Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Software : Downloads: Download 7-Zip: 5 reasons why it surpasses the Windows zipper-upper

Software : Downloads: Download 7-Zip: 5 reasons why it surpasses the Windows zipper-upper


Downloads: Download 7-Zip: 5 reasons why it surpasses the Windows zipper-upper

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Downloads: Download 7-Zip: 5 reasons why it surpasses the Windows zipper-upper

With today's fast broadband speeds, it's easier than ever to send large files, or lots of smaller files, across the Internet. Windows has a built-in compression utility that enables you to zip up files and crunch them down into a single archive. The trouble is, it isn't very good.

7-Zip is a superior alternative. Here are five reasons why you should be 7z-ing your files rather than zipping them up...

1. A dedicated file compression program gives you more control over how you archive your files, the compression ratio, the container format, and whether you apply layers of security. (7-Zip, for example, supports bank-level 256-bit AES encryption).

2. The popular ZIP format isn't as efficient as newer formats. While 7-Zip provides support for ZIP files, you get better results using the software's own 7z format, which uses advanced LZMA and LZMA2 compression algorithms for superior file-squashing. The brains behind 7-Zip suggest that 7z is typically between 30% and 70% more efficient than the old ZIP format.

3. That's not to say that 7-Zip is restricted to the 7z and ZIP formats. It can also archive files into XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR and WIM containers.

4. While its archiving talents are impressive, 7-Zip can inflate considerably more file types than it can deflate, which means that you should be able to open most archive files you receive. Supported formats include: 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. Did you notice the RAR support there? 7-Zip also supports the core file type of one of its biggest rivals - WinRAR. So that's ZIP and RAR covered. No need to download separate software just to extract data from those two file formats.

Ultimately, 7-Zip is quick, efficient, and easy to use. And did we mention that it's free?

Get 7-Zip today for free

Download 7-Zip

Pebble and Misfit begin beautiful fitness-tracking friendship

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Pebble and Misfit begin beautiful fitness-tracking friendship

The makers of the Pebble Steel smartwatch and Misfit Shine health monitor have joined forces to take on the wearables industry together.

Like Mad Men's Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and Cutler, Gleason and Chaough, both companies bring a little something to this partnership - though neither is shortening its name just yet.

According to the announcement, the collaboration will allow Pebble to integrate Misfit's "state-of-the-art activity tracking" in its smartwatches.

That means starting today Pebble owners can download the Misfit "watchapp," which counts steps and tracks other activities, from the Pebble app store. And the latest Misfit iOS app update, available soon, will connect with Pebble smartwatches to track additional metrics like burned calories and distance traveled.

More than a feeling

Add Misfit to a list of Pebble collaborators that also includes companies like RunKeeper, Strava, Puma, and others. But Pebble plus Misfit might go even further than these other partnerships have, the companies suggest.

"This is the first milestone in an ongoing partnership and collaboration between Pebble and Misfit that aims to provide intuitive health and fitness tracking for all," Pebble's announcement says.

Both sides have style, but their individual efforts up to this point have proved that style alone won't sell wearables.

Unless that style is Apple's, since when the iWatch hits the scene it'll probably sell like popsicles on a hot summer's day.

Oculus now owns the company behind the Xbox 360 controller, original Kinect

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Oculus now owns the company behind the Xbox 360 controller, original Kinect

When it comes to gaming, few joysticks are beloved as much as Microsoft's controller, and now the creators of the classic hardware will help usher in a new era of virtual reality with Oculus.

Oculus VR announced the acquisition of award-winning industrial product creators Carbon Design Group, whose contributions to the Xbox 360 controller are now the stuff of legends.

The deal is expected to close by the end of the summer and comes on the heels of the two companies working closely for nearly a year on "multiple unannounced projects."

Although Carbon will become a "key component" of the Oculus product engineering group, the industrial design team will remain in its existing Seattle-area studio and work closely with the Oculus team in Redmond.

On cutting edge

Carbon Design is no stranger to consumer, industrial or medical products, having brought their designs from concept to completion over two decades with a "design-driven methodology rooted in quality engineering, ergonomics, deep user insights and rapid iteration."

With more than 50 awards under its belt, the team at Carbon now faces what it calls "one of the most interesting and challenging problem sets ever" for the consumer adoption of virtual reality.

"This is an entirely open product category. With consumer VR at its inception, the physical architectures are still unknown - we're on the cutting edge of defining how virtual reality looks, feels and functions," Carbon Design Creative Director Peter Bristol said in a blog post announcing the acquisition.

Oculus declined to comment further on the deal or how much the Facebook-owned company is paying for Carbon's hardware makers, who also contributed to the design of Microsoft's Touch Mouse as well as the original Kinect.

  • Now's a great time to bone up on the Xbox One with our full review!

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