Posts filed under 'Online Life'
We love Mozilla products here at TechSmec.com even though in the back of our minds we can’t help feeling that their Microsoft equivalents are getting a raw deal in terms of press. Even with that love, the arrival of a new (or at least, slightly enhanced) version of Thunderbird, Mozilla’s email rival to Outlook, has left us a little underwhelmed.
In keeping with the fact that this is a ‘dot’ release and not a complete new version, most of the new features are under the hood. That being said, there is some fairly useful stuff there - you just won’t notice most of it in action.
Firstly Mozilla have streamlined and automated updates, just as they did with Firefox 1.5 last year. Thunderbird now automatically downloads small updates in the background and prompts users when they are ready for installation, rather that demanding a reinstall of the entire application. This was always one of Thunderbird’s more annoying features, so it’s good to see it resolved.
There’s a new built-in “phishing” detector helping protect users against email scams by flagging suspicious email messages. This is really just a tweak to the built in spam filter and probably just looks for banking related words in the email content.
Mozilla has added RSS and Podcasting support, although the implementation of this doesn’t seem particularly useful. We’ll be giving it a try in the next few days to see how it works.
Finally Thunderbird 1.5 boasts several refinements to email composition including “spell check as you type,” “auto save as draft” mail composition, and the ability to delete attachments from email.
Thunderbird 1.5 is available immediately as a free download from http://www.getthunderbird.com/.
January 13th, 2006
The community-edited Wikipedia online encyclopedia has found itself the focus of some unwanted attention, courtesy of John Seigenthaler, a retired journalist who served as Robert Kennedy’s administrative assistant in the early 1960s.
Writing in USA Today, Seigenthaler describes how he discovered his biography on Wikipedia (he was probably Googling himself - we’ve all done it!), but was shocked to discover the accusation that he was involved in the assassination of Kennedy in the early 60s.
“John Seigenthaler Sr. was the assistant to Attorney General Robert Kennedy in the early 1960’s,” said the biog. “For a brief time, he was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both John, and his brother, Bobby. Nothing was ever proven.”
Seigenthaler eventually got the accusation removed and then launched into at attempt to track down the writer. Wikipedia provided him with an IP address which was traced to BellSouth Internet, but then ISP refused to disclose the identity of the poster citing privacy laws. The only way of identifying the culprit would have been via a lawsuit, which Seigenthaler decided not to pursue.
The nature of Wikipedia is that it relies on the good will of its users to a) not post incorrect information b) edit it promptly when the inevitable errors, planned or otherwise, creep in. In some cases this model is flawed and of course, the Wikipedia brand is one that encourages trust from its readers, making false information very powerful.
Seigenthaler is quite sanguine about the whole business.”And so we live in a universe of new media with phenomenal opportunities for worldwide communications and research,” he writes. “But populated by volunteer vandals with poison-pen intellects.”
December 1st, 2005
Skype today released the beta version of Skype 2.0, the newest version of its software that allows anyone with an Internet connection to make free Internet calls. The software is designed for greater ease of use, integrated video calling, and enhanced features that allow people to stay in touch and express themselves online. Skype also announced its collaboration with global headset and Webcam partner Logitech, as well as partnerships with Webcam manufacturer Creative, and with weblog software and services company Six Apart.
Available in 27 languages, Skype is used by people in almost every country around the world, and Skyping has become a global phenomenon. The latest version of the software has further simplified the Skype interface, making it even easier for people to see and speak with their family, friends and colleagues.
“At Skype we want to make talking over the Internet the most natural, simple thing for people all over the world to do. With the release of our new software, it’s never been easier for people to talk to one another for free, and now they can see each other with video as well,” said Niklas Zennstrom, CEO of Skype.
Skype 2.0 Beta Features
The beta version of Skype 2.0 is available for people to download at www.skype.com. The free software includes:
* Skype Video - see your friends and family on the full computer screen or in the Skype calling window. Skype Video also includes a window to view what you look like to the person you are calling.
* Simplified user interface - an intuitive menu with one-click access to key features and options makes it even easier for the whole world to talk for free.
* Self-expression - broadcast your mood along with your online presence. Let your contacts know whether you’re happy, sad, listening to your favorite music, available to talk or do not want to be disturbed.
* Personalization - personalize your Skype identity with avatars or custom ring tones. http://personal.skype.com
* See your contacts’ time zones - before you wake up your friends, family or colleagues take a quick glance to see what time it is in their location.
* Group your contacts - organize your contacts by grouping your friends, co-workers or family members. Start conference calls, chats or file sharing with the whole group with just one click.
* Real-time contact search - look up contacts in real-time by typing a name into the dialing field.
* Skype toolbar for Microsoft Outlook - one-click calling to contacts from your Microsoft Outlook address book.
Skype Video gives users free, high-quality video calling capabilities. Compatible with almost any Webcam, Skype Video is fully integrated into Skype calling, and can be adjusted to provide full-screen video with just one click. After downloading Skype 2.0, simply plug in a Webcam to start using video for free. Skype-certified Webcams will be available from Creative at select retailers in Europe and from Logitech through the Skype Web store located at http://www.skype.com/store.
“Logitech is a pioneer in video just as Skype has pioneered Internet calling,” said Junien Labrousse, Logitech senior vice president of the entertainment and communications business unit. “Together we are providing a superior video communications experience to Skype’s community around the world.”
Skype Certified Webcams
Skype has partnered with Logitech to jointly market Skype video and offer select Skype-certified Webcams including the Logitech QuickCam Fusion webcam and the QuickCam for Notebooks Pro webcam. The Webcams come complete with Logitech Video Effects software, a 1.3 megapixel sensor, Logitech RightLight technology, Logitech RightSound technology, intelligent face tracking and a Logitech headset, providing a complete package to begin using Skype video right away.
Skype is also working with Creative, who introduced a Skype-certified Webcam for use with its new video-based Internet phone service. Known as the Creative WebCam Instant Skype Edition, this new Webcam comes with a personal headset with microphone, software and a stand-alone microphone for use when several people wish to talk.
People can find Skype-certified products, such as Webcams, headsets and USB phones at www.skype.com/store, at major U.S. retailers such as RadioShack, and at select retailers in Europe.
Express Yourself Online
Skype 2.0 also offers users the ability to show their availability and initiate Skype calls directly from a blog or personal Web site. Skype has partnered with Six Apart, to let users of its TypePad blogging service integrate Skype presence into their weblogs. Skype users, who use TypePad for their blogs, can indicate to visitors on their site when they are online, and allow visitors to easily initiate a Skype call right from the Web page. Similarly, hundreds of companies are integrating Skype’s application into their own services to provide people with enhanced communications tools. For example, Webdialogs is already working to integrate Web presence into its services.
December 1st, 2005
British entrepreneur, Ben Cohen, who made a name for himself in the boom and bust dot-com years of the 90s, has finally given up his claim to the iTunes.co.uk domain name.
For the last few years he’s been involved in a running battle with Apple over the domain which he registered in 2000, ten days after Apple had registered the iTunes trademark in the UK.
Cohen always claimed the registration was innocent, but he didn’t exactly enamour himself to Apple by firstly demanding $50,000 for the domain, then redirecting it to Napster and finally claiming that Apple users were all members of a ‘cult’.
Well, he has TechSmec.com’s backing on the last point, but the fact that Cohen never built a legitimate website around the domain suggests that he always had the domain’s potential value in mind when it was registered.
Nominet, the UK domain registration authority, has confirmed that legal action has now ceased and that Cohen has given up any claim to the domain. However, defiant to the end, Cohen told The Register that it was ‘might, not right’ that had won the day.
November 25th, 2005
The blogs are alight with discussion about the discovery that a recently released Sony music CD installs a rootkit when it is played on a Windows PC.
A rootkit is a tool that can be used to compromise computer systems without detection. The existence of the rootkit was uncovered by Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals and documented in fascinating detail on his blog.
Although the right of music companies to protect their assets is being grudgingly accepted by most computer users, the use of such tools to do so is being widely condemned, not least by Mark Russinovich himself.
“The entire experience was frustrating and irritating,” he writes. “Not only had Sony put software on my system that uses techniques commonly used by malware to mask its presence, the software is poorly written and provides no means for uninstall. Worse, most users that stumble across the cloaked files with a RKR scan will cripple their computer if they attempt the obvious step of deleting the cloaked files.”
The end user has to agree to a license agreement before the CD will play which does make mention of the DRM software to be installed.
“…this CD will automatically install a small proprietary software program (the “SOFTWARE”) onto YOUR COMPUTER. The SOFTWARE is intended to protect the audio files embodied on the CD, and it may also facilitate your use of the DIGITAL CONTENT. Once installed, the SOFTWARE will reside on YOUR COMPUTER until removed or deleted. However, the SOFTWARE will not be used at any time to collect any personal information from you, whether stored on YOUR COMPUTER or otherwise.”
Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? The good folk of the internet don’t think so and an almighty stink is being kicked up.
Sony has yet to respond.
Source: MediaCenterPCWorld
November 2nd, 2005
The traditional Christmas card will soon be consigned to history by individual mobile phone-based greetings cards, according to the founders of Stampster.co.uk, a new no-subscription picture customising website.
Stampster says that the number of Christmas messages sent by mobile phone has nearly doubled in three years. A 2005 YouGov survey of UK mobile trends found that 56% of Britons already wish their friends ‘Merry Christmas’ by mobile. A similar survey in 2002 found that just over 30% of Britons sent Christmas greetings this way.
And according to Stampster, the final nail in the coffin of the traditional card is the rise of picture messaging. With most modern mobiles featuring cameras and colour screens, Britons are bridging the gap between traditional cards and plain text messages by personalising their own pictures to send to the mobiles of friends and loved ones.
This is made easy by the Stampster website, which lets users upload photos, customise them by adding picture frames and send them to mobiles as a personal Christmas greeting or any type of message for just £1.50 per image sent, which is charged to the sender’s mobile phone bill.
Special Christmas Multi-Packs are also available, letting users generate a Stampster greetings card and bulk send it to ten friends for only £5 – meaning personalised mobile Christmas cards for only 50 pence.
Stampster co-founder Dominic Conlon said: “The death of the Christmas card by mobile message has been forecast since the start of the decade. But now that mobile users can have both the immediacy of texts with the emotions of a picture using Stampster, the traditional card’s days really are numbered.
“Traditional cards are associated with the older generation, while younger people prefer the fun and immediacy of making their own Christmas greeting. After over 150 years of sending cards by post, Christmas greetings are starting to move with the times – and at less than the price of an ordinary card plus postage.”
November 1st, 2005
Google has moved quickly to scotch rumours that it is about to launch an eBay-like classified or auction service.
Internet rumours multiplied yesterday after screenshots were posted online showing a Google interface that could potentially, with the eye of faith, be the genesis of an online classified sytem.
If you actually take a step back and look at what the page actually says (and what the service is apparently called - Google Base) then it appears that Google is actually soliciting you to add just about anything to a massive online database. Admittedly one of the suggestions is to upload details of a car for sale, but that sits alongside the idea that you could upload a database of protein structures (not commonly found on eBay).
The page also implies that results from Google Base might one day appear in the main search engine listings. Google is trying to index the world!
The official Google blog flatly denies the, frankly rather boring, eBay rumours, but does confirm the much grander plan of storing user-submitted content. “We are testing a new way for content owners to submit their content to Google, which we hope will complement existing methods such as our web crawl and Google Sitemaps. We think it’s an exciting product, and we’ll let you know when there’s more news,” says the blog.
October 26th, 2005
We always knew the Swedes were a little bit ‘unusual’ and Dr Walid Elias Kai, a search engine officianado from that fair country, has just proved it by naming his baby ‘Google’.
Baby Google Kai can now look forward to a long school career of being teased about his name and of course, most hilariously of all, being called MSN or Yahoo! or Jeeves or [ that’s enough! Ed. ].
However, Dr Kai seems to have missed this point as he claims he chose the name so that his son would have lots of friends, a Googol being a 1 followed by 100 zeros. Apparently young Google will have no such problems “if he is using Google Search engine and he is building new idea with his friends around The Psychometric and Informational Structural Mind”.
OK.
Read all about exotically-named Swedish babies at Google’s website.
October 21st, 2005
MSN and Yahoo are expected to announce a deal that would see their instant messaging clients able to communicate for the first time, allowing MSN users to chat directly with Yahoo users, without going through a third party piece of software.
The move is widely seen as an attempt to challenge the market leadership of AOL in the IM field and the imminent threat of Google Talk, the search giant’s first foray into instant messaging. Even the combined market share of MSN and Yahoo will not be enough to topple AOL however as it currently enjoys more than 50% of the worldwide IM user base.
October 12th, 2005
blinkx has announced the launch of my blinkx.tv - a new service available through its video search engine, www.blinkx.tv.
At my blinkx.tv, users can upload and store their video blogs free of charge; they can also enter a search and save it as a “channel”, which will be automatically and perpetually updated with relevant footage. This personal “channel” can then be viewed as a single, uninterrupted media stream, either online, or when downloaded to their desktops or portable video player. In this way, blinkx is empowering Internet users to customize not only what video content they receive, but also how and when they view it.
Someone can upload personal footage and commentary on Hurricane Katrina to my blinkx.tv. blinkx will then automatically normalize the content, convert it into Flash, create an audio transcript, and index the file. The user’s video clip will then become part of a living library, so that another visitor to my blinkx.tv who searched for New Orleans and weather would find that segment on Hurricane Katrina, along with other related user generated content, featured in their own customized channel.
“There’s been a huge amount of noise about IPTV, but we’ve yet to see any real progress in this area,” said blinkx founder Suranga Chandratillake. “At blinkx, we believe that IPTV should combine the interactive, customizable experience of the Internet, with the simple, seamless way we watch TV - with my blinkx.tv, we’re collaborating with our users to experiment with how we think that might look.”
my blinkx.tv gives both users and content providers a glimpse of the future and sets a new expectation for what users can anticipate from their interactions with TV and Internet content. The service, which today exclusively leverages exciting user generated content, is expected to expand rapidly to include popular titles from major commercial content providers.
October 4th, 2005
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