

2008-06-10T21:39:00.003+08:00

Snow Leopard? Wuzzat, you might say? Well, I say... It's probably going to be the next version of OSX, or maybe, a major upgrade. Muajajaja, Microsoft! (Quote taken from a friend, who happens to hate Apple.) (Picture from Apple.)

The disc looks awesome... The new version of OSX (Or the major upgrade) sounds so good that I might cancel my thoughts to buy a new laptop and wait a few years... Well, maybe... Just maybe...

Well, I can't wait for it... Can you?

I'm hoping that all Macs in the store right now will be able to run "Snow Leopard"... Muajajaja.

-FyreVortex
-Contributing Author of Byzone

Firefox AddOn Comes with Adware...

2008-05-08T18:57:00.003+08:00

For those users keen on installing Firefox Add-Ons (I have to agree that I am one... I love installing different add-ons and testing them... Not the beta ones though. They crash... Often.), think again about installing that new ultra shiny plugin.

Mozilla warns on the 7th of May that a Firefox Add-On that has a malicious adware code in it has been downloaded thousands of times over the past few months.

That particular add-on was the Vietnamese Language Pack for Firefox 2. The Mozilla Security Chief states that users that have downloaded the Vietnamese Language Pack from February 18, 2008 and above had the certain malicious code in the language pack. She also said: "Mozilla does virus scans at upload time but the virus scanner did not catch this issue until several months after the upload. Mozilla is now going to add additional scans of its software to prevent this kind of thing from happening in the future."

The adware that was in the language pack was the Trojan Xorer but just displays annoying banners.

The language pack is very popular among users and has been downloaded 16K+ since the release of the add-on in November.

Users that have downloaded this particular plug-in in the certain time frame should disable this immediately.

-FyreVortex
-Byzone Founder and Contributing Author

Source: NetworksAsia

Product Review- Avira AntiVir Personal

2008-05-02T11:48:00.007+08:00

Product Review-Avira AntiVir Personal
Vendor: Avira GmbH
Type: Antivirus
Platform: Windows XP/Vista
Download Link: Free-AV.Com
Rating: 4.5/5

Avira AntiVir Personal from Avira GmbH comes back with a faster scanning speed and a new look. Best of all, it's free of charge.

Avira has it's well known "umbrella" logo and simple but unique interface. Now it has been upgraded to a sleek, silverish look. The upgrade comes free, as always, to users using the (Free) Avira AntiVir Personal. Existing users can upgrade to it by right clicking the antivirus icon and clicking "Start Update".

The whole new interface has been applied to most (I think all) of the Avira windows-The control panel, the updater, the scanner, ...

As announced on the website, the scanning speed has been improved by quite a lot. I can now see that the bar is moving faster than the old version of Avira.

Unlike some free trials that disable updating after a certain time (Usually 30 days), the "Avira Guard" and the update system remain intact (If you download the Avira AntiVir Personal). Some setbacks are that the Updater has low piority (Premium and paying users get higher piority) and that an advertisement (No viruses, adware, or other such. The advertisements only try to convince you to upgrade to Avira AntiVir Premium...)

Avira's scanning options are very flexible, with the options of scanning the Local Drives, Local Hard Drives, Removable Drives (CD, USB, things that are plugged in to the computer that is a storage area and can be pulled out), Windows System Directory, Complete System Scan, My Documents, Active Processes (This scan is very useful if you don't want to slow down your computer that much but want to see if theres any viruses running, although full system scan is more effective.), Rootkit Search, and Manual Selection (You select the drives that are to be scanned.)

Avira comes with it's own "AntiVir Guard", which scans on demand. Avira also comes with a quarantine area where infected files are stored and cannot do harm while in quarantine.

You can schedule scanning times and there is a section set aside that features the scanning reports.

Overall, Avira is very good but the looks make it go down. The full scan scanning is very powerful but takes a while to sift through your files.

Avira's interface is very easy to work about and the options for Avira is customizable.

-FyreVortex
-Byzone Founder and Contributing Author

Byzone V2.0

2008-05-02T11:39:00.002+08:00

Byzone is now out of it's beta stages and is at V2.0. A new layout has been made and hopefully it shouldn't load that slow. I tested it and got a 13.33 seconds fully loaded time.

I'm going to post more often now... I hope.

-FyreVortex
-Byzone Founder and Contributing Author

MillionBloglist

2008-04-28T16:22:00.000+08:00

Hey Guys,
Check out the MillionBloglist. This is a cool experiment to see how long it takes to put a million links to blogs on this website. Go and submit your blog there. :) (This is in Wiki format so you can add/edit your/the page. Just don't vandalize it though.)

-FyreVortex
-Byzone Founder and Contributing Author

Service Review-Piczo

2008-04-26T09:27:00.000+08:00

Service Review-Piczo
Type: Free
Platform: Should work on all Platforms that have a browser and internet connectivity.
Format: Browser Based/Javascript
Notes: May need flash, javascript plugins and cookies enabled to use/view this site/service.
URL: www.piczo.com

Piczo was one of the first websites that I used a couple of years ago to build my first website. This website is quite good for beginner bloggers and website makers, but this is not flexible enough. It is moderately hard to organize but beginners will find it really easy to use because each section of the website can be moved to anywhere onto the website.

This website has a good community and there are extras such as a button where you could rate the Piczo site that you are at, built in hit counters, and more.

The design has been upgraded since the last time I used it and is quite pleasant to use if you are a beginner.

The web builder features a text based window where you can add functions to the website and supports some HTML and Javascript.

Unfortunately unlike Blogger, this does not have a RSS feed system so bloggers may like to steer away from this.

The good thing about this service is that it has a simple picture upload area and you can easily make your own albums online and share it with your friends and family.

-FyreVortex
-Byzone Founder and CEO

Minor Updates/Adjustments

2008-04-25T21:15:00.000+08:00

I'm currently using the time today to make some minor adjustments to the website and fixing some dead links that I just found. The Tribal Wars review is currently on hold right now because Lucario, a Tribal Wars player is currently busy and so is Leez Shadowing. I'll be posting other tech-related subjects instead.

-FyreVortex
-Byzone Founder and Contributing Author

Game Review-Travian

2008-04-23T10:31:00.001+08:00

Game Review-Travian

Type: Free

Platform: Works on all Platforms that have a browser and internet connectivity.

Format: Browser based/Javascript.

Notes: Needs Javascript and cookies enabled to play.

URL: www.travian.com

Travian is a browser based RTS (Real Time Strategy) game online. This game can be reached through this link. It is a lightweight yet interesting and stunning graphics for such a fast loading online game (RTS).

Byzone invites RTS "Specialist" Leez Shadowing for a talk about Travian.

"Hello LeezShadows, what was your first impression of Travian?"
LeezShadows says: "Well, Travian was a simple impressive game," "The gameplay was quite good but the graphics could be improved."

FyreVortex then asked: "What do you think about Travian's overall loading speed? After all, Byzone considers Travian as one of the lightweight online browser RTSes."
"It's quite fast but it's a bit slow in loading." Says LeezShadowing. "It can be improved by downloading a graphic pack onto your computer and loading graphics through that instead. By doing that, it'll boost the speed up."

We then talked about the gameplay. "Yes, it's very good for business people who are bored," Leez chats, "The buildings will build by themselves and the resources will drain in even if you're logged off."

Well, we've taken enough time from LeezShadowing the RTS "Specialist" now.

Travian, overall is a good game if you want a simple but straight forward game and fast loading graphics, but if you want to start wars "early", then you should read our next Byzone Game Review... Tribal Wars.

This is from FyreVortex, Byzone Founder and Contributing Author.

Game Review-N Ninja

2008-04-22T18:19:00.000+08:00

Game Review-N Ninja
Type: Free
Platform: Windows XP (Tested on SP2). There are versions for Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard.
Format: Online-Flash
Download-Application

N The Way of The Ninja (Usually called N Ninja, N, N The Ninja, ...) is a simple, yet mind puzzling and strategy game. This game uses basic platforms but do not be fooled... These are not easy (Unless... 1)You're a Pro 2)You cheat 3)You use the "Practice Mode", which lets you skip levels.) levels...

The story starts like this: (I'm going to summarize it for you) A Ninja is following the way of N and each episode it has a certain amount of lifespan. It's ultimate goal is to reincarnate and beat past all the episodes...

... Well, that's my summary of the story. You can download N The Way of the Ninja here.

(This link should work, but to take some precautions, please have your antivirus and antispyware turned on.)

-FyreVortex
-Byzone Founder and Author

Game Review-Air Assault

2008-04-21T10:26:00.000+08:00

Game Review-Air Assault
Type: Free

Air Assault is a captivating game where you can pilot a helicopter and go on missions. You have the option to either play solo or go in co-op mode with your friends. (Co-Op may go slow and lag for some computers that have low tech specs.)

As you go between the levels you can unlock special helicopters, missiles, and even more! You can download it at GameTop.com.

-FyreVortex
-Byzone Founder and Author

Save XP!

2008-04-20T14:40:00.000+08:00

As everyone heard, XP will be cutting off support soon. The old, stable and reliable version of Windows XP (... Xuper Portable?) will going down because Microsoft will not be offering support anymore...

If you want to Save XP and try helping, click this link.

-FyreVortex-
-Byzone Founder and Author

Wuala-"Unlimited Storage Space"

2008-04-20T14:26:00.001+08:00

Wuala is a new service that allows you to share things online for free. You could share it to friends, your family members, colleagues, ... Sounds good, doesn't it? Files, Music, Videos, Games, and more! Unfortunately, as always, offers may not be what it seems.

You get 1 Gibabyte of storage for free, but then if you want to continue sharing... You have to "donate" some space from your own hard drive... But then you also get to use part of the other Wuala users' hard drives... So it's "shared"...

It's kind of like the service that Torrent and Limewire uses. But Wuala splits the file you are sharing into 500+ pieces and they are sent to thousands of other user's hard drives. It's easy to download something off, because plenty of users have that file and they all send... Well, the service sends the pieces of file to you.

Obviously, your computer has to be online often, so the Wuala community "rewards" the user with more storage space.

There are also privacy options and you can choose to whether you want to private it, who you want to share it with, and so on.

If you want to check the it out go to this link. Wuala. Also, the files are encrypted so you won't have to worry about it.

-FyreVortex
-Byzone Founder and Byzone Author