There is a new iPhone application called “Best Camera” available. It allows shooting pictutres, putting several filters/effects on pictures and uploading them quickly to online communities like Facebook, Twitter or sending via e-Mail.
It also allows sending pictures to the new online community thebestcamera.com. I think the app only makes sense with the iPhone 3GS, it seems that the camera of the 3Gs is better than the one of my 3G. At least it has a auto focus now… The tool is explained in this video:
I use the tool I8kfanGUI on my Dell Latitude D820 because it really reduces the noise of the fans. I don’t use any special settings, only [x] automatic fan control is enabled after installation. This causes the fans to be more quiet if the notebook is in idle mode.
This is pretty cool, if you are watching TV or doing anything else the notebook noise doesn’t disturb you so much. And it’s a free tool, so don’t forget to donate!
By the way, it works well with my Windows 7 Ultimate installation.
Found a few tips on support.microsoft.com how to improve the performance of Windows Vista. Checking my Windows 7 installation it seems that these tips seem also apply to Windows 7. Unfortunately I could not found the English version of this support entry (KB954980), only in German language, but I think it should be understandable because of the many pictures:
Basically the article describes 4 things which help to improve the performance:
Part 2: Improve boot time using Windows ReadyBoost
Part 3: Disable Windows Aero
Part 4: Use extended hard disc write cache
Part 5: Disable unused hardware
On my Windows 7 installation I followed item 1. and 3. Think I have to make further checks how much it improves performance.
Especially item 1. ReadyBoost sounds interesting: Windows uses a USB stick or flash memory card to as additional cache. But I don’t want to use a USB stick, I want to use a PCI Express flash card adapter with a very fast memory card. Guess this should bring best performance.
After first checks my Windows 7 installation boots in about 1:45 minutes (completely). Looks not so bad, since I’ve already installed software like Photoshop, Office, iTunes, etc. The real boot time of Windows 7 is slightly lower than BIOS start up also needs time, approx. 7 seconds.
I recognized this issue on a Dell Notebook Latitude D820 which is already a few years old. When you start an executable Windows prompts a notification window whether you want to allow the program to make changes on this computer. On this older notebook with maybe not very great graphical performance the screen blanks black for a short time (quite annoying!).
The reason is the too weak graphical performance of my Notebook. Basically Windows tries to fade the screen smoothly, but due to missing performance the screen blanks black.
But fortunately it’s easy possible to change this effect: When the notification appears press the link “Change when these notifications appear” on the bottom of the notification window.
Now change the slider one step down to “Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer (do not dim my desktop)”. Afterwards Windows 7 will no longer dim or fade your desktop when such a notification window appears.
