Roam On The Range

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday November 26, 2005

David Stonehouse

David Stonehouse tries some Adelaide rock, anarchic video, mobile news and free calls.

Music

Some head-bopping tunes from Adelaide band Fear in Dakota are available for streaming at www.fearindakota.com/main.html (look for the player button on the bottom left of the page.) Their sound is Seattle grunge but without the hard edge - at least on its latest single, To My Knees. These five guys launched both the new single and the website earlier this month and are eyeing a live album and DVD release sometime down the road. The band was conceived in 2003 and has built a reputation for an eclectic blend of guitar-driven rock that is also sometimes funky, other times acoustic, reggae or instrumental.

Video

Free independent flicks are up for grabs at Anarchy, the homepage for the Slamdance Film Fest (www.slamdance.com/anarchy). Anarchy is no ordinary film festival home page, but is instead a reservoir of edgy, if not bizarre, short films as well as a competition unto itself. The folks that run it declare: "Slamdance was founded on some of the same basic principles that have made the internet what it is today - free expression, individual empowerment, and creative chaos outside the influential sphere of 'The Man'." The films are free to watch and if you register you can vote for monthly contenders. The winners of that vote go on to the Slamdance festival in January in Park City, Utah. Downloaders, be warned: some films are sizeable and will take some time to pull down even on fast connections.

Mobile

The Australian online mobile phone magazine iMobile.com.au (www.imobile.com.au) offers sneak peaks at some of the best games, useful utilities and other software for mobiles - for a look, click on its download link at the bottom left of the page. The software is for purchase, but the advice is free. The site has reviews and screenshots of the mobile programs it features.

Software

The latest edition of WinZip, the popular file-compressing and archiving software, is now out. Version 10.0 is available online for a free 45-day trial (winzip.com). It allows you to make even tighter compressions (resulting in smaller files), supplies a new template to work with and to view zipped files, and allows you to split zip files over several CDs or DVDs. Other enhancements include automatic checking for updates and built-in protection from potentially dangerous files by supporting the Windows XP SP2 attachment manager. If you are happy with the software the standard version retails for about $US30 ($41).

Handheld

Make free phone calls on your Pocket PC with Skype software. The software, which became very popular last year by allowing phone calls between personal computer users, has now gone mobile with a version for Windows Pocket PC 2003. This download allows you to make free phone calls to other Skype users anywhere in the world and calls to regular phones around the globe for a few cents per minute. But to work, your Pocket PC 2003 must support Wi-Fi and have a minimum processor speed of 400MHz. And this version doesn't take voicemail messages - at least not yet. Skype promises it is working on that. You can get the download and all the details online (www.skype.com). It's free.

icondownloads@gmail.com

© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home