Hasta La Gadget!

Consider this a most speculative bit of news for now, but a few Facebookers have today been confronted by a new, heretofore unseen “Call” button when visiting their friends’ profiles. Mashing on that icon didn’t connect them and their buddies don’t seem to have received any alerts at all, but the fact remains that the world’s most popular website just did something a little bit different. The logical suspicion is that the Skype partnership that saw Facebook Connect infiltrate the web telephony service is now bearing fruit in the other direction with us seeing a bit of Skype functionality being built into the social network.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Facebook may be developing, testing VoIP calls straight through its website originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cutting through the back and forth surrounding Windows Phone 7 tethering are two new hacks, with one being markedly easier than the other to implement. After discovering the option in Samsung’s Focus and Omnia 7 late last year, engineering minds over at xda-developers have now uncovered a method to allow USB internet tethering on HTC’s smattering of Windows Phone 7 handsets. Unfortunately, you’ll need to unlock your device before any of this will work, but the case is definitely different for Dell’s Venue Pro. For that one, you’ll simply need to modify the .INF file — no unlock required. Hit the links below for the devilish details, and try not to set up a P2P farm using your phone’s 3G connection. We hear carriers are none too fond of that foolhardiness.

[Thanks, Lake]

Hack brings USB tethering to HTC Windows Phone 7 devices, Dell Venue Pro originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ever been freaked out by an online ad that seemed to know you that little bit too well? It’s the result of good old advertisers tracking your net-navigating habits and delivering targeted commercials to your eyeballs, but it can be prevented. Both Google and Mozilla have stepped up (or perhaps been pushed by the FTC) to try and tackle this issue of pernicious tracking cookies, but they’ve gone about it in different ways. The Chrome solution is a Keep My Opt-Outs browser extension that remembers the sites you don’t want personalized information from, while Firefox will start beaming out a Do Not Track HTTP header that should be respected by advertisers and result in you receiving generic, repetitive ads. The important commonality between the two is that they don’t rely on you preparing a cookie file with all your anti-advertiser bile contained within it (which was the FTC’s original, somewhat impractical idea). Google intends to open-source its extension and bring it to other browsers as well, though obviously it’s taking care of Chrome first, which can benefit from the add-on right now.

Chrome and Firefox adding new opt-out features to prevent third-party advertisers from tracking you originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Opera has officially announced its much-loved web browser will be appearing on Sony TVs and Blu-ray players. There’s no specific details, but it given its low-key presence at CES a few weeks ago (Sony Insider grabbed a video of it in action on the show floor — embedded after the break — unfortunately hampered by slow connection speeds) it will spread at least across the company’s 22 new connected HDTVs. Since the browser is based off of the Opera devices SDK backbone, it’s also not a stretch to imagine that Opera-enabled web applications, widgets, or other content using standards like HTML5 (no Flash, at least not yet) could piggy back onto Sony gear at some point. The real elephant in the room though is how this move relates to the Japanese tech giant’s Internet TV initiative that’s powered by Google TV. While we can’t imagine it signals Mountain View’s solution is destined for a dumping, between this and a similar move by Samsung including a browser in its own Smart TV platform, a little bit of jealousy could be just the kick Google needs to fix some glaring issues — which we’re all for, especially if it spawns a new round of potato based cajoling.

Continue reading Opera browser headed to Sony TVs and Blu-ray players

Opera browser headed to Sony TVs and Blu-ray players originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember when the UK started distributing free laptops to poor schoolchildren in order to encourage them to get online? Well, a new, more frugal government is now in charge, and while the original scheme has been scrapped, today we’re hearing of alternative plans to help economically disadvantaged people leap onto the worldwide surfer’s web. The coalition government intends to offer £98 ($156) computers — which include an LCD monitor, keyboard, mouse, warranty, and a dedicated helpline — paired with subsidized £9 ($14) per month internet connections in its effort to show that the web doesn’t have to seem (or be) unaffordable. The cheapest machines will be refurbished units running open-source Linux distros, meaning that if this Race Online 2012 trial turns out well, we could see a whole new group of Linux loyalists rising up. The more the merrier!

UK aims to improve access to technology, internet with £98 Linux PCs originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Jan 2011 09:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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