Aug 24

Ubiquity: Where the Command Line Meets Firefox

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

This article was written on August 27, 2008 by CyberNet.

ubiquity.png

Mozilla has released a new prototype extension that attempts to bring the command line to the browser. The extension, called Ubiquity, uses a set of predefined commands to do things like map an address the user has highlighted, shoot off an email, and more. A good example of this can be seen in the screenshot above where the user highlighted “Chicago Comics,” launched Ubiquity, and was given a list of matching addresses.

Once you’ve got Ubiquity installed you’ll be able to press Control+Space (Option+Space on Mac) to launch the command line window. From there you can use one of the 71 built-in commands (that URL will only work if you’ve installed Ubiquity) to manipulate highlighted text, perform searches, and more. Plus users can even create and share their own Ubiquity commands.

The extension is pretty powerful, and I was surprised at it’s stability considering what an early release it is. They’ve setup a nice tutorial for beginners that will walk you through how a lot of the different stuff works, and it’s something you’ll really need to go through if you want to make the most of what it has to offer. There’s also a video demonstration I’ve posted at the end of this article.

I’ve read on some sites that a feature like this could be something we see in the next big Firefox release. In the past Mozilla has said that they only add features to the browser that will be used by over 90 percent of their users. Ubiquity is undeniably appealing to power users who praise the keyboard, but anyone that is mouse-centric probably won’t touch this with a ten foot pole. My guess is that this one will remain in the land of add-ons.

So what do you think of it? Is it something you’ll use, just try out, or don’t even have any plans on installing it?

Ubiquity Homepage
Thanks Trip!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Aug 23

Desktop Composition Software Changes the Face of Music

Posted in: Music, Software, Software and Operating Systems, Today's Chili

Nodal helps visualize the musical structure of Beethoven's Für Elise. Photo Michele Travierso/Wired.com

It’s the quintessential image of a classical composer: the gifted musician sitting with a thousand-yard stare at his piano, quill and paper ready to be inked with a new concerto or symphony. Today’s equivalent could just as likely be a musician staring at a computer screen.

Nodal, a new program designed to create and visualize music, aims to have the same sweeping impact on music composition that the Information Age has had on other creative domains.

Developed by researchers and musicians at the at Monash University in Clayton, Australia, Nodal allows you to visualize the musical structure (i.e. intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-outro for the most basic pop song to more complex structures of symphonies) of any composition in a new visual form (i.e. a series of “nodes,” or singular musical events). Essentially doing away with sheet music, Nodal makes it easier for you to change or improvise compositions as they play in real time.

I gave it a test run, and readily concede I am devoid of musical talent. I launched one of the examples Nodal comes with (Fur Elise). It plays fine enough, if not automated and lacking soul. With a few clicks of my mouse, I incorporated a piano loop that I didn’t hate. All further attempts at producing anything decent were unsuccessful.

Ultimately, my one melodic success was less a feat of musical prowess than a stroke of luck. While Nodal may be of interest to professional composers, it’s no tool for the masses.

Nodal has a built-in synthesizer and works with MIDI compatible hardware and software. You can download a 30-day trial version of Nodal or buy it for $30.


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Aug 23

Android Apps Come to Google TV With Software Release

Posted in: Android, apps, developers, Home Audio and Video, Media Players, sdk, Software, Software and Operating Systems, Today's Chili

The Logitech Revue was the first set top box to launch with Google TV. With the newly released software tools, developers can now create Android apps for Google TV. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Google released a set of software tools on Monday that will allow developers to create Android applications for Google TV devices.

With the new tools, developers can test their existing mobile or tablet Android applications in a big-screen environment, eventually porting them over to run on Google TV. It’s also possible to create new Android applications made specifically for Google TV.

“With the add-on you can test your apps to determine if they would be a good fit for TV and whether any tweaks are required,” wrote Google TV product manager Ambarish Kenghe in a blog post.

Apps made specifically to interact with mobile and tablet interfaces, however, won’t run on the Google TV interface. For instance, if an application requires touchscreen interaction, a Google TV user won’t be able to find the app on the Android Market.

Google’s “smart TV” platform received much attention and critical praise after debuting it at the I/O developer conference last year. But after major networks began to block online versions of their content to Google TV set top boxes right around the time of Google TV’s launch, the product failed to catch on widely with consumers. So much so that Logitech, one of the largest manufacturers of Google TV set top boxes, reported “slightly negative” revenues for its Revue Google TV units, as product returns outpaced sales in the second quarter.

Still, Google has a chance to bolster the Google TV platform’s following by cross-breeding it with Android, a platform with a far stronger fan base.

Google TV devices will be Android compatible after an upcoming Android OS update to version 3.0 (Honeycomb).

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Aug 23

Square app update lets iOS users buy cookies on credit, sans signature

Posted in: app, application, ios, ipad, iPhone, itunes, mobilepostcross, money, Software, Today's Chili, update
Heads up, card swipers, because Square has just issued an update to its iOS credit card app. Version 2.1 brings enhanced transaction speeds and a streamlined tipping interface to iPhone and iPad users, along with added support for $0.00 price points. Plus, any purchases below $25 will no longer require a signature, meaning you can safely buy that latte while keeping human interaction to a bare minimum. If you’re interested in making the jump, hit up the source link below.

[Thanks, Chris]

Square app update lets iOS users buy cookies on credit, sans signature originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 23

Windows 7 Download NOT Leaked

Posted in: leaked, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, windows 7

This article was written on January 28, 2008 by CyberNet.

Windows 7 With all the buzz surrounding Windows 7 in the last two weeks it comes as no surprise that there is a supposed leaked copy floating around the Internet. Torrent sites quickly picked up on the “leaked” version of Windows, and after that it started to spread like wildfire.

As users finished downloading the 2.19GB worth of data reports of the validity started coming in, and they weren’t good. It turns out that the whole thing is just an empty file that serves no purpose. Yes, it was all just a joke. Funny, huh?

For the curious minds out there doing a Google search for one of the following terms will bring up a list of sites that have the torrent available:

win7.6519.1.071220-1525.lab_internal.milestone1
OR
Windows 7 M1 – REPACKED ISO

I haven’t tried the download myself, but there are several reports of the file containing all 0′s when being opened in a hex editor, revealing that it is not the real deal.

Something is really boggling my mind though. Where’s the sense in wanting to give this a shot ? It looks like Vista, and will act like Vista with only some minor changes. There will probably be hardware compatibility issues, crashing, and more that will plague the operating system when it’s at such an early stage. Even if the download was real I still wouldn’t be enticed enough to want to try it out.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Aug 23

World Firefox Day: Get Your Name In Firefox 2.0

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on July 16, 2006 by CyberNet.

World Firefox Day: Get Your Name In Firefox 2.0
 

Everyone was wondering how Mozilla planned to market Firefox 2.0 and it looks like they have revealed how. They have started the World Firefox Day and want to put your name in the new Firefox 2.0 that is scheduled for release this fall. All you have to do is enter in your name and email address and then enter your friends name and email address. If they download and install Firefox before September 15, 2006 then both of your names will be included on the digital Firefox “wall”.

Here are some quick things I thought were interesting from their FAQ’s page:

  • This started yesterday, July 15, because it was Mozilla’s birthday.
  • You can only nominate one friend so you need to make sure that they aren’t using Firefox.
  • There will also be a wall at the Mozilla headquarters, and they plan on bringing it with to conferences and such.
  • They are still working on the details of how to display it in Firefox 2.

Even non-Firefox fans have to give Mozilla credit for their clever marketing plan. The problem that I have is that I don’t know many people that don’t have Firefox :D .

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Aug 23

ERPLY’s mobile credit card reader handles NFC payments on an iPad, obliterates the check-out line

Posted in: business, enterprise, ios, ipad, iPhone, money, nfc, retail, smartphone, Software, tablet, Today's Chili
It may look like nothing more than a glorified chip clip, but that dongle at the bottom of this guy’s iPad is actually ERPLY’s new credit card reader — the latest addition to a growing field of NFC and mobile payment devices designed for small and large businesses. Once attached to an iPad’s charging port, the peripheral will send a user’s encrypted credit card information to ERPLY’s point-of-sale and inventory management software, allowing customers to purchase products on the store room floor and giving retailers the ability to monitor transactions and stock flows in real time. Available for $50 (with a transaction fee of 1.9 percent), the reader is also equipped to handle both NFC and traditional card payments and, after processing a purchase, will automatically send a receipt to consumers via text or e-mail. At the moment, it’s only available for the iPad, though iPhone users should be able to get their own version within the next three months. Swipe past the break for more information, in the full press release.

Continue reading ERPLY’s mobile credit card reader handles NFC payments on an iPad, obliterates the check-out line

ERPLY’s mobile credit card reader handles NFC payments on an iPad, obliterates the check-out line originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 03:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 22

Open Source ClamAV Acquired by Sourcefire

Posted in: Freeware, Linux, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on August 17, 2007 by CyberNet.

ClamAVSourcefire announced today that they acquired the open source antivirus application called ClamAV. This news conveniently comes just one week after ClamAV was ranked one of the best antivirus applications for the Linux operating system. It even beat out almost all of the commercial solutions that were available.

Here’s what Sourcefire had to say about the acquisition:

With nearly 1 million unique IP addresses downloading ClamAV malware updates daily across more than 120 mirrors in 38 countries, ClamAV is one of the most broadly adopted open source security projects worldwide.
…
The ClamAV team will remain dedicated to the project as Sourcefire employees, continuing their management of the project on a day-to-day basis.

Sourcefire is best known for their open source Snort application that has been around since 1998. It’s used to perform packet logging and real-time traffic analysis on networks to detect and prevent of intrusions. It also supports the scanning of packets using *drumroll* ClamAV!

Don’t worry though, ClamAV will remain open source and will still be actively developed by the core team. Overall, this has got to be a good thing because the project will now have the engineering and financial backing of a much larger organization.

Note: ClamAV was created to work with Unix-based computers, but there is also a Windows version available.

ClamAV FAQ’s Regarding the Acquisition
Sourcefire FAQ’s Regarding the Acquisition (PDF)
Sourcefire Announcement and Press Release
Source: CyberNet Forum (Thanks Richard!)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Aug 22

Compatible AntiVirus Software List for Windows Vista

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista

This article was written on February 02, 2007 by CyberNet.

One of the major factors that is keeping people from upgrading to Windows Vista is the software compatibility factor. Not all software is prepared for Vista which can make the upgrade frustrating. There are several sites putting together lists of software as they become compatible. You can find the complete list here, broken down into categories.  It’s a Wiki, so if you know of additional software that’s Vista Compatible, you can go ahead and add it to the list. Below you’ll find a list of compatible AntiVirus software.  Afterall, a good anti-virus is absolutely necessary, and one of the first things you should probably install.

AntiVirus:

Other Vista Stuff:

FYI: Despite the fact that Nero 7.5.7.0 is the latest version of software and claims to support Vista, there’s a minor glitch when installing it.  OldManDeath commented on this back in October, we personally experienced this, and SLA sent us a message about it recently.  When installing Nero Premium 7.5 on Vista, you’ll get a dialogue window telling you that it wants to improve your system by installing DirectX 9.0c.  However, Vista comes with DirectX 10.0 built-in! It’s wanting to take you back to a previous version. This was an issue back in October, and it’s still an issue today; unfortunately we don’t have a screenshot of it.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Aug 22

Firefox Mobile Demo Shows off a Fancy Interface

Posted in: Freeware, mobile, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on June 12, 2008 by CyberNet.

Earlier this year we posted some mockups of the Firefox Mobile that looked a lot like the Safari browser does on the iPhone. I think everyone expected other companies to copy their interface since Apple has received a lot of praise for their browser being “usable,” but it looks like Mozilla is finally making use of the recently hired Aza Raskin who’s well known for Enso (review) and Songza (review).

Aza put together a demo video that shows off a direction Mozilla might be taking with Firefox Mobile, and it not only looks nice but is also different from how the iPhone operates. One thing that they really focused on doing was utilizing the entire screen on a mobile device, after all there’s normally not a lot to work with. For that reason there’s essentially no visible buttons most of the time, and instead they are tucked away on the sides of the screen. Watch the video to see what I mean:

The new tab system is pretty cool, huh? They were definitely clever with how they designed that, and anyone that’s used any sort of mobile browser before would probably agree that being able to organize your tabs in this way would be extremely helpful.

I’m still wondering if hiding the buttons off to the side is the best way to go. For example, when scrolling vertically on my iPhone it can sometimes be difficult to scroll perfectly up and down. With a browser like this I would probably be showing the menu a lot more than I’d like to when all I want to do is move around the current page.

What still amazes me is that the mobile browsers still haven’t attempted some kind of gesture system for navigating, just like mouse gestures on a regular computer. You’ll obviously still need to have some sort of buttons available, but throwing in four or five gestures could possibly account for a majority of the things a user wants to do (back, forward, bookmark, new tab, etc…).

Is this the mobile browser you’ve been waiting for?

Read more about the new design at Aza’s blog [via Lifehacker]
Thanks to “Googler” for the tip!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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