Archive for May, 2007
I’m a regular user of Google Reader because it helps me keep my feeds in order, and I think you agree with me on this one. However, a little colored link that said NEW caught my view today. It linked to a page that presented me a new BETA service developed by Google, called “Google Gears”. The software is available for Windows, Mac, and even Linux right now, and it seems like a wonderful project.
It’s basically an open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using following JS API’s that will store any application resources locally and serve them from your HDD. The same goes for the databases and their relations with other components. And it’s all STILL based on AJAX to improve the user feeling.
Want to try it out? Download it from here (requires browser restart). How is this useful? This will enable you to browse content while offline, the same content that would have required you to be connected otherwise. For example, you can browse offline the latest 2000 posts in your Google Reader account, or you can check your GMail inbox (will soon be developed). Isn’t that great?
Running the above downloaded setup file will be possible only after you close all of your browser windows (yes, including this one ;). It will then initiate a download sequence (this might take a few moments), and afterwards Google Gears will install on your system.
The requirements are not high though you should already be running Windows XP or Vista and use Firefox 1.5+ or IE 6+ for it to work. You can safely start your browser after the installation finishes and load Google Reader again. You will be prompted by a security warning (shown in picture #1) which you’ll have to accept in order to continue. Should you need to go over these again, the settings can be found in your Tools menu (Firefox shown in picture #2).
The only disadvantage I would find for now is the amount of time that will take for it to download that much data and when the GMail extension will be released, the time it will take for people to download 1,5GB of mails. Of course, most people don’t use that much of their space so it’s barely a general disadvantage, but time will come.
I’ve always wanted to be able to stay connected to the Google services while offline and now this is making it possible. If anyone has tried this in detail already, I would be more than happy to hear your comments and first opinions on the service.
Google on,
It seems that FileHippo presented us with Firefox v. 2.0.0.4 before there was any official announcement on Mozilla’s FrontPage, but taking a short trip in the past, I noticed that FileHippo has done this before. If you’re dying to try the new version of Firefox, you can download it from here, or you can wait for the official announcement of the release.
As a noticeable feature for this version, they say it delivers easier navigation for everyone, including those who are visually or motor-impaired.
Enjoy,
UPDATE: It seems this version is now available on Mozilla’s official page - http://www.mozilla.com/firefox
After Digg API was launched, the API Visualization Contest was also announced. The main idea was that you should use the Digg API and the Adobe Apollo platform to create a Digg visualization. Voting closes tonight so let’s take a look at the favorite finalists, here’s the “official” description for each of them (the order is random by the way):
D’Lite
D’Lite is an Apollo application that utilizes Digg’s API to retrieve their amazing data, information, and processes. Some of the cool features of this application include pagination, favorites, network detection, and smart auto refresh.
By: Thai Huynh
DiggGraphr
DiggGraphr Desktop is a desktop application written in Apollo that lets you browse Digg stories in treemaps. The application also allows you to customize certain features as well as choose the channels you are interested in.
By: Arpit Mathur
(more…)
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 | Posted in Internet | 1 Comment »
The new Street View feature for Google Maps looks great. Although it’s only available in a couple US cities ( five of them to be more precise) the Street View amazes us by the level of detail you get. Entire streets are mapped completely, and not just main boulevards but small streets too, from busy highways to silent streets Google covers it all. You can even navigate the mapped roads using the provided arrows and the N-S guiding line.
Click to enlarge
This combined with the Traffic tool in Google Maps makes a great city orientation guide, also the Find Businesses and Get directions features come in handy when you feel disoriented in the big city. We can only wait for Google to cover larger areas (outside the US) and to bring new and more astounding features (which it will most certainly do).
When I got up today, this story was everywhere and to be honest I watched the video below for like three times in order to catch all of the key elements and it’s all simply astonishing.
Surface is the first commercially available surface computing platform from Microsoft Corporation. It turns an ordinary tabletop into a vibrant, interactive surface. The product provides effortless interaction with digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects. In essence, it’s a surface that comes to life for exploring, learning, sharing, creating, buying and much more. Soon to be available in restaurants, hotels, retail and public entertainment venues, this experience will transform the way people shop, dine, entertain and live.
Surface is a 30-inch display in a table-like form factor that’s easy for individuals or small groups to interact with in a way that feels familiar, just like in the real world. Surface can simultaneously recognize dozens and dozens of movements such as touch, gestures and will be able to recognize actual unique objects that have identification tags similar to bar codes.
Surface will ship to partners with a portfolio of basic applications, including photos, music, virtual concierge and games, which can be customized to provide their customers with unique experiences.
For further information, have a look at the official Microsoft Surface home page. At the time I’m writing this, it’s estimated that the surface computer will hit the market as early as the end of 2007 and will retail somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000. Too bad they’re planning to distribute it to hotels and casinos at first. For you, other gadget enthusiasts, you’ll have to wait a bit more 
Enjoy the video.
You’ve all been aware of the fact that RegisterFly was lately involved in a series of lawsuits due domain theft. If not, let me remind you a few hot lines.
The split between the founders of Registerfly.com, the leading domain name registrar, took a tawdry turn last week, as court documents filed by John Naruszewicz and Unifiednames, the corporation that owns Registerfly.com, made some shocking allegations against ousted CEO Kevin Medina.
The complaint seeks compensatory and punitive damages, and alleges that 75,000 domain names were lost in January 2007 alone due to failure to remit registry fees. The complaint goes on to accuse Medina of using corporate accounts as private slush funds, thereby failing to maintain sufficient float to cover registry fees.
Click here to find out more!
The embezzlement alleged includes tens of thousands of dollars for luxuries such as escort services, personal credit card bills and even liposuction. It also alleges that Medina used $10,000 in corporate funds per month to cover rent on a Miami Beach penthouse apartment.
Registerfly is an ICANN-approved provider of internet hosting and domain name registration services based in New Jersey that controls approximately two million domain names for 900,000 different owners. In recent weeks, the service appears to have effectively collapsed, with owners scrambling to recover domains that were not automatically renewed as agreed, or were paid for and for no apparent reason allowed to lapse well before the agreed upon expiration date.
Source
However, I’m bringing this up because a few hours ago, GoDaddy, one of the acredited ICANN registrars agreed to take over and manage ex-RegisterFly customers. The number is just a bit higher than 850,000, those being added to the already existent 20,000,000.
RegisterFly clients were in limbo after the internal troubles the company had. Official persons declared that many of their customers were unable to renew their domains before expiration, or even to transfer them to another registrar.
I have found no financial information over this deal at this point, but it’s certain that GoDaddy will start running the RegisterFly names within a week.
At the time I’m writing this, RegisterFly is no longer an ICANN certified registrar since The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers revoked its certification and sued it for the databases.
I’ll keep you posted with future coverage if anything happens, but I’d also like to know your opinions on this.
Have you ever wondered why your keys don’t follow the alphabet in a perfect order?
As you obviously know, the keys on your keyboard are scrambled up. Let’s take a short trip into history and see why.
A machine called the “Type-Writer” was invented by Cristopher Latham Shole in 1872. The keys on that machine were put in perfect order, but the system had a problem. They keys were getting stuck if the typist was going too fast. Shole thought of a solution for months but still couldn’t find something valid. In the end, he scrambled all of the letters in the way we see them today. This action successfully made the typist slow down at that time, but it also got us the QWERTY keyboard
Latest news say that Google has purchased Green Border for an undisclosed sum. Green Border is a company founded in 2001 that provides malware protection tools for your browser. Desktop DMZ is a program that protects your computer while you browse the internet and it does that by separating the browsing sessions form your operating system, so if anything malicious gets in, it doesn’t affect system files. You know that Desktop DMZ is up and running by looking for the green frame that encircles the browser window when protection is ON, this way you can be sure your system is safe all the time.
Now how does this relate with Google Desktop antivirus ? Well think about it, if Google would want to improve its Desktop package this would be one of the main features required, an antivirus module, especially when it uses innovative methods such as Desktop DMZ that don’t require constant updates or maintenance.
They made it, yes. Well, they don’t actually achieve Apple’s performance in selling 100 million iPods but noting the fact they’re newer on the market, they’re pretty satisfied of their results. The following is an extract from an interview with Robbie Bach, Microsoft’s president of the Entertainment and Devices Division.
Question: Can you talk a little bit about the Zune overall? Will we see next-generation Zunes coming out, particularly flash-based players?
Bach: We’re still about nine months into having Zune in the marketplace. We’re very pleased with the progress. We’ve sold a little over a million Zunes. In the category we’re in, the hard-disk-based category, we’ve got about 10 percent market share. It’s a good start. It’s not an overwhelming start. I’m not going to pretend it’s some gigantic move. As we look to the future, you’re certainly going to see us continue to invest in that category. We don’t enter things like that lightly. There will be new things down the path (in the fall). We just came out with a special edition pink Zune and a watermelon-colored Zune, which are the personal favorites with my kids.
Question: Are people sharing music by beaming songs from Zune to Zune? Do you have any way to gauge that?
Bach: People are sharing. When your installed base is a million, the benefits of sharing, frankly, aren’t as wide as we hope to see in the future. One of the challenges for us is continuing to build on the install base. Sharing is a tip of the iceberg of what you can do in the social nature of music, and what you can do when you have a device that you can connect when you’re at a Starbucks, when you’re at work, when you’re at home. That really, over time, will change things, for Zune and for consumers.
