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Jul 11

IE 8 Passes Acid 2 Test

Posted in: Internet Explorer, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on December 20, 2007 by CyberNet.

IE8 Acid 2 Test Microsoft has been receiving a heap of criticism lately for their Internet Explorer web browser, and the Opera antitrust suit just added more fuel to the flames. People want to see Internet Explorer follow the standards that other web browsers have already complied with, and that will hopefully increase the number of sites that are compatible outside of the IE realm.

Despite being overly “hush hush” about the next version of Internet Explorer, the development team has decided to help put our weary hearts at ease by telling us that the current internal version of Internet Explorer 8 already passes the Acid 2 test. There are not many *released* browsers out there that can boast such an accomplishment: Safari, Konqueror, and Opera. Firefox 3, which is expected for release in the first half of 2008, also passes the test.

If you’re thinking that Microsoft did this purely because of the pressure put on by Opera I think you’re wrong. It would have been pretty difficult for them to slap together Acid 2 compliance in such a short period of time, and I would therefore have to believe they’ve been working on it for awhile. Although I do have a strong inkling that they only posted this information because of the antitrust suit.

Now the only problem is browser adoption. Even though Internet Explorer 8 is going to be mounds better when it comes to standards, it won’t mean a thing if users don’t download it. I’ve been rather disappointed at the rate at which IE 7’s market share is increasing, and it looks as though many users are content with IE 6. Hopefully we’ll see more people adopting the standards compliant browsers in the future.

Internet Explorer 8 is not expected to be shipped until 2009, but Microsoft has said that the first Beta should be rolling out in the first half of 2008. If you’re anxious to give the new browser a whirl keep an eye out because an early look could be just a few months away.

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Jul 04

AOL Radio 2.0 for Mac

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Mac, Music, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on July 31, 2008 by CyberNet.

Mac only
AOL has retired the older version of their radio application for the Mac OS X operating system in favor of the new AOL Radio 2.0. The application is powered by CBS Radio, and includes over 200 radio stations including 150+ CBS Radio stations that are spread out across the United States.

The interface isn’t overly fancy, but it has some nice features including:

Save your favorite stations to presets.
Browse through stations according to genre.
When a new song starts playing a transparent overlay appears in the middle of the screen notifying you of the artist, song title, and displays the album cover. There are no preferences in the app yet, which means this feature can’t be turned off. The notification is fast so it’s not too annoying.
The dock icon for AOL Radio changes from song to song to show you what the album looks like. This is pretty sweet.

aol radio.png

I had never actually used the AOL Radio service until the iPhone application came out, and then I found several stations that I really liked. So when I saw that they released a compact application for the Mac I was pretty excited.

With that being said there are still some things they need to work out. Particularly the fact that they don’t have any preferences implemented yet, which means you can’t turn off things like the on-screen notifications. Plus there’s no way to search through the available radio stations. This is just the first Beta, so I’ll cut them some slack.

If you want access to AOL Radio without using an application you can jump over to the online version. You’ll need to have Flash installed, but it works on any operating system that way. Plus with the web interface you can actually skip the songs you don’t want to listen to.

Note: I’m not sure if the entire AOL Radio service is for the United States only. The iPhone app is only available for U.S. residents though.

Download AOL Radio 2 for Mac

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Jun 27

Public SMF 2.0 Beta Download

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

This article was written on March 19, 2008 by CyberNet.

simple machines 2

We’ve always been a huge fan of the Simple Machines Forum (SMF) software that powers our forum, and I’ve recommended it to a lot of other people. This free forum software is about to get even better as they just made the first public version of SMF 2.0 Beta available, and after 18-months in the making it looks pretty darn nice.

Before you go making the upgrade you might want to think about the packages (the things that are like add-ons) that you have installed. It’s highly unlikely that any of your packages will survive the upgrade, and you’ll need to wait until the authors get around to updating them for the new version. You’re good to go if you’re okay about not using any packages at this point.

There are all kinds of things new in this release including a ton of bug fixes, but here is a quick list of the best features:

WYSWIYG editor, to improve the user posting experience
Paid subscriptions to allow people to make a payment with PayPal to get additional group access
OpenID support – to enable users to login and register with their OpenID account
A moderation center to bring together all moderation functionality into one place for all people with moderation abilities
Post and attachment moderation – setup through board permissions.
Additional group management features such as group moderators and joinable and requestable groups
Comprehensive user warning system.
Personal message labeling system and new viewing options
Custom profile fields to enable admins to setup new profile fields in addition to the default
Ignore boards and ignore user functions – so users only see what they want to see
Scheduled events and mail queuing systems to add additional functionality to the forum
Admin and user logs to track who makes what changes to a user’s profile
Database abstraction including support for PostgreSQL and SQLite

We won’t be upgrading our forum to the new Beta quite yet, but I’ll definitely be setting up a quick test site to tinker with the new features.

Simple Machines Forum 2.0 Public Beta

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Jun 25

Google Earth 4 Beta Gets A Few New Features

Posted in: Google, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on November 02, 2006 by CyberNet.

Google Earth 4 Beta just got a few new features yesterday. It has been a few months since the last update but this one provides some things that could be very useful.

One of the new features is a drawing tool so that you can draw shapes and such directly in Google Earth and save them as KML or KMZ files that can be shared with others. In the past I have had troubles getting Google Earth to run at a normal pace in Vista but speed didn’t seem to be a problem this time around. It was running as quick as it always did on XP except I couldn’t get it to display the polygons. I could customize the shape but nothing would show up on the screen. I’m not sure if it is because I’m running it on Vista or if there is a compatibility issue with my graphics card.

That feature looked pretty cool, too. it would make it easier to give people directions if they were using Google Earth because you could make a building stand-out from the others. If you do want to see what it is supposed to look like then the What’s New Page has a working example of the polygon shapes.

There are also a few other new features:

Faster performance for 3D models

Improved caching of models
Support for compressed textures

New icons and icon management for easier navigation

New icons for pushpins and user palette
Coincident placemarks/icons now expand into a â€˜star-formationâ€™ for disambiguation when you click on them.

Improved Printing:

Now you can also print search results, and folders of placemarks, in addition to driving directions and the 3D view.

Download the newest Beta release of Google Earth 4

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Jun 17

Digsby: A Nice Cross-Network Messenger

Posted in: Email, Features, Freeware, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili, twitter, Yahoo

This article was written on April 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

I’ve been meaning to give Digsby a spin ever since the public Beta was released about two weeks ago. It looked like it was a well designed cross-network (and cross-platform) instant messenger, and it offered quite a few features that no other instant messengers have touched on before. And after having used it for only about 30 minutes I think I may have found myself a new messenger. In case you’re wondering it is free!

As you would expect with a cross-network messenger this one supports all of the major networks, just like the open-source Pidgin does. In addition to those you can also add some social networks like Twitter or Facebook where you can change your status from within Digsby. Still not impressed? Here’s a list of some of my favorite features it has:

AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber messenger account support
Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook support
Check Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail. AOL, IMAP, or POP accounts for new mail
Reply to instant messages directly from the popup notifications
Tabbed conversations
Audio/video chatting provided by TokBox
Inline spell checking
Update your status with the music you’re currently listening to
Complete synchronization across computers (including everything from skins to status messages you create)

One of the coolest features has got to be the fact that you can reply to messages from within the notification window that pops up. I mean really, that is pure genius right there. No more having to switch back to the chat window just to send a quick reply! What a huge time saver.

It’s also been difficult for me to find a good application or messenger that can support checking multiple email accounts, and also provide decent notifications when the new mail arrives. That’s one of the reasons I’ve really grown keen to Digsby. Not to mention that the interface is very easy on the eyes:

digsby

If you haven’t been content with your instant messenger then I recommend checking out Digsby. It’s completely free, and works on Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems.

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Jun 10

Avast! Antivirus for Windows Home Server (WHS)

Posted in: Pre-Release, Release Date, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on October 11, 2007 by CyberNet.

Avast Antivirus for Windows Home Server

As many of you probably know the free Avast! Home is my antivirus of choice, and there is a new Beta available for people running the recently released Windows Home Server (WHS). Anyone can download and install the Beta, and one of the big advantages that you’ll receive by using it is the central management screen that’s integrated into the WHS Console pictured above.

From within the WHS Console you’ll be able to do things like scan any computer on the network that’s running Avast!, update the virus definitions, adjust scheduled scans, or view the scanning history. To access Avast! on other computers you’ll also need to run a Beta version of Avast! Home or Professional editions on each of the client machine on the network.

A forum has been started for Avast! WHS Edition, but I’ve seen no mention of cost for the application. The regular Avast! Server Edition runs for several hundred dollars, and I’m not sure if they are willing to let the consumer server version go at no cost. Avast! plans on making the Beta period short-lived because come November a lot of the pre-built Windows Home Server devices will be shipping, and at that time we should have a better idea of the Avast! WHS price.

Avast! Antivirus for Windows Home Server [via Windows Connected]

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May 15

No, Firefox 3 Isn’t Ready for Prime-Time

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

This article was written on March 21, 2008 by CyberNet.

firefox spotlight There is a lot of talking going around the Internet about Firefox 3 Beta being ready for mass usage. It’s because of an article by Reuters where the creators of Firefox supposedly told them that the Firefox 3 Beta is ready for everyone to use after months of being in development.

The problem is that Reuters is really making it sound like everyone should go out and download Firefox 3 Beta as if it was officially released. I’ve been using nightly builds of Firefox 3 for months, and I can say that it has come a long ways. However, I wouldn’t go putting it on my mom’s computer because there are still some things that need to be polished before the browser is pushed out the door.

What I noticed is that Reuters doesn’t explicitly quote someone from Mozilla as saying that it is ready for prime-time, but they do have Mozilla’s Vice President saying that it is “much more stable than anything else out there.” Sure it might be stable, but what about the dozens or even hundreds of extensions that aren’t going to work like they do in Firefox 2? The developers and power users who are already using the Beta know what they could be getting themselves into.

I have a feeling that Reuters took some things out of context and drew up their own conclusion as to whether Firefox 3 Beta is ready for the masses, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see an announcement by Mozilla saying that this isn’t meant for everyone quite yet. I mean really, if everyone should be using it then why hasn’t it been officially released?

If you do want to give the latest Firefox 3 Beta a whirl I highly recommend snagging it from PortableApps. That way you can see what it has to offer and determine whether it is ready for you without having to install a thing, and your previous Firefox profiles will remain untouched.

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Apr 28

iPhone OS 3.0 beta 4, iTunes 8.2 pre-release now live

Posted in: iPhone, iphone 3g, Iphone3g, ipod touch, IpodTouch, itunes, Pre-Release, Today's Chili

Just two weeks after the last revision went up, Apple’s released iPhone OS 3.0 beta 4 to the developer community alongside an iTunes 8.2 pre-release. No word yet on what has / hasn’t been updated, but we do know the new iTunes is required to activate beta 4. More information as we get it.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Update: We’ve toyed with beta 4 for just a few quick moments now, and naturally, the first thing we had to check out was that previously-empty “Store” settings pane. It’s now populated, and it’s mega-boring; all it does is allow you to sign in and out of your iTunes account, and while signed in, there’s an Account Info button that lets you get booted out to an unstyled web page where you can view and edit your credit card information and the like. On the iTunes 8.2 side of things, we noticed that we were explicitly warned that the app would verify that our phone was activated for use with the beta firmware — we don’t remember seeing that before — and the Gracenote legal mumbo jumbo in the About window now specifically calls out both DVD and Blu-ray metadata, which we’re taking as a promising sign of playback support in the not-too-distant future. Thanks, David!

iPhone OS 3.0 beta 4, iTunes 8.2 pre-release now live originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 12

Ubuntu News Roundup

Posted in: Freeware, Linux, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili, ubuntu

This article was written on December 04, 2007 by CyberNet.

I’ve got a lot of news to share about Ubuntu, and instead of doing several different posts about it all I thought it would be better to aggregate the info into one convenient article. Prepare your minds for Ubuntu overload!

–Dell Ships 40,000 Ubuntu Machines–

Ubuntu Dell The Register managed to get their hands on some Dell stats, and they are actually rather impressive. It was back in May that Dell started offering Ubuntu as an operating system option on both laptops and desktops, and since then they have apparently shipped 40,000 units. I’m rather impressed with that number, but over 6-months has passed since the release which equates to about 220 computers being shipped every day.

The big question that this has left everyone asking is whether that’s good enough for Dell. They are shipping about 10 million computers every 3-months, and I’m not sure if they’ll see enough value in offering a line of computers where they can only ship 20,000 in the same period. It will be interesting to see how it plays out though.

–Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 1–

One of the joys with open source technology is that you can keep on top of future releases almost as if you were a developing it yourself. With that being said Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 1 (Hardy Heron) was just released, but it only brings a few goodies to the table. It has Xorg 7.3 which improves automatic graphics configuration, a few updated apps like Firefox and Gimp, and there are some new packages that were merged in from Debian.

It’s probably not worth an upgrade quite yet because you’ll risk compromising your system’s stability since it is such an early release. Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 2 is scheduled for December 20th, and then looking into next year Beta 1 is planned for March 27th. When all is said and done Ubuntu 8.04 will ship on April 24th, 2008 and it will be classified as a Long Term Support (LTS) release.

–Full Circle Magazine Issue #7–

Full Circle Magazine Issue 7 It’s that time again! The community-powered Ubuntu magazine is already on its 7th issue, and the cover story is on installing Ubuntu Studio. That version of Ubuntu is geared towards audio and video enthusiasts.

I’ve converted this issue of Full Circle Magazine into a JPEG image for those of you who don’t want to download the PDF, and here’s a quick overview of what issue #6 has in it:

Step-by-Step Ubuntu Studio Installation
How-To:

Simple SSH Install
A Terminal on your Desktop
Easily Convert from Windows
Learning Scribus Part 7

Wubi Installer Review
Top 5 Audio/Video Apps.
Interview with the Howard County Library
News, Letters, Q&A, MyDesktop and more

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Apr 08

Firefox 3 Download Manager, Resizable Toolbar Items, and More

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

This article was written on August 13, 2007 by CyberNet.

Pretty soon Firefox 3 is going to be feature complete, and all that will be left for them to do is fine-tune the things they have implemented. As we build up to that big moment there are some new features that are coming out of the shop for testers. This includes a spruced up download manager, resizable toolbar items, a plugin manager, and better looking menus.

So let’s go ahead and take a look at all the enhancements that have come about since Alpha 7 was released:

–Download Manager–

The download manager has gotten a lot more useful with the features they’ve added. First off it sorts your downloads with the ones currently in progress up top, and those that are completed down below:

Firefox 3 Download Manager

For any of the completed downloads you can click on the blue "i" for more information, such as the location it was downloaded from.

Then there is also the search box located in the bottom-left corner. That does a live search of all your completed items, and the results are then immediately displayed:

Firefox 3 Download Manager

At first I thought this might be really really nice, except I always setup Firefox to clear my completed downloads after they are finished. The reason why I do that is because it’s supposed to improve the startup time of the browser, and this feature is therefore rendered useless for me. So if you have Firefox setup to clear completed items in the Downloads window, the new layout and features won’t really do much for you.

–Resizable Toolbar Items–

This is a super sweet feature that I’m glad Mozilla got implemented. There is now a "Resizer" item in the Customization screen that can be added to the toolbars. It is the most useful for placing between the search box and address box, where you will then be able to drag it back and forth to resize the two boxes.

Firefox 3 Toolbar Resizer

It also works when placed between toolbar buttons, but the results may not be what you expect. I noticed that the buttons scrunch together when trying to resize them, and if space gets really tight they are just hidden. It would be a lot better if Mozilla worked on a way to scale the buttons to a size that would allow all of them to remain visible, but that might be something they are working on.

–Plugin Manager–

Plugin management has been taken from about:plugins to the same place where you manage extensions and themes. One of the most notable things that I saw when opening the plugin management was that it easily lets you disable certain items. For example, if you don’t want Flash enabled you can disable it right from the plugin management screen.

Firefox 3 Plugin Manager

The only problem, which can’t be seen in my screenshot, is that plugins with more than one file associated with them show up repeatedly. For me the issue was with Java, which had about 10 entries all given the same title.

–Menu Appearance–

The menus have also gotten a slight overhaul. Now Firefox 3 supports a Vista-like menu appearance. Some things take advantage of this, such as the History menu which shows the site’s icon next to the entries:

Firefox 3 Menus

–Overall–

Still to come in Firefox 3 is integration with Vista’s parental control system, a visual refresh/new default theme, Places enhancements, as well as a few other things that are pretty high priority. The next milestone, which is due September 18th, could be either an Alpha or a Beta build. Mozilla appears to be picking up the pace and getting some much-needed features implemented, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to me if they are able to move on to the Beta releases.

Sources: The Burning Edge, Ars Technica, Mozilla Links, Firefox Extension Guru & Kyle’s Cove
Thanks for the tip Mohan!

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Hasta La Gadget!

IE 8 Passes Acid 2 Test

AOL Radio 2.0 for Mac

Public SMF 2.0 Beta Download

Google Earth 4 Beta Gets A Few New Features

Digsby: A Nice Cross-Network Messenger

Avast! Antivirus for Windows Home Server (WHS)

No, Firefox 3 Isn’t Ready for Prime-Time

iPhone OS 3.0 beta 4, iTunes 8.2 pre-release now live