Linux
Songbird: The Open Music Player
Songbird is a great cross-platform multimedia player and a great contender for proprietary apps such Apple iTunes and Microsoft Windows Media Player. When we first tested Songbird, last year, the interface was a little bit rough and the black interface were not too much in our taste, but since the app just now available as [...]
Songbird is a great cross-platform multimedia player and a great contender for proprietary apps such Apple iTunes and Microsoft Windows Media Player. When we first tested Songbird, last year, the interface was a little bit rough and the black interface were not too much in our taste, but since the app just now available as an official 1.0 release candidate. We find it has indeed grown leap and bound.
from artist bios, lyrics, music store integration, and much more. First, It is good to know Songbird is built on Web oriented Mozilla technology, same technology used by Firefox. It is available for Windows, Mac OS, Linux. The player offers now more flexility in the selection of user interface, including the iTunes look as seen below . Songbird uses XML User Interface Language (XUL) and Gecko rendering engine that powers Firefox.
While Songbird is very capable of importing your current media library and its customizable interface accommodates : Artist bios, Lyrics, Music store integration, etc..You should expect advanced functions such recognizing your iPod playlists, Music store integration are not yet ready for primetime as indicated by the hands-on review of Arstechnica.
With the user friendly interface, the add-on features (a la Firefox extension) and its openness, I am very happy to see Songbird is on the good track to deliver a very good foundation framework for a truly open source media player.
[Songbird via Arstechnica]
Nokia N810’s Competitor USI MID-160. ‘World’s Thinnest MID’
The Internet devices such the Nokia N810 have not really gained acceptance amongst consumers as the Netbook yet. Mostly due Due to the unfamiliarity of the form factor, the OS user interface and the limited connectivity options in addition to its price.
But USI realizes there is still room for a device that can slide [...]
The Internet devices such the Nokia N810 have not really gained acceptance amongst consumers as the Netbook yet. Mostly due Due to the unfamiliarity of the form factor, the OS user interface and the limited connectivity options in addition to its price.
But USI realizes there is still room for a device that can slide between the smartphone and the netbook that carries decent specs with form factor, connectivity and hopefully low cost. Today they announced the USI MID-160. Unlike the Nokia N810, the MID-160 opts keyboardless form factor for the thinness, weight and perhaps cost. Since it runs on Ubuntu Linux, we should expect robust apps are pretty much ready to be used.
Specifications
- Processor: Intel Atom Processor
- Size: 5-inch touch screen, Ambient light sensor, Capacitive? 800×480 resolution
- Memory: 512MB
- Operating System: Ubuntu Linux
- Hard Disk: 8GB SSD + Micro SD Slot
- Wireless: supports WiFi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth, GPS, HSDPA or WiMAX+SIM slot
- Weight: 250g
-
3.5 Mic or headset jack, Front-facing web cam
[Via UMPCPortall]
Speedy Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 Released
Mozilla has just released the first beta for Firefox 3.1 for Windows, Mac, and Linux users. The new beta brings some great improved features:
TraceMonkey JavaScript engine improves dramatically the speed of Web app such Gmail, etc..But unfortunately it is not turned on by default After install, turn on TraceMonkey [...]
Mozilla has just released the first beta for Firefox 3.1 for Windows, Mac, and Linux users. The new beta brings some great improved features:
TraceMonkey JavaScript engine improves dramatically the speed of Web app such Gmail, etc..But unfortunately it is not turned on by default
After install, turn on TraceMonkey for performance boost.
Type in the address bar: about:config
Scroll down and see: javascript.options.jit.content Click on the value to True.
Restart FF 3.1- The Smart Location Bar : You can now restrict searches in the Awesome Smart Bar using special characters such as "+" and "#". These and other aspects of the character restrictions are customizable through about:config.
- CTRL+Tab to jump between open tabs
Fans of private browsing/ Chrome’s Incognito have to wait to next Beta.
The nice thing is the default install folder is different than your production FF. So there is no risk to test this out. Expect to see all your extensions got disable.
Synkron: Cross Platform Folder Sync
Synkron is an application used to synchronize folders/directories. It features a tabbed interface, so multiple syncs can be running at the same time, a blacklist of files or folders to be ignored, scheduling and backups, and recovery of files that were overwritten during a synchronization.
Synchronize multiple folders
Tabs allow you to have more synchronizations running [...]
Synkron is an application used to synchronize folders/directories. It features a tabbed interface, so multiple syncs can be running at the same time, a blacklist of files or folders to be ignored, scheduling and backups, and recovery of files that were overwritten during a synchronization.
- Synchronize multiple folders
- Tabs allow you to have more synchronizations running at once
- Periodical synchronizations automatically sync your folders in selected intervals
- Restore files, which were overwritten during the synchronization
- Add files and folders to black list to make sure they won’t be synchronised in the future
- Make schedules and backup using multisync
- Synkron is Free Software
Free download HERE. Portable USB version HERE!
[Thanks H.V.]
LiveStation Streams Live TV to Your Desktop
We covered LiveStation in the past, but the developers just released a new client soft version that no longer requires Microsoft Silverlight; the addition of Mac and Linux support and the whole slew of new TV channel partners.
While there are many ways to watch TV programs on your desktop/laptop such Hulu, Joost, etc..provide great [...]
We covered LiveStation in the past, but the developers just released a new client soft version that no longer requires Microsoft Silverlight; the addition of Mac and Linux support and the whole slew of new TV channel partners.
While there are many ways to watch TV programs on your desktop/laptop such Hulu, Joost, etc..provide great viewing experiences, they are mostly video on demand, meaning pre-recorded shows available for streaming on demand. LiveStation actually streams live video from channels such CNN, CBS, ESPN, Bloomberg, Fox, etc…in full screen without much latency. (Watching News and Sports is great for live streaming).
LiveStation is using a Peer-to-Peer bandwidth distribution mechanism to avoid high cost infrastructure. Therefore you’d need to download the cross platform client software on your desktop. Whether you watch live streaming or not the software is still running in the background to be part of the distribution network. You can however exit out by right mouse click on the system tray icon.
The installation was fast and painless. Quick registration is needed just with an email address and a password. The client includes some default channels but you can search & add additional channels such CNN, BBC, ESPN, Fox, Bloomberg, CBS, etc…The player presents in 2 panes with coverflow style channel selection. Fullscreen viewing is also available with very good quality.
Download HERE!
Firefox 3.0.2 Released
Mozilla has released a maintenance upgrade of its Firefox browser. Just hit File, check for upgrade within Firefox or hit the button below for manual install.
What’s New in Firefox 3.0.2
Firefox 3.0.2 contains the following updates:
Fixed several security issues.
Fixed several stability issues.
Official releases for Sinhala and Slovene are now available.
Beta releases for [...]
Mozilla has released a maintenance upgrade of its Firefox browser. Just hit File, check for upgrade within Firefox or hit the button below for manual install.
What’s New in Firefox 3.0.2
Firefox 3.0.2 contains the following updates:
- Fixed several security issues.
- Fixed several stability issues.
- Official releases for Sinhala and Slovene are now available.
- Beta releases for Bengali, Galician, Hindi, Icelandic, Kannada, Marathi, Telegu, and Thai are available for testing.
- Fixed a number of minor issues with the layout of certain web pages.
- Fixed several theme issues that affected right-to-left locales.
- Fixed issue that caused some users with customized toolbars to have their Back and Forward buttons go missing (bug 426026)
- Add new Extended Validation (EV) roots to Firefox 3.0.2.
- On certain IDN sites, the password manager would not fill in username and password details properly.
- Fixed several hangs and crashes that occurred when using screen readers.
- Fixed Mac-specific issues: keyboard shortcuts would stop working in some cases.
FoxTab: Tab Visual Effect in Firefox
Fans of eye candy visual effects would appreciate the new Firefox extension called FoxTab, which gives Vista-like task switcher for Firefox tabs (CTRL+Tab). Other effects such carousel, stack, etc.. are included as well.. Since it is still in Beta, you have to register to be able to play with it.
[Thanks Mesa!]
Technorati Tags: Foxtab,extension,tab,switcher
Fans of eye candy visual effects would appreciate the new Firefox extension called FoxTab, which gives Vista-like task switcher for Firefox tabs (CTRL+Tab). Other effects such carousel, stack, etc.. are included as well.. Since it is still in Beta, you have to register to be able to play with it.
[Thanks Mesa!]
Intel Atom + Linux a good Marriage
We believe soon the OS is no longer relevant. A thin application layer riding on an open source OS, interacts with Cloud computing and an energy efficient and small such the Intel Atom are part of the recipe for future mobile device.
And Intel seems to position itself for that: Intel has acquired Linux development [...]
We believe soon the OS is no longer relevant. A thin application layer riding on an open source OS, interacts with Cloud computing and an energy efficient and small such the Intel Atom are part of the recipe for future mobile device.
And Intel seems to position itself for that: Intel has acquired Linux development startup Opened Hand as a part of the chipmaker’s Moblin mobile Linux project. Moblin is an open source software stack specifically designed for integration with Intel’s Atom processors in Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), netbooks, and embedded systems. [Via DuckNetWeb]
