Angry Birds Space Hits 50 Million Downloads, Sets new Record Pace

Mobile game developers has a new record mark to beat: 50 million downloads within 35 days! The record was set by Angry Birds Space, which is now, after the massive downloads, the fastest growing mobile game in history!

Angry Birds Space did even beat the records set by its predecessors- Angry Birds, Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Seasons.

Rovio, the team of developers behind Angry birds said they were thrilled to see such a fantastic reception for the game and thanked the avid Angry Birds fans for their support. The team also concluded that they   will bring something even bigger soon.

"We extend our deepest gratitude to all fans of Angry Birds everywhere. While numbers like this certainly say something about the popularity of Angry Birds, for us the main goal is to keep creating fun new experiences that everybody can enjoy! We just launched the first free update for Angry Birds Space, with plenty more surprises in stock." - Rovio

It said that the simultaneous release of the game to different mobile and pc platforms including Android, iOS, Windows and Mac has benefited the game from its success and continuous popularity.

LESSON 2: Install Ubuntu Linux in a Custom Virtualbox Virtual Machine

Just in case you're not comfortable with VMware Virtual Box as a host for your virtual machines, another option you can use is the VirtualBox Virtual Machine. VirtualBox, the same as VMware is highly recommended for creating VMs especially for beginners as it is efficient and easy to use even you're not familiar with implementing VMs.

JUST A SHORT OVERVIEW OF VIRTUALBOX VIRTUAL MACHINE

VirtualBox Virtual Machine is currently owned by Sun Microsystems and being developed by Oracle Corporation. Originally developed by Innotek, VirtualBox is said to be the most popular virtual box application according to LifeHacker.com after garnering 50% of votes in their online poll.

As of version 4.1, Windows guests on supported hardware can take advantage of the recently implemented WDDM driver included in the guest additions; this allows Windows Aero to be enabled along with Direct3D support.

SUPPORTED HOST OPERATING SYSTEMS

Virtual Box can run in a wide range of operating systems including:

• Linux
• Mac OS X
• Windows XP
• Windows Vista
• Windows 7
• Solaris
• OpenSolaris 

Watch the video below to learn how to install a a Custom Virtualbox Virtual Machine.

 

Previous Lesson: Install Ubuntu Linux in a Custom VMware Virtual Machine 

Next Upcoming Lesson: Linux Terminal Commands and Navigation for Beginners -Part1

LESSON 1: Install Ubuntu Linux in a Custom VMware Virtual Machine

Today I am sharing a very nice and easy tutorial on how you can create custom virtual machines in your computer through the VMware Virtual Machine but before we proceed, allow me to give you a short and basic knowledge that will help you understand why it is necessary to create and customize VMs.

Virtual machines (VMs) are meant to improve efficiency, capability, flexibility and availability of resources possible within a single computer unit. Imagine the small scenario when your computer is running under Windows OS but you wish to test or implement applications to non-windows environment but you don't want to end up buying 1 or more extra computer units, then you need to use virtual machines. 

Using virtual machines is necessary for the following reasons:

• Run multiple operating systems on a single computer including Windows, Linux and more;
• Let your Mac run on Windows by creating a virtual PC environment for all your Windows applications;
• Reduce capital costs by increasing energy efficiency and requiring less hardware while increasing your server to admin ratio;
• Ensure your enterprise applications perform with the highest availability and performance;
• Build up business continuity through improved disaster recovery solutions and deliver high availability throughout the data center and
• Improve enterprise desktop management & control with faster deployment of desktops and fewer support calls due to application conflicts

VMware is just one of the few powerful software you can use to create virtual machines. Watch closely on the video below to learn installing custom VMware Virtual Machine.

Next Lesson: Installing Ubuntu Linux in a custom Virtualbox Virtual Machine

Dell Philippines Unveils XPS 13 Ultrabook | Specs and Price in the Philippines

Dell is finally joining the competition in the ultrabook market in the Philippines by launching Dell XPS 13 as its first entry last April 12, 2012 at the Mind Museum, Bonifacio Global Taguig.

Dell XPS 13

Claimed by pcworld as one of the best ultrabooks yet, Dell XPS 13 comes in sleek, light, thin and well built-in premium materials that looks good, feels good and performs well! This ultraportable gadget is 13-inches in size, slightly smaller than Air and weighing very light at 2.99 pounds only! It runs in a bundled Windows 7 operating system and intel core i5 processor.

The concept of the said launching of Dell XPS 13 in the Philippines is a combination of  art, fashion and technology which brings a slightly different approach in introducing products in the Philippines that is associated with technology especially ultrabooks. Overall, the event only shows that Dell XPS 13 is incredible and beautiful enough to have its grand entrance in the market.

Dell XPS 13 comes in 3 distinct configurations namely V560106PH, V560107PH and V560108PH which mainly differ in the solid-state driver (SSD) storage. Below are the features of each configuration.

Dell XPS 13 (V560106PH) Php 59,590

• 13.3″ WLED display @ 720p
• Gorilla Glass Display (edge-to-edge)
• Intel Core i5 2467M 1.6GHz
• Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.3GHz
• Intel HD 3000 Graphics
• 128GB SSD storage
• 4GB DDR3 RAM
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth 3.0 + HS 1 3.MP camera
• 1 x USB 3.0
• 1 x USB 2.0 with PowerShare
• 1 x mini DisplayPort 6-cell battery
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Dell XPS 13 (V560107PH) Php 71, 990

• 13.3″ WLED display @ 720p 
• Gorilla Glass Display (edge-to-edge) 
• Intel Core i5 2467M 
• 1.6GHz Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.3GHz 
• Intel HD 3000 Graphics 
• 256GB SSD storage 
• 4GB DDR3 RAM 
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n 
• Bluetooth 3.0 + HS 
• 1 3.MP camera 
• 1 x USB 3.0 
• 1 x USB 2.0 with PowerShare 
• 1 x mini DisplayPort 6-cell battery 
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Dell XPS 13 (V560108PH) Php 79, 990

• 13.3″ WLED display @ 720p
• Gorilla Glass Display (edge-to-edge)
• Intel Core i5 2637M
• 1.7GHz Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.8GHz
• Intel HD 3000 Graphics
• 256GB SSD storage
• 4GB DDR3 RAM
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth 3.0 + HS
• 1 3.MP camera
• 1 x USB 3.0
• 1 x USB 2.0 with PowerShare
• 1 x mini DisplayPort 6-cell battery
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Dell XPS 13's updated features and specifications is promising that it will offer yet another superb computing experience you never had before. And all these unit's features doesn't just end up here because Dell is additionally offering more when you purchase a unit. Such exciting additions when finalizing your purchase include pre-loaded softwares such as Skype and McAfee, different accessories and after sales support.

Dell Philippines has a lot more products to offer not to mention its higher units of ultrabooks. If its first wave of ultrabooks goes well in the Philippine market, then we can expect for higher and better units to come.

A Must Have Tools for Your Windows PC (Part 1)

The secret to a healthy PC lifestyle is to use reliable, efficient and user-friendly utilities for your personal computer and there's no one that could provide that but you as the user and a responsible owner. As I browse through the list of utilities that I could use for my PC, I narrowed down to these free tools below which you could also use for your windows PC.

1. Autoruns (download)

An easy-to-use utility that allows you monitor programs that are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. You can configure Autoruns to show other locations, including Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, and much more. Autoruns goes way beyond the MSConfig utility bundled with Windows Me and XP.

Start using this and you might be surprised of how many executables are launched automatically everytime you run your PC.

Autorun for Windows

2. Auslogics Duplicate File Finder (download)

You might haven't noticed it but one of the main reasons why you consumed a lot of disk space is because of duplicate files scattered "everywhere" in your pc. keeping these copycats are definitely a waste of valuable disk space and adds annoyance to you as a user. Auslogics Duplicate File Finder is powerful enough to help you save up to 50% of your disk space. This tool removes useless duplicate files stored on your PC by finding identical pictures, documents and any other files and compare them not only by names, but by their content and allows you to delete duplicates found thus significantly increase free space on your disk.

Auslogics Duplicate File Finder also helps you organize your media collections and reduces time needed to defragment your hard drive so as to maximize your file collection.

Auslogics Duplicate File Finder

3. Process Explorer (download) 

Unlock your curiosity about the origin of all of those svchost.exe programs running on your machine and know everything about CPU cycles, memory usage, and I/O using this pwerful executable program. Process Explorer lets you view information about handles and DLLs that are open and all processes as well as sub-processes that are currently running.

Make this your first choice for easy tracking down DLL-version problems or handling memory leaks, and providing yourself insights into the way Windows and applications work.

Process Explorer (1st Window)

Process Explorer (2nd Window)

4. 7-Zip (download exe) or (download msi)

7-zip is an open source file archiver that can read and write several other archive formats seamlessly and with ease. With one right click compress large files with ratio that is 2-10 % better than the ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip.

Other key features of 7-Zip include

• High compression ratio in 7z format with LZMA and LZMA2 compression
• Strong AES-256 encryption in 7z and ZIP formats
• Self-extracting capability for 7z format
• Integration with Windows Shell
• Powerful File Manager
• Powerful command line version
• Plugin for FAR Manager
• Localizations for 79 languages

Supported Formats:

• Packing / unpacking: 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP and WIM
• Unpacking only: ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DEB, DMG, FAT, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, VHD, WIM, XAR and Z.

5. Recuva (download)

Pronounced as "recover", Recuva is another powerful file recovery tool that lets you undelete files on your PC or even portable device such as a flash drive. It's fast, thorough, and most importantly, it's free!

The secret behind the concept of this recovery tool is that when you remove files in the Recycle Bin, the files aren’t actually destroyed but rather, the space they occupy is earmarked for new data. Undelete routines scan the flotsam and jetsam and put the pieces back together. As long as you haven’t added new data to a drive, undelete (almost) always works; and even if you’ve added some data, there’s a good chance you can get most of the deleted stuff back.

Recuva

Check out for the part two of this post to be published later! Just try first the awesomeness of the utilities above and start making your PC healthy!