Software

Why is Google Dashboard being dubbed a privacy tool?

Networking & Internet, Software / By /

Google Dashboard is being labeled a ‘privacy tool’ by the media. I don’t understand why.Sure, it’s a nice tool that shows you on one page all of your Google accounts/products and their latest statuses.

Ok, so there are links on many of them so you can see the privacy policies, but not really much you can do about the policies! And this isn’t unique to Google. Pretty much every company out there has similar one-way privacy policies.

Folks (as herded by the media) are up in arms because they are being led to believe that Google is (becoming?) a big bad company that will take your private information and use it for nefarious schemes that will directly impact you. Well then, don’t give out your private information or opt out of using these products. Your government has more information on you and probably takes worse care of it than a Google does.

Remember, if you signed up for a Google account, no one twisted your arm, (except perhaps your geek friends!). Own up to your responsibilities and stop blaming the company(s) that are giving you useful, and in many cases free, products.

Windows 7 outsells Vista by 234% during initial days

Computers, News, Software / By /

According to 1 market research outfit, Windows 7 has outsold Windows Vista by 234% in their first few days of sales. Not surprising is it? The question is whether or not this is sustained and makes significant inroads into the business market where Microsoft makes a great deal of its income from operating system and productivity software.

Mozilla Labs’ Raindrop project aims to cut through e-mail clutter

2 Comments / Gizmo of the Day, Networking & Internet, Software / By /

Mozilla-RaindropDo you get too much e-mail, whose volume has grown significantly in recent times due to social networking notifications from the likes of Facebook & Twitter?

How do you sort it out and quickly? Filters? Folders? Those methods may be doing the trick right now, but Mozilla Labs is working on a different approach – creating views of your messages (not necessarily e-mail only) and letting you interact with those conversations without having to switch applications.
…

Mozilla Labs’ Raindrop project aims to cut through e-mail clutterRead More »

Trillian Astra – Instant Messenger aggregator

Gizmo of the Day, Software / By /

If you’re an Instant Messenger fiend, then you’ve probably already heard of Trillian, Cerulean’s Studios IM client aggregator. You’ve probably also heard of Trillian Astra which is Cerulean’s latest version that integrates a slew of new and very popular IM platforms such as Facebook, Google (Jabber), Twitter, Skype and much more.

Cerulean touts over 400 features, which we obviously can’t do justice explaining here. But let’s bottom line it for you right now: if you were ever using Trillian before, then you need to do yourself a favor and upgrade to Astra.

Here are but a few of the features that we like: first and foremost is the extensive support of various IM networks. Apart from the ones mentioned above, you can also connect to MySpace, Bonjour, AIM, Yahoo, MSN (Windows Live), ICQ and more.

Astra is better at supporting audio and video chat; it does a great job of showing timestamps in IM windows, and better skins that delineate who said what when. I particularly like that when you pull up an IM window, it shows you as much of the recent chat history as the window can hold. The history management is much better as well.

Astra is available for Windows, there’s a Web version and versions for iPhone and MacOSX are in the works.

Download the free version of Astra from Trillian.IM or get the Pro version for $25.

Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $25
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Microsoft Security Essentials, free anti-virus security software released

2 Comments / Gizmo of the Day, Software / By /

As promised, Microsoft just released its free security program for Windows XP/Vista/7 this week. This is anti-virus/anti-malware/anti-spyware/anti-trojan/anti-rookit software. It replaces Microsoft Defender.

The big question here is whether or not Microsoft will run products made by Symantec, McAfee, et al out of business.

You can download Security Essentials from Microsoft.

Google Wave dev throws out IE as usable browser

Networking & Internet, Software / By /

Even today, in an age of improving standards support in Internet Explorer, a company working on cutting-edge web tech has been forced to abandon IE as a platform to develop for. This time, it’s the Google Wave team that has decided that IE’s JS and DOM rendering performance isn’t adequate to task of providing a desktop-like experience in the browser.

BTW, spotted this news over on SmarterWare, which is a great new blog by Gina Trapani of Lifehacker fame.

Nimbuzz Mobile aggregates your IM contacts on your mobile

1 Comment / Phones, Software / By /

Here’s another IM aggregator that makes managing all of your online personalities on your cell/smart phone/mobile easier: Nimbuzz Mobile. It can handle Skype, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, Google Talk and more using a single login. Nimbuzz not only IMs, but also manages clls, messaging, photos, video, music and more.

Nimbuzz also lets you locate your buddies on a map (assuming they’ve got their GPS tracking turned on), and if they’re running Nimbuzz too, you can ‘buzz’ them which turns on Nimbuzz on their phone.

Nimbuzz is now available for Android as well. You can see the full list of supported devices here.

Scroll to Top