Even though the product isn't out of beta yet, reviews have started to roll out from the tech enthusiast community.  Yesterday, ExtremeTech's Loyd Case took a peek at the latest beta of TweakVista, Stardock's tool for squeezing every last ounce of performance out of your Windows Vista installation.  It's a fairly detailed review, taking a look at both the application's current strengths (great interface, easy access to a lot of hidden information) as well as a few weaknesses (need...

This afternoon there are two featured articles worth checking out if you haven't read them already.  One by Fearless Leader (Frogboy) and Spammer of the Intarwebs (Island Dog).  Both have to do with Dream animated wallpapers. Fun with Liquid Dream - Frogboy Liquid Dream by Stardock Design is our most recently released Premium Dynamic Dream.  It's also our coolest one to date.  Internally we were all very excited about this one, and Frogboy wanted to share some of his...

In the late 1990s, working in the IT world was pretty cool.  Everyone was living high on the hog, demand for anyone with even the most basic computer skills was through the roof so companies had to attract talent with a combination of ridiculous salaries and crazy job perks.  When the bubble burst, it was back to business-casual dress in more traditional companies that didn't see the point in spending tons of money on such excesses.  We weren't rockstars anymore, we were ...

Ok, Friday the iPhone went on sale. Apple stores around the country had lines overnight as eager gadget junkies waiting to get the latest and greatest shiny toy from the fine folks in Cupertino, CA. According to all accounts so far [ David Pogue ] [ Walt Mossberg ] [ Robert Scoble ] the iPhone is a fantastic piece of hardware that shows us exactly why Apple always gets so much hype for a new product. With minor quibbles aside (AT&T's EDGE Network) it appears to be a piece of hardware that ...

It's Monday, so time for yet another poll.  Last week I asked everyone to give the site an overall grade for quality of service provided.  It's been just almost 6 months since the new site went live and I wanted to get a feel for how everyone feels  we've been doing since then.  In general, everyone seems pretty happy with how things have been working.  In total, 77% of you thought we were either doing "Good" or "Excellent" and only a handful of you actually gave us a f...

Contextual ads were the Next Big Thing in web advertising a few years back when Google launched the AdSense/AdWords program.  The idea that ad content could be directly related to content on the page was a new idea, and something people reacted very well to overall.  Ads were no longer just billboards trying to divert your attention, they were something that might actually add value to a site.  In general, efforts these past few years have focused on making web advertising more r...

It's fairly well-known that for some time music executives and Apple CEO Steve Jobs have clashed over the pricing structure for music on the popular iTunes service.  Apple refuses, for example, to change the price for DRM'd music from $0.99 per song, and won't pay royalties on iPods sold to music companies.  In general, Apple is bargaining from a position of extreme power as it's currently the #3 music retailer in the US (including brick-and-mortar retail locations) so music companies...

Please Take The 2007 Demographic Survey As WinCustomize grows in popularity, we find ourselves often in a position where we need to have some data on who exactly our audience is.  How old are you?  How many PCs are in your household?  Do you have an innie or an outtie?  These questions and more are coming up more and more in internal discussions when dealing with things like advertising on the site, and partnerships for larger projects like the GUI Champs.  While ...

It was a busy week for Island Dog.  Instead of the usual one or two, he managed to turn out three new articles for your enjoyment!  All are featured in the articles section, but in case you missed them, here's the quick rundown... This Week in Skinning - June 29th Another weekly summary of some of the best skins submitted to the site in the past 7 days.  There's a really good Dream animated desktop, a really nice cursor set and a few other tidbits worth downloading and ta...

One of the less-publicized aspects of the Windows Vista launch was the Vista Family Discount Program, where if you were an owner of Windows Vista Ultimate, you could buy up to two licenses for Windows Home Premium for just $50 each, a massive price break versus full retail price.  The program aimed to encourage households with multiple PCs to be early-adopters and move to Vista in the first few months after launch.  A great deal really if you were looking to jump on the bandwagon earl...

A long time ago, at an electronics show far far away... Ok, it was only at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year... but I just couldn't resist that lead-in. Earlier this year at CES 2007, possibly the most nerdy yet awesome digital projector ever was unveiled.  The shape?  R2-D2, that feisty little droid that saved the day countless times and was always driving C-3PO to malfunction.  This fantastic little gadget will be available this fall for the princely sum of $3,160 and wi...

There's a lot of information out there on the web, and even with a search engine at your fingertips it can be very hard to get to the really interesting stuff.  In fact, with the shift from traditional news sites to the world of blogging, the information is becoming even more dispersed.  Well, to help you out, the editors at PC World have gone ahead and compiled a list of their 100 favorite blogs, covering topics from technology to politics and everything in-between.  Many of the...

It's always interesting to look at the demographics for any large website, to gain some insight into the type of people generally attracted to it.  For example, WinCustomize primarily attracts tech enthusiasts and digital artists, mostly in the 30-50 age bracket.  But what about economic divides?  Careers?  Educational background?  The deeper you go, the more accurate a picture you start to paint of a web community.  What's interesting is that as social networks co...

It's time again for a new WinCustomize poll.  But before we launch into the new poll for the week, let's take a gander at last week's results. Last week, I asked how often you changed your desktop skin, providing a range of options from constantly to never.  We saw a fairly decent turn-out on the poll, here are the results: How often do you change your desktop skin? Several times a day! 3% Once every day or two 24.89% About once a week 30.9% Once a mon...

Bubblewrap is one of the greatest things ever invented.  It's functional in how it protects your fragile items in shipping, but it's also fun to pop the little bubbles when its use is done.  There are few things more satisfying than getting a nice big sheet of bubblewrap with the big bubbles and to sit there popping each and every one of them.  It's great for stress relief.  However, to get bubblewrap you usually have to order some expensive piece of gadgetry, since it feels...