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The new Firefox version came out today with some really cool
options and features. The first thing they have improved is the speed. Firefox
is not more than twice as fast as Firefox 3.0 and three times as fast as 2.0. I
have downloaded the new version and I have to admit it does seem a lot faster.
Another feature Mozilla has added is the something they call
open video. They have included video and audio support for Ogg Theora videos.
Ogg is a video encryption that is free and open source. You can export your
videos in this format and embed them into your page. People using Firefox will
be able to play your video and audio without downloading a plug-in because it
is already built in. The video elements can also interact with content like no
other plug-in can do. You can download the components of the codec here. http://www.theora.org/downloads/
Firefox has also added a feature they are calling Privacy
Controls. This will allow you to enter a Security Mode that will not record
where you are going and will not save any information about the website. As
soon as you exit the security mode it will delete all the cookies and saved
information from the sites. You can also select website from your history that
you want to delete and Firefox will delete all traces of that site from your
computer.
Location Aware Browsing was also added which allows your
browser, with your permission, to pass your location to a website. This will
allow a website to provide information about their products or draw a map for
your area without you having to enter your zip code, city, or state information.
I think Firefox is the best browser in the world and it
keeps on getting better. They make great improvements while IE keeps getting
worse. I think the video feature is nice but it will not work in IE, which
would be a problem for developers who have to then go out of their way to put a
format or plug-in for IE. However, I think this could be a great tool and might
catch on like wildfire.
Download the new Firefox
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Ever since the iPhone 3.0 came out about 2 weeks ago, I have been waiting for applications to hit the iTunes store that take advantage of the new push notifications feature. For those who don’t know push notification allows your iphone applications to notify you when something has happened in their app since you left. If you are doing something else on your phone like watching a movie or surfing the web an application can let you know if you have a message or something else requires your attention.
The notifications will come to you in the form of an alert, that look similar to a text message, or a badge, which shows as a number next to the icon. You will only get the message if your phone’s screen is on. This means your phone will not be beeping and making noise in your pocket all day. Once you turn on the screen you will see your notifications that you have received.
This is a huge feature that will be great for so many reasons. One of the main applications that I am excited about is a multi client IM chat applications with the push notifications. You can log into all your accounts and get all your IMs right there on your phone. Now granted, you will only be able to see them if your phone’s screen is on but this is still a great way to stay connected. You no longer have to go into the application to see if anyone has messaged you. The application will keep you logged in at all times so people can send you messages whenever.
As far as I can tell there are only a couple apps that have IM chat with Push: AIM, Beejive, and IM+ push. AIM is only for AOL instant messenger so if you want other clients you will have to do either Beejive or IM+ Push. I chose Beejive and I think it works pretty well. The interface is really clean and easy to use which I love. There aren’t that many options however but it hasn’t bothered me much yet. I am looking forward to their updates and see what they can improve.
Keep a lookout for other push apps coming soon to the itunes store.
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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/raouldraws/3661418856/
I was always a fan of the Jackson Five and I would say that I was a Michael Jackson fan. Yesterday after a heart attack Michael Jackson Died at the age of 50. Yes this is awful but I am not really that interested in talking about what happened to Michael Jackson but what he did to the Internet.
This man was so loved by so many that when he died the Internet was a boom with traffic and a hoard of people trying to figure out what had happened took down many websites and web services.
Google news was unavailable for a period of time because of all the traffic. Websites such as TechCrunch, TMZ, Wikipedia, The LA Times and Perez Hilton’s Blog all experienced outages because of the increased traffic caused by Michael Jacksons death. AOL’s AIM service was out for 40 minutes because of all the traffic on the servers. Of course twitter went down several times saying later that they had to temporarily disable its search results, saved searches and trend topics to keep the traffic down.
A reaction like this is well known but the magnitude like this has not been seen for a while. It seems that a lot of people loved Michael Jackson and I’m sure they all miss him. RIP Michael.
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Good news for people with Apple TV. You can now control your Apple TV with your remote application on your phone. The remote application that was originally configured to control your itunes using your WI-FI can now control your apple TV as well.
Using a series of multi touch features you can control and do everything that the controller could do and more. Now when you go into a search your keyboard will pop up on the iphone, allowing you to type in your search rather than having to use the analog pad on the controller. This is great for those of you that have every tried to watch youtube videos from the apple TV and have labored over the keypad entering one letter at a time.
The controls are pretty simple and make a lot of since. They are pretty much self explanatory but here is a quick run down of the new controls.
• Tap: play or pause the current song or video.
• Flick left or right: skips to the next track (music), fast-forwards or rewinds (video).
• Drag left or right: fast-forward or rewind.
• Flick down (video only): show chapter markers, then flick left or right to skip chapters.
• Drag two fingers left (video only): invoke a 10-second replay.
In order for this to work you have to first update your apple TV and make sure both the iphone and Apple TV are connected to the same router. Once you do that you can go into the Setting>> General>> Remote and add the iphone as a remote. If you have the Romote app fired up on your iphone you can generate a key that is then entered into the Apple TV. Here is a list of the other new updates to the Apple TV firmware 2.4.
• Flickr Search: Search Flickr photo tags to find recently updated photos of interest. Save searches to quickly find new photos or use as a screen saver for Apple TV.
• New view options: View movies By Genre, By Movie, or Unwatched. View TV Shows and Podcasts By Date, By Show, or Unwatched.
• Updated transport and chapter modes: During video playback, click right or left to fast forward or rewind. Additional clicks increase the speed. Click down to show chapter markers.
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So there you have it save some time and enjoy the new control you can have with your Apple TV.
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Ever since the iphone 3g and it’s GPS capability there has been a need and an outcry for a turn-by-turn navigation application for iphone. With the improvements the to iphone OS it is now a possibility to do turn-by-turn navigation. The question is who will make the best navigation application and who will find themselves raking in the dough.
The first to break into the market is the AT&T Navigation application, which is going to be free, but it will require you to pay a $9.95 monthly fee to use the application. I have a huge problem with this. I don’t like paying a monthly fee for something that you can get for free with a little more upfront money. You can buy a GPS now for $50 or less and there is no reason you should have to pay $10 a month to have turn-by-turn navigation.
AT&T navigation does not load the maps from the memory it loads them in real time from the Internet. So this breeds a lot of questions. What if you are taking back roads on a trip and you loose phone signal and can’t download the maps what then? I think this is a huge problem for AT&T. They make you pay $10 a month and if you loose signal you loose your way.
At this point if you don’t already have a GPS I would say forget about iphone turn-by-turn navigation and stick with a GPS unit that has all the maps installed and don’t have to worry about getting lost when you loose signal.
There is hope however. TomTom is making a turn by turn navigation system that you buy with a special windshield dock that charges your iphone increases it’s signal and has a built in speaker for loader turn by turn commands. Oh yea and it also has a microphone for hands free dialing. You can’t get much better than that. We will see if the tomtom app is any good and if there is going to be a $10 monthly fee to use it. This in my opinion is the way to go if there isn’t a monthly fee. TomTom is going to wipe the floor with the AT&T navigation app.
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If you are excited as I am about the new Snow Leopard OS from Apple then you are going to love this. This guy has posted on youtube a series of walk-thoughs of the new OS Snow Leopard. Apple has information about the new OS on their website if you want to get a rundown of all the new features and the new structure, however they don't have video up so this is a treat to get to see it in action. The OS in the video doesn't have all the features because it is the developers version, but some of the features are there and the guy in the video will show them to you.
Apple is always making their OS better and better. They always have thoughtful and useful changes to their OS that make it the best and most powerful OS is the world, in my opinion :) . The upgrade is coming in September and the upgrade price is only $30. A good deal if you ask me.
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Pixar animation studios have granted a wish to a dying girl. Colby Curtin was a 10-year-old girl who had a rare form of cancer. She was trying to stay alive so she could see the new Pixar Movie “UP”. Ever since Colby saw the previews she had always wanted to see it. She was too sick and could not be transported to a movie theater to see it.
A friend of the family made several calls to Pixar and explained the situation. Pixar showed compassion on the little girl dying of cancer and flew an employee out to Huntington Beach with a DVD copy of the movie for a private viewing of the movie. The little girl died seven hours after viewing the movie.
Stories like this one make me feel like there is still love in this world. I don’t know if Pixar was only trying to be nice for the good public relations it would stir up, but I hope they did it because they truly cared about the girl. They make kids movies they should care about their audience and the fact that she wanted to watch the movie so badly proves that Pixar is truly speaking to their audience.
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Have you ever accidently deleted all your photos from your camera, only to find out that there were some that you didn’t import. I know there have been times were I left bunch of pictures on my memory card and without thinking I reformatted the card losing all the pictures. All those images are gone right. Wrong you can recover those pictures using Klix.
Klix is a memory card recovery tool that you can use with your Mac to recover any lost or deleted photos. The software is easy to use all you have to do is pop the memory card into your camera or memory reader and start up Klix. Click the start button and you’re off to the races. Klix searches the card for any pictures or video on the card and presents them in a recovery window.
Klix is able to recover just about any image format and video format from any card despite what condition it’s in. Once Klix is finshed all you have to do is drag and drop the photos onto your hard drive and your done.
Flix is $30 but I think it’s worth it if you can recover lost photos that may cause you to shoot them again.