Author Archive: John McKenzie

rss feed

By September 5, 2008 Read More →

Wikio Universal RSS button makes RSS easy

OK So we’ve been working with the team over at Wikio to get ourselves a new fancy RSS button for the site. The Wikio Universal RSS button is simple to use and you can get one for your site too. If you want to let your readers subscribe to your blog with their personal choice of RSS reader then this is for you.

You simply need to follow this step by step guide in getting your own Wikio RSS button.

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  • Enter the URL of the page you want the RSS Button for in the area as shown below

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  • Choose your button type and grab the code presented to you in the box beneath (see screen shot) and get it to your site.

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The general idea is that this button will allow you to put just one single RSS button on your blog. Clicking on this button will then enable your readers to subscribe to your blogg via the RSS feed using the RSS service of their choice, and it thus means you no longer have to display a long list of various RSS services and their corresponding buttons.

Clicking on the button once it’s been installed on your site should open a new page containing a selection of the most popular RSS subscription buttons.

See, it’s that simple……. enjoy!

Posted by: John

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Posted in: Cameras
By September 3, 2008 Read More →

Google Chrome Review

OK, so it’s now nearly 24 hours since I downloaded Google Chrome and my initial impression is that of a happy camper.

The initial set up was very pain free. Install took under 3 minutes and it allowed the import of favourites from my other browsers.

One of the first things I noticed about this new browser was that it differed very much from the other stand alone browsers on the market at the moment. There is no header bar which means that the page tabs sit right at the top of the screen.

Chrome

Before getting into browsing I took a look around to see what it had to offer. To my amazement I found a whole load of goodies which I will describe below.

Google Chrome Options

This has to be, in my opinion, the easiest to manage options page I have seen yet on a browser. It has only 3 tabs named Basics, Minor Tweaks & Under the Hood. As you can see from the screen shots below, this options page has been set up with ease of use in the forefront of the mind

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Incognito Mode

Described by Google Chrome as:

You’ve gone incognito. Pages that you view in this window won’t appear in your browser history or search history, and they won’t leave other traces, like cookies, on your computer after you close the incognito window. Any files that you download or bookmarks that you create will be preserved, however.
Going incognito doesn’t affect the behaviour of other people, servers or software. Be wary of:

  • Websites that collect or share information about you
  • Internet service providers or employers that track the pages that you visit
  • Malicious software that tracks your keystrokes in exchange for free smileys
  • Surveillance by secret agents
  • People standing behind you

Learn more about incognito browsing.

This could be described in two ways, first being a dream for those who want to hide their tracks and second being a nightmare for the parents / wife / husband / other who are now be unable to see what their loved ones have been up to. Personally my own feelings are pointing towards the second option.

Obviously anyone can partially hide their tracks by clearing cookies, history etc… but this is just screaming out for abuse.

Developer

Not being a developer this didn’t mean a great deal to me but one thing I did like was that the browser had it’s own task manager which allows you to see what windows are running high on CPU etc….

chrome developer image

Another interesting feature inside the task manager was a link to a page which Google calls "Stats for nerds". I guess I must now officially be a nerd because I loved this feature.

chrome nerds

Browsing

Once I started on the browsing I noticed that the page seemed to render itself a lot quicker than on most other browsers but like all Beta versions it did hang on occasion. Clicking on Ctrl T brought up a really cool section that showed most viewed pages and recent bookmark pages.

Tab

 

Overall the browser is easy to use and likeable. I would say that if your into handling the odd bug here and there then start using it now but if your one of those people who just cant handle that sort of thing then wait for the release version which should be a lot more robust.

Posted by: John

Posted in: Reviews
By September 2, 2008 Read More →

Google Chrome – A fresh take on a browser

Google yesterday released a comic book guide to their new powerful browser Google Chrome on their official Google Blog. Today they released the actual browser for all to use

I’m not going to depress everyone with thousands of text about this browser but simply say "go have a look", I think you will be simply impressed with what Google have to offer.

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Google Chrome Logo

"On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn’t the browser that matters. It’s only a tool to run the important stuff — the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go."
"Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today’s complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren’t even possible in today’s browsers."

A full review of this as a stand alone browser will be posted tomorrow at some point.

Posted by: John

Posted in: News
By September 2, 2008 Read More →

Nokia’s Comes with Music service launches next month – UK first

Nokia’s "free," all-you-can-eat, music subscription service is set to world premier in the UK next month before hitting continental Europe and Asia in 2009. Nokia already has Universal Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music on board and plans to have EMI signed before launch. In total, Nokia expects to offer some 2.1 million tracks at launch. While touted as free, the service costs will be baked into the price of Nokia’s pre-pay 5310 XpressMusic Comes With Music Edition handset (currently priced between £70-£80 for the pay-as-you-go, non-CwM handset) when purchased though the UK’s Carphone Warehouse. You must then purchase another CwM-compatible device at the end of the year in order to continue downloading tracks. For those not wishing to re-up with Nokia, your 5310 CwM edition phone will continue to make / receive calls and text messages and, like your computer, continue to playback all those DRM-wrapped WMA tracks they will not play anywhere else. While the approach is interesting, the DRM-enabled time-bomb and device lock-in makes the entire model sound fatally flawed to us.

nokia_comes_with_music_1_lowres

Nokia Comes With Music

Expect the service to launch at, or shortly after, a Nokia Comes With Music press event scheduled for October 2nd.

Posted by: John

Posted in: Phones
By September 2, 2008 Read More →

Microsoft to follow in the steps of Google and Apple?

Looking at a recent job post found on Computerjob.com it is suggested that Microsoft will be following hot on the heals of the recently launched $30 million Apple iPhone app store and the future release of Google’s Android App Store, with their own app store named "Skymarket". The job post indicates that the  Skymarket senior product manager will head a team that will "drive the launch of a v1 marketplace service for Windows Mobile".

This announcement could only be considered as fantastic news for the end customer as each of the major device manufacturers now go out on a limb to better each other, desperate to provide the best content and hardware to rival the massive iPhone market.

With the Apple store already launched and the HTC Dream coming soon (which should signal the Android App Store launch), the question on everyone’s lips though should be, "is this too little to late?" as the expected launch of this new app store is sometime in 2009 with the launch of WM7.

It should be an interesting few months ahead as the battle heats up and the consumers are really given a chance to see what their hard earned cash is going towards.

 

Posted by: John

Posted in: Phones
By September 1, 2008 Read More →

HTC Dream Aka G1 revealed in glorious spy photos

OK so, we’ve seen some blurry videos and managed a few stolen glimpses of this new handset, but now we’ve gotten our hands on a slew of pictures showing off a very real T-Mobile-branded Dream in all its Android-running glory. Not only does this confirm the design spied in those FCC docs as well as show off that nearly-done version of Android, but it seems to confirm the fact that this will be headed to T-Mobile, and sooner rather than later judging from the looks of the device.

 

dream5dream4
dream1 dream2   dream6
 dream7

Posted by: John

Posted in: Phones
By August 30, 2008 Read More →

Nikon Announce the D90 – The First Digital SLR Camera With HD Video

Here comes the Nikon D90, a camera that manages to outshine features from its current professional line-up as well as claim the honour of being the first digital SLR with HD video recording capabilities.

nikon d90

Nikon D90

 

Not happy at showing off with its 12.1MP it shoots continuously at up 4.5 frames-per-second. With an impressive power up in just 0.15 seconds and a shooting lag of just 65ms this camera sits at the forefront of the camera world just now. The new HD video party trick, called D-Movie Mode, allows snappers to capture 720p video in Motion JPEG format at 24fps with sound. The camera has low noise ISO sensitivity from 200 to 3200 and there’s a 3in 920,000-dot LCD display with 170-degree viewing angle.

 

Other key features include built-in image sensor cleaning, 11-point AF system with face priority and fast auto-focus, one-button Live View, 5 scene modes, in-camera image editing and GPS geo-tagging.

 

It’s not as highly specified as the Canon EOS 50D but then it is cheaper, with a US price tag of around £500. There’s also a new lens, the AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, and the kit price is around £650.

 

Obviously, those prices will inflate the closer it gets to its UK "expected" release date of September 5th but, it also means that the existing D80 will be getting a serious price cut bargain hunters.-Martin Lynch

 

Posted in: News
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