blog.no-panic.at » News update

Morning News Update, November 23 2010

Florian Beer — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 08:44:09 +0000

iOS 4.2 is available, adding some impressive new features and finally getting iPad’s and iPhones up to the same OS version number. And Google releases “Cloud Connect”, a plugin that syncs Microsoft Office and Google Docs.

Google Docs syncs with Microsoft Office
Google Cloud Connect is an add-on for Office that syncs documents, spreadsheets and presentations from Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 with the “Google cloud”. In other words, it takes data on the desktop and makes a backup copy in Google Docs, gives it a unique URL and constantly syncs the data with anybody else that might be sharing the same document.
iOS 4.2
The new features include:
- Multitasking on iPad
- Folders on iPad
- AirPrint
- AirPlay
- Find My iPhone, iPad or iPod touch
- New Fonts for Notes
- Reply to Calendar invitations
- New Text Message Tones & custom tones per contact
iOS 4.2 is compatible with iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch 2nd generation upwards and iPad.
Lifehacker published a Tutorial on how to convert your videos to be AirPlay compatible.

Morning News Update, November 11 2010

Florian Beer — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 09:18:25 +0000

Today I’m posting some interesting videos about the Boxee Box, Friends for iPhone and Google Refine. And Facebook invites journalists to yet another press event possibly concerning Facebook’s message System.

Google Refine
A new Google tool, that surprisingly is not a webservice, but a program that you download and interact with via your webbrowser on the local machine. Refine let’s you refine, sort and filter large datasets in a spreadsheet fashion and also offers functionality to mash up data with certain webservices and open databases. This should be very useful for research! Watch the videos below, to get a feel for Refine’s possibilities.

Google Refine 2.0 – Data Transformation (2 of 3)
Google Refine 2.0 – Data Augmentation (3 of 3)
Facebook special event
Facebook invited tech journalists to an event in San Francisco and there is not much information about what will actually be about. The invitation features a big icon of the Facebook Inbox so guesses are that they might announce and overhaul of their messaging system.
A Demo of the Boxee Box
This looks great and makes me want to replace the old Apple TV with this box. Especially since Boxee on my (hacked) Apple TV suffers severe performance issues, this dedicated device sure looks promising. Watch the video below, to see how the new Boxee Box looks and feels like.
Friends for iPhone
This new iPhone app, that I have yet to try out, seems like a good way to consolidate your contacts over several social networks and your private adress book and offers a way to keep in touch and communicate. It sure seems promising, if I like it I might publish a thorough review later on.

Friends from Oliver Cameron on Vimeo.

Morning News Update, November 5 2010

Florian Beer — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 09:03:36 +0000

New Skype Beta for Mac
Skype released a new Beta client for Mac OS X yesterday. The most important changes are:
- Effortless search integrating the Mac AddressBook
- Group Video calling has finally arrived on the Mac
- New call control bar that let’s you monitor the most important infos about ongoing calls in a little overlay window
- Completely revamped User Interface
The UI part is what has the most impact from my point of view, so it’s probably best to watch the following little video that explains all of the updates:
Apple accepts App submissions to it’s upcoming Mac App Store
Now it’s time to get your software App Store ready and submit them via iTunes Connect.
The Mac App Store’s launch might be imminent.
Last.fm Kinect Application
To be honest I didn’t pay much attention to Microsofts Kinect launch previously, but now a very funny blog post by Last.fm highlighted a few features of this interesting technology and introduced a Kinect application that can control your music.
Google Chrome gets a PDF viewer
I really like using Google Chrome for all my browsing habits, since it’s fast and feels very light, compared to Firefox or Safari. The only thing I really missed from Safari, was the ability to view PDF documents in the Browser without having to download them and start another application. Now the newest Google Chrome Beta version includes PDF viewing support. The feature will be implemented in the next stable update.
A funny little picture explaining what your phone says about you
What your phone says about you (click for larger version)

Morning News Update, November 4 2010

Florian Beer — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 08:51:53 +0000

Google released an Apache module that auto tunes performance
Google has announced that they are launching a module for the Apache HTTP server called mod_pagespeed, that will automatically tune several properties to optimize page load speed. I haven’t tried it out yet, but will definitely do so.
Amongst other things, mod_pagespeed will:
- recompress images
- modify cache lifetime for static elements
- make changes to pages built by CMS
I don’t know if I’ll see a great performance on this server, as I already took care of a lot of speed improvements myself, but this module is a great way to implement common best-practices without having to dig into Apache’s configuration too much.
Read more and download the module on the Page Speed Google Code website.
Facebook Mobile Announcements
Just a short summary of what Facebook announced yesterday, there’s already tons of coverage out there:
- Facebook for iPhone updated (as I hoped in my tweet just minutes before the event started).
- Facebook for Android updated.
- Single Sign-On for mobile platforms.
  So you don’t have to deal with entering your password in every app that uses Facebook connect.
- Facebook Places API Update. Full read and write access for third parties.
- Deals. This sounds kind of like Groupon mixed with Foursquare.
  Could be very interesting, once it reaches the critical mass of user adoption.
- No dedicated iPad App in the near future.
  Although I’ve read about speculations of a HTML5 based website/app that could offer the same experience on multiple tablet based platforms.

Morning News Update, November 3 2010

Florian Beer — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 09:02:47 +0000

Google to offer cloud printing for Chrome OS, web apps – predicts “cloud-aware” printers
Saying, “Our goal is to build a printing experience that enables any app (web, desktop, or mobile) on any device to print to any printer anywhere in the world,” Google has published a new set of documents that outline an exciting new (and as yet unavailable) service: Google Cloud Print.
Cloud Print will seemingly be how all printing from Chrome OS will be handled. As all apps on Chrome OS are actually web apps, Google says, “we want to make sure printing from web apps is as natural as printing from traditional native apps is today.” Cloud Print will not only work with web apps, however – Google says that it will also work with both mobile and desktop apps as well. All of these print jobs will be handled through APIs, according to the documentation. All printing from Chrome OS will be done through Cloud Print.
Movie Industry sues UPC Austria (broadband provider)
Net neutrality seems to become a really pressing topic in Austria. The “Verein für Antipiraterie (VAP)” together with Wega Film, Constantin Film and Satel Film has issued a cease and desist order against UPC because they offer access to the website kino.to which let’s users view movies and TV shows for free.
(Article from futurezone.at in german / translated version)
iPhone table connector project gets a demo video
New York City’s new “offline P2P file-sharing” network
So far there are 5 places in NYC to drop or find files on a dead drop. Each dead drop contains a readme.txt file explaining the project.

Dead Drop - New York offline file-sharing

Morning News Update, November 2 2010

Florian Beer — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 08:25:44 +0000

Google Announces API Console
The new Google API Console lets you manage your API uses across all your applications and websites.
iOS 4.2 Gold Master release seeded to developers
iOS 4.2 has gone Gold Master and can be used by all iOS developers to create consistent apps across iPhones, iPod touches & iPads.
Apple urges to submit new iOS 4.2 apps soon, so they are available in the app store, once the software update gets pushed to all the devices.
eBay + Paypal + Facebook Connect = Group Gift-Buying
In an attempt to capitalize on the rise of social commerce, online auction behemoth eBay launched its Group Gifts service today, enabling users to source the power of their social networks to collectively purchase gifts.
Video comparison between HTC 7 Trophy (left) and the Samsung Omnia 7 (right)
Internet Explorer 9 just beat everyone in HTML5 compliance
Internet Explorer 9 just beat Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari in a compliance test.

W3C HTML5 compliance chart (click for bigger version)

Morning News Update, October 29 2010

Florian Beer — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 08:48:47 +0000

Microsoft unveils new IE9 Developer Preview and Test Drive site
Microsoft is continuing to push on its Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) project, hoping to continue early momentum that has brought some new sheen to the venerable brand.
The company is releasing a new Developer Preview, the 6th for IE9, and a new Test Drive website to allow the masses to interact with the underlying technology of the browser without committing to using it.
New in Google Maps for Android: Updated reviews, search filters, and Latitude real-time updating
Google has announced a new set of features for Google Maps for Android, allowing smartphone users to search for Place reviews, change specific filters on search results and update their Latitude locations in real-time.
Twitter Debuts Official App for Windows Phone
Twitter has just announced an official mobile app for Windows Phone. The application is available immediately for all Windows Phone 7 devices.
Twitter also says this app is particularly fast and brings users “all of the features that you’d expect from Twitter.”
Electrostatic feedback: how future touchscreens might shock us
Toshiba and Senseng have developed a prototype of an electrostatic variant of vibrotactile feedback for touchscreens – in other words, they’ve developed a way for users of smartphones, tablets and other touchscreens to get tactile feedback from their devices using static.
Flickr Now Lets You Sign Up With Your Google Account
Flickr announced today that Google would be its first partner in its introduction of OpenID for new account signups. Starting today, anyone can sign up for a new Flickr account using their Google account.
Adobe Demos Flash-to-HTML5 Conversion Tool
When we talked to Adobe’s Paul Gubbay about how the company sees Flash and HTML5, he made it clear that Adobe is very interested in supporting both platforms.
At Adobe’s MAX conference the other night, that message was made manifest with a live demonstration of a Flash to HTML5 conversion tool, which is currently in the works. The tool is incredibly impressive in that it can convert full Flash animation into HTML5 on the fly.

Morning News Update, October 28 2010

Florian Beer — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 06:53:34 +0000

Myspace Accused Of Ripping Off Stealth Startup Pinterest
This morning Pinterest co-founders Ben Silberman, Paul Sciarra and Yashwanth Nelapati woke up to a barrage of tweets, “So @myspace has completely ripped off @pinterest. It really pisses me off when an old, tired hack tries to undermine hardworking inovators. [sic]“ Myspace revealed its new redesign last night and Pinterest users quickly picked up on the similarities between the two site aesthetics, leading to an intense Twitter debate.
Sencha Takes On Flash With HTML5 Animator
Sencha is making a big bet on HTML5. The company, which was formerly known as Ext JS, raised a hefty $14 million round led by Sequoia Capital in June. Since then it has been perfecting its HTML5 framework Sencha Touch — a framework that lets you build mobile web apps for iOS and Android that feel almost native and are also cross-platform. And today, the company is adding another big addition to its product suite: Sencha Animator.
Flickr takes a Twitter cue; introduces suggested friends and Facebook contacts
Given that, from the start, Flickr was intended to be a social photo sharing platform, the latest move from the company comes as no surprise.
According to the Flickr blog, the site is introducing a People You May Know feature.
Apple holding “secret summit” with select iOS devs next week
Business Insider is reporting that Apple is set to hold a secret iOS developer summit next week. The event apparently begins next Tuesday and will run for three days. While Business Insider doesn’t have any firm details yet, they speculate that the purpose of the summit is to improve the quality of apps on iOS devices in order to stave off competition from Google’s Android App Store.
Google makes some design changes to Gmail in mobile Safari
The first change is a that scrolling now mimics the speed of your swiping on the screen, making longer messages easier to read through. The second change is that the toolbars within Gmail are now locked while you scroll (they used to appear after you were finished scrolling).

Morning News Update, October 27 2010

Florian Beer — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:29:04 +0000

Google donates $5 million to promote journalism
Google has donated $5 million to non-profit organizations promoting new forms of journalism, including $2 million to the Knight Foundation, which will but $1 million of that toward the the Knight News Challenge.
PayPal Announces Micropayment System and Facebook Partnership
The company calls PayPal for Digital Goods the “online equivalent of dropping a quarter in the slot to buy a newspaper or play a video game.” With a few lines of code, developers can integrate PayPal micropayments into their websites.
Google Docs’ New Charts Editor Adds Timelines, Org Charts, and Better Data Visualization
Google Docs just rolled out a new Charts Editor that brings some impressive new tools to Google-Docs-built charts. Those new features include organizational charts, annotated timelines, and a motion chart for visualizing data over time. They’ve also given an all-around facelift to their regular old charts.
10,000 Websites Integrate with Facebook Every Day
COO Sheryl Sandberg revealed on stage was that 10,000 websites integrate with Facebook every day. That’s 3.65 million new websites per year, and you can’t forget that tens of millions of websites are already utilizing Facebook Connect or the Facebook Open Graph.
Appcelerator and PayPal Team Up for Mobile Commerce
At the PayPal X Conference today, Appcelerator — makers of the cross-platform mobile development tool Titanium — announced that it has just entered into a partnership with PayPal to bring a mobile commerce solution to both PayPal merchants and Titanium developers.
Macworld posts MacBook Air benchmark results
The folks at Macworld ran some formal benchmark tests on both the 11.6-inch and the 13-inch Airs, comparing them to their predecessors and even a 13-inch MacBook Pro. The results may surprise you. To begin, the Speedmark 6.5 score doubled when comparing the 13-inch 1.86GHz MacBook Air and the 2009 13-inch 1.86GHz MacBook Air (Speedmark is Macworld’s benchmark test suite). Most of the gains were made over drive-based tests, as the new Air’s flash storage was able to show off a bit. Duplicating a 1GB file on the new Air took 13 seconds; compare that to 69 seconds on the model from 2009. Likewise, compressing a 2GB folder was 21% faster on the new Air.
Twitter Hits 300 Employees As The Search For A New Office Continues
This past June, we noted that Twitter had zoomed past 200 employees — basically doubling in just six months. The rapid hiring pace continues at the startup, though not quite as quickly. The company has just hired their 300th employee a tweet confirms today.
After Ten Years, LimeWire Capitulates To The Music Industry
The music industry lawyers just put another notch on their wall. After ten years of existence, peer-to-peer music sharing serviceLimeWire is joining Napster, Kazaa, and all the rest. It will abide by a court-ordered injunction today and begin to disable the file-sharing and music-searching features of its P2P software. Years of legal battles and the prospects of paying astronomical fines finally did the service in.
Top 5 TED Talks On Tech
Everyone needs a little inspiration now and again, and there is usually no better place to go than to TED to catch up on what the world’s real visionaries are working on. TED regularly hosts brilliant people from around the globe to talk about their ideas for the future.
Google is giving away 10,000 Google TVs to lucky developers
Want a Google TV filled with all that Android goodness, but don’t want to pay for it? You may be in luck, that is you might be if you went to the right conferences or have some serious programming chops.If you attended the Adobe MAX conference, you should have been a part of Google’s 3,000 unit giveaway. If you missed it, circle back and raise Cain, free stuff is too important to miss. Secondly, if you are a member of the Google Code community, Google is going to be calling your digits to ship you a device.
What if none of that applies to you? You can always submit an entry to the ‘Google TV Web Developer Promotion,’ to be considered for a free Google TV. Really, if you want to develop for the new platform do yourself a favor and get started without paying hard cash.
Facebook rolls out a new design and features for Pages management
Manage a Facebook page? Chances are that you’ve been frustrated at one time or another with trying to change things on it, even as simple as editing a name of a page. In answer to that frustration, Facebook has (it seems) just rolled out new page management tools.
How To: Avoid Getting Fleeced By Firesheep
Over the last 24 hours the world has been abuzz with talk about a small Firefox extension. Usually Firefox extensions don’t make headlines, but in this case one did. Why? This extension is called Firesheep, and it’s scary.

Morning News Update, October 21 2010

Florian Beer — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 07:51:46 +0000

Apple announces Mac OS X Lion with some superb new features. OS X Lion will be available in Summer 2011.
In about 90 days Apple will open an App Store for OS X Apps, thereby bringing iOS closer to it’s desktop sibling.
FaceTime is now available for OS X so you can start video chats between iOS devices and OS X desktop computers.
Apple updates the iLife Software suite with some nice improvements.
There will be a new MacBook Air.
Boxee Box Starts Shipping November 10
Amazon will start shipping the Boxee Box to customers on November 10, with other retailers throughout the world offering the device beginning on November 17 both online and in stores.
If you read yesterdays Morning News Update you know about the discussion between Apple iOS and Google Android about being “open”, my thoughts about it and what Joe Hewitt twittered. Now Joe Hewitt posted an article on his blog, clearing up a few of his statements.