Reviews

Product Review: AndroXplorer

Posted by Steven Swafford on March 18, 2011

AndroXplorer is an essential application for everyone who owns an Android device. Its natural process is the way for Android users to explore folders and files proficiently. While there are numerous file explorers on the market today each falls short in its own way when it comes to measuring up to AndroXplorer.

The fine folks at the AndroXplorer has graciously provided five FREE licenses of AndroXplorer v3, just continue reading for details on how to win.

Editions

There are two versions available and depending upon your needs they provide two very different feature sets.

Version 2 is the free light version which does not support data encryption or compression and compared to version 3. That being said if you have no need for these then you would be just fine running version 2. However, it is well worth stating the obvious and as mobile devices are becoming more and more part of our daily lives the ability to encrypt your data becomes much more important.

Features

  1. Protect your sensitive data on Android phone by activating the app. with “state-of-the-art” technology of encryption.
  2. To manage your installed applications, AndroXplorer provides My Programs. This feature aggregates all installed applications within a single folder. Tap on an application within the folder to activate, to see the properties or to get more information from the market. Options also available to uninstall and performing backup where it is applicable.
  3. Another key feature of AndroXplorer is the sliding drawers for file sorting, navigation and toolbar. File sorting has never been easier with this approach. Pull down the pertinent drawer for sorting, tap on the sort type to sort, tap again for ascending or descending sorting. These uniquely designed sliding drawers also provide fast navigation within a view, making it a very smooth flow of operation from folder to folder and subsequently performing file operations easily within the destination folder.
  4. Shortcuts feature in AndroXplorer is very convenient to use, it enables you to create shortcuts to files and folders from any folder within a view. The shortcuts are then saved in a folder for future references.
  5. Selectable color theme.
  6. AndroXplorer supports advanced multiple-views file browsing. View-to-view navigation is as easy as swiping left or right. Each view has a self-contained folder with full file manager functions.

Review

I must admit that I was surprised just how easy it was to use this application once I took the time to configure it to my needs. I’m probably the worst person when it comes to reading instructions and upon stumbling my way around I turned to the instruction material on the AndroXplorer web site and it no time I was creating my key files.

The interface is very intuitive and with the slide features makes accessing features a snap.

Ask yourself the following question. How often do you search for a file whether it is a PDF document, image, or even your favorite music track? The search feature within AndroXplorer is second to none and with the addition of regular expressions your search will never be the same again. In fact you will very quickly find that you have located what you’re looking for.

The most notable feature in my opinion is around security.

I enjoy that I am able to create a key file that I can securely house my user names and passwords to web sites that I may need to access while I am away from my primary computer.

AndroXplorer

Many of us use or mobile devices for so many reasons which may include work and personal reasons. Have you ever stopped for a moment to consider that the document your about to attach to an email really could pose a number of problems should it fall into the wrong hands?

You can quickly and easily encrypt and password protect files and then confidentially fire up your email and send it off. Should it then fall into the wrong hands then you have nothing to fear.

Summary

While there are other good file explorers out there none can close to matching the robust features and the sense of security that AndroXplorer brings to the table. While this application is a much more expensive than every other application I have ever purchased as an Android device owner it is well worth the cost for the peace of mind.

Bottom line is try out version 2 for yourself in order to experience the interface for yourself and should you also wish to address the security vulnerability that is starring you in the face then by all means purchase version 3 today!

Rating: 4 out of 5

Name: AndroXplorer

MSRP: $15.00 for v3 and Free for v2

Contest Rules

Entering the contest is simple. All that is required is to follow @raddevelopment and leave a comment on blog post titled Product Review: AndroXplorer as to why your deserving of the free copy. Do you have a horror story surrounding security on your Android device? If so, share with others. Don’t have a story? Well that is okay also, just leave a comment in your own words why you want AndroXplorer and be creative. A short sentence just will not cut it.

At the time of the drawing, April 1, 2011, Radical Development will select five random winners so be sure to follow the rules to win!

Summary of Rules and Regulations

To enter to win a AndroXplorer v3, $15.00 retail value of prize, no purchase is necessary. Contest closes at midnight of March 31, 2011. If you’re selected as a winner, you must have a valid email address in order to claim the prize.

Complete Rules and Regulations

  1. This contest is open to residents of the United States of America, except employees of Radical Development who is sponsoring the Promotion and their affiliates.
  2. The chance of being selected will depend on the total number of eligible entries received. If the selected entrant cannot be contacted by the email address provided in the comment within 10 days of being selected, he/she will not be eligible to win the prize and an alternate entrant will be randomly selected.
  3. The prize is not transferable or convertible into cash or otherwise and must be accepted as awarded.
  4. The right is reserved to terminate or withdraw this contest at any time without prior notice.
  5. This contest is subject to all and Federal, State and Municipal laws and regulations. Void where prohibited.
  6. Radical Development and its affiliates accept no liability or responsibility in connection with injuries, loss or damage of any kind arising out of this contest or prize. Entries not meeting the guidelines or irregular in any way will be considered void.
  7. Good luck.

Product Review: Devart SQL Complete

Posted by Steven Swafford on February 14, 2011

If you work with SQL Server databases often then sit back and grab a cup of coffee while I introduce you to a product from Devart called SQL Complete. I can hear what your thinking and you may be asking yourself why should I care if intellisense has long been available in SQL Server 2008? The answer is simple, this product just provides much more options and works better than the out of the box intellisense from Microsoft.

Editions

  • Express — a free software which provides basic functionality to speed up typing of SQL queries. (home run for those on a shoestring budget)
  • Standard — fully-functional edition providing extended functionality to make typing of various SQL queries as easy and fast as never before.

Features

  • Context-based prompt of database objects
  • Context-based prompt of keywords
  • Context-based prompt of function parameters
  • Word autocompletion
  • Smart filtering to display only relevant matches
  • Context-based sorting of suggestions in the list
  • Determining a current database and schema
  • Supporting queries to various databases
  • Automatic displaying suggestions while typing
  • Two ways to insert a suggested word into a query
  • Usage of syntax highlight settings for the suggestions list
  • Query formatting
  • Support of various query types
  • Semi-transparent view of the suggestion box
  • Suggesting conditions for JOIN statement
  • Inserting columns list on pressing Tab
  • Suggesting methods for columns and variables
  • Sorting keywords by relevance
  • Automatic alias generation in SELECT statements

Upon completing installation and I chose to install the standard edition which provides for a 30 day trial and should allow sufficient time to try out this product for yourself.

Review

SQL Complete, once installed is accessed via the SQL Server menu, just fire up SQL Server Management Studio and your all set.

Devart SQL Tab Menu

The physical work comes into play as you type, just like you may be familiar with in Visual Studio. I recognize what you may be thinking; the question on your mind may be why I should consider this product over the native Intellisense built into SQL Server 2008. If I had to sum up this reason in one word then that word is robustness. SQL Complete out performs the default Intellisense feature of SQL Server 2008.

SQL Complete Dialog

One thing that I noticed during my review was for some strange reason as I made my selections via intellisense and tabbing into my next choice actually inserted a tab instead of a single line space. This is not so much as a problem as it is with just being annoying, but it is easily solved by formatting and SQL Complete does a very nice job of formatting.

SELECT
	a.AddressID,
	a.AddressLine1,
	a.StateProvince,
	a.PostalCode,
	a.CountryRegion
FROM
	AdventureWorksLT2008.SalesLT.Address a

Being able to to access the detailed information when it comes to accessing both built in and user defined functions is a substantial help. The behaviour is exactly what a .NET developer has become accustomed to back in the Visual Studio IDE. Gone are the days of either having to remember the function specs as they are presented to you in a wonderful meaningful way that is clearly understood.

SQL Complete Parameter Info

Okay, we all know that “select *” is basically the kiss of death, but I am always amazed how often I pick up a project that the original person was either to lazy or simply did not care to only query that data that is needed. I mean come on folks, is it really that hard? Well for those of you that are intent on “select *” then you can continue as you always had and now all you need to do is press the tab key to transform the select statement.

Before

SELECT * FROM SalesLT.Product p

After

SELECT ProductID
      ,Name
      ,ProductNumber
      ,Color
      ,StandardCost
      ,ListPrice
      ,[Size]
      ,Weight
      ,ProductCategoryID
      ,ProductModelID
      ,SellStartDate
      ,SellEndDate
      ,DiscontinuedDate
      ,ThumbNailPhoto
      ,ThumbnailPhotoFileName
      ,rowguid
      ,ModifiedDate
      ,IDENTITYCOL
      ,ROWGUIDCOL FROM SalesLT.Product p

The beauty of this product is that you can configure setting to you personal taste.

SQL Complete Options Dialog

One thing that I would like to see added as a feature is the ability to export options that can then be distributed to fellow team members. There is nothing worse than a team injecting their own taste into a program, but this is completely off topic.

Summary

SQL Complete is for anyone who writes SQL and you should contemplate the investment, especially at a price of less than $50.00. You can download the express edition for free from Devart and tell them you heard of this product from Radical Development. Yes there are a number of other similar products out there and you should gather your facts before settling in and spending your hard earned cash, but for those that are seeking an affordable alternative to otherwise high cost alternatives, you cannot go wrong with SQL Complete.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Vendor Details

Name: Devart
MSRP: $49.95

Product Review: Diskeeper 2010

Posted by Steven Swafford on January 6, 2011

Listen up, if you own a computer, then I want to share a problem that everyone encounters and fortunately the solution is easy and cost effective. The problem is hard disk fragmentation which is a one of the major causes of performance bottlenecks. Fragmentation may result in crashes, slowdowns, freeze-ups and even total system failures; therefore it is important to understand what you can do to be proactive.

Many people are aware of the defrag utility that Windows comes with, but it is a manual process to defrag your disk and it is slow. At the very minimum you should be using this utility on a monthly basis.

If you’re not familiar with what a fragmented hard disk represents, then think of it as individual files on a disk which is unorganized across the surface area. With a product such as Diskeeper your disk will be kept defragmented and in fast working order. Also Diskeeper can handle drives that are compressed and encrypted. One of my absolute favorite features is the ability to establish a schedule to run in the background while you continue your favorite activity with no disruption in the sense of performance.

There are a number of editions of Diskeeper available; therefore you will need to review each to ensure you purchase to best fit your business need. For those of you considering purchase for you home computer, the Professional edition may be the obvious choice, but with terabyte hard drives becoming less expensive, you should consider making the move to Diskeeper Pro Premier. Fortunately the comparison chart is detailed and will provide you valuable information to assist in your decision making process. Also, you may want to take a look at Amazon or Newegg because the price was anywhere from $8.00 to $11.00 cheaper the direct purchase from Diskeeper themselves at the time I wrote this.

Once installed Diskeeper immediately starts defragmenting your disk. Since it uses idle CPU cycles once again performance hits are low. In my daily activities, I did not notice any system performance problems with Diskeeper Professional running. In fact the RAMMap process display only shows 15,372 K of total use. Not bad at all!

Sysinternals RAMMap

Diskeeper 2010 has a number of features that will easily optimize your hard disk, even those 1Tb and larger. All of Diskeeper’s features work in harmony to improve the performance of your hard drive. Here are just a few of these features:

  1. IntelliWrite fragmentation prevention technology prevents up to 85% of the fragmentation every system suffers from. It intelligently writes contiguous files to the disk so system resources are not wasted creating fragmentation. The results? A whole new level of system speed and efficiency.
  2. Diskeeper is the only defragmenter with InvisiTasking technology, a real-time background processing technology that allows Diskeeper 2010 to defragment your system as fragmentation occurs, even during heavy traffic times – without using active system resources. InvisiTasking eliminates the need for scheduling and administrator attention.
  3. Diskeeper 2010 I-FAAST 2.0 (Intelligent File Access Acceleration Sequencing Technology) accelerates file access times to meet the heavy workloads of file-intensive applications. Utilizing a specially formulated technology, I-FAAST closely monitors file usage and organizes the most commonly accessed files for the fastest possible access, up to 80% faster.

I installed Diskeeper Pro Premier 2010 and clicked the defragment button. It immediately popped up a box that showed how fragmented the drive was as well as other key information about the disk volume. When the program completed and said that the drive had been “Defragmented”, I immediately noticed a significant improvement.

Dashboard

diskeeper dashboard

Manual Defrag

manual defragmentation job display

I was pleased that Diskeeper Corporation had taken the time and effort to address accessibility for those who struggle with basic use of software due to a disability of some type. In fact Diskeeper Corporation clearly provides a Section 508 VPAT on the product page itself. I must give credit where credit is due and please take the time to review the VPAT especially if you’re purchasing for business use.

In my mind, the nicest thing is I don’t have to think about fragmentation what so ever, I just set it and forget it.  Grab a 30-day trial direct from Diskeeper and kick the tires for yourself. You will not be disappointed!

Product Review: Sony Noise-Canceling Headphones

Posted by Steven Swafford on July 12, 2010

Recently I found myself tired of my ear-buds that I have been using for both my Zune and Android devices when it comes to listening to my media and I was in the market for headphones that performed well while at the same time was not going to cost me a fortune. The ear-buds worked fine but the quality simply was not there and I had grown tired of hearing every noise that was occurring around me and a good set of headphones would achieve both of these goals.

Features

  • Top-of-the-head design for a secure fit and foam ear cushions for comfort
  • 38mm drivers for deep bass; neodymium magnet
  • 87.4% noise reduction
  • Foldable and swivel design for convenient portability
  • Included in-flight adapter makes air travel more enjoyable
  • Frequency response: 30Hz – 20kHz
  • Sensitivity: 102dB/mW
  • Impedance: 40 ohms at 1 kHz
  • Includes carry pouch, in-flight plug adapter, manganese AAA battery and extension cord

Review

I want to be up front and let you know that I am not a fanatic when it comes to my music as some people are that I know. With that said the price for these headphones was just right which at the time I bought them the cost was just shy of $30.00. Along with the headphones came a felt case that comes in very handy during transport. Another great feature is that these headphones fold up nicely both for storage and transport without the fear of breaking them.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary

I was really surprised how comfortable these are and the sound quality is a lot better than I expected them to be. If you are looking for a boost in the volume and base then it is worth stating there is a power button on one of the ear pieces that provides this boost in volume should you need it. Now as far as the noise-canceling is concerned these do not work as well as some of the more expensive headphones and rightfully so. I love the fact that I can wear them at the workplace and drown out the conversations and other noises. Also be careful if you’re looking to purchase at Best Buy or other brick and mortar locations and you may find yourself paying $10.00 to $20.00 more than if you purchase them from Amazon.

Vendor Details

Name: Sony
MSRP: $49.99, purchase at Amazon for under $30.00

AutoBlogged WordPress Plugin Product Review

Posted by Steven Swafford on June 2, 2010

If you’re wanting to automate your blog posting with external content then look no more. AutoBlogged is a powerful autoblogging plugin for WordPress that automatically creates blog posts from any RSS or Atom feed. Autoblogging is a great way to automate your WordPress posts so you can focus your efforts on earning money with your blog. With dozens of features, AutoBlogged is one of the most powerful autoblog software plugins available for WordPress and the best way to get automated blog content. Not only is the product easy to use, but it does a great job at syndication all without breaking the bank.

Features

  • Image and video support
  • Custom post templates
  • Advanced post filtering
  • Enhanced tagging engine
  • Regular Expression Search & Replace
  • Create thumbnails for images
  • Override feed data with your own values
  • Fully supports WordPress 2.7 and later

Review

If you are running WordPress and looking for a way to bring outside information into your blog this plugin is for you. Installing the plugin is no different that any other plugin and I find the entire process very simple and user friendly. In fact, I was able to install AutoBlogged and get it configure in under 15 minutes.

While there are a number of products on the market I must say that I am impressed with this product. My time spent looking at the features was time well spent and AutoBlogged works extremely well performing exactly as I hoped.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary

One very strong point I would make is that you must take in account guidelines when republishing content and should you have any question contact the RSS feed owners for permission. There is nothing more frowned upon than republishing someones work without knowing first if it is acceptable with the original content owner. Remember, syndication can be a good thing while taken in moderation.

If you would like a chance at winning a single site license view the contest details.

Vendor Details

Name: Autoblogged
MSRP: $59.95 single site license and $129.95 multiple site license

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