Microsoft leaks plans for a Windows 8 app store

According to leaked documents making the rounds of the Internet, Microsoft's Windows 8 will come with an app store, allowing users to download Microsoft-endorsed apps and sync settings across all their Windows 8 devices.

 

The service will be hosted entirely in the cloud, with a focus on helping developers reach an audience with a simple sales and licensing process. Consumers will be able to search on the web or locally on a Windows 8 machine to access applications from the store.

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Blogger Labels: windows store,windows 8,Microsoft

Facebook Snags the Guy Who Built Google's Chrome OS

The battle between Facebook and Google just got even hotter with the news that the social network has hired Matthew Papakipos, the man who started and lead both the Google Chrome OS. Papakipos said in a Tweet, so he's leaving to join the project team at Facebook.

 

@papakipos: Now that Chrome OS & WebGL are in good shape, it's time for something new. I'm going to work @ Facebook! Love the product and team. Woot!

 

Along with the hire of Papakipos, Facebook also announced that it has hired Jocelyn Goldfein, a former VP and GM of virtualization giant VMware's desktop business unit.

Gmail Gets One-Click Microsoft Word Previews

Google announced a handy new feature for Gmail: one-click previews for Microsoft Word documents. This new features works for .doc and .docx format. The new preview feature for Word documents replaces the "view as HTML" option in Gmail.

 

The new Word previews definitely look far better than the HTML preview. It handles page breaks, footnotes and other more advanced features without any issues. If you want to edit the document in Google Docs, once additional click from the previewer will open the document for editing. You can also save the document to your Google Docs account.You can also download the document and edit it in your desktop word processor.

 

Blogger Labels: Gmail,Microsoft,Word,Google,documents,preview,Docs

Google Now Distributes Chrome with Built-In Flash Player

Google released a new stable version of Chrome. This new release for Windows, Mac and Linux is the first stable version of Chrome to be distributed with a built-in version of Adobe's widely used Flash Player.

 

Google's update mechanism ensures that the browser stays up to date, without any intervention from the user. In addition to this, Google can also test the specific version of Flash it distributes with the browser and ensure that it is stable.

 

Don't Like Flash in Chrome!! Just Disable It.

If you don't want to use Flash in Chrome, you can just type "about:plugins" in the address bar in Chrome and disable the plugin.

 

Blogger Labels: Google,Chrome,Flash,Adobe,Disable,browser

Google Moves Encrypted Search to New Domain

Google announced that it was moving domains for its encrypted search from https://www.google.com to https://encrypted.google.com.

 

In May Google launched an encrypted version of its Web search, allowing users to enable a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection to encrypt their information as they searched.

Encrypted Web Search has capability to perform searches with better protection against snooping from third parties. So, Search is more secure with encrypted google web search.

 

Blogger Labels: SSL,Encrypted,Google,Domain,Secure,protection,Sockets

Porn sites will finally get .XXX domain

ICANN, the organization that controls top-level domain names, is reportedly ready to approve the controversial .XXX domain, intended for use by porn sites.

 

Blogger Labels: Domain,ICANN

Google's HTML5 plans for Gmail include 1 second-to-Inbox startup

Google wants to deliver a more desktop-like user experience in Gmail, and they're planning to lean on HTML5 to do it. Recently Google added drag-and-drop support. Google is now working on reversing the process -- allowing us to drag files out of Gmail messages and drop them onto our local folders.

 

With the upcoming extension app support in Google Chrome, it will divide between Gmail as a Web app and desktop email with permission to access additional local resources, and will eventually lead to Gmail startup times of "less than a second."

 

Blogger Labels: extension,app,HTML5,Google,Gmail,Chrome

eBay Buys RedLaser

Online auction and marketplace eBay announced today that it has acquired the popular iPhone barcode scanning application RedLaser, application and the image recognition technology.

 

eBay says it plans to quickly integrate the barcode scanning technology into its current family of apps across its various brands, which include services like StubHub and Shopping.com. With over 200 million listings on eBay and over 7,000 merchants on Shopping.com, eBay's purchase will certainly benefit RedLaser's community of users and developers.

 

Blogger Labels: Shopping,RedLaser,Online,auction,StubHub,eBay

Firefox: 'Crash Protection' released

Firefox 3.6.4 brings crash protection for Adobe Flash, Apple QuickTime and Microsoft Silverlight plug-ins -- under Windows and Linux (Mac will have to wait, it seems). If a plug-in crashes, you will be able to simply reload the tab. The browser (and the rest of your tabs!) should remain unscathed.

 

You will find that 3.6.4 starts up a little quicker, and it might even shut down a little faster! Otherwise, it's simply more stable and secure.

 

Blogger Labels: Firefox,Crash,Protection

Google Voice opened up for sign up!! limited to U.S. for now

Google Voice, Google's very useful call-forwarding, voice mail has finally opened to everyone, Well, everyone in the United States.

 

Google Voice:

Web-based platform for managing your communications, Voicemail that works like email, Free calls and text messages, low-priced international calls and more…

 

Blogger Labels: Google,Voice,Voicemail,messages

Adobe launches Flash 10.1 for Mobile

Adobe launched Flash Player 10.1 for mobile phone makers. With the move, Adobe is trying to position Flash as a platform that works across the desktop as well as mobile devices.

 

Flash is expected to start out on Motorola’s Droid, multiple HTC devices as well as the Dell Streak. Later, Adobe plans to roll out Flash on the BlackBerry, webOS, Windows Phone 7 Series, LiMo, MeeGo and Symbian platforms “in coming months.”

 

So what’s the plan?

• Initially, Flash 10.1 will be available on Android 2.2.
• It will be available as a download in Android market, but as system software.
• Adobe is hoping Flash 10.1 will be on 9 to 10 percent of smartphones this year.
• By 2011, Flash 10.1 should be on a third of smartphones.
• By 2012, Adobe plans to have Flash 10.1 on more than half of all smartphones.
• Flash Lite will continue on other mass market phones.

 

Blogger Labels: Adobe,Flash,Mobile,platform,Android,system,smartphones

Microsoft Introduces Windows Messenger Live for iPhone

Microsoft has introduced its Windows Live Messenger to Apple. The Messenger app is designed for iPhone and iPod Touch.

 

The app allows users to instant message their friends list, view and comment on friends' photos and status updates from Windows Live, Facebook, and MySpace,see what their Messenger friends are sharing via Flickr, YouTube, and other social sites.

Features include:

• Space to update status, follow friends and change profile picture
• Email in-box button
• Buddy list
• Chat screen
• New chat notification
• Photo and gallery screen

 

Blogger Labels: Instant message,Microsoft,Live Messenger,Apple

iOS 4 hits the iPhone

Apple is launching a series of software improvements collectively known as iOS 4 to owners of older generation iPhones and iPod Touch devices.

 

iOS 4, the updated form of the iPhone operating system, brings over 100 new features, some big - like folders for apps and unified inboxes - some small - like home screen wallpapers and threaded email - and some - like multi-tasking - which your old iPhone may not be able to run at all.

 

Blogger Labels: iPod,iphone,iOS 4,Apple

Wordpress 3.0 arrives, with multi-blog support and new default theme

If you're running several Wordpress blogs, your life just got a lot easier. Wordpress 3.0, codenamed "Thelonious" has finally arrived, and it supports multiple Wordpress blogs. You can manage them all from a central dashboard, too, with no logging out and back in. There's also a  new default theme called 2010, which is highly customizable.

 

Wordpress 3.0 features extremely convenient bulk updates of plug-ins and themes, so you don't have to do them one at a time. On the widget front, the coolest new feature is custom menus, so you can do your site navigation your way. There's also help on every page now, to help you get a handle on all the new features.

 

Blogger Labels: Wordpress 3.0,Wordpress,Thelonious,blogs

Pick&Zip lets you Backup any Facebook album as a ZIP or PDF

Pick&Zip lets you backup Facebook photos. It's the most lightweight and simple tool.

 

All you do is sign in, browse albums or people, and download the photos. You can either download the photos as a ZIP or as a pre-compiled PDF.

 

Blogger Labels: Pick,Facebook,backup,photos,albums,download

Tynt Blocker extension now in Safari

 

Safari users who dislike Tynt can now block itwith an extension of their own. This will only work in Safari 5, so make sure you've updated to the latest version.

 

Tynt Blocker: Which is a service that some sites use to add a URL or other text to anything you copy from them.

 

Blogger Labels: Tynt,Blocker,extension,Safari

Google Earth released for “iPhone and iPad” version 3.0; Desktop version 5.2

Google Earth 3.0 has been released. Those of you that have used previous versions won't notice many differences. 3.0 does, however, bring complete iPad support -- including high-resolution imagery to make the most of your larger screen.

 

  Download and enjoy!

 

In other news, Google Earth 5.2 for desktop machines was released. Amongst other changes, it now includes an integrated WebKit-based browser.

 

Blogger Labels: Google,Earth,Download,WebKit,iPad

Facebook and Flickr team up for photo sharing

Your public Flickr photos can now be automatically dropped into your Facebook account. You can turn the new integration on at Flickr's extend page, and it will automatically start sharing the photos.

 

 

Blogger Labels: Facebook,Flickr,integration

Google Chrome Gets Extension Sync

The developer's version of the Google Chrome Web browser was updated to include the ability to sync your extensions.

 

How to Enable Sync

To enable extension sync in Chrome, you'll first need to install the current developer's build. Once installed, you'll then need to edit the Chrome shortcut's properties.

In Windows, you right-click on the shortcut, choose "Properties," and in the "Target" box, add -enable-sync-extenstions at the end of the command, to the right of the quotes.

 

Blogger Labels: Google,Chrome,Extension,Sync,quotes,extensions,developer

Google Scholar has launched a blog

Google Scholar, the search service for academic literature, has launched a blog.

 

The fact of Google Scholar having proven popular enough to merit a blog is surely an indication of the importance of Web and Internet technology to the academic world at large.

 

Google Scholar allows interested users to make a search on, say "oil spills," and receive research articles and patents or legal opinions and journals. The nature of the results are very different than a standard Google Web or news search.

 

Blogger Labels: Google,Scholar,literature,journals,blog

Hotmail finally removes annoying taglines from the footers of your messages

 

Microsoft is getting rid of annoying taglines, moving Hotmail one step closer to being seen as a serious email service.

 

 

Microsoft : Hotmail respects your inbox. We’ve seen a lot of feedback regarding the text that gets added to the bottom of email messages sent from Hotmail and some other email providers. In the image above, you can see an example of this text, “Hotmail goes with you. Get it on your BlackBerry or iPhone.”  We call this text a tagline, and we’d like to address this pretty simply – we’re getting rid of it.

 

Blogger Labels: Hotmail,messages,Microsoft,feedback,bottom,taglines

Adobe releases AIR 2

Adobe just released the finished version of Adobe AIR 2, its cross-platform framework for apps. That means developers on Windows, Mac and Linux can deploy their AIR 2 apps today. For users, this means new versions of the AIR apps are probably coming very soon...

 

AIR apps can now access files on external mass storage devices, and they support dragging-and-dropping files, multi-touch gestures, microphones and more. On top of that, there are the all-important fixes for memory use (apps will use up to 30% less memory now!) that should lead to much better performance.

 

Blogger Labels: AIR 2,Adobe,version,apps

Google added World Cup themes category to Chrome Extensions Gallery

Google has added new World Cup themes to the Chrome Extensions Gallery. Now you can proudly display your favorite Teams color as a theme on your Chrome browser!

 

 

Blogger Labels: Google,Chrome,Gallery,theme,Extensions

Flash Player 10.1 goes final: hardware acceleration, private browsing support, more…

 

Adobe has finally pushed Flash Player 10.1 out the door.Flash Player 10.1 includes accelerometer and multi-touch support, better streaming performance, content protection, and peer-to-peer broadcasting abilities. The new version also plays nice with your browser's private browsing mode.

 

 

Blogger Labels: Flash,Player,Adobe

The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook

Changes in default profile settings over time

 

View Full Album

 

by: Matt McKeon

Blogger Labels: Evolution,Privacy,Facebook

Firefox 4 Gets WebM

WebM, the open video standard introduced at Google's recent I/O developer conference, is now coming to Firefox 4.

 

According Mozilla, the key sticking point was making sure that the new WebM codec licensing was GPL-compatible, an open source licensing type which allows users to copy, modify and redistribute software free of charge as long as modifications made are shared with the community.

 

“The WebM video format is based on the VP8 video codec. It is an alternative to the H.264 codec, which is currently used by Apple to display video on the iPad and iPhone and is supported within Adobe's Flash player. One of the first sites to implement WebM, was, Google's own video property, YouTube. In addition to Google Chrome and now, Firefox, Microsoft too has also announced support for WebM in its upcoming Web browser.”

Google's Search Indexing, Now Fully Caffeinated

"Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it's the largest collection of web content we've offered. Whether it's a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links to relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before."

 

 

To refresh the old system Google re-analyzed the entirety of its cache. This created a lag in the results. With Caffeine, they say, they now analyze the web continuously in small portions, updating the search index as they go.

 

Blogger Labels: Indexing,Google,Search,Caffeine

Gmail Makes Voice & Video Chat Easier

Google announced that it has made video, voice and group chat easier to access from within Gmail.One change is the presence of an icon for the voice and video chat plugin. If the person you're chatting with from within Gmail doesn't have that plugin, you can one-click the icon to issue them an invitation.

 

 

Extant features such as "Go off the record," "Block", and "Send SMS" are available above the chat window.

 

Blogger Labels: Gmail,Voice,Video,Chat,Google

Bing Comes to the iPhone, But Google Remains the Default

Steve Jobs announced that Microsoft's Bing will now be one of the search options in Safari on the iPhone.

 

Microsoft already developed a Bing iPhone application that allows iPhone users to use the search engine's features on the iPhone without having to create a browser bookmark. Now, Bing will take its place next to Google - which will remain the default - and Yahoo Search.

 

While it remains to be seen how many users will actually switch their default search engine, this could potentially be a major win for Bing. Bing's market share on the desktop continues to increase slowly.

 

Blogger Labels: Google,Default,Steve,Microsoft,Safari,Yahoo,Search,users

Google.com Gets A Photo - Yours

The Google home page is the web's most classic example of the power of clean simplicity, but the company announced that it's time for a change. Users will now be allowed to upload their own photo to illustrate the background of Google.com.

 

Blogger Labels: Google,Photo,background

Google enabled Google Maps preview in both Gmail and Google Buzz.

Google announced that it has enabled a Google Maps preview in both Gmail and Google Buzz.

 

Now, instead of pasting a Google Map into an email you send, any Google Maps URL you enclose will automatically come with a map embedded.

 

To enable the function in your Gmail, click the Google Labs setting tab and select "Google Maps previews in mail." Once that is functional, any Google Maps URL will be mapped.

 

When it comes to Google Buzz, pasting a Google Maps link into the post box will cause the system to automatically produce an image preview of that location.

 

Blogger Labels: Google,preview,Gmail,Buzz,Labs,location

George W. Bush Has Joined Facebook

The 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, now has a Facebook profile

 

 

Update: As one reader pointed out in comments, this is a Fan page, not a personal profile. So the requirement that a user "likes" the page before commenting is just a convenient part of how Facebook works. As a Fan page, the account does not have a field for making friends. In other words, George Bush may be on Facebook, but he does not have any friends.

 

Blogger Labels: George,Bush,Facebook,President

Microsoft: Win 7 and Server 2008 R2 SP1 beta coming in July

Microsoft is providing updates on Service Pack 1 of Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2 (beta code is coming in July), Windows Server App Fabric, and Exchange Server 2010 SP1.

 

Microsoft officials shared some initial info on SP1. On the client there will be no new features, just bug fixes and security updates rolled up into a single deliverable.

 

Blogger Labels: Microsoft,Server,Pack,code,features,beta

Google Reader finally allows folder renaming

Now you can rename folders and tags on the settings page:

 

 

And you can also edit these names right from the contextual menu in your subscription list.

 

 

Also, They’ve disabled offline access through Gears, and phased out support for older browsers.

 

Blogger Labels: Google,Reader,Gears