Hasta La Gadget!

The most recent version of Google’s Chrome browser will now play nice with Apple devices that carry a Retina Display, which is a good indicator of how well Google keeps its promises to the end user after making a commitment to support Retina Display devices with a future version of the Google Chrome web browser. Owners of the spanking new 15-inch MacBook Pro notebooks that will feature the Retina Display can now check out webpages at a resolution count of 2880 x 1800, thanks to Chrome 21. Chrome 21 is not a browser that shies from different operating systems, in fact, it will hum along just fine on the Mac OS, Windows and Linux environments without missing a beat.

In fact, Chrome 21 now boasts of a new API (application programming interface) known as getUserMedia which will enable users to allow Web applications to access their computers’ cameras and microphones without the need to install another pesky plug-in that might result in consuming more system resources. Of course, as with any other new version of a software, this one will come with its fair share of bugs fixes and security patches.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Android and Chrome to feature radial-style menus?, Google Chrome delivers blank pages,

Google’s Street View is not exactly controversy-free, but that does not mean it is a bed of roses, either. For those of you who have a great love for ASCII art, then you might be interested to hear about this particular method of rendering Google Street View in what else, but ASCII art. Your eyes will not exactly blink normally as they might end up hurting after the experience, but it is definitely something that is worth looking at. You can opt to view the world in real-time ASCII “art” thanks to the wonders of WebGL, or you can opt to view their pre-coded shots from the Google Street View Panorama library. Those who opt for the live option are able to look at their map, attempting to get a view of the location. Should it find you, it will rotate automatically for you instead of relying on the standard arrow, while furnishing you with a green color mode for added clarity.

Needless to say, there are some limitations attached to this particular project, but then again, it is expected, don’t you think so? Making pictures using ASCII is not exactly a walk in the park in the first place, and this would lean more towards being an art project than anything else at this point in time.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: France asks Google for Street View data, Google didn’t delete Street View data as per British authority requirements,

Digg – the website that made plenty of waves many years ago, but then suffered a huge decline (to the ignomity of being sold for just $500,000), is back just like Arnold. Betaworks acquired Digg around one and a half months ago, where this revamped Digg website and iPhone app have rolled out – a day ahead of schedule, to boot. Current Digg CEO John Borthwick did mention to the BBC that the old Digg was way too expensive to run, and this streamlined version that sports a totally new code base and fresh infrastructure is a whole lot more affordable. In fact, Borthwick claimed that it costs around “one-fifteenth to one-eighteenth of the cost” to maintain. Someone should hire him in the government to trim down those bloated departments!

Do you like the new look Digg, or are you still pretty much nostalgic about its previous iteration? I guess regardless of nostalgia and a yearning for the first time we stumbled upon (pun not intended) Digg, we need to move on with the times, and I would want to wish the Digg community the very best.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Digg on sale for $500,000, Washington Post on the verge of buying Digg?,

Remember how Guy Adams’ Twitter account was suspended after his rant over the delayed live telecast of the Olympics’ opening ceremony on TV? Well, it seems that Twitter has restored Adams’ account, so hopefully all of it will be bridge under the water by now. I guess it is an issue that has been blown up by someone in the media team who decided to act as an individual instead of as a corporate decision, contacting NBC in the process to have the entire thing (to some) blown out of proportion. Twitter’s rules do mention that you are not allowed to put up someone else’s private and confidential information, explicitly listing “non-public, personal email addresses”, never mind that those can more often than not be uncovered through some clever Google sleuthing.

Not only that, Twitter also mentioned “[i]f information was previously posted or displayed elsewhere on the Internet prior to being put on Twitter, it is not a violation of this policy,” which more or less invalidates Twitter’s own action of taking down Adams’ account in the first place. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail in such situations in the future, but it does seem as though Guy Adams is not in the wrong here.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: No tweets in London Olympics if you want to watch TV, Twitter flu gets tracked, predicts you falling sick in advance,

Earlier this morning, we talked about Yahoo! Mail as well as Yahoo! Messenger in addition to other segments of Yahoo!’s online services experiencing a disruption, regardless of where you stay on the globe. Well, Yahoo! did release a statement around 7 hours ago, stating, “Yahoo! Mail, Messenger and other areas of Yahoo! may currently be inaccessible or slow to respond to some users in certain locations. We are working to correct the issue and restore all functionality immediately. We know that this may have caused some inconvenience and we apologize to our users who might be affected.”

After the apology, it was still touch and go for many users, and I guess that Yahoo! software and hardware engineers managed to successfully flush out whatever gremlins there were left lurking in the network, killing the proverbial fail whale in the process – so that everyone is able to access their range of Yahoo! services. This has led to the latest statement approximately 3 hours ago, stating, “Yahoo! Mail and other services are restored. We know that this may have caused some inconvenience and we apologize to our users who were affected.”

All’s well that ends well, no?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Yahoo! Mail outage – momentary pain for permanent pleasure?, Interim CEO Ross Levinsohn steps down from Yahoo,