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Review: Panda Global Protection 2013

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Panda Cloud Antivirus LogoPanda Cloud Antivirus is an antivirus software by Panda Security; available in both free and paid version. It is cloud-based in the sense that files are scanned on a remote server without using the processing power of the user’s machine. The cloud technology is based on Panda’s Collective Intelligence. The upcoming product is Panda Global Protection 2013 and now it is available in its beta version.

Panda Global protection offer all in one protection for your PC, it has Antivirus, Internet security, Parental protection, PC tune up and many other features. We can use this beta version for 4-6 month and it will expire in  2013 february.  So, you get about 4-6 month for testing. Panda also offers a prize of 200$ for testers. So if you are lucky, you have a chance to get 200 bucks with the free antivirus.

Installation :

You can download Panda Global protection from here. Installation is done online, it will download the data and start installation automatically, make sure you have an internet connection. It won’t take long for a faster connection it will only take 6-8 minute or less. Give your Email and country and follow the instructions for remaining steps.

Interface:

The interface got a face-lift in the new version. You can refer the image below. You can see many beautiful square buttons. Setting button is placed on the right top of the windows just below the close button. You can reach Licence, Update wizard, preference pages. PC tune up, USB vaccine, Safe browser, Network management. The icons are placed on right bottom side.

Panda Global protection 2013

Features:

Panda Global protection 2013 has features like Parental Protection, PC tune up, USB vaccine, Safe browser and Password manager which is a new feature in Panda Global protection 2013. Password manager can store your account information in an encrypted manner.

Panda antivirus window

Quick scan took only a few minutes but the full system scan took around 3-4 hrs to complete, I don’t like to wait for a long time so stopped it after 78%. If you want a fast scan we prefer F-secure for you, which is faster and somewhat better than Panda in terms of scan speed.

Parental control offers five different type of filters, Kids filter which will filter all pornographic, crime, gambling, games etc. Teen filter is also similar to Kid filter. Third one is the Employee filter, which can be used to block Facebook, Google plus and other social networking sites to prevent employees from wasting time of social networks. Fourth and fifth are Personalised and No filter respectively. You can customize which categories are to be blocked.

Anti Spam is used to filter out spam emails. You can create a list of trusted friends or other people so that panda won’t scan those mails and all other mails will be scanned.

PC tune or Optimization provides two type of optimization options. One is Defragmenation, which defragments your files and make your system is fast. Clean up utility cleans your temporary files and make your system free from unwanted files. Temporary files can be created in many ways, one is during software installation, which create many files but these files become useless after the installation. Google chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet explorer like web browsers create web temporary files which is also unwanted. Clean Up will clean temporary files, junk files, broken shortcuts etc..so you will get more free space.

Safe browser, which is not included in this package can be download – it is free. The installer file is 2.5mb in size but you need to download 77 mb during installation. We don’t prefer it for you.

Highs :

  • Good interface
  • Password manager
  • Parental control
  • Safe browser

Lows :

  • It takes more time for a full scan
  • We didn’t find any ‘update settings’ option to disable updates

Verdict:

Panda Global protection 2013 is a beta version , final version will take 4-6 month. We can test this software for 4-6 month. Beta testers will get 50% reduction in price apart from a chance to win $200.

A comprehensive guide to install the Windows 8 Consumer Preview

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Its been long since we have been hearing about Windows 8 and its magical new features. If you too have been craving to get your hands on Windows 8, here is your chance. Windows 8 Consumer Preview i.e. the beta version is out and is available for a grab. In this tutorial we will see how to install Windows 8 beta in easy steps.

Minimum System Requirements for Windows 8:

  • Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
  • RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
  • Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
  • Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device or higher

There are two ways you can try the Windows 8 beta: [Read more…]

How to upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04 Beta from Ubuntu 11.10

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Ubuntu 12.04, the LTS (Long Term Support) version, beta version is out. According to the release schedule of Ubuntu 12.04, the final version will be released by the end of April. In case you are an early adopter and wants to try your hand on the beta release, here is how to upgrade to the beta version:

  • Press Alt+F2 to open the command box
  • Type “update-manager -d” (without the quotes)
  • Please mind the space between manager and -d
  • Update Manager should open up and tell you: New distribution release ’12.04′ is available.
  • Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.

Enjoy Ubuntu 12.04. Cheers :)

Microsoft Social Network SOCL goes in beta, book a place for yourself

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Microsoft Social Network SOCLFew months back we saw that Microsoft accidentally published its own version of Social Networking site Socl.com. They took down the site in few days but it seems they are back with their project renamed from Tulalip to socl (pronounced as social).

Socl is in fact not a new social networking site that wants to compete with Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus. Instead it is more like where users can collect interesting stuffs from web at one place and share it with their friends. [Read more…]

How to upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10 Beta from Ubuntu 11.04

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Pic Courtsey: uniquetipsonline.com

Ubuntu released the second beta version of Ubuntu 11.10 OneiricOcelot last week. Final version is scheduled to release on 13 October 2011. 11.10 has some compelling improvements over its predecessors 11.04. If you want to be one of the early followers and want to upgrade it, follow the instructions below:

  • Press Alt+F2 to open the command box
  • Type “update-manager -d” (without the quotes)
  • Please mind the space between manger and -d
  • Update Manager should open up and tell you: New distribution release ‘11.10’ is available.
  • Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.

Enjoy Ubuntu 11.10.

Sources: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OneiricOcelot/TechnicalOverview/

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Review: MyCube: A new Social Networking Platform that lets you make Money

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For those early adopters, here is a new social networking platform to try: MyCube. Started by a Singapore based and led by a strong team consisting of serial entrepreneurs and seasoned operational managers with experience from Netscape, RealNetworks, Yahoo, eBay, Let’s Buy It and Icon Medialab, MyCube claims to be word’s first Social Exchange site. What it means is that it lets user own the digital content and share it (either with friends of common or with public with common interest).

It is very focused on user’s privacy and doesn’t share the information in public without user’s consent. User connects with people who are most relevant to him. It has Interests feature (similar to Sparks in Google Plus, actually Google copied the idea from MyCube) where user can select the area of interests and feeds from sponsored agency (like a news magazine) or from other users (if they share it publicly) can be viewed on its home page thus bringing the most relevant information. Here is how my profile looks like:

The idea of social exchange is focused on giving user the control of his/her digital life i.e. it lets user own the data he shares. Unknown to most, the majority of social networks own the content you upload to them, and thus own the right to monetize it. According to a study in a year 360 Billion User Generated Content (Pictures, Videos, Links etc) are uploaded on Facebook in a year and Facebook makes $1.86 Billion out of it. So, Facebook makes money out of users’ content.

In MyCube, user owns the information it updates and shares. MyCube has its own virtual currency called Cubes (1 cube = 0.0.1 Singapore Dollars) which can be used in trading the information. It is ideal for people who have expertise in some field. They can share their work with others (MyCube lets you allow to whom you want to share the information with and in which category).

In a nut shell, MyCube has the following features:

  • Focuses on giving user the control and privacy
  • Lets users interact with people with common interest
  • Provide the ability to monetize the digital life (The best thing)

If you want to join MyCube you can request an invite by entering your email id or by using the invite code “friend” or “tk500” in http://beta.mycube.com/. First 50,000 users will get 1000 cubes. So, what are you waiting for? Hurry Up!

Questions, suggestions and feedback are most welcomed.

How to get Google Music Beta Invite from outside US

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I was craving to try for Google Music Beta since it’s launch but as it is only available for people of USA (why only USA?), all the time it irritated me with We’re sorry. Music Beta is currently only available in the United States. But then as you know “there is a will there is a way”, I managed to get an invite. All I did was to use the a US Proxy to request an invitation. I got my Google Music Beta invite in 3 days. Apparently once you get the invite, Google doesn’t bother from where your accessing it i.e. all you need to do is to use a US proxy and then once you get the invitation, it is yours to use it. To simplify the process in steps:

  • Use a Google proxy site. I used http://www.ultrafastproxy.com/
  • In this site, scroll down a bit to find a field with a Browse tag on it, enter music.google.com
  • It will open Google Music page under the proxy
  • If you have security features enable in the Google account, you might have to answer the security question to verify that this a legitimate login
  • Now here you request for an invitation for an invite
  • Wait for 3-4 day to process the invite request
  • Once you get it you can access it from anywhere across the globe

You can also download the Google Music Manager, which is available for Windows, Mac and recently for Linux, to upload your own music to its cloud storage. You can upload upto 20,000 songs. But make sure that the music which your are uploading is legal. Uploading illegally downloaded music files will be deleted from the storage. One more thing once you get the invite, you can also send two invites to your friend.

Other Proxy Sites:

If the proxy site suggested earlier doesn’t work, you may want to try one of these:

Question, suggestions and feed back are welcome. Enjoy your music :)

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