As of this writing the Firefox 2 Beta 2 download page doesn’t link to it but with this URL you can download Beta 2. I have been using Beta 1 ever since it was released and really came to like it (especially live, inline spell checking). So what does Beta 2 bring to the table you ask? A nicely refreshed look - new icons and tab styling. Continue Reading »

The folks at Global Gaming League have compiled a very impressive list of the top 10 colleges that excel at gaming. They actually did a survey of students at many universities, so this is a real and factual list. We’re not talking about universities that teach gaming, rather ones with strong gaming culture among students with Continue Reading »

Last weekend at Foo Camp, a small company named Chumby Industries showed off their newest prototype creation. Simply called the Chumby, the compact device sports a 266MHz ARM processor, 32MB SDRAM, a good-sized 3.5 inch LED backlit LCD display with QVGA resolution and Wi-Fi capabilities. Input and output Continue Reading »

Poking through my feeds this late night I saw that Ron wrote up a little piece about the future of Google Talk. It turns out that Google has made an agreement with Skype, allowing the services to work together (soon). Continue Reading »

Kudos to the Flickr folks at Yahoo! as they will be rolling out geo tagging functionality later today as noted on TechCrunch. Utilizing Yahoo! Maps and Yahoo! Search technology, the new flickr feature will bring an updated Organizr which allows you to tag your photos and photosets by simply marking them Continue Reading »

According to MSNBC and the entire blogosphere, Google will be releasing a set of Office tools as an extension of the whole “for your domain” service (remember how there was gmail for your domain?). The free bundle of online applications being unrolled today include gCal, gmail, gTalk and Page Creator as Google Apps for Your Domain. It’s only a matter of time until they add Google Spreadsheets and Writely to the mix.

Apple has released three more viral advertisements into the wild. The first is entitled Accident and focuses on the magsafe feature in MacBooks. Angel/Devil shows what you can make with iPhoto while Trust Mac emphasizes how Macs aren’t as vulnerable to spyware as PCs.

With the news that Yahoo! fully supports microformats, there are undoubtedly a few questions from the not-so-techy web user. Having had the chance to briefly speak with Tantek about microformats at BarCamp SF this past summer, I can help to clear any misconceptions. If you remember or use vCards, dubbed the electronic business card, you might be familiar with the microformats concept. Continue Reading »

Browsing around online, I have come across many blogs and taken note of their unique writing styles and formats. Many of these blogs had horrible readability for a number of reasons other than design. This post sums up some of the easy steps I try to follow to ensure improved readability on my blog. Continue Reading »

Tonight I replaced the dead and uninteresting links page with a just as badly named page, linkage. This page keeps track of my ever growing list of accounts for various Web 2.0 services and helps you find me on those sites. I also wrote a bit about each service, how I use it and why I think it rocks.. things like that. Check it every Continue Reading »

9ruler Ben Gray wrote a great tutorial detailing the process and tools required for creating a simple solo podcast similar to the ones he regularly records. He covers ID3 tags for published audio files, feeds for your podcast and the software that makes it all come together.

I arrived safely in Atlanta last Friday and have been building Ikea furniture ever since. I have a somewhat habitable room right now and after a hectic day of trying to piece together my course schedule at the last minute I seem to have found a nice variety of classes. Things might change but right now I’m signed up for LCC3705 Continue Reading »

Tech startup Calgoo has just released the “First Draft” of their innovative software that allows you to manage your Google Calendar account in a full application. There are several advantages of taking your calendar from a web-based experience into an application. First and foremost, you can keep track of Continue Reading »

The popular Java-based BitTorrent super-client, Azureus, has hit version 2.5. You can grab your copy on the Azureus Sourceforge page. This version packs a bunch of new features as listed on the changelog; notable improvements include reduced CPU usage when connected to large numbers of peers and the ability to detect your connection’s latency and automatically adjust your upload speed.

It seems like I’m announcing some new Gmail feature every month, but they are definitely welcomed features. This month Google adds the ability to play mp3 audio files attached in emails. This feature adds-on to the recent news of the updated version of Google Talk which allows for voicemail messages; now gTalk users can listen to their voicemail messages within Gmail. Continue Reading »

In an effort to play catchup with MySpace, the student-oriented social media site Facebook has released a new feature called notes. Notes brings blogging functionality to Facebook in the most simplistic form of the word. No special features other than friend tagging were added, although you have the ability to import posts from your personal blog. Continue Reading »

After nearly half a year of buzz and beta testing, Advantage Consulting Service’s creation of Crazy Egg is open to the public. If that name sounds familiar, you might have seen ACS’s name floating around when Commentful was launched as that is one of their other successful products. Okay, back to Crazy Egg. Continue Reading »

Young mac blogger Phill Ryu has finally launched an idea he has had floating around for a while - MyDreamApp.com. With the help of several accomplished developers and many guest judges including tech celebs like Steve Wozniak and Kevin Rose, My Dream App is not going to be your ordinary contest. Here’s how it works: Continue Reading »

9rules designer Mike Rundle explores the concept of Chris Anderson’s Long Tail and how it relates to 9rules in a great read entitled Niche Blogs and The Long Tail of Content. In a nutshell, there will always be great demand for blogs discussing niche topics and that’s what 9rules is all about.

To keep up with new Google properties like gCalendar, Google has ditched the popular Gmail Notifier for a revamped application aptly dubbed Google Notifier. The new Mac application adds a calendar icon to your menubar (you can hide it in preferences) and a Mail.appetizer-esque notification system. When you get a new email or Continue Reading »

This tip is for a very select group of readers - WordPress bloggers using Steve Smith’s Tiger Admin beautification plugin. While the plugin is great in terms of admin panel aesthetics, it detracts from usability a bit with its large footer. For times when I’m not connected to my huge LCD, it would be nice to have that extra inch of screen real estate. Easily enough it Continue Reading »

Be sure to snag the newly released SMC firmware update (v1.4f10) for your shiny (or matte) MacBook on this Apple Support page. Like all Apple firmware updates you must install the update and tell the updater to start the update process first thing next reboot. There are no specifics on what this update brings but bug fixes, stability and heat issues are probably a good bet. Continue Reading »

Google has updated their homemade instant messaging client, Google Talk, today. The most important feature addition is what I’d like to call smart file sharing. You can drag-and-drop files or folders to share with contacts. For example, if you wanted to share a large picture with someone you can drag it into the Continue Reading »

For the past few days I have been slowly packing up for the drive up to Atlanta (from Houston) to begin another school year. This year will be different. I’m trying to take up as little as possible. The past two years I’ve had way too much junk with me and in a small room that left little walking space. I’ve been able to narrow down my tech inventory to one small plastic bin with a few Continue Reading »

Apple updated its beta Boot Camp software that enables Intel Mac users to dual-boot Windows XP and OS X with ease. Update your copy and snag the latest release (202MB) on the Boot Camp page. The latest release includes the primary feature updates such as support for the latest Intel Macs (read Mac Pro), support in Windows for the iSight and built-in mics as well as the ability to install XP on any internal hard drive not just as a partition on the current disk.

Before I left Yahoo! for the summer, some of the interns and I had recorded a podcast regarding the new age of social media - facebook, myspace, stuff like that. The post was published this morning so be sure to check it out at Yodel Anecdotal. For those of you that are reading me Continue Reading »

Microsoft shocked me when they recently released an interesting new blog authoring tool, Windows Live Writer (beta of course). The really interesting part is that, while geared for Windows Live Spaces users, Live Writer works with blog CMSs like WordPress, Movable Type, LiveJournal and Blogger. I have never been fond of using blogging tools and always stuck with the WordPress admin panel for two Continue Reading »

Run Windows XP and want to have the benefit of easier to read, less-jaggy fonts system-wide? Yeah, I thought so too. Right-click the desktop, select Properties, head over to the Appearance tab and click on the Effects button. In the window that opens up, check the second box that says Continue Reading »

Adobe has finally released the latest version of Flash for Mactel users. As of recently, I’ve come across several websites that operate only if you have Flash 9 installed, so it’s a welcomed release. Download your copy now.

It has been a bit over a month since I got my Motorola Q Smartphone and I’ve started to see this device in a whole new light. I hate this thing. The OS is borderline bareable, boot-up and shutdown take around 30 seconds, the phone likes to reboot all by itself and there are numerous quirks that make me want to pummel it with some rebar. Continue Reading »

Michael Heilemann and the K2 team have released a long-awaited update to K2, the theme used by thousands of bloggers. Version 0.9 eliminates most if not all of the bugs present in past versions of K2 and will replace release 167 as the latest stable release. Nice work guys! Download v0.9. You can follow along with the K2 development on their fairly new Google Code account.

Love the power and functionality of WebKit (the stuff that makes Safari happen) but stuck on a Redmond box? No worries, just download the latest alpha of Swift. Direct Download Link for Swift 0.1. Continue Reading »

OpenDNS is the cutting-edge Internet service by a San Francisco-based startup founded by David Ulevitch. Simply put, with OpenDNS you are no longer tied to using your ISP’s slow DNS servers. I have been using OpenDNS for almost a month now and I can tell you that there are more than just speed improvements. Before I get into it, let me explain the whole DNS model. Continue Reading »

The third-generation of wireless technology for mobile devices just started reaching the mainstream when Sprint announced their plans to establish 4G by 2008. ArsTechnica reports how the 4G technology will be based upon the upcoming WiMAX spec, currently pending IEEE approval. The new 4G network hopes to deliver an average download speed of 2-4Mbps for users. Update: Phone Scoop claims the 4G will launch 4Q 2007.

Last month I talked about how I moved most of my bookmarks in my browser onto del.icio.us with the help of Pukka. I enjoy the flexibility that web services such as del.icio.us afford - letting me store part of my digital persona online. Tonight I completed my transition by replacing 40 or so bookmarks with their respective feeds in my current aggregator, NewsFire. I am left with only the Continue Reading »

Today was the highly anticipated first day of Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference. The major treat at this year’s WWDC was the unveiling of the Mac Pro and then the Xserve. Completing the move to Intel processors, the Mac Pro can be configured with 2 Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors running at 2, 2.66 or 3GHz, dual drive bays, Continue Reading »

Usually after hitting rock bottom once, a company learns from its actions and fixes things. Apparently this is not the case with AOL. Earlier yesterday they released a 439MB file (~2GB uncompressed) of approximately 20 million search queries collected from about 650k unique users over roughly 3 months. The AOL research site (the relevant page of which has been taken down) claimed that the Continue Reading »

Charles and Brian from 123MacMini.com have ventured into the MacBook enthusiast site arena and just launched 123MacBook.com. I think 123MacBook actually started out as I casually mentioned it to Charles as a joke, but the idea matured and is now what you see today. It strives to be the best resource Continue Reading »

The folks at Maximum PC magazine have compiled a roundup of four popular 23 and 24-inch LCD displays in their September 2006 issue. They took a look at the Dell 2407WFP ($850), the Viewsonic VP2330wb ($1.3k), the HP LP2465 ($1k) and the Samsung 244T ($1.1k). Dell’s new 2407WFP beat the competition scoring a 9/10 while Continue Reading »

Om Malik, whom I met last night at the WordCamp kickoff, introduces a new protocol called Cache Discovery Protocol or simply CDP. It works by finding better, cached seeds on the network for your bittorrent client. Once fully rolled out, CDP could dramatically increase the peformance and speeds of file transfers on the BitTorrent network.

The day we launched Yodel Anecdotal, Podtech.net reporter Catherine Girardeau stopped by to ask us some questions on the new corporate blog. Enjoy.

WordPress.com users rejoice, the WordPress team has added a new and welcomed feature - custom CSS. Until now, you had to stick with the limited customization that came with the stock themes. By purchasing the custom CSS upgrade in your WordPress.com blog’s admin panel for $15 USD, you have the ability to edit Continue Reading »

Today is my last official day at Yahoo! and appropriately enough the WordCamp kickoff party is taking place tonight. WordCamp is the latest spin on the whole BarCamp concept, this one centering around WordPress users, developers and admirers. Neil Patel, Hiten Shah and Cameron Olthuis (9rulers) will be coming in from Orange County to make it to this party. I’ll be there so if you want to stock up on some Stamschwag, you best be in attendance.

Google has finally released a tool set for OS X toting users of their Picasa Web Albums photo sharing service. Jeremy Flint takes the tools for a test drive and reports that the beta applications (one is a standalone uploader while the other is an iPhoto add on) are a start and necessary for any Mac user with a Web Albums account.

In an effort to move their focus to growing their online advertising business, AOL has announced that their software and email products will be free for broadband internet users. Dial-up users will obviously still have to pay for their account and dial-up needs which require the use of AOL equipment. It seems like the right move on AOL’s part as a graph on (Giga)Om Malik’s blog predicts only 10% of Internet users will still be using dial-up in 2010. Continue Reading »

Today is a great day. I get to open my mouth and let you in on the project I’ve been working on ever since I arrived at Yahoo! earlier this summer. I present to you Yodel Anecdotal, the corporate blog for Yahoo!. So I bet you’ve got flashes of Dell’s One2One corporate blog floating around and thoughts pondering whether Yahoo! already has a similar blog. Well I’m here to tell you that Yodel Anecdotal is completely different. Sure Yahoo! has over 10 blogs for just about Continue Reading »

There has been a lot of buzz around Microsoft’s new (hopefully) soon-to-be application, Photosynth. The new application manipulates photos in a unique way, allowing its users to create 3D structures based on the photographs imported into it. Now it’s time for the million dollar question - will there be an OS X version?

The people have spoken. We don’t need a phone that plays live TV, lets us download MP3’s on-the-fly or even takes pictures. Just give us a simple phone that has a decent form factor, damn near stellar battery life, voice quality and reception. Motorola was the first major cellular phone manufacturer to answer the call (horrible pun somewhat intended). Continue Reading »