Sep 16

Flock 2.0 Beta Released, Based on Firefox 3

Posted in: Features, Firefox 3, Freeware, performance, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on June 16, 2008 by CyberNet.

flock 2 firefox 3.jpg
(Click to Enlarge)

About two weeks ago we gave you a heads up that Flock 2.0 Beta was coming, and there was a lot of excitement surrounding the release since it’s based on Firefox 3.0. With that you get all of the Firefox 3 goodness including performance enhancements, advanced bookmarking, new address bar, and much more.

The Flock team has done a tremendous job of integrating Firefox 3 with all of the social features we’ve come to know and love in Flock. A good example of that is with the new bookmarking system which you can access by pressing the star located to the left of the address bar. You’ll notice that it looks incredibly similar to Firefox 3’s bookmarking system, but it also has the section dedicated to the online bookmarking services Del.icio.us and Ma.gnolia:

flock bookmark.jpg

The most important improvements come in the way of performance, and that is largely due to the better memory management that Firefox 3 has brings to the table. Personally I opened up over a dozen tabs in the new Flock 2.0 Beta, and it just barely broke 100MB of memory usage on Windows. That’s definitely not too shabby, but they wanted to point out that it will likely still use more memory than Firefox 3:

As you probably already know, Flock has a number of powerful features built on top of the Firefox architecture that allow you to have a truly unique browsing experience. These features come with a price, and that price is a slightly larger memory footprint. Comparing Flock to Firefox with no extensions installed is like comparing apples with oranges. In order to enjoy any advanced functionality in Firefox you need to install extensions, unlike Flock which has lots of advanced features built right in. Firefox extensions will increase both the memory footprint, and the risk of memory leaks over time. That said, all of the memory improvements in Firefox 3 (including many memory leak fixes and much better memory management ‘housekeeping’ practices) apply to Flock 2, so you should experience notably improved browsing performance with Flock 2 than you’ve experienced in prior versions.

Here’s some more information that Flock has posted in regards to enhancements for the new version:

If you’re a social media addict then I highly recommend you take Flock 2.0 for a spin. I’m not sure if I’ll use this over Firefox 3, but I’ll definitely give it a real shot now that the performance isn’t unbearable.

Flock 2.0 Beta [via Download Squad]

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Sep 15

Zune HD gaming and app downloads confirmed: Twitter, Facebook, and 3D games on the way (updated)

Posted in: apps, breaking news, BreakingNews, gaming, Microsoft, Today's Chili, twitter, xbox, xbox 360, Xbox360, zune, zune hd, ZuneHd

The promotional video and leaked shots already made it clear but now it’s official: the Zune HD will be a gaming and application platform. In addition to a few casual games, calculator and MSN Weather apps pre-loaded onto the Zune HD, the official Microsoft press release touting the launch contains this little nugget of gaming gold:

“Later this year, Zune plans to release free applications such as Twitter for Zune and Facebook for Zune, in addition to fun 3-D games such as “Project Gotham Racing: Ferrari Edition,” “Vans Sk8: Pool Service” and “Audiosurf(TM) Tilt.” Games can be added to Zune HD via Zune Marketplace over the Wi-Fi connection or when connected to the Zune PC software.”

Hear that Nintendo, Sony, and Apple? There’s a new handheld gaming platform in town. All that remains to be seen is how it will integrate with the Xbox 360.

Update: A bit more is revealed in a Seattle Times Q&A with Brian Seitz, Microsoft’s Zune marketing manager. At the moment, the strategy is to keep all the apps and games free and developed in-house or in close collaboration with third parties — no third-party SDK for devs to freely crank out apps just yet. Seitz is clear that games will be the primary focus of the “sometimes-connected” Zune HD and the Windows Marketplace is Microsoft’s priority for handheld app development:

“So what we didn’t want to do was build two parallel app store experiences that didn’t work together. Right now our product roadmaps didn’t line up perfectly for us to snap to what they’re doing or vice versa… Down the road if there’s a way we can work with Windows Mobile or another group inside the company that’s building an app store and take advantage of that, that’s something we’ll look into.”

Man, Windows Mobile 7 and the rumored OneApp app store can’t get here soon enough.

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Zune HD gaming and app downloads confirmed: Twitter, Facebook, and 3D games on the way (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 09

Microsoft and Tesco strike up ‘virtual DVD’ partnership

Posted in: download, Microsoft, Today's Chili, uk, united kingdom, UnitedKingdom

Starting this autumn — which is sort of like now — Tesco stores in the UK will be offering “virtual DVDs” to customers who purchase certain home video titles. Promising no less than a “DVD-equivalent” experience, the new service will be replete with all the menus, copyright warnings and extra bits you’d find on the disc itself, plus additional exclusive content and movie viewing parties with online chat. We’re not entirely sure films need all the added interactivity Microsoft has cooked up, but ambitions are to expand the bonus content and to offer the service in other markets “eventually.” And hey, seeing as it’s based on Silverlight, all that good stuff will be available on Mac too.

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Microsoft and Tesco strike up ‘virtual DVD’ partnership originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 06:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 27

OpenOffice 2.2 Released – Fixes Three Highly Critical Vulnerabilities

Posted in: Apple, Freeware, Microsoft, Newly Released, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 28, 2007 by CyberNet.

OpenOfficeOpenOffice 2.2 was just released after about a month’s worth of delays. The official announcement has yet to be made on the homepage, but the downloads for OpenOffice 2.2 are currently available on their FTP.

This version actually fixes three highly critical vulnerabilities that were recently found. One of them only applies to a  Linux/Solaris system, but the other two apply to all distributions:

Besides for the vulnerabilities being fixed, there are also some new things that are worth mentioning:

  • Improved text display throughout the entire office suite.
  • Enhanced PDF export functionality that supports user-definable form fields and bookmark creation.
  • Cosmetic changes in Vista (example: New File dialogue box).
  • Apple Mac Intel has several stability improvements.
  • OpenOffice Calc spreadsheet has received additional enhancements to its support for Microsoft file formats, including improved support for Pivot Tables and some specialized trigonometric functions.
  • OpenOffice Base, the database component, has improved SQL editing functionality as well as a new “Queries within Queries” feature.
  • OpenOffice Impress, the presentations component, offers improvements in the handling of hidden slides which has been made more intuitive.

Here is the What’s New page for the last release candidate of OpenOffice 2.2, which also happens to be what got released as the final product. There’s quite a bit of information on there though, and most of you probably won’t want to sift through it.

I briefly flipped through the OpenOffice forum to see what user’s first impressions were of the new release. One of the last comments on the forum says:

No new features that I have noticed with my daily use of Writer and Calc. I have reverted back to the 2.0.4 Novell Edition and actually ‘gained’ many new features.
…
I used to look forward to new releases of OOo with more enthusiasm. But lately there hasn’t been a whole lot to look forward to. In all honesty, the Novell Edition has been a pleasant surprise on Windows for me.

I actually feel the same way as that user. New versions of OpenOffice are being released every few months, but where are those awesome features that will help set it apart? I did find the page for the Novell version of OpenOffice that the person mentioned in the forum, and here are the special features that it is supposed to have:

  • Enhancements to Writer
  • Enhanced Support for Microsoft Office File Formats
  • E-Mail as Microsoft Office Document
  • Excel VBA Macro Interoperability
  • Improved Data Pilot Support
  • Enhanced Fonts
  • ODMA Integration
  • Multimedia Support in Presentations

Novell OpenOfficeI haven’t tried the Novell edition myself because the regular version of OpenOffice has always done just fine for me. However, I do a lot of work with Excel VBA Macros and for that reason I think I will give it a shot. It will take a little while for me to download the whopping 440MB ISO image though.

The next release of OpenOffice is planned for June 5. They are typically on a 3–month schedule, but they have decided to change things up a bit by making every other release dedicated purely for bug fixes. That would mean the June 5 release will not have anything new included and will only be bug fixes. Then after that makes it out the door their focus will be on version OpenOffice 2.3 which is expected around September 4.

OpenOffice Homepage
Download OpenOffice 2.2 directly from an FTP server
Direct link to English OpenOffice 2.2 for Windows

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Aug 26

Paramount, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. & Sony Pictures movies finally available (legitimately) in DivX

Posted in: Today's Chili

Over the last few years we’ve witnessed a slew of DivX Certified devices including HDTVs, DVD & Blu-ray player, set-top boxes, game consoles and even cell phones, but until now, despite several content agreements, in the U.S. there hasn’t been any content available in the format from the major studios. That changes today now that online store FilmFresh.com, has signed up Paramount, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. & Sony Pictures to offer new release and archive movies for purchase as DivX formatted downloads. The bad news? For now at least, they’ll be standard definition (stereo audio) only. Rick Bolton, CEO of Film Fresh as well as Eric Grab and John Greene of DivX filled us in on the details, and from what we’ve learned — if you’ll stand for lower res video — the combination of compatibility and portability could make this download service a competitor against the likes of iTunes, CinemaNow and Zune.

Continue reading Paramount, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. & Sony Pictures movies finally available (legitimately) in DivX

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Paramount, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. & Sony Pictures movies finally available (legitimately) in DivX originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 22

MSN Weather gets a Hint of Vista and New Live Writer Screenshot Peeks Out

Posted in: Apple, Microsoft, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili, Web Sites, Windows, Windows Vista

This article was written on February 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

MSN Weather maps are now looking a bit more like Vista! Click here to go to the maps. Once you’re there, you’ll notice an image to the right that says “The Wow starts now.” (Pictured to the right) By clicking on that image, the page will be transformed into Weather Maps with a hint of Vista.

Using flash, you can flip through the weather maps just like what you’d do in Windows Vista with the Flip 3D. The image below shows what the maps look like. By hovering your mouse of the text listing the different maps, it will flip through them.  By clicking on a map, it will enlarge so that you can view it.Also on the page is a big add for Windows Vista.  This is clearly a way for Microsoft to market Vista in a more subtle way by giving people a “Vista-like” experience with something simple like the weather.

Source: Live Side

Stepping aside from MSN Weather, LiveSide has posted what is rumored to be a screenshot of the new version of LiveWriter. According to them, it came from the German Live Writer community.  The screenshot is below and definitely has the ‘Windows Live’ look and feel going on.  Microsoft is clearly making an effort to have a consistent look and feel with all of their services.

If you’re wanting to chat about the next release, or get more information, you can visit the Windows Live Writer Group where there’s also chat that the next major release is still several months away. I’m definitely a fan of Live Writer, so I’m anxious to see what will be in-store for the new release!

Source: LiveSide

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Aug 21

5 Pirate Bay BitTorrent Alternatives

Posted in: Today's Chili, top

The Pirate Bay we know and love, though still harboring torrents for now, is going away. But that doesn’t mean BitTorrent is dead. Far from it. Here are five places to get your torrent on after it closes for good.

Demonoid
Demonoid, besides having a solid community and good quality torrents—no porn, exceedingly few viruses—also operates the other major torrent tracker besides The Pirate Bay. (A tracker is what help makes the whole BitTorrent system work, since it makes sure every peer’s talking to each other properly.) It doesn’t have the best selection around, but what most of what you’ll find there is quality. The catch is that you need to snag an invitation from a member or when they periodically dole them out to the public.

Mininova.org
Mininova’s always one of our preferred torrent sites—tons of torrents from multiple trackers, not a lot of crap in the interface, and the search isn’t bad. Actually, it’s kind of the like The Pirate Bay, but with less crap and fewer headaches. The catch now is that they’re slowly implementing a new copyright filter to keep copyrighted torrents from being uploaded. But you should still be able to find True Blood on there, no problem.

ISOHunt
ISOHunt is a BitTorrent and P2P search engine that’s got what feels like the most sophisticated search engine of the bunch. But like the others, you just punch in what you’re looking for, and it pulls up results you can sort by seeds, date or whatever. It has one of the most massive indices of any site, so it’s a good thing the search engine is up to it. Still, with a lot of torrents, it can be hard to find exactly what you’re looking for.

BTJunkie
BTJunkie claims to be the largest torrent search engine of all, with around 5,000-25,000 new torrents added to the index daily. The quantity doesn’t seem noticeably better than the other sites listed above, however. Also, the interface is really ugly. But you know, it’s there if you need it.

EZTV
If you’ve downloaded a TV show, whatever site you snagged it from, chances are, it came from these guys. They’re the most prolific TV rippers around, and usually have solid quality rips of shows up within hours of airing. If you’re interested in TV, you might as well just go to the source—their site points to wherever their files are hosted, so you don’t have to search through a million different sites to find the right EZTV torrent.

The whole scene is admittedly a bit depressing now, after years of high profile closures—Suprnova, OiNK TorrentSpy and LokiTorrent—so these are what’s left of the big sites. And even they’re not guaranteed to survive. Demonoid went offline for several months back in 2007-2008, Mininova has a copyright filter attached to it, and really, any site is just a police raid away from possibly going down. So tread carefully, and don’t get too attached to any of them.

And of course, you should drop your own suggestions in the comments.

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Aug 19

Apple sells 25% of music in the US, none of which is AC/DC

Posted in: amazon, Apple, BestBuy, itunes, market share, marketshare, Today's Chili
According to the number crunchers at NPD Group, the trend that came to a head last year when Apple beat out Wal-Mart for the title of largest Stateside music retailer is continuing apace. That’s right — one in four songs sold in America is sold on iTunes, while Wal-Mart (including CD sales through retail stores, sales through their website, and Wal-Mart Music Downloads) holds the number two position at 14 percent. And number three, if you’re morbidly curious, is Best Buy. In addition, 69% of all digital music sold in the US comes from the iTunes store, with Amazon ranking second at 8 percent. When talking formats, the CD remains the most popular at 65 percent, but as some dude named Russ Crupnick (NPD’s vice president of entertainment industry analysis) notes, “with digital music sales growing at 15 to 20 percent, and CDs falling by an equal proportion, digital music sales will nearly equal CD sales by the end of 2010.” Which can only be a good thing, if it means that we’ll never have to step into a Wal-Mart again. Sales of ringtones and sales to consumers under 13 were not tabulated, which means the data may incorrectly skew away from purchases of The Wiggles’ Go Bananas! and that Crazy Frog song.

[Via TUAW]

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Apple sells 25% of music in the US, none of which is AC/DC originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 18

Beta No More for Windows Live Messenger 8.1

Posted in: Apple, Microsoft, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista

This article was written on January 31, 2007 by CyberNet.

Windows Live Messenger 8.1 is out of beta and ready for you to download. Consider this the “next generation” messenger that’s suitable for Windows Vista.  This version of messenger is available in 8 new languages like Romanian, Thai, and Ukrainian, just to name a few. Here are some changes that you’ll probably notice:

  • Yahoo interoperability – now you can chat to your Yahoo Messenger friends from Windows Live Messenger 
  • Your display name, status and personalization roam with you to any computer(Roaming Identity)
  • Improved sign-in performance
  • Redesigned contact cards – Updated look
  • A bonus of 2 free VOIP calls
  • And it runs on Windows Vista!
  • SMS phone book – Quick way to send SMS to a phone number of add phone numbers for contacts.
  • Improved usability
  • Vista presentation mode – When you’re in presentation mode in Vista, your messenger will change status to say “busy”
  • Personal contact invitations – when adding a contact, you can now leave a message so the person isn’t left to wonder who you are.

There have been quite a few improvements with this version of Messenger, one of the biggest being that your flash player will no longer crash (this happened in Beta).  Essentially, this version is just improvements on everything that you already had plus a few additions.

System Requirements:

  • Supports Vista, and XP
  • Pentium 233 MHz (500 MHz recommended)
  • 128 MB of RAM (256 MB recommended)
  • Up to 50 MB of hard disk space for installation, 15 MB to run the program
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 SP1 or later
  • 800 X 600 or higher screen resolution

You can download version 8 here.

Source: Techtites, and LiveSide

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Aug 15

CyberNotes: Browser Download Shortcuts

Posted in: CyberNotes, Freeware, Opera, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on January 30, 2008 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Web Browser Wednesday

Did you know that both Firefox and Opera come with shortcuts to make downloading files a quick and painless process? It’s true, but few people know about the shortcuts that can save oodles of time. Lets take a look at how we can trim some time off of downloading files in Firefox and Opera.

–Firefox–

In the Firefox Options there is a setting where you can designate a default location for files to be downloaded. Once enabled it will automatically download all of the files to this location without ever prompting you. Some people like this because it requires far less work since it bypasses all prompts, but you also don’t get to choose the designated name for the file from within Firefox.

Firefox Downloads Options

It’s okay if you’re not one of those users who have it setup to automatically save files to one specific location, because we’ve got some tricks for you. Here are two ways that you can bypass being prompted for a location and file name on a per-download basis:

  1. Drag and drop a download link onto the download icon in the toolbar. This icon is not visible by default, but can be added by right-clicking on the navigation bar and dragging the icon where you would like it.
    Firefox Download Icon
  2. When you come across a file that you want just Alt+Click on the link.

Personally I prefer the Alt+Click method of doing thing because it seems faster than dragging a link to the toolbar, but it’s all a personal preference.

–Opera–

Opera also has some great tricks up its sleeve for making downloading both files and images just a little bit easier. If you head on over to the Preferences -> Advanced -> Downloads you’ll be able to specify a default download folder. This is the location used when you try to do some of the things we’re about to show you.

Opera Download Default

So how can you avoid some of the hassles with downloads in Opera? Here’s what you want to know:

  1. Right-click on any link and select the Save to Download Folder option to have the download start immediately without any prompts.
    Opera Save to Folder
  2. In the Transfers window (Ctrl+Alt+T) there is a box labeled Quick Download. Whatever address you paste into that box will be downloaded to your default location. You can also add this download box to any toolbar by right-clicking on a toolbar and selecting Customize. Then go to Buttons -> Panels, and drag the Quick Download box wherever you would like it.
    Opera Quick Download
  3. If you Ctrl+Click on an image you will immediately be prompted with the Save As dialog where you can specify the file name of the image. This is an alternative method to right-clicking on an image and selecting the save option.

It’s pretty incredible how many time-saving techniques have been implanted into the browsers, but very few people know about them. If you know of other great ways for quick downloads in Firefox or Opera be sure to leave a comment below.

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