Interested in winning a complete HD makeover, a high definition makeover, that is. Panasonic has just launched a new contest, the Living in HD Insider, where you can compete for a chance to win a full content creation suite of Panasonic high def products.
All you need to do is create a video saying why you should be the next LiHD Insider. Watch the video and/or visit the website for more info.
Opera Software released version 10 of their Opera Web browser today [download]. New features include page compression (using their servers), a faster rendering engine (Presto 2.2), a remodeled tab bar, and synchronization of bookmark and other browser data. Opera is available for Windows, Macs and Linux.
Soon to come built into Opera 10 is a new technology called Opera Unite which aims to turn your browser into a server as well. Unite lets you share your content – files, folders, music, video, etc from your own computer. You can snag a test build here if you’d like.
While this seems like a cool piece of new technology, it’s debatable whether this will entice users away from current social sharing mechanisms and services.
However, Opera is quietly doing a lot of interesting research and product development. Just take a look at their Labs. It’s a shame that they only have about 2% of the browser market, as they have had a solid product ever since they started.
We’re heading to a future where there is more customization for and by the individual, and fontcapture is one such company that is doing their part. They’ve developed a very cool, free web-based service that allows you to create a font that is based on your very own handwriting.
All you need to do is fill out a template, scan it and upload it to their site where it analyzes and then creates the new font which you can then install on your computer.
Unfortunately for me, I’ve been writing less and less as time goes on (and typing more), that my once decent handwriting has deteriorated noticeably. Maybe I should capture it now before it devolves into a doctor’s chicken-scratch…!
Apple’s latest revision of the Mac OS operating system, version 10.6 (codenamed “Snow Leopard”) drops tomorrow (Fri) for an upgrade price of $29. Yes, $29. Why? Because Snow Leopard is meant to be more of a performance and efficiency improvement, not a version replete with new features.
Not only is the memory footprint smaller, but the disk space taken up by the core OS is smaller (by ~7GBs). However, this version drops support for the PowerPC architecture and now only supports the Intel CPUs that power today’s line of Macs.
The improvements and bug fixes, not to mention the price, so far have been hailed positively.
ComScore shows Yahoo Mail is still the world’s leader in e-mail services, but the bad news (for Yahoo) is that Google’s Gmail is the fastest growing service. Hotmail is still #2, and AOL just slipped to #4 after Gmail who leapfrogged them to go to #3.
Four years ago when we sized up Hotmail vs Yahoo vs Gmail, Gmail was the clear winner and has only become progressively better. Witness all of the improvements and feature additions that they’ve [Google] have put into Gmail.
For example, this week Google showed off another killer feature – the ability to import your e-mail from other accounts into Gmail.
Do yourself a favor and get a Gmail account.
iGoogle now has ‘social’ gadgets, gadgets and widgets that allow you to collaborate (a.k.a. play games), share info and see what your friends are up to.
For example, there are gadgets for Scrabble, chess, trivia, horoscopes, sharing photos, YouTube and much, much more. Video after the jump.
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A startup called RockMelt is set to build yet another new Web browser with the backing of former Netscape founder, Marc Andreesen’s venture capital firm.
No real details on what they have in plan, although they initially let slip that their browser will probably integrate Facebook info in some seamless way.
You can sign up for their mailing list to get news as they release it.
Like GoToMyPC and LogMeIn, Laplink Everywhere offers folks the ability to gain access to their PCs at home remotely. Apart from standard browser-based access, Laplink Everywhere 5 also comes with a free application for Win Mobile users to access their desktops at home.
Other interesting features include: desktop control, file transfer and synchronization, Outlook access and access to Web bookmarks.
You can try out LLE5 free for 30 days after which it falls back to the limited version. Upgrade to the full version for $49.95/year.
Buy now!
Price: $49.95/year
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Nice new feature for your Google account (same as the one you use for Gmail) – get a password-reset code via SMS or text message.
All you need to do is click on Accounts, then Password Recovery Options and add your cell phone #.
Google has taken the much rumored step of creating its own OS. Named Chrome after the browser of the same name, this new OS will have a windowing environment based on a Linux kernel (of course) and will naturally contain the Chrome browser as its browser-of-choice.
Google expects Google Chrome Operating System to be available in netbooks in the first half of 2010, and has been working with OEMs to make this a reality. This OS is really meant for those users who use computers mainly to access and use Web applications – e-mail, documents, social networking, shopping, etc. You probably won’t find too many power users switching to this OS, although it’ll be fine if it was on the family room netbook.
Is Microsoft worried? You bet they are, and if not, they should be. The scarier thing is that Google probably isn’t even doing this to ‘compete’ with Microsoft per se. They just want to get the Web in front of as many people as possible, because that means more people viewing and potentially clicking on their ads. This is not a direct revenue maker for Google, but would result in a revenue losses for Microsoft.
And if Google succeeds in creating an OS that is faster, more lightweight, more secure (with few or no bugs, viruses and malware), than current MS platforms then more people (and developers) will gravitate towards the OS.
