Soluto launches dashboard for family and friends tech support (Invite code inside)

For as long as I can remember one of the biggest ‘gripes’ of my friends and family has been the speed of their laptopsPC’s boot times, and their application response time. 9 times out of 10 these issues are caused by applications starting at boot up that either the user has never used, or are some kind of update check facility for common applications. Either way, it’s almost always beneficial to tweak these startup apps to suit the users computer use habits.

Which is where applications such as Soluto earn a big space in my ‘PC Repair Utility Belt’. Soluto can be compared to simple boot up timers….. Or can it? NO! Soluto really is in a realm of its own. The Soluto GUI has been designed to ease even the most technaphobic user into power user tweaking.

Among other things, Soluto monitors your PC or Laptops boot process, and then offers suggestions on what applications you can remove, delay or pause from your PC’s start up process. This can often shave off 2 to 3 minutes of frustrated boot times. But wait… It doesn’t stop there, any applications you remove from the boot up process will then (obviously) no longer be running in the background, thus improving your PC’s overall performance! All Soluto‘s suggestions are driven by what members of Soluto community decided to do with the highlighted app, thus meaning it’s always learning and always offering the best solution!

Soluto is often the first thing I turn to, when a user presents a laptop or PC with performance issues. However – in the past, doing Soluto diagnostics remotely has often been quite challenging. It’s surprising what the user sees compared to what is actually on their screen. So yet again the clever boffins over at Soluto HQ have come up with a soluto which fits the bill perfectly.

The recently launched Soluto ‘dashboard’ offers up an ‘at a glance’ overview of all the PC’s you support, enabling you to drill down into each machine; diagnose and better still tweak the boot sequence, check for and install outstanding updates, install handy software remotely, check the machines core and hard drive temperature, tweak browser add-ons and check the machines battery health. With even more functionality being developed and tested as you read this actual post!

The dashboard is perfect for this time of year, aiding family and friends without even stepping out into the cold.. You can send invites to install the Soluto client to your friends and family, and as soon as it’s installed you can ease their frustrations! What more could you ask for!??

Currently the Soluto dashboard is a ‘closed’ invite only system.. But I have some good news!! The nice friendly Soluto people have offered me up an invite code to give to my readers! So what are you waiting for? Head over to Soluto and when prompted enter the invite code: mikesentme

As with all Soluto solutions, I am excited to see whats next to be unveiled and I am confident this all new dashboard is going to save me lots of time, and my friends and family lots of frustrated rants at their misbehaving PC’s.

 

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Gorillacam for iPhone

All iPhone owners will already be aware of the lack of features in the built in iPhone camera app. It was a bit of a disappointment if you ask me.. However, the people of at Joby have released the new Gorillarcam app. Which sports some pretty nifty features, plus it’s completely FREE!

As per the screenshot on the left, the Gorillacam app is capable of:
              • Self-Timer – Set your camera up on your tripod and set the timer for that family group shot, no longer will your beautiful face be missing from your pictures!
              • Time-lapse – Set your camera up to take a shot every 10 seconds, to achieve a perfect time-lapse collection, handy for stop start animation perhaps?
              • 3 Shot Burst – handy for catching those all important action shots, one press of the button gives you 3 shots 3 seconds apart.
              • Bubble Level – does what it says on the tin, perfect if you are using your iPhone on a tripod and want to achieve perfect level photos
              • Grid – again, pretty self explanatory – split the screen up into grid squares, handy for getting something in perfect centre of your shot.
              • Press Anywhere – is a nice feature, enables you to take the picture by tapping the picture and not the small capture button ilke in the built in iPhone app.
              Overall the app seems to perform pretty well, my only comments are due to the way the app accesses the camera and camera roll it seems to be a bit slow at actually saving the pictures. Which isn’t an issue for me, but if you need instant access to take the next shot then this isn’t for you.
              Still, overall I think for free the app plugs a lot of holes in the iPhone’s picture taking capabilities.
              Joby are also the boffins behind the fantastic Gorillamobile which is a flexible. mountable device stand. 

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