Chrome to Phone is an application that utilises this service to allow you to instantly send links from your Chrome web browser on your desktop or laptop computer to your phone. There are two parts to using it; a Chrome browser extension (available here) and a mobile application available for the Android Market.

It places a button in the browser window and whenever you want to send a link to your phone, just click the button and it is sent. Instantly, in my experience. It’s a very handy feature to have. If you have to go out you can send a link to the website you were reading which is handy to say the least.

Not only is the extension itself exciting but the technology behind it should also give you goosebumps. I’d like to see it implemented into the Facebook application, which compared to its iPhone cousin is rather lackluster.

I’ve been meaning to upgrade my phone to the HTC Desire for, unsurprisingly, about seven weeks now and Orange have been out of stock all this time. A few phone calls to Orange and it turns out they have at least around 5,000 – that’s five thousand – of the HTC Desire in their possession, possibly more, which Orange are testing. The issue is apparently not to do with stock shortage, as they do get regular deliveries, but to do with the number of devices passing Orange’s tests. Apparently, a shipment of around 4,000 devices this last Monday only produced 90 devices that passed. That’s 2.25% that are passing Orange’s tests! A new software update should apparently be implemented soon which should let the Desires flow freely from the test centre and into our hands, but when this is supposed to happen is anyone’s guess. Hopefully in the next couple weeks.

But don’t get too excited as a reservation list apparently has around 15,000 people who are next in line to get their lucky hands on this phone. My advice? Go sim free if you can. Or go to another network. If you’re not prepared to wait that is!

One item of contention with the Desire is that the battery life is rather disappointing. While this doesn’t deter me, as I’m used to charging my current phone nearly every day, it would deter some power users looking for something more. With this in mind, HTC today put out a press release detailing that the next revision of the HTC Desire, and the global Nexus One (the Google phone), would include a new screen employing Super LCD display (SLCD) technology which offers up to 5 times more power efficiency than the current lineup.

Whilst this is indeed good news, it also means users wanting to upgrade to the HTC Desire have to choose between risking upgrading now for the phone that everyone loves, or waiting until whenever it is HTC decides to unleash the more power efficient SLCD Desire onto the market, which may be as soon as the end of this summer. Or even to wait for the rumoured HTC Desire HD, hitting a shop near you in October apparently.

While only meant to show off the peer-to-peer capabilities of Adobe Air 2.5, the video calling application shows the potential of the platform. While at this early stage there are some expected glitches, it shows what could be expected from the platform. With smartphones becoming ever more powerful, most phones will be able to use these features with no problem in the near future.

The fact this concept uses Adobe Air opens up the possibility of peer-to-peer video calling over different types of devices. For example you could make a video call from your smartphone to a colleague on their laptop at work or video calling your friend who’s watching TV from your tablet computer. This is definitely one to watch. But while you wait for the polished product to hit your marketplace, check out Fring.

Via: Engadget
Source: FlashMobileBlog

The first iteration of the iPod competitor was frankly awful. It lacked features that cheap Chinese MP3 player rip-offs excelled in, it looked ugly even compared to the slightly uglier iPods that were available back then and the interface had nothing on its competitors. It had promise though. Saying that, even the second generation of Zune didn’t quite hit the nail on the head. The thing I most remember it for is the Zune Pad – or the squircle – that was used as the main means of navigation through the product’s interface. Microsoft seems to have gone back to the drawing board, looked at what people love about other products in the personal multimedia player market and, probably just as important, what people don’t like about them. The result is the not yet released Zune HD and from preliminary reviews it is one damn sexy beast.

The main features of the Zune HD are its beautiful 3.3″ OLED touch screen display, unusual HD radio tuner, Wi-Fi connectivity and an internet browser that’s said to be good, even though the team behind Internet Explorer produced it. Another thing about it is that this will be the first Zune released outside of North America so it’ll be that bit easier to get your hands on it.

Firstly, along with the integrated HD radio and high-definition video playback (through an optional dock), the 3.3 inch OLED screen is something the Zune HD has that its main competitor, Apple’s iPod, currently does not. Early reviews, and especially leaked promotional photos, suggest the screen is beautiful. Secondly, unlike most players in the market, a HD radio is integrated into Microsoft’s latest entry. HD radio is very similar to DAB digital radio here in the UK and Europe. Hopefully when it is released here, the Zune HD will be modified in whatever way to allow us to receive DAB stations – a selling point very few MP3 players boast at the moment. The third important feature is that of a web browser. These days, any serious mobile entertainment device has to have the ability to surf the internet. Pre-release reviews of the web browser included with the Zune HD have yielded significant praise – especially considering the browser was born from the same team behind Internet Explorer. It apparently behaves almost exactly like the browser included with Apple’s iPod and iPhone. This can only be a good thing but with the good obviously comes the bad and at the time of review the browser on the Zune apparently did not include support for Adobe Flash. Hopefully an update somewhere along the line will bring this near essential functionality.

The Zune HD is shaping up to be a nice piece of technology and a huge improvement over previous generations. It’s not confirmed but suspected to be launched around early September this year although in which markets are anyone’s guess. Nor has pricing been confirmed but hopefully it will be priced competitively against other products. I’m going to go out on a limb and say around £190. This is one Microsoft product I can’t wait for. I won’t be one of those buying it as soon as the shop doors open, but I think I’ll be getting my hands on one if everything that’s been said is true.

Round-up of the Zune HD’s features:

• 3.3″ OLED multi-touch touchscreen
• pocket friendly size
• nvidia Tegra graphics chip – challenging the iPod touch/iPhone’s gaming dominance?
• HD radio tuner
• Wi-Fi connectivity
• web browser
• equaliser
• 720p HD output (with optional dock)

Evolutionary algorithms have been used before to design aeroplane wings and also art but I think this is the first time they’ve been used to design the perfect web page design. Unlike these two uses though, it requires human interaction which is both a positive and a negative.

“The mutations will always occur and while they are responsive to human attention, they are not bound by them. It is possible to develop unique mutations that may actually influence human goals (rather than the other way around).”

It would be interesting to see this technique used on sites with different functions: social networking sites, news sites etc.

Cow’s Blog | New Scientist

You, the player, take on the persona of barkeeper Desmond Miles who in turn is kidnapped by a group of scientists. They make you enter a machine called the Animus which extracts genetic memories from your DNA. Stay with me. The premise is that your DNA holds memories of your ancestors which this machine can access. Your player, Miles, is the distant ancestor of an Assassin; Altaïr – “The Flying One”.

This machine lets you take control of Altaïr as he completes missions throughout 4 [said to be] historically accurate cities, 3 or which are highly detailed worlds in themselves. As the game unfolds, you discover that the people you are charged with assassinating are actually Templars with the goal to unite humanity. The scientists are found to searching through these genetic memories to seek the location of certain artefacts which can help them revive the Templar mission and unite humanity under one cause.

Hubbub

I knew very little about Assassin’s creed before it was released. I had followed a few articles that Digg gifted me with and a few discussions on the Xbox.com forums and was partially excited by the rumour a major theme of the game would be time travel. Although this particular rumour isn’t technically the case, the game does live up to the hubbub surrounding it pre-release; albeit that some of the hype was unfounded.

The games industry is always hungry for a new concept and new ideas but at the same time are weary of the claims that are made about them. Assassin’s Creed was no different and the eye candy and demos Ubisoft provided created high expectations of the game. The tid bits of information that Ubisoft trickled out to technology blogs and journalists certainly caught peoples’ attention and the end product didn’t fail to impress in most areas. The battle system and basic character interaction system has improved much since the last demos which many are thank full for.

History is Beautiful

You play the vast majority of the game as Altaïr in the delicately crafted cities of Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus as well as Masyaf which is the assassins’ stronghold. I play the Xbox 360 version of the game so I don’t know whether the Playstation 3 version has different textures but what I can say is that the textures and the graphics in general are just beautiful. You feel you’re in those towns in that time because the look and sound of the cities is immersing.

It may be because my computer is rather lacklustre in the graphics department but the graphics Assassin’s Creed provide are nice, at least from my viewpoint and considering it’s a games console and not a PC. Shadows, textures, buildings, hay, horses and character models are really detailed and look beautiful.

Creed Control

The game is very easy to play and the control system becomes second nature after you’ve played through a few memories. Engaging enemies and scaling the scenery is quite exciting and although escaping enemies becomes rather easy, it still remains rather thrilling finding a pile of hay or a rooftop hide to disappear in. You’re able to disappear into the crowd as it were in a number of ways. Firstly, you can just blend in by pressing a button but for short-term anonymity you can sit on a bench or for long term anonymity you can join a group of scholars who are dressed similarly and walk around the city unnoticed, but very very slowly.

Greatness or Guillotine?

Assassin’s Creed is a wonderfully crafted game but it’s not perfect. If the developers had spent as much time as they did on making it look as good as it does on game play and the story line, it would be one of the best console games ever. The world is huge and patience is a virtue that one must learn as quickly as possible if you’re to stay under the radar and keep to the creed.

You develop a range of weapons and skills during the course of the game which aren’t exactly put to good use except for the main kills you have to make. Silly side track missions such as ‘interrogation’ and ‘pick pocketing’ deter you from what you really want to do – explore the cities and be able to assassinate your targets in a number of different ways (which are limited still by the paths you can take and the weapons available to you).

I hope that rumours of it being the first in a trilogy of games is true but now it has been released, this seems less likely. This game is a great buy and the ability to complete it a number of different ways and the atmosphere the graphics and sound makes will make sure you really get into it. The mystery surrounding the characters (which I’ve probably spoiled if you bothered to read above) and their intentions is exciting to unravel and learn for yourself. I would like to see more Assassin’s Creed games and if the idea of a film becomes reality, I wish everyone involved well and good luck.

The computer literate will be thinking that the WTF in WTF Magazine stands for a less than polite interruption. Well, it stands for “What’s the Future Magazine”, to put your minds at rest. This new publication is the result of one company having too much money and too much time. For this, I’m actually quite greatful. The well known online electrical retailer eBuyer has created this bi-monthly publication to fill our brains with more news and reviews than you can shake a stick at. There are a few drawbacks which I will go into but so far, it seems a pretty decent and interesting magazine.

WTF is this?

WTF Magazine is a new publication brought to us by that well known UK online retailer eBuyer. It features reviews of hardware such as laptop comparisons, flash drives and what not. At the moment, it also offers a few competitions which some pretty nice prizes although I feel some of the things you have to do to enter have to relevance to technology whatsoever.

It’s a welcome sight to see a full colour technology magazine which is free to subscribe to. Obviously, with this positive comes a few negatives. Even my other favourite technology magazine, .net, is relatively padded with advertisements and this is no different. Also, it’s not as long as some other magazines and there’s no freebies or discounts with it as of yet. But that’s not all you get this stuff for is it?

A Worthwhile Read?

Sure, the magazine is a nice bit of reading but in all honesty, it’s just a catalogue for eBuyer with some articles slipped in on some pages. Granted there’s a bit more detail in the product descriptions than on the e-commerce site and it’s nice to see a catalogue for an online shop.

To sum up, it’s a free technology mag that is worth a read if not to learn a bit more about recent technology and products then to pass some time either on your commute or on the toilet. If that isn’t a enough a reason, then get it for the obligatory photos of the woman wearing a tight plastic jumpsuit.

Microsoft recently released a group of their newest applications under the Windows Live brand name, aimed at the general computer user and recreational blogger. This suite includes Microsoft’s successor to Outlook Express, a new version of the popular Windows Live Messenger (MSN Messenger if you’re not keeping up with the trends), Windows Live OneCare Family Safety and a host of other tools Microsoft seems to think we need/want. I have had some experience with some of the products before, most in beta form, and just wanted to share my voice.

Mail

During my extremely short use of Vista, I used the Windows Live Desktop mail application that was included with it at the time. My experience was less than pleasing and an installation of Thunderbird promptly followed. The new application gives the user the Vista inspired interface (if you’re on XP) and a much needed clean and polish of the user interface that Outlook so desperately needed. I don’t think this application is meant to replace Outlook Express as Windows Live Mail doesn’t provide all the features that some individuals and businesses would require.

Messenger

The next upgrade to the popular Windows Live/MSN Messenger, version 8.5 or version 2008 depending on where you look, is part of the Windows Live family and an option in the pack. This new version seems to improve the speed of the application as I’ve had no conversation freezes or lockups since upgrading to the newest version. Also provided in version 8.5 is an improvement a change to the interface to bring it into line with the rest of the Windows Live theme. It is a nice improvement, I have to admit but only a minor one. Maybe the design team should take some notes from the Yahoo! Messenger team.

Writer

Microsoft’s attempt to make blogging easier has definitely improved since its initial public release – and I’m not just talking about the snazzy splash screen in the newest version. In earlier versions, Windows Live Writer didn’t exactly agree with WordPress in a number of areas. Whether this was because of WordPress or Writer, who knows, but I’ll bet it was Writer who was at fault.

Final Thoughts

There are other products in the Windows Live suite of application but I wont go into them right now; you can check them out for yourselves if you’re curious enough. This re-brand is just Microsoft’s attempt to push their products into the faces of ordinary PC users and given them software that in some cases just isn’t needed by the most inexperienced users.

There are some applications that are essential to most Windows users though. The update to Messenger is recommended for users who want a more stable chat program and for home users who don’t know better, Windows Live Mail is a nice replacement for Outlook Express though I continue to suggest you come out of the stone age and use Mozilla Thunderbird!

Go and download the applications – but watch out for the pre-ticked boxes that install the Live toolbar and set your homepage to something evil – and give is your comments on them! That’s an order.

I have used Sunbird, and its Thunderbird extension twin Lightening, before but only at an early state – version 0.1 or thereabouts. Here are my thoughts about this latest stable release and why Outlook should watch out.

Major Improvements

You can find a full list of the improvements and big fixes on the development blog but one major difference in this version compared to 0.1 is that 0.5 hasn’t crashed yet. This enables me to actually use the application! Seriously, there has been major improvements in just about every area. The theme has been updated and other interface elements have been graphically improved.

One warmly welcomed introduction was the support for shared Google Calendars and Outlook meeting requests. This start to integrate with Google Calendar should stand Sunbird well as Google Calendar is one of the few online calendar services that people actually use. If only Google would allow calendars to be externally edited. Oh wait! You can!

Google Calendar Support

The same people that built in Google Calendar support have produced an extension for Sunbird that enables read and write support for Google Calendars. When installed it provides another option when importing or subscribing to calendars which is specifically for Google shared calendars. This tight integration will be vital to the success and adoption of Sunbird in later releases although it’s no the be all and end all for it, let it be known.

Wax Wings?

Sunbird has come a long way since it was announced way back in 2001. With each release it is looking ever more professional and brings ever more needed and improved features with it, the application looks increasingly set to achieve as much success as Firefox and Thunderbird in the not to distant future. The fact that it is built upon Mozilla’s XUL tool kit stands it in good stead for a plethora of extensions and themes when it becomes more popular and more user friendly.

It’s twin Lightening – an extension clone for Mozilla Thunderbird – is another matter at the moment. There are a few issues with the integration of it and the e-mail client but it has the potential to be a free and popular consumer alternative to Microsoft Outlook. I do think however that if it’s to succeed then Sunbird will also have to integrate with Thunderbird rather than just providing a separate extension which is the current situation.

The Mozilla Calendar Project has come a long way and know they still have a long way to go but they’ve come this far in a relatively short time. If they’ve come that far in that short a time, we can only expect great things in the time to come. Will we see the dissolution of Lightening for a Sunbird that automatically integrated with Thunderbird? Time will tell. Go and grab a download of either Sunbird or Lightening and see what you think. If you haven’t used it in a while, I fell you will be pleasantly surprised. Sunbird definitely does not have wings made of wax and will be flying higher and higher.

I have finally found the answer to my problems although I must admit the answer is Apple-inspired; something not everyone easily admits. RocketDock is a OS X inspired dock for Microsoft Windows that does things other docks try to do and fail. Multi-monitor support, beautiful PNG transparency support and best of all it’s free.

A Dock on Windows?!

Yes, having a dock on Windows is considered blasphemy by many people but if we just put aside any allegiances you’ll see why a dock can save space, time and resources. RocketDock has nice smooth drag and drop functionality – drag a program to it, drop it there and you’re sorted! The program icon will appear along with it’s title in the dock. One problem that faces all applications of this type is that the icons that developers provide with their applications are not of high quality – besides from Apple, I noticed – so I had to go around looking for high quality logos or just create an icon that looked like the program. The hassle is worth it though as the icons look absolutely stunning.

On such a note: if you would like the high resolution icons I’ve collected, just leave a comment and I’ll sort you out. The dock can be positioned either at the top or bottom or the left or the right of your screen. The configuration utility provided also lets you adjust centering and the offset of the dock so it’s really customisable as far as position goes.

Just Dock It!

RocketDock stores my most used programs and places on my computer and has enabled me to speed up the things I do. Things are now one click away instead of two or three and my boot time as decreased – not much – by a few seconds because there’s nothing on my desktop except this any more.

From the official site, this is a list of features but no list of features can describe the dock in its true beauty. Below is also a list of alternative dock applications. Give them a try out if you’re interested and leave a comment. I’m going to try a few out over the next couple days and see how they compare but I think it’s safe to say that RocketDock is for me… atleast until I neglect my desktop once again.

• Minimize windows to the dock
• Real-time window previews in Vista
• Running application indicators
• Simple drag-n-drop interface
• Multi-monitor support
• Supports alpha-blended PNG and ICO icons
• Icons zoom and transition smoothly
• Auto-hide and Popup on mouse over
• Positioning and layering options
• Fully customizable
• Completely Portable
• ObjectDock Docklet support
• Compatible with MobyDock, ObjectDock, RK Launcher, and Y’z Dock skins
• Runs great on slower computers
• Unicode compliant
• Supports many languages and can easily be translated

Leave a comment once you’ve downloaded it and had a go! Get docking people…

First Impressions

My first impressions are that this is indeed true beta software. My experience is that it is rather slow and feels rather heavy as an application. As with all Apple software, the user interface is indeed nice. It’s not clogged with buttons and only the bare essentials are shown but it still allows for nearly as much customisation as Firefox, although it’s not quite on par at this stage. The traditional brushed metal theme has only been on my screen for a few minutes and it’s already growing on me. Although it’s default font choice as Times New Roman isn’t to my taste, it doesn’t take anything away from the browser.One thing I will say is the option to resize most text areas is a nice feature.

Get it Now

Go and get the beta from the Apple site, try it out and return here. Mac or PC users can download the beta and I advise that you do. Give it a go and come here and leave a comment! Below are a few screen shots to tickle your fancy.

Before you read on, to view the things I’ve made, go to the download page and download the cross-browser plugin.

Silverlight Basics

I’m not going to turn this into a tutorial on how to setup everything – it can all be found in the official SDK, also available on the download page – but I will show the XAML and relevant JavaScript files that accompany each of the things I am to show.

The SDK’s quickstart guide was a really simple and easy explanation of the process of creating very simple shapes at first. I was a little confused at first because the XAML files I create utilise the canvas tag and initially I got it mixed up with the HTML tag of the same name. Firstly you create the canvas you’re going to ‘draw’ in. [Nearly] everything else goes inside this. The layers on the canvas, or z-index, are defined by the order the objects are created – those created later on in the script are on the top layers.

My first foray into it was a simple monochrome target which just created several ellipses in each other with the smallest one having a border instead of a fill. Here’s the .xaml file:

You can view the example’s finished product if you have the plugin installed.

Using Images

Next I did a bit of playing around with images. There are several ways you can use images on your canvas which include using them as a filling for an object or importing them on their own. In this example, I’ve created a rectangle and used an image of a pound coin and then overlayed it with 4 rectangles of differing colours with an opacity set. Along side it, I’ve added a gradient overlay to the image.

You can view the example’s finished product if you have the plugin installed.

Adding Multimedia

Adding media like music and video is incredibly easy for beginners to grasp. A single deceleration is used for both music as well as video which is rather handy. Controlling the media object is also incredibly easy and my quick look over the documentation for the MediaElement object showed a lot of options are available for controlling it. Firstly I tried just simply embedding a sound:

Next, I added the parameter to stop it automatically playing when loaded and added the controls for stop, pause and play the file. These controls also work with video media, as shown in the quick start guide provided in the SDK. The code involved this XAML code and the following JavaScript.

  
    
      
        
          
          
        
      
    
    stop
  

  
  
    
      
        
          
          
        
      
    
    pause
  

  
  
    
      
        
          
          
        
      
    
    play
  

And this JavaScript, inserted either in the head of the page or an external JavaScript file:

You can view the example’s finished product if you have the plugin installed. Click the play, pause and stop buttons to test it out.

Lighting up the web?

Obviously I have to take into account the infancy in terms of development of Silverlight but it’s wide array of features is quite appealing. It took me a quarter of the time to stream a video in Silverlight than it did to do it manually in Flash via ActionScript. At the moment, Silverlight isn’t anywhere near Flash in terms of functionality but even at this early stage it does have some advantages over Flash in terms of the time saving it allows.

I’ve quite enjoyed doing some stuff in it and I’m sure that the abilities of Silverlight go far beyond drawing circles and streaming media. One nice example of the capabilities is this page turning program and this interactive WYSIWYG editor. For me it still feels like it’s a glorified version of the HTML canvas element with some JavaScript added. It doesn’t feel smooth like Flash and currently feels slightly buggy and laggy but I hope this will change in future revisions.

I’ve enjoyed using HTML, XAML and JavaScript and I think that it will eventually catch on – if it doesn’t then Microsoft will probably force it on us in some way. At the moment the plugin is available for both Windows and OSX but I hope Microsoft don’t make the mistake Adobe made by not keeping the Linux community up to date. Try it out.

Although the functionality of the service is some what limited at the moment, the dream is there with custom playlists, the ability to upload your own songs and even more in the pipeline. If the ability to add songs or albums to playlists is there, I can’t find it and it may be due to the rather unintuitive user interface on some points.

The song database is actually quite varied. From ‘Beautiful World’ by Colin Hay to Counting Crow’s cover of ‘Big Yellow Taxi’. There’s some recent artists such as Mika and Fall Out Boy as well as some golden oldies like Elvis and Lulu.

The site’s legal stance basically allows them to escape any blame if organisations such as the RIAA, BPI or IFPI came a knocking on their door. All the blame is placed on the user – you and me. I’m not going to go into the legality of the service – you can make your own mind up whether or not you want to use it. But, it’s a nice ‘jukebox’ service and helped me dig up some songs I’d long forgotten but wanted to hear again.