Nokia clarifies: No Windows Phone 7.8 update till early 2013

Nokia has made it clear its Lumia smartphones will start receiving Windows Phone 7.8 OS update by early 2013.

Nokia clarifies: No Windows Phone 7.8 update till early 2013

We had recently heard the news that the Windows Phone 7.8 update has been rolled out for the Nokia Lumia 800 smartphone. However, Nokia has out and clarified that the particular update in discussion is only meant for certain Lumia 800 handsets, and not for all users. The handsets that this patch is meant for are the pre-production versions, which a small demographic of users have globally.

This update will prepare the pre-production version to receive the test versions of the Windows Phone 7.8 OS. Nokia, on its part, has always maintained that the WP 7.8 upgrade will arrive only in early 2013. This clarification, though, was very much needed in this case.

It was only some days back that the rumour spread like wildfire on the online forums that the Windows Phone 7.8 update has been rolled out for the Nokia Lumia 800. However, this was not the real update. The lack of clarity on the part of the person who started the rumour in the first place just reeks of incompetence.

And the mad clamour to update phones after that must surely have resulted in a lot of bricked or rendered-ineligible-for-warranty Lumia phones out there. If you have been slightly sensible enough and not updated the phone yet, we would recommend you wait till the official release notification pops up via the Zune desktop software.

Turn Your USB Drive Into A Portable Apps Launcher & Media Manager

Have you ever wanted to take your favorite Windows apps with you and use them wherever you have an access to any Windows PC ? CodySafe is what you’re looking for! It’s a handy portable applications manager that lets you install portable apps on a USB thumb drive or external portable drive. Both the software itself and the downloaded apps are directly installed to your flash drive. In addition, you can carry you favorite media files with you in its pre-configured and well-organized Music, Pictures, Videos and Documents folders. You may also enable the integrated autorun option for CodySafe to automatically launch itself as soon as you plug in the drive. Likewise, the installed apps can be set to auto-execute similarly as well.

The application is designed to be installed on a USB drive rather than your computer’s hard drive. During installation, you can label the drive by entering your desired name. The app itself is installed under CodySafe directory, while the media and other files go under Documents, and the installed applications can be found in the PortableApps folder on the drive.

Once launched, the application resides in the system tray area and start menu-like interface can be opened by clicking its notification icon. The interface may look outdated by todays standards, but it is easy to both use and configure. The UI gives you quick access to the folders within the drive, the portable apps you have installed to it, and an overview of the used, free and total space on the drive. You can use the stop and eject buttons to exit the application or plug out the USB drive respectively. The installed applications are displayed in the left pane. You can download and install additional portable apps from CodySafe’s own software repository, which contains popular apps like KMPlayer, Teamviewer, Skype, PicPick, Wise Disk Cleaner, and plenty of other useful tools and utilities.

Clicking Options on the main screen gives you access to the settings window. Here, you can change the language, configure a few generic options, assign hotkeys, and manage your existing apps. Furthermore, there’s a Drive Doctor feature that scans the flash drive for any viruses or disk errors, and try to fix them automatically if possible. You can also save your contact information in the drive so that if it gets stolen, whoever finds it can use the information to return the device to you.

Under Applications Manager, you can add or remove portable apps according to your preferences. In addition, you can specify a custom number of applications that you want to auto-execute whenever the drive is plugged into a PC.

The Hot Keys feature can come really handy for keyboard shortcut fans, as it allows you to assign global hotkeys for various program-related actions such as show, hide or exit CodeSafe, eject the drive, open the Control Panel, or run any of the installed applications.

Overall, CodySafe is an excellent application launcher for managing your portable apps and media on the go. It works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download CodySafe

Backup, Share & Sync Data Securely Across Platforms With Norton Zone

With the likes of Bitdefender, Acronis, Comodo and numerous other renowned system and internet security providers already having released their dedicated cloud storage solutions, it was about time that Symantec came up with a solution of its own. Available as a free (limited) beta, Norton Zone Cloud Sharing is a cross-platform online data backup and sharing tool for web, Windows, Mac, Android and iOS laced with quite a few sought-after features. As with several already existing services, Norton Zone Cloud Sharing is offering an initial 5GB of free cloud storage to each registered member, which can be further expanded by subscribing to various paid plans. In addition to the conventional online file backup, restoration & sharing tools, the app also offers stringent data protection mechanism through patent-pending encryption key management, complete control over shared folders, multi-account online collaboration, universal file format support, on-the-fly malware scanner integration, and the luxury to track, browse & restore file versions dating back as far as 3 months.

To get started with the service, you can grab a free account by visiting the Norton Zone website. The web app of Norton Zone Cloud Sharing provides you with a full-featured interface for uploading, downloading and managing your files, whereas the desktop client offers a convenient means to keep your cloud content synced with the computer and vice versa. Once installed, the app creates a ‘Norton Zone’ folder on your computer that stays in sync with your cloud storage on the service. This directory is customizable, meaning you may select a location of your own choice for it.

Provided you’ve already uploaded some content to your personal storage, the desktop app will automatically and instantly start syncing files to the specified folder on your computer upon launch. The desktop client also supports shell integration to let you easily push any file or folder to your online storage from the right-click menu, and then you have the conventional copy/paste or drag-and-drop method for the purpose. The right-click menu of the app’s notification area icon allows you to quickly open your Norton Zone folder, check current sync progress & overall consumed storage space, add another account, subscribe for more storage, and play around with the app’s configuration.

The Android app is quite neatly built, where a dedicated sidebar helps filtering your Norton Cloud documents, photos, music, videos and other files with ease. Besides a built-in photo viewer and file browser, the app supports several features that are hard to find in most similar apps.

These include the option to natively upload any number of files of any type or size from your mobile device to user-created folders on the cloud, commenting on files, offline browsing of cached content, bookmarking required files, authorized access to the app via a secure passcode, option to share files via public links, Facebook or email, multiple views for cloud content, detailed log of your past activities on the network, and a lot more.

The app also supports basic file management features, and lets you move content between different folders on your cloud storage. The built-in search bar makes the process of looking for your required files anywhere on the cloud a breeze.

All in all, Norton Zone Cloud has to be praised for its overall effectiveness with the various features it supports. However, the mobile app can still be improved with the inclusion of several key features such as the option to cancel ongoing uploads, native music and video streaming support, Dropbox & Google+ style instant uploads for photos and videos, retrieval of deleted files, and most importantly, the option to download unsupported file formats.

Download Norton Zone Cloud Sharing For Windows

Download Norton Zone Cloud Sharing For Mac

Download Norton Zone Cloud Sharing For Android

Download Norton Zone Cloud Sharing For iOS