InvisibleSHIELD is one of the most well-known screen protector manufacturers. The military grade patented material used by InvisibleSHIELD is quite possibly its biggest selling point. Moreover, unlike most other screen protectors, InvisibleSHIELD also offers full body protection. My roommate Chinmoy Kanjilal graciously agreed test a review unit (sent by Mobilefun.co.uk) on his HTC Legend.

InvisibleSHIELD’s packaging is impressive and includes everything from adhesive and spray to squeezy (to squeeze out bubbles). However, applying InvisibleSHIELD turned out to be a lot tougher than expected and took around about an hour. Fitting the screen protector around edges demands some dexterity. The supplied manual is helpful, but anyone who purchases an InvisibleSHIELD should have a look at the video embedded below before getting started.

InvisibleSHIELD Installation Guide

After application, the InvisibleSHIELD took about half a day to heal. Although the screen protector is extremely tough, it is still thin enough to be comfortable to use. Unlike some of the other screen protectors, there was no perceivable loss of sensitivity with the InvisibleSHIELD. However, the surface has a rather plasticky feel to it (i.e. it lacks texture) that I don’t like.

InvisibleSHIELD Scratch Test

I have been using Martin Fields screen protector on my Xperia X10 for the past couple of months. After testing both, I would have to say that I am more impressed with Martin Fields. InvisibleSHIELD is undoubtedly more durable; the MF screen protector has already acquired quite a few scratches. However, it is a real hassle to install and feels less satisfying to use. It’s not a bad product by any means. All of the materials included are of high quality. Importantly enough, InvisibleSHIELD is reusable and the adhesive doesn’t leave any mark on the handset after removal. In fact, if you want full body protection and don’t want to use a screen cover that spoils the beauty of your handset, InvisibleSHIELD is your best option.

If you want a HTC Legend cover or screen protector head over to Mobilefun.co.uk.

Earlier this month, I had offered three 1 year subscriptions of WaveSecure – the premium anti-theft software for mobile phones. Check out the full review to learn how WaveSecure can protect you against data theft and even help you in recovering a stolen handset.

I had initially promised 3 licenses. However, Wavesecure overdelivered and provided me with a couple of extra ones. Here are the 5 winners:
Chetan Thaker
Mayank
ta
PaulH
snehanjan

Thanks to everyone who participated. Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter or RSS Feed for more useful software reviews and giveaways.

Earlier this week, AVTest.org published the results of their latest antivirus shootout, performed during April, May and June 2010. The last time I looked at one of these antivirus shootouts was in 2009. Since then a lot has changed, but a lot has also remained the same.

Avira was once again outstanding in detecting malwares in AVTest’s reference set, as well as “in the wild” malwares. However, as expected, it fumbled in the dynamic detection test (blocking of malwares on or post infection), where it succeeded on only 38% of the test cases. Surprisingly enough, Avira proved itself to be efficient in repairing a system. Nevertheless, in my personal experience, I have found that Avira tends to prefer deleting infected objects rather than recovering them. Obviously that isn’t exactly the preferable way of approaching system recovery. Avira also continued to be amongst the lightest security products, with very little adverse impact on system performance.

Norton and Kaspersky, which were found to be the most effective in 2009, also continued their impressive showing. Norton aced the 0-day (new) malware detection test, while Kaspersky performed better with the reference set. Kaspersky also had the upper hand in the repair tests, a testament to its sophisticated engine.

For me the real surprise was Panda, which proved itself to be lighter than both Kaspersky and Norton, and also performed commendably in detection and repair tests.

One of the crowd favourites, Microsoft Security Essentials, also performed fairly well. It returned solid results in all of the tests, without being outstanding in any of them. However, MSE turned out to be heavier than the aforementioned security suites.

McAfee (poor repair), Trend Micro (poor detection), BullGuard (poor detection), and Norman (poor detection) were the only products that failed to receive certifications. Detailed reports on each of the antivirus products is available here. Kaspersky, Norton and Panda were the best overall performers. You can pick any one of them based on your preference and also local prices. Indian users looking for top-notch protection should definitely take a look at Kaspersky considering its low cost in India. If you don’t want to pay for premium protection, Microsoft Security Essentials and Avira are still the best options.

Losing a phone is nothing short of a nightmare. Besides the monetary setback, it is also an emotional blow. At an instant you lose all your contacts, photographs, SMS and more. The situation becomes worse if you have a smartphone. Smartphones often store email passwords, Facebook and twitter login details, credit card numbers and other sensitive information. Losing one can be a major privacy and security nightmare.This is where an anti-theft tool like WaveSecure comes in.

WaveSecure is an award winning mobile security app that takes care of all the basics and then some. The main functionalities provided by WaveSecure can be grouped into the following four categories:

Improving Your Phone’s Security: WaveSecure has something called an Action Center. This is actually quite similar to the Windows Action center. It simply suggests and recommends changes you can make to your phone’s settings to improve security.

Backing up Your Data: WaveSecure can automatically backup critical information including your contacts, SMS and Call log. You can also manually backup pictures taken using your phone. This comes in handy, not only if you lose your phone, but also after flashing your handset (or performing a firmware upgrade).

Protecting Your Privacy: If you detect that your phone has been lost or stolen, you can instantly log on to the website or send an SMS to lock the handset. Additionally, you can also perform a remote wipe to remove any sensitive information stored on the handset. Stuff you can wipe includes contacts, SMS, calendar, photos, videos, call logs and even your entire memory card.

Tracking Your Phone: On a locked handset, WaveSecure blasts out a particularly annoying and loud alarm that is accompanied by a custom message. This can assist you in locating a misplaced phone, and even scare off a potential thief. Additionally, you can go online and track your phone. If you have a GPS enabled device, then the location displayed will be fairly accurate. Otherwise, WaveSecure will try its best to estimate the location based on the cell phone tower being used by the handset.

You can also configure WaveSecure to automatically lock the handset on detecting a SIM change. Once a handset has been locked, whenever the thief changes the SIM, pre-selected contacts (friends/family members) will automatically be notified of the new phone number. Moreover, the backup feature mentioned earlier, can also come in handy, as it allows a simple way to snoop on your phone’s new owner by monitoring all calls and SMSs.

Circumventing the security measures put in place by WaveSecure is quite tough. While on Windows Mobile and Symbian handsets, Wave Secure cannot be uninstalled without the secure PIN, any attempt to uninstall WaveSecure on Android will automatically lock the handset. If you have a rooted device, you can also ensure that WaveSecure cannot be removed even through a factory reset. However, there is one major chink in WaveSecure’s armour. If the thief manages to kill the WaveSecure background process (using a task manager/task killer) before the device has been locked, then WaveSecure won’t be able to offer any protection.

WaveSecure was the first app I purchased after getting my Xperia X10i. At $ 19.90 per year, WaveSecure might be more expensive that most apps; however, it is also one of the few apps that I won’t hesitate to term as “a must have”. Although, in this write-up I have essentially reviewed WaveSecure for Android, it is also available for Windows Mobile, Symbian and Blackberry. In fact, a free Java edition with limited feature set is also available. The functionality supported by WaveSecure on the former three platforms is similar to that offered on Android. Nevertheless, you are encouraged to download the 7 day trial version and give it a spin for free.

Download WaveSecure
License: Shareware (7 day trial)
Cost: $19.90 per year
Operating System: Android, Symbian, Blackberry and Windows Mobile

WaveSecure License Giveaway

TenCube has agreed to offer three 1 year licenses of WaveSecure (worth $59.70) to my readers If you have a smartphone (Windows Mobile, Symbian, Blackberry or Android), then you can participate in this content through the following simple ways:
Comment on this post. Make sure you use a valid e-mail address. (compulsory)
Follow @indyan and retweet this message to get a bonus entry into the lucky draw. You must post the status update URL in the comments section to be considered. (optional)
Subscribe to my e-mail newsletter to get a bonus entry into the lucky draw. After subscribing, you must let me know by leaving a comment. (optional)
You can also blog about this contest to get an additional entry. Once again, you must leave a comment with the URL of the blogpost.

The contest is open to everyone and will close on August 28, 2010 at 12:00 IST.

* In case of dispute, all decisions made by me shall be final.

Way back in 2008, I had reviewed five excellent alternatives to the Windows “Add or Remove Programs” applet. I ended up being particularly impressed with Revo. Last month, another new application manager – Comodo Programs Manager, caught my eye. You might not agree with all of Comodo’s business policies, but it’s hard to deny that most Comodo products are generally of very high quality. I took their latest application for a spin to find out if it lives up to Comodo’s reputation.

Comodo’s biggest strength is its ability to detect and analyse application installations, and completely roll back all changes made by an application. Quite obviously, this feature works only with applications installed after the Comodo Programs Manager.

Comodo also goes above and beyond what most uninstallers offer. Some of the other major features include ability to uninstall Windows updates, uninstall drivers and services, and even disable Windows features. I found the last feature to be particularly useful. Most users don’t require tablet pc components (handwriting recognition etc.) or windows gadget platform (for displaying Windows gadgets). However, these services are enabled by default on all systems. Comodo provides a quick and safe way to disable these services, and get a possible performance boost.

Comodo Programs Manager is an impressive application with some really compelling features. If you don’t like the idea of an active monitor running in the background, then Revo is still your best bet. Otherwise, Comodo Programs Manager is definitely worth a try. Other than a few crashes, which will hopefully be fixed in future releases, I didn’t find a lot to complain about in Comodo’s newest offering.

Download Comodo Programs Manager (8.27 MB)
Version Reviewed: 1.0 Build 30
License: Freeware
Operating System: Windows XP, Vista, 2008 (Server) and 7

Android has a really nice security procedure that forces the user to enter his/her Gmail (Google account) username and password to unlock the handset, after several incorrect pattern entries have been recorded. Quite obviously this procedure has been put in place to prevent someone from brute forcing the unlock pattern. Unfortunately, the system is not as secure as it appears to be.

In some cases, possibly due to corruption of the stored data file, Android is known to reject the login information provided, even if it is correct. That’s what happened to me a short while back. Normally, the only way out would be to re-flash (reinstall the operating system) the device or to perform a factory reset. However, after doing a bit of digging I came across a surprisingly simple solution. The trick is to enter “null” (without quotes) as the password. In other words:

Userid = <enter your email id>
Password = null

The trick described above might not work for everyone. In that case you can try your luck with a firmware update/factory reset. Sony Ericsson users can download the Update Service application from here. If you have a HTC, Samsung or a Motorola handset, check out einartysen’s blog.

I am not sure if the problem is restricted to the Xperia X10 or not. Whatever be the case, the respective parties should fix this issue as soon as possible. Having “null” as password pretty much makes the entire security process redundant.

It is not even necessary to enter image URLs. ZoomIt even works with entire webpages. The ZoomIt images have pretty small URLs and are instantly sharable through both Twitter and Facebook. A bookmarklet is also available to facilitate the process of creating and sharing images. ZoomIt isn’t something I will use on a daily basis, but it is definitely cool enough to deserve a spot in my bookmarks.

via ReadWriteWeb

SnagIt is the undisputed champion of screen capture tools. Unfortunately, at $49.95 per license, it’s a tad too expensive for most users. On the other hand the Snipping Tool bundled with Windows 7 is a bit too basic for bloggers, designers, developers and power users. To make things worse, most of the free screen capture utilities available on the web, aren’t really all that better than the Windows 7 Snipping Tool. Even FastStone Screen Capture, which I had reviewed earlier, is now a commercial utility. The good news is that after doing a little bit of digging I have found an worthy replacement – it’s PicPick.

PicPick is a complete solution for all your screen capturing needs. It allows you to capture screenshots, edit them, and even publish them. The main features offered by PicPick can be grouped into the following four categories:

Screen Capturing: PicPick is primarily a screen capture tool, so it’s not surprising that it is extremely good at grabbing screenshots. You can capture the entire screen, active window, window control, scrolling window, selected region or even a free hand region. It even supports dual monitor setups. The only major feature that is missing is the “clear background” option that is offered by the likes of WinSnap and SnagIt.

Image Editing: PicPick includes a primitive image editor that supports basic functions like adding annotations, drawing custom shapes, rotating and resizing images. Some commonly used effects including Blur, Pixelate, Sharpen and Grayscale are also supported.

Image Sharing: Once you are happy with the captured image, you can upload it to a pre-configured FTP account, publish it on Imageshack, Facebook and Twitter, or send it to a desktop application like Microsoft Outlook.

Professional Aids: PicPick also has quite a few nifty tools to help out designers and developers. The most interesting feature is something called a “White Board”, which basically allows you to draw anything on your screen, before capturing a screenshot. Some of the other tools bundled with PicPick include a magnifier, protractor, colour picker and a pixel ruler.

PicPick is completely free for home users. Unfortunately, if you want to use it for commercial purposes, you will have to shell out $19. Even then, it is an option worth considering. It doesn’t have all the features of SnagIt Pro, but it is heck of a lot cheaper than TechSmith’s offering. Moreover, it does have some handy tools for professionals. The other option you can consider is WinSnap. WinSnap is light on features, but is capable of capturing extremely high quality screenshots and is similarly priced.

Download PicPick (5.4 MB)
Version Reviewed: 2.3.3
License: Free for Personal Use
Cost: $19 for Commercial Edition
Operating System: Windows All

Sorry for taking so long to publish the list of winners. You can thank the blazing fast internet connectivity offered by Tata Photon Whiz for the delay. Anyways, I will save my rant about Tata Photon for some time else.

The Tabbles giveaway turned out to be one of the most popular giveaways on my blog and attracted a fair amount of interest. Thanks to everyone who participated. Don’t be dissapointed if you didn’t win. I have a few more giveaways planned. Subscribe to our RSS Feed or newsletter to stay informed about any future giveaways.

The winners for the Tabbles giveaway are:
Suzy
Gourav Kumar
Diane

The license keys will be sent to the winners via email.

Offline NT Password & Registry Editor

Offline NT Password & Registry Editor is a live Linux distribution, which can be used to reset your Windows user account password. Here is what you need to do:

Download and burn the ISO image to create a bootable media (CD/DVD).
Boot from the media created in the previous step. Once you have successfully booted, you will be asked to select the appropriate Windows installation. Do so.
Now you will be prompted to enter the registry location. Press Enter to select the default value.
Pick option 1, which is to reset the password.
Select the user account you are interested in. Simply hitting Enter will select the Administrator account.
Select option 1 to just set a blank password. Option 2 is not recommended since it has a lower success rate.
Save changes (option 1) and restart to boot into Windows.

A more detailed walkthrough is available here.

Download Offline NT Password & Registry Editor (3.6 MB)
License: Freeware (Open Source)
Operating System: Windows 7, Vista, XP

Trinity Rescue Kit

Trinity Rescue Kit is also a Linux distro. It packs in several additional features, but the password reset tool, which we are concerned with, works in a similar manner to Offline NT Password & Registry Editor. Type winpass -u Administrator in the terminal to begin the process. Replace Administrator with the user account you are interested in. If you get stuck, refer to the video guide prepared by WalkerNews.

Download Trinity Rescue Kit (118.7 MB)
License: Freeware (Open Source)
Operating System: Windows 7, Vista, XP

Windows 7 Installation Disc

If you don’t want to use a 3rd party tool, you can also reset your password using the Windows 7 installation disc. However, you will need to do a fair bit of manual registry editing. If that’s not a problem for you, head over to the Seven Forums password reset guide.

The Xperia X10 sports a mineral glass screen, which is supposed to be scratch resistant. But, Sony Ericsson obviously decided to err on the side of caution and shipped not one, but two screen protectors with the X10i.

The trouble is that the screen protectors shipped by SE are of substandard quality. The one that was pre-installed came off within a week of use. While, the other one was too thick and plasticky (for the lack of a better word). Moreover, the second screen protector also led to a perceptible loss in sensitivity.

Martin Fields is one of the best known screen protector manufacturers in the market. Mobilefun.co.uk was kind enough to offer me a unit.

Martin Fields claims that their screen protector is only 0.2 mm thick. Obviously, I wasn’t able to measure this, but it is definitely quite thin. Installation was a breeze as the screen protector is very well designed and fits the X10 perfectly. The first thing I noticed after installation was that, unlike the bundled screen protectors, the MF didn’t (significantly) reduce the touchscreen sensitivity. The films itself is crystal clear and its surface has a nice texture that gives a pleasant feedback. Most importantly, the screen remains visible even in broad daylight.

Also included in the package is a nifty little lens protector that sits over the lens and protects it from getting permanently damaged.

The Martin Fields screen protector uses light adhesive, and is supposed to be washable and reusable. The protector is also reasonably tough. So far, it hasn’t developed any deep scratches. At the same time, MF is no InvisibleShield. Hairline scratches that are visible on close inspection, are already starting to appear.

On the whole, Martin Fields impressed with its quality. The screen protector is easy to install, fits perfectly, and feels great. You can order the Martin Fields Screen protector from MobileFun, which also has an impressive collection of other X10 screen protectors.

Firefox has been getting a lot of attention for its new Tab Candy feature. Tab Candy is essentially Expose (the task-switcher included in Mac) for tabs. Pressing Ctrl+Space will make Firefox zoom out and display thumbnails of all open tabs. As you might expect, most of the blogosphere is going crazy about this feature. And to be honest, it is quite a brilliant feature. It certainly one-ups Opera’s vanilla tab switcher (although Opera might justifiably argue that visual tabs nullify the need for tab expose). However, Firefox is not the first browser to offer a thumbnail tab switcher. Internet Explorer 8 supports something called Quick Tabs, which looks a lot like Tab Candy. Go ahead and try it out. Open a couple of tabs and press Ctrl+Q to see it in action. Mac also had access to Tab Expose through Shiira and TabExposé add-on for Safari. However, Firefox’s implementation is definitely far superior. None of the other browsers support the advanced grouping features Firefox is touting.

Another browser which offers this feature is Element browser. Element Browser is a webkit based browser for Windows, Linux and Mac, which was hailed as being “Too classy for Windows operating system” by Software Informer.

Element Browser is quite a bit larger than some of the other browsers, but it also packs in a lot more features than most of its competition. By default, Element browsers uses visual tabs (thumbnail tabs), however this can be disabled. The visual tabs, called shelves in Element browser, aren’t resizable like in Opera, but they support live website preview.

It also includes a Web Applications dock that provides quick access to your favourite web apps. The New Tab page (called Start Hub) looks a lot like Chrome’s New Start Page. However, Element displays the most recently opened pages, instead of the most frequently used ones. You can also pin your favourite websites to the Hub and customise a few other aspects of its appearance.

Element browser includes mouse gestures, bookmark synchronisation, hardware acceleration, private browsing and HTML5 video payback. Inbuilt parental protection, malware protection, social networking (Twitter) and instant messenger (Windows Live) integration are also present.

Being based on the Webkit engine, it is quite fast. Not as fast as Opera or Chrome, but definitely fast. The custom ElementKit JavaScript Interpreter appears to be quite solid. Here are the results from Sunspider benchmark:

Element browser is also quite customisable. You can install extensions, accelerators, macros and widgets to extend Element browser’s capabilities. Of course, there aren’t a lot of add-ons to choose from.

As mentioned earlier, the user interface is striking. The skin is minimalist and modern. There are subtle animation effects that add to the charm. However, once you start using the browser everything sort of falls apart. The UI is gorgeous but horribly inconsistent and at times plain annoying. It doesn’t respond to back/forward mouse buttons, middle clicking on a tab as well as double clicking on the tab bar have no effect. Even worse, clicking on the Element browser’s menus or buttons makes the page lose focus. Some basic features like URL auto-completion (Ctrl+Enter) are missing, and the integrated Twitter app refused to log me in. Element browser is also resource intensive. I don’t mind the RAM consumption, since I have plenty. However, the high CPU usage could have been lower.

In the end, Element Browser is a promising project. The developers definitely have a lot of good ideas. However, the execution is severely flawed. The application gave the impression that it was a pre-alpha build, rather than a finished and polished product.

Download Element Browser (33.59 MB)
Version Reviewed: 5.0.0.1
License: Freeware
Operating System: Windows 7, Vista, XP

Is your Windows 7/Vista system failing to boot correctly? Are you getting stuck at the login screen? Did you mess up the boot sector or MBR while tinkering with hard disk partitions? I am sure that, at some point or the other, we have all faced Windows boot loader related debacles. Today I will share a couple of quick tips to solve such problems. They won’t always work, but they are the basic recovery/repair tools that every Windows user should be aware of.

System File Checker (sfc)

According to Microsoft’s official description, “(SFC) Scans and verifies the versions of all protected system files after you restart your computer”. Given how many times I have managed to mess up winlogon.exe and explorer.exe, I am particularly familiar with the second scenario described above (getting stuck at the login screen). SFC can almost always fix problems caused due to corrupted system files.

Normally SFC can be run from the command prompt. If your system is in an unbootable state, enter Safe Mode (by tapping F8 repeatedly after powering on your system). If Windows fails to boot even into Safe Mode, pop in the Windows installation DVD, select Repair Your Computer option and open Command Prompt. Once cmd is open, type sfc /scannow. After it finishes scanning, restart your system.

SFC is something which is available not only in Vista and 7, but also in older systems like Windows XP. If you don’t want to run SFC manually, you can also use the Startup Repair option offered by the Windows 7 installation disc. This should automatically deploy the sfc tool, among other things. However, it will take more time. Also note that SFC can come in handy if you are experiencing frequent explorer.exe crashes and other system instabilities/performance issues.

Bootsect and Bootrec

As suggested by its name, bootsect modifies and updates the Windows bootsector. It can be used for writing/copying the boot sector to any disc. This tool is present in the /boot subfolder of the Windows 7/Vista recovery disc.

Bootrec is another system tool offered by the Windows recovery environment. It can be used to easily fix your MBR (Master Boot Record). It’s important to note that bootsect can’t be used to repair the MBR. It only updates the boot sector of every eligible partition (in other words partitions which contain Windows installations). Once common usage scenario for bootrec is to remove GRUB after uninstalling (read deleting) Linux. However, bootrec.exe /fixboot can be used to refresh your boot sector.

If you Windows 7 or Windows Vista system is having trouble booting properly, follow the steps given below:

As before, boot from your Windows 7/Vista installation disc. Choose Repair Your Computer and launch Command Prompt.
Type bootrec.exe /fixmbr and hit enter. This will update your MBR.
Type x:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force and hit enter. This will apply boot code that is compatible with BOOTMGR on all partitions. Of course, boot code will not be updated in partitions which don’t have any Windows installations (in other words partitions which are not bootable). Don’t forget to replace the x with the appropriate target volume (generally your optical drive).
Now enter bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd. This will scan all partitions for Windows installations. When detected, it will give you the option of selecting the installations you want to add to the bootloader.

Once again, the Startup Repair tool should also be able to take care of the situation in most cases. However, there will be occasions where you will be forced to get your hands dirty. Knowing a little bit about these elementary Windows system repair tools can save you a lot of trouble.

Remember WinFS? Yes, I am talking about the super-hyped, game changing file system from Microsoft that was supposed to be one of the pillars of Windows Longhorn (Vista). After numerous missteps, Microsoft ditched WinFS back in 2006. It’s a pity that WinFS couldn’t be realised, as it really did sound revolutionary.

So why am I rambling on about WinFS after all these years? The reason is Tabbles. Tabbles is a Windows Explorer alternative, which gives you a taste of what WinFS could have been. Don’t worry; you don’t need to format your disk to a brand new file system. Just download and run the relatively smallish installer to get started. In fact, if you prefer, you can also use the portable version, which doesn’t require installation.

The Tabbles philosophy is that you don’t need to remember where your documents are. Just remembering what they are about should be sufficient (to locate them). This utility allows you to organise files and folders into Tabbles (tag-bubble), which are both virtual folders and tags. Just like you do with tags, you can associate multiple Tabbles with a single file. It also has a pretty powerful auto-tag engine, which can automatically put files into Tabbles based on a predefined set of criterion. Tabbles can be used to even tag and organise online resources, tweets and email.

As mentioned earlier, Tabbles doesn’t integrate itself with Windows Explorer, and instead acts as an Explorer replacement. Tabbles was designed from ground up to look good and look good it does. The interface is slick enough to grab attention and make people actually want to use the utility. Make no mistake; Tabbles is a powerful application, which is aimed at sophisticated users. Yet at no point does it appear complicated or cluttered.

Once you have tagged your files appropriately, Tabbles can be a huge time saver. However, the main problem is that you need to spend a considerable amount of time settings up Tabbles. Auto-tagging is definitely a big help, but you will need to rely on manual tagging on a lot of instances to get the best out of this app. In the end, Tabbles does come off as being better suited to professionals and academics than casual users.

The free version allows tagging of only 1000 files, which makes it essentially useless. But, it will give you an idea of what Tabbles can do for you. The full version will set you back by 29.99$ for the home and portable licenses. The corporate edition, which features sharable Tabbles, costs 97.49$.

Tabbles Home License Giveaway

Tabbles has graciously agreed to sponsor 3 home licenses. Tabbles is a fantastic concept, which grows on you as you continue to fiddle around with it. Here’s how you can win a Tabbles Home license worth $29.99.

Comment on this post. Make sure you use a valid e-mail address. (compulsory)
Retweet this message and post your status update URL in the comments section to get a bonus entry into the lucky draw. (optional)
Subscribe to my e-mail newsletter to get a bonus entry into the lucky draw. After subscribing let me know by leaving a comment. (optional)

The contest is open to everyone and will close on August 3, 2010 at 12:00 IST.

* In case of dispute, all decisions made by me shall be final.

Download Tabbles (5.56 MB)
Version Reviewed: 1.5.9 rev8
License: Shareware (Limited to 1000 tagged files)
Cost: $29.99 for Home Edition
Operating System: Windows 7, Vista, XP

i) Opera Mini 5.1 for Java and S40 Phones: While Opera Mini 5 was a dramatic improvement over Opera Mini 4, the new features came at a cost. Many devices, which were previously compatible with Opera Mini, failed to run O Mini 5. Numerous others complained about running out of memory. Opera Mini 5.1 tries to fix these issues and makes it compatible with more than 3000 handsets. This release also includes a refined skin with improved tab handling.

ii) Opera Mini 5.1 for Android: Yesterday, Opera released Opera Mini 5.1 for Android. Android phones are touchscreen devices meant to be used without a stylus. Unfortunately, this can sometimes make accurately pressing tiny buttons (e.g. close tab button) really tricky. The new Opera Mini has a slightly modified skin which makes switching between tabs and closing tabs easier. Font rendering while zoomed out has also been improved. And oh yeah, you can finally set Opera Mini as a default browser, without relying on 3rd party apps.

iii) Opera Mobile 10.1 Beta for Symbian S60: This release bridges the gap between the desktop builds and mobile builds by introducing the new Presto rendering engine, Vega graphics library and Carakan JavaScript engine (not JIT support though). Also included in this release is support for Geolocation.

iv) Opera Mobile 10.1 Unofficial Build for Maemo: Earlier on, I had written about an unofficial port of Opera Mobile for Maemo being developed by some Opera employees. The good news is that even without the official stamp of recommendation, the project has been making steady progress. A short while ago, Opera Mobile 10.1 Beta for Maemo driven devices (N800 and N900) was released. Besides fixing numerous bugs, this build also updates the codebase to Opera Mobile 10.1. As a result, Maemo users also can enjoy all the latest goodies including Carakan and Geolocation. As an added bonus, this release also supports JIT.

Download Opera Mini 5.1 for Java and Symbian S40
Download Opera Mini 5.1 for Android
Download Opera Mobile 10.1 Beta for Symbian
Download Opera Mobile 10.1 Beta for Maemo