Product Review-Speed Download Lite

Product Review-Speed Download Lite
Vendor: Yazsoft
Type: Downloader/Shareware
Platform: Mac OS X Tiger+
Download Link: Free-AV.Com
Rating: 5/5

Speed Download Lite for Mac Review

I particularly like this downloader since it had a clean, and as some people would call it, a "mac-like" interface.

I was downloading a trial of iWork using Safari (3)'s integrated download manager an first of all, it went from 55kbps down to 3kbps (Yes, my Internet is horrible, I'm planning of switching it.)

I then closed the lid of my MacBook, and then I re-opened it, thinking that it would resumed normally, and when I resumed, it went back to 0%.

So then I searched around for a good downloader for Mac an found Speed Download Lite.

I downloaded it and tried to use it to download the iWork trial. So far I'm very satisfied, with it buzzing at 11.3kbps. (Probably it has to do with the weather/summer?)

It has enough options and can be bought for $25 at the time of writing.

If you wanted to buy a good downloaded for Mac, and could spare $25, then this is what you should buy.

(The support is great! I once contacted customer service through email and they replied very fast, almost instantaneously.)

-FyreVortex
-Byzone Founder and Contributing Author

Product Review- Avira AntiVir Personal

Product Review-Avira AntiVir Personal
Vendor: Avira GmbH
Type: Antivirus
Platform: Windows XP/Vista
Download Link: Free-AV.Com
Rating: 4.5/5

Avira AntiVir Personal from Avira GmbH comes back with a faster scanning speed and a new look. Best of all, it's free of charge.

Avira has it's well known "umbrella" logo and simple but unique interface. Now it has been upgraded to a sleek, silverish look. The upgrade comes free, as always, to users using the (Free) Avira AntiVir Personal. Existing users can upgrade to it by right clicking the antivirus icon and clicking "Start Update".

The whole new interface has been applied to most (I think all) of the Avira windows-The control panel, the updater, the scanner, ...

As announced on the website, the scanning speed has been improved by quite a lot. I can now see that the bar is moving faster than the old version of Avira.

Unlike some free trials that disable updating after a certain time (Usually 30 days), the "Avira Guard" and the update system remain intact (If you download the Avira AntiVir Personal). Some setbacks are that the Updater has low piority (Premium and paying users get higher piority) and that an advertisement (No viruses, adware, or other such. The advertisements only try to convince you to upgrade to Avira AntiVir Premium...)

Avira's scanning options are very flexible, with the options of scanning the Local Drives, Local Hard Drives, Removable Drives (CD, USB, things that are plugged in to the computer that is a storage area and can be pulled out), Windows System Directory, Complete System Scan, My Documents, Active Processes (This scan is very useful if you don't want to slow down your computer that much but want to see if theres any viruses running, although full system scan is more effective.), Rootkit Search, and Manual Selection (You select the drives that are to be scanned.)

Avira comes with it's own "AntiVir Guard", which scans on demand. Avira also comes with a quarantine area where infected files are stored and cannot do harm while in quarantine.

You can schedule scanning times and there is a section set aside that features the scanning reports.

Overall, Avira is very good but the looks make it go down. The full scan scanning is very powerful but takes a while to sift through your files.

Avira's interface is very easy to work about and the options for Avira is customizable.

-FyreVortex
-Byzone Founder and Contributing Author

Service Review-Piczo

Service Review-Piczo
Type: Free
Platform: Should work on all Platforms that have a browser and internet connectivity.
Format: Browser Based/Javascript
Notes: May need flash, javascript plugins and cookies enabled to use/view this site/service.
URL: www.piczo.com

Piczo was one of the first websites that I used a couple of years ago to build my first website. This website is quite good for beginner bloggers and website makers, but this is not flexible enough. It is moderately hard to organize but beginners will find it really easy to use because each section of the website can be moved to anywhere onto the website.

This website has a good community and there are extras such as a button where you could rate the Piczo site that you are at, built in hit counters, and more.

The design has been upgraded since the last time I used it and is quite pleasant to use if you are a beginner.

The web builder features a text based window where you can add functions to the website and supports some HTML and Javascript.

Unfortunately unlike Blogger, this does not have a RSS feed system so bloggers may like to steer away from this.

The good thing about this service is that it has a simple picture upload area and you can easily make your own albums online and share it with your friends and family.

-FyreVortex
-Byzone Founder and CEO

Game Review-Travian

Game Review-Travian

Type: Free

Platform: Works on all Platforms that have a browser and internet connectivity.

Format: Browser based/Javascript.

Notes: Needs Javascript and cookies enabled to play.

URL: www.travian.com

Travian is a browser based RTS (Real Time Strategy) game online. This game can be reached through this link. It is a lightweight yet interesting and stunning graphics for such a fast loading online game (RTS).

Byzone invites RTS "Specialist" Leez Shadowing for a talk about Travian.

"Hello LeezShadows, what was your first impression of Travian?"
LeezShadows says: "Well, Travian was a simple impressive game," "The gameplay was quite good but the graphics could be improved."

FyreVortex then asked: "What do you think about Travian's overall loading speed? After all, Byzone considers Travian as one of the lightweight online browser RTSes."
"It's quite fast but it's a bit slow in loading." Says LeezShadowing. "It can be improved by downloading a graphic pack onto your computer and loading graphics through that instead. By doing that, it'll boost the speed up."

We then talked about the gameplay. "Yes, it's very good for business people who are bored," Leez chats, "The buildings will build by themselves and the resources will drain in even if you're logged off."

Well, we've taken enough time from LeezShadowing the RTS "Specialist" now.

Travian, overall is a good game if you want a simple but straight forward game and fast loading graphics, but if you want to start wars "early", then you should read our next Byzone Game Review... Tribal Wars.

This is from FyreVortex, Byzone Founder and Contributing Author.

Game Review-N Ninja

Game Review-N Ninja
Type: Free
Platform: Windows XP (Tested on SP2). There are versions for Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard.
Format: Online-Flash
Download-Application

N The Way of The Ninja (Usually called N Ninja, N, N The Ninja, ...) is a simple, yet mind puzzling and strategy game. This game uses basic platforms but do not be fooled... These are not easy (Unless... 1)You're a Pro 2)You cheat 3)You use the "Practice Mode", which lets you skip levels.) levels...

The story starts like this: (I'm going to summarize it for you) A Ninja is following the way of N and each episode it has a certain amount of lifespan. It's ultimate goal is to reincarnate and beat past all the episodes...

... Well, that's my summary of the story. You can download N The Way of the Ninja here.

(This link should work, but to take some precautions, please have your antivirus and antispyware turned on.)

-FyreVortex
-Byzone Founder and Author

Game Review-Air Assault

Game Review-Air Assault
Type: Free

Air Assault is a captivating game where you can pilot a helicopter and go on missions. You have the option to either play solo or go in co-op mode with your friends. (Co-Op may go slow and lag for some computers that have low tech specs.)

As you go between the levels you can unlock special helicopters, missiles, and even more! You can download it at GameTop.com.

-FyreVortex
-Byzone Founder and Author

Wuala-"Unlimited Storage Space"

Wuala is a new service that allows you to share things online for free. You could share it to friends, your family members, colleagues, ... Sounds good, doesn't it? Files, Music, Videos, Games, and more! Unfortunately, as always, offers may not be what it seems.

You get 1 Gibabyte of storage for free, but then if you want to continue sharing... You have to "donate" some space from your own hard drive... But then you also get to use part of the other Wuala users' hard drives... So it's "shared"...

It's kind of like the service that Torrent and Limewire uses. But Wuala splits the file you are sharing into 500+ pieces and they are sent to thousands of other user's hard drives. It's easy to download something off, because plenty of users have that file and they all send... Well, the service sends the pieces of file to you.

Obviously, your computer has to be online often, so the Wuala community "rewards" the user with more storage space.

There are also privacy options and you can choose to whether you want to private it, who you want to share it with, and so on.

If you want to check the it out go to this link. Wuala. Also, the files are encrypted so you won't have to worry about it.

-FyreVortex
-Byzone Founder and Byzone Author