Does your entire music collection fit on your iOS device? Even if it does, you'll want to reserve some space for your apps, games, photos and ebooks as well.
Cramming these things onto your device often means having to make some hard decisions about which songs you leave behind on your computer, which can be frustrating when you realise that a song you want to hear isn't on your device.
This isn't a problem if all your music has been purchased from the iTunes Store. That music is available to download in your iPhone or iPod touch's iTunes app when you tap the Purchased tab.
It also makes music ripped from CDs and purchased from other online stores available for download at any time with just a few taps. As long as your device has an internet connection, whether it's 3G or Wi-Fi, you can download your music on a whim.
That's an incredible convenience, but there are some pitfalls that are important to know about. For instance, you might find that some tracks haven't been uploaded, but you have no idea why.
It could be as simple as a broken link to a file in your computer's library, or it might be down to one of the criteria imposed by Apple for the service, which you can read more about on the Apple support page.
You should also know that if you play a song using Match and let it run on to the next song on the album, it will keep downloading songs in sequence, potentially using your data allowance.
So, if you're keen to try iTunes Match, here's how to begin.
1. Subscribe to iTunes Match
In the iTunes Store on your PC or Mac, click iTunes Match under Quick Links at the top-right. Below the overview, click to subscribe. Enter your account details. A credit or debit card must be on file in your account.
2. Match your music
iTunes runs through three steps to put your music online. It tries to match tracks not from the iTunes Store against items available in the store, and makes those items available to you even if your copy was lower quality.
3. Get unmatched tracks
Unmatched music is uploaded. The time this takes depends on the track sizes and your connection's upload speed. If you quit and reopen iTunes, it checks whether items are now available from the store, then resumes.
4. Prepare your iOS device
Enabling iTunes Match on an iOS device stops it syncing music with your PC. It warns that the device's library will be overwritten, but if you sync now you won't have to waste time re-downloading tracks already on your device.
5. Turn on iTunes Match
In the Settings app, find and tap Music. iTunes Match can take a few seconds to appear at the top of the next page. Flick its switch to On, then enter the same account details you entered when subscribing in step one.
6. Wait for the library to sync
Your device downloads library details while you use it, during which the Music app shows a progress bar or enables you to play tracks already on the device. When ready, cloud symbols indicate items not on the device.
7. Download individual tracks
Tap the cloud button next to a track name to download it, or the track's name to play it. Playback advances through the track list on which you tapped, automatically downloading subsequent tracks, even over 3G.
8. Skip unwanted tracks
Use playlists to avoid downloading unwanted tracks over 3G. Tap Playlists, then Add Playlist... Tracks can be added even if they haven't yet been downloaded. Tap Done, swipe to the bottom of the list and tap Download All.
9. Download whole albums
You'll find a Download All button below an album's track list, and below the list of everything by each artist or composer in your library. This enables you to grab whole bundles of tracks that fit your mood with only a few taps.
Rovio could probably keep launching Angry Birds updates forever and live handsomely off the proceeds.
However, determined not to rely on the golden goose (pig) to keep laying (stealing) the eggs, the company has announced a successor.
The new title is called Amazing Alex, will launch in two-months time and will be based upon the Casey's Contraption game, recently acquired by the Finnish developer.
Casey's Contraption, which you can see in the video below, is another physics-based game for iOS. Think Cut the Rope, but designed by Kevin McCallister from the Home Alone movies.
According to Rovio CEO Mikael Hed, Alex is a 'curious young boy who likes to build things,' but little more is known.
The pressure is on
Hed told the Yle website that Rovio definitely feels the weight of expectation after Angry Birds' unprecedented success.
"The quality pressure is high. We want to maintain the high standard Angry Birds fans have come to enjoy," he added.
Angry Birds recently racked-up it's one billionth download.
Mozilla insists that it is proud that its evangelism over open web standards has changed browsers forever, but jokes that it has wished itself up some serious competition to Firefox.
Speaking to TechRadar Mozilla principal evangelist Tristan Nitot and Chris Heilmann the principal evangelist at Mozilla for HTML5 and open web admitted that they were proud that Firefox's success was rooted in the need for an option to the now-derided IE6 from Microsoft.
And the not-for-profit company's consistent pushing of open standards has had a huge impact, with Microsoft's newer Internet Explorer versions representing a massive leap forward, and the likes of Chrome and Safari all embracing HTML5 and a more open web.
Know your roots
Nitot: "You have to careful in what you wish for! But we wished it and it's here now."
"We certainly know where we came from and know what we have achieved and we are very proud about this," Nitot told TechRadar.
"Google are pushing ahead with Chrome and Microsoft are making a much better browser with IE9 – the competition is really tough and this is what I call success.
"You have to careful in what you wish for! But we wished it and it's here now."
Heilman explained that he was personally involved in making other company's browsers better.
"What we wanted we wanted to achieve was good browsers with open standards and that was what Microsoft didn't do and now it does," he said.
"I'm actually recording videos for Microsoft talking about HTML5 for training and that's what I'm really proud of.
"We work for a not-for-profit organisation to make the web better and I don't have to be in competition with the Microsofts and the Googles and the Operas but by working with them I can influence them and be the voice of reason in that market."
Reinstalling Windows is always a hassle, but if you've lost a few product keys then it could become a real nightmare. Are they on a CD case, a manual, in an old email somewhere? You might not be able to get your system working properly again until you can track them down.
It doesn't have to be this way, though. If you install a product key finder now, then it will scan your PC, and report on any product keys it finds (expect the list to include Windows and Microsoft Office as a minimum, and often many more). Print out the report or save it to disc and you'll always have your keys to hand, should disaster strike - much more convenient.
Which is the best product key finder, then? Good question - there's a lot of competition - but we put 10 of the best free key finders to the test in an effort to find out. Keep reading to find out what we discovered.
Total keys supported: 100+ Supported products include: Windows, Office, CyberLink apps, VMware Workstation, Nero Burning ROM
Free for personal use only, Belarc Advisor is a powerful system information tool which builds up a very detailed picture of your PC hardware and software. This is way more than we need, but you don't have to pay attention to that information if you don't want to - just click Software Licences and you'll find keys for Windows, Office, CyberLink applications, Norton Internet Security and more.
Score: 4/5
Free PC Audit 2.1
Total keys supported: 10+ Supported products include: Windows, Office
Run Free PC Audit and it'll immediately display a summary of your PC hardware, installed and running software. The program only managed to display the Windows and Office product keys on our test PC, but it could still be useful to see and save the full list of your other installed applications. The program doesn't require installation, making it convenient to use, and doesn't include annoying adware - rare amongst this type of tool.
Score: 3/5
KeyFinder Thing 3.1.6
Total keys supported: 90 Supported products include: Windows 7, Office 2010, Visual Studio 2005, Adobe CS2-CS5 products
KeyFinder Thing is a basic key finder tool. It's a little dated now - there's coverage for Microsoft Visual Studio, for instance, but only up to 2005 - so is really only useful as a basic product checker for Windows and a few old games. Even then, the program doesn't fully work with 64-bit systems, and it comes bundled with the AVG Security toolbar for extra irritation.
Score: 1.5/5
LicenseCrawler 1.9.255
Total keys supported: 200+ Supported products include: Windows, Microsoft Office, CyberLink applications
The free-for-personal-use LicenceCrawler takes a unusual approach to finding product keys, simply scanning the Registry and displaying likely-looking values. This can make for a complex report, sometimes including entries which aren't product keys at all, and an in-your-face nag screen is another irritation. The program can find a lot of keys, though, and these are easily saved to a text file for later reference.
Score: 3.5/5
Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder 2.0.8
Total keys supported: 300 Supported products include: Windows, Office, Nero Burning Rom 5-7
Like many of the competition, Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder is a little out-of-date; it'll give you your Windows 7 and Office 2010 keys, but for instance couldn't display our Nero 11 key as it doesn't support anything later than Nero 7. Unusually, though, the program has an editable configuration file, so if you're willing to do some work then you may be able to add support for one or two extra keys yourself.
Score: 3/5
MSKeyViewer Plus 2.2.0
Total keys supported: 101 Supported products include: Windows, Microsoft Office, SQL Server 7/2008, WinZip 8-14
MSKeyViewer Plus 2.2.0 is a simple tool which is mainly useful for displaying a few key Microsoft product keys: Windows, Office 97-2010, and so on. There are a few others, but these are notably getting a little dated now (there's support for WinZip 8-14, for instance, but the current version is 16.5). Still, it's portable, easy to use, and will copy your keys to the clipboard with a click for easy saving in some other document.
Score: 3/5
Product Key Finder 2.2.3
Total keys supported: 200 Supported products include: Windows, Microsoft Office
Its attempts to install a browser toolbar didn't get Product Key Finder off to a good start. And the program's product support isn't exactly up-to-date, either: it managed to find the keys for Office 2010 and Windows 7 on our test PC, but that was all. It's extremely easy to use, and can save whatever it finds in a CSV file as a record, but that's not really good enough. You'll get better results elsewhere.
Score: 2/5
ProduKey 1.53
Total keys supported: 15 Supported products include: Windows, Microsoft Office, SQL Server 2000/2005, Exchange Server 2000/2003
ProduKey is a tiny product key finder which only supports a few Microsoft products: Windows, Microsoft Office (2000-2010), SQL Server (2000/2005) and Exchange Server (2000/2003). Fairly basic, then, but the lack of any annoying adware bundled with the program is a plus point. And it has some useful command-line options, which include the ability to display product keys for all the computers on your network from one location.
SIW Home is a free-for-personal-user system information tool. It's actually best at telling you everything there is to know about your PC hardware, but it's not bad at software, either (click Software > Licenses), providing 7 product keys on our test PC and supporting 150+ products overall. This free version can't export your licences as a report, but you can still copy them to the clipboard so they're easy enough to save.
Score: 4/5
Windows Product Key Finder Pro 2.3.0.0
Total keys supported: 10 Supported products include: Windows XP/ Vista/ 7/ Server 2003/ 2008, Office XP/ 2003/ 2007/ 2010
Care is required when installing Windows Product Key Finder Pro, as it tries to install no less than two browser toolbars. Once you've got through setup, though, the program proves a good basic key finder, able to locate product keys for both Windows (including Server 2003 and Server 2008) and Office XP/ 2003/ 2007/ 2010, and save and print them all with a click.
Score: 3/5
Conclusion
If you're looking for a simple product key finder, which will just report the keys for Windows and Microsoft Office, then just about any of our 10 will do the job. But our pick would probably be NirSoft's ProduKey. It's small and basic, but doesn't come bundled with annoying adware (a rarity in this area), and can collect keys from across your network.
If you'd like to try to record more product keys then we'd recommend either SIW Home 2011 or Belarc Advisor. Both are superb system information tools which can also record quite a few software licence details: they're powerful, yet easy to use.
But if you're just after finding the maximum number of product keys alone then an honourable mention has to go to LicenseCrawler. The program's report looks like a dump of your Registry, and really isn't for PC beginners. But if you're an experienced user then you'll find this finds and reports more product keys than any other free tool, and the report can easily be saved to a text file for quick reference when you're next reinstalling.
Mozilla has lashed out at Microsoft for restrictions within the Windows 8 RT operating system that make it impossible for Firefox to compete with Internet Explorer on the platform.
Windows 8 RT, which is the name given to the OS designed especially for ARM-based machines, will give IE special privileges, making it the only browser that than truly run in 'Classic Mode.'
Microsoft has denied the APIs essential for building a modern browser to third-party developers like Google and Mozilla and, as a result, there will be no version of Firefox for the Windows 8 RT platform.
Harvey Anderson, of the Mozilla General Counsel, blogs that this bias towards Microsoft's own browser harks back to the days when users had little choice over software.
Dark days aren't over
He wrote: "Unfortunately, the upcoming release of Windows for the ARM processor architecture and Microsoft's browser practices regarding Windows 8 Metro signal an unwelcome return to the digital dark ages where users and developers didn't have browser choices."
Anderson went on to say: "Windows on ARM prohibits any browser except for Internet Explorer from running in the privileged "Windows Classic" environment.
"In practice, this means that only Internet Explorer will be able to perform many of the advanced computing functions vital to modern browsers in terms of speed, stability, and security to which users have grown accustomed.
"Given that IE can run in Windows on ARM, there is no technical reason to conclude other browsers can't do the same."
Anderson reckons Microsoft's move could be the start of a new era where it seeks to lock-up its operating system and sidestep anti-competition rulings previously brought against it..
He urged the company to stick to its own principles and treat third-party developers fairly.
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