Hi all,
It’s been some time here since a post has been made, so I just wanted to make it known that were currently undergoing re-development of the whole site, and progress is good!
The new design will be simplified compared to now, and it will also speed up the sites load time.
With the re-launch, we also plan to have a few interviews from yet to be disclosed name, some of which might be rather big.
Also in the plan is to push TechRant with the re-launch, with a number of fresh new writers ready to share some real quality with you.

If you have any thoughts or comments on what the new design should include or exclude, drop us a comment below.

Version Tested : 8th March 2009
Compatibility : Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS X, Linux

Description : F.lux is a small genius bit of software which changes the colour of your screen from natural looking to artificial looking during the right hours, in order to help you sleep better. F.lux even helps you get the exact settings for your location in the world!

When I was introduced to F.lux, I didn’t really see much of a point, and it lay dormant in my list of possibilities for quite a while. Being a university student, I have been getting a fair number of late nights working, or gaming, and I though I could at least give it a try. There’s no direct image on the site showing what F.lux does. Sure it explains how it works, the science, the logic in the idea, but no comparison images. The fact of the matter is, you have to try it yourself.

Wait I hear you mac fans cry, isn’t F.lux the same as the Macbook ambient light sensor? READ MORE »

It has been brought to my attention that IE8 breaks AppAholic! Not that many of you are still using IE, but still, this is not good! If you are using IE8, I suggest you move to firefox or chrome, where it works fine!

The plan is to get the site re designed during September, and have it ready to launch early December!

Also, in other news, I have recently moved to using the windows 7 RC, and so have a load of new software to review! One will be up Monday morning! so keep your eyes pealed!

Version Tested : 0.9.2
Compatibility : Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7, Mac, Linux (works on Adobe Air)

Description : Twhirl is a twitter client, with a number of themes and the ability to deal with multiple accounts, while making tweeting and interaction easy!

This post is testing a new idea on Appaholic, the 3 minute review!

www.screenjelly.com/watch/AHbCva23Pvc

Looking forward to feedback on this!

Your thoughts?

Conclusion : I’m @relequestual, You have been watching the first 3 minute review on Appaholic. Twhirl seems like my twitter client of choice for now!

Website : www.twhirl.org
Download : For best results, go to the URL above and click on install. Easy.
Size : 1.57 MB + Adobe Air

Version Tested : 4.25
Compatibility : Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, Windows 7

Description : IrfanView is a speedy image viewing application, which also plays some audio and video. It supports a crazy number of image formats, has many plugins to customize its function, and also supports batch conversion. My image viewer of choice, IrfanView is a must for all. 1.3 MB of genius.

The original image viewer on XP, was basically, not very good. I found IrfanView when searching for a way to do batch image conversion, and it happened to be a super fast image viewer that supports many many MANY formats. I don’t actually know of an image viewer that supports more formats, which is probably due to IrfanView’s plugin system, with a default pack of plugins you can easily download and install, allowing you to open pretty much any image format you can find.

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Jeff Freeman from Code Sector agreed to answer a few questions for Appaholic./span>

Code Sector is home to many awesome bits of software from TeraCopy to Direct Folders, both of which are my personal favourites! Jeff works for Code Sector full time developing software in Russia, and has been working in software development for over 10 years now. He has also recently started developing for Android too, so look out for Code Sector on the android market! There are freeware and paid versions of most of the Code Sector’s applications, so if you like the software, I would really encourage you to be buying!

1. What inspires you to create the applications you have so far?

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I know, it’s been a while since I’ve made any posts, but they are just about to start coming regularly again after the move!

There may be some down time over the next few days (11th - 14th June 2009), however it should be minimal.

The domain name will be transferred first, and then the site. Hopefully it will be painless and easy!

We’re still looking for a new site design at AppAholic, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, do comment!

Hey everyone!

Its been a while since there’s been any new posts on AppAholic, so I thought I’d give you a bit of an update as to what’s going on! Long time subscriber? Please read for ending questions.

As some of you may or may not know, I’m a university student, and I have exams coming up very soon! I have spent a lot of time over the last month with revision, getting ready for my exams, and meeting up with people from home over the Easter holiday. I have also taken some time out of the site to work on the development of a few ideas, which hopefully you will see here eventually.

Another reason for the lack of posts, is due to a lack of content ideas! Previously, I’ve normally had some idea of what the next review could be. I have a few stock ideas, but nothing really compelling like usual for me. Spotify, my last review, has proven to be one of the most successful new freeware in the market I’ve seen! I just feel its hard to match the quality!

If anyone has any ideas of freeware, I’d be more than glad to hear from you, especially if you write your own freeware, and haven’t yet got any media coverage. (Even if you have, still contact me!). Fancy yourself as a reviewer? You could write a guest article for the site. I’ll post the email address at the end of this post.

In other areas, I have also started doing more on CrossLoop, a remote computer help service. If you have any computer problems or issues, or even just questions, feel free to chat with me live here (http://crossloop.com/relequestual). I charge very little compared to other “experts” on the site. No fix, no fee, and always free estimates.

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Version Tested : 0.3.11
Compatibility : Windows XP, Vista, Mac OS X 10.4 and above, Linux (via wine)

Description : Spotify has an iTunes-like interface without the annoying slowness of iTunes. It uses an online catalogue of music, bigger than Amazon’s, with instant playback and no buffering (of course, that’s subjective, as I’m running on a University internet connection which, of course, is fairly fast!). Spotify also has a real easy sharing feature; drag and drop creates a URL tailored to point Spotify to a track, album or playlist.  Requires an internet connection, and you cant put the tracks on your MP3 player or iPod, but it sure is a hell of a lot of free music! Sorry you folks in the US, this is not currently for you. Spotify just came to the UK, so hopefully soon it will be with you!

I recently was told about Spotify via twitter about a week ago, and only looked into it about 3 days ago. I can really see this spreading like wildfire across the internet, and really cutting down illegal downloads of music. Spotify is such a simple concept, and is, in my opinion, possibly the best service for streaming music to date. It works on the same basis as radio, putting in a few 30 second adverts here and there, but hey, fair enough.

Setting up an account was easy. Visit the website, enter some information, and you’re away. Downloading the application was fast, as its only a few MB! The login window looks nice (I’m being very critical), even down to the slight drop shadow (Yeah, I like drop shadow, get over it).

Spotify only became invite free to the UK on 10th February 2009. Spotify has actually been in development since way before 2008! How it’s managed to stay hidden for so long, I’m not quite sure, but it has. I’ve only been using Spotify for a few days now, and I can’t remember the last time I found some new freeware which fitted so nicely to my ideals.

So, will track x or y be on there? Well, since the Spotify blog has updates of newly added music and labels, the answer is probably yes. Already they have EMI, Universal, Sony, Warner Music, AMG and Merlin. Those are some rather big names, especially Sony with its history of illegal DRM on music CDs and the like.

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Version Tested : 0.96 Beta
Compatibility : Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7

Description : Sorting desktop icons used to be a pain before Fences came to light. It’s not a replacement, however more like an add-on to your desktop. It allows you to group desktop icons into “fences”, which can be moved, scrolled, and hidden with a double click on your desktop. Possible desktop icon revolution in the making!

I’ve always been a bit sceptical of anything that claims to help with desktop icons organisations. Fences however is different to what I expected. I had the idea for something practically the same as Fences, but lacked the ability to create such an application.

It’s a real simple concept, but I really see this being something that could take off. This is the second product from StarDock which I really really like, first of which being Object Dock, which I use on a daily basis. Now Fences comes along, and makes it into my favourite applications list.

Fences allows you to group your desktop icons into what is termed a fence. You can then move these fences around as you please. You can also resize the fences, and any icons which do not fit in the fence, will make the fence scrollable.

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