Nero 8 Pre Release Review - Verdict AWESOME! You heard it here first!

Win your free copy of Nero 8 Here

We met the good guys over @ Nero during Digital Life and they hooked us up with a copy of the soon to be released Nero 8.

After playing with it for a bit and letting it handle my daily burning shenanigans - All I have to say is me likey! They have some nice new features but, the one thing I noticed right off the bat is the app has a smaller memory footprint and just seems to work a lot smoother. Load times were cut in HALF! Nero 8 gives Vista a disc copy gadget that fills the gap Microsoft seems to have left out. Not too shabby…

Among the features we tried out were… burning a CD, DVD, HD-DVD (Sadly we dont have a BluRay drive to give that a go). After reading through the press kit it spoke of some magic software that will revive disks I thought to be dead back from the err, dead. I brought out some old data dvds that were scratched up something fierce. There was porn data that couldn’t be recovered or restored from anywhere. We fired up Nero Rescue Agent and after a little bit we got those files back!

Thanks Nero! Some of the products highlights:

• NEW easy-to-use and intuitive Nero StartSmart
• One-click import and share to/from online communities*
• Playback on AVCHD and Blu-ray (BD-AV) video*
• Backup files to CDs, DVD’s, HD DVDs and Blu-Ray discs*
• Convert DVD Files to play on your iPod® or PSP™, and other portable devices
• Optimized for Windows Vista™
• Recover data lost due to scratched discs, interrupted recording operations, bad recording quality, etc.
• Restore deleted files or previous versions of files from ISO/UDF discs
• Redesigned and enhanced menus and UI.
• Quicker overall and smaller footprint.
• Load times cut in half!
• New Burning and Authoring Support in Nero Vision 5 for high definition optical discs, including Blu-ray disc, HD DVD and AVCHD, adding to already extensive support for all CD and DVD formats (Additional plug-in needed for HD DVD Authoring and Playback functionalities)
• New Integration with SecurDisc™ – Secure Data Protection accessible with the appropriate drive and Nero Express

With Nero 8 you can format DVD content to view on an iPod®or PSP™, enjoy blue laser content without a blue laser burner,and import and share your favorite photos and videos with one click to and from online communities like My Nero, YouTube™,and MySpace®. Nero 8 makes it easy to live today’s digital life!

Experience the finest in home entertainment. With Nero 8 you can stream your multimedia data to an Xbox 360™or a PlayStation® 3 to enjoy in every room in the house.Use your PC to record your favorite TV shows, and use the time-shifting feature so you never miss another episode!

With Nero Burning ROM 8, the world’s most powerful burning application, you can rip your non-copy-protected CDs andDVDs and burn data and audio files to CD, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and HD DVD. With the integrated SecurDisc technology,you can create password-protected discs or a digital signature to ensure the authenticity of your documents.

There are also some improvements under the hood. Nero 8 loads faster, and is optimized for dual-core and quad-core processors.A full version of Nero 8 will set you back $100 if you buy it in a box, $80 if you download it from Nero’s website, or $60 if you’re upgrading from Nero 7.

Verdict: Awesome - it is a great upgrade and we will continue “testing” it during the week! The speed up is wonderful and with built in support for converting media for my mobile, I know I will be carrying more Simpsons Episodes with me on the train! What do you guys use to burn and convert your files? Let us know!

_TheBurningAdmiN_

How can I combine 3 partitions into one during a windows reinstall?

Ted writes in:

I have 2 physical drives drive 1 has a c: drive, a d: drive and a e: drive which is bootable. The second drive has a f: drive that i use for storage. My machine needs to be reinstalled with Windows. Before I do that how can i merge the 3 partitions on drive 1.

( I don’t care if I have to reformat) I backed up everything to drive 2

Hey Ted - This one is easy as pie. (Actually I don’t know how easy pie is - lets say its easy as ummm… Its Just Real Easy!) Just start the machine up with the Windows CD in the drive and boot to it. Start the installation and when it shows you the partitions for drive one - you should see all your partitions. Delete the three of them and create one single partition and let it do its thing. You might want to disconnect the second drive while you do it to be on the safe side. That way you can’t format the 2nd drive even if you try! Sometimes its better to be pro-active then to curse @ yourself later!

_TheAdmiN_

Digital Life 2007 is massive. Check it out in NYC this weekend.

I walked into Digital Life @ The Javits Center and said whoa! This show is massive and has all sorts of awesome technology for you to sample and play with. I was only able to do the quick once through but will be heading back over later today. Here are some of the sites we will be checking out. Let AskTheAdmin be your eyes and ears - is there something you want us to zero in for ya? Let us know.

• Gateways New PC Slash Hanging Art?
• Nokia’s tech filled car
• iRobots new robots ConnectR and the LooJ
• Dells MASSIVE new laptop the 1730.
• HP’s New Line of tech
• Palms new Centro.
• New Extenders for Windows Media Center.
• Skypee The Wifi Robot.
• Headplay Personal Cinema System.

You know we will be getting hands on with all the new laptops, desktops and handhelds but there is so much other wonderful technology crammed into the Javits Center that we will be up to our ears in it by the end of the weekend! It’s not too late to grab tickets - and we can hook you up. All you need to do is ask

We also already have 200 pictures up over @ flickr here. We got SWAG to give away - hollar in the comments if you want something!

_TheGiveAwayAdmiN_

Gateway takes its try at purty machines with the ONE.

I entered the world of technological goodness yesterday afternoon as I walked into the Javits Center in Manhattan for Digital Life 2007. This show is MASSIVE! I only had a little while to do a quick run through with the rest of the press and media guys.

I noticed that their is a HUGE presence by all the consumer PC brands like Dell, HP and Gateway and they all look like they are trying to be the next big thing… Again. Gateway might have itself a hit with its new “One” desktop machine that resembles an iMac. This machine is really attractive and could find its way into the most luxurious households and not be out of place. Remarkably HP pulled the power supply out of this machine and went the way of the gaming systems and created a power brick.

HP is just the next in line of toting these all in one designs, as IBM and Gateway have already touched on this market. The main difference is LOOKS! Apple might not be the only one with good looking machines anymore - Will the other big names follow??

So I know, I know enough with the looks of the damn machine - how does it stack up in performance?

I am so glad you asked… Here are the specs for the most expensive $1800 model.

• 2GHz Core 2 Duo processor
• 3GB of RAM,
• 500GB HDD
• Mobility Radeon HD 2600 dedicated graphics.
• Slot-loading DVD burner
• Wall Mountable
• Internal (hidden) web-cam.
• Hard drive and memory has easy access for upgrades or swap outs.
• 5-in-1 card reader

Stay tuned for more Digital Life coverage… And let us know what you want to see or hear about in the comments.

We will also try to keep uploading pictures to Flickr from the show here.

How can I combine 3 partitions into one during a windows reinstall?

Ted writes in:

I have 2 physical drives drive 1 has a c: drive, a d: drive and a e: drive which is bootable. The second drive has a f: drive that i use for storage. My machine needs to be reinstalled with Windows. Before I do that how can i merge the 3 partitions on drive 1.

( I don’t care if I have to reformat) I backed up everything to drive 2

Hey Ted - This one is easy as pie. (Actually I don’t know how easy pie is - lets say its easy as ummm… Its Just Real Easy!) Just start the machine up with the Windows CD in the drive and boot to it. Start the installation and when it shows you the partitions for drive one - you should see all your partitions. Delete the three of them and create one single partition and let it do its thing. You might want to disconnect the second drive while you do it to be on the safe side. That way you can’t format the 2nd drive even if you try! Sometimes its better to be pro-active then to curse @ yourself later!

_TheAdmiN_

Symphony of Office Destruction

IBM/Lotus has fired a shot across the bow of MS at their flagship Office.

I give you Lotus Symphony!

Totally free and easy to download @ 136MB for the file.

Symphony is based on OpenOffice.org and the Eclipse framework and is meant not only to give consumers and businesses an alternative to Microsoft Office, but also to promote the use of ODF (Open Document for XML), an XML-based standard for documents approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). “The end goal here is the proliferation of the open standard,” Rhodin said.

Microsoft Office 2007, which has more than 90 percent market share, does not natively support ODF and instead uses the company’s OOXML (Open XML) format, which failed to pass a recent ISO vote for standardization.

And for the record, IBM/Lotus has had 100,000 downloads of the product in its first week of availability.

I have downloaded it and gave it a mild test run this morning. It is quicker to open than other distros of Open Office and a lot easier on the eyes for sure. I’ll be playing with it as much as I can over the next few weeks to see if it is a viable alternative to Orifice.

PS: This product is still in Beta but no bugs or crashes found on my system thusfar.