Template Changes and New Tags for WordPress 3.0

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts

, ,

As Rich mentioned earlier, WordPress 3.0 was just released by the Automattic crew. Here is a list of the changes to the WordPress template system as well as new tags to be used by theme and plug-in authors:

Custom Post Types plus Custom Taxonomy Improvements

Earlier we could only create Posts or Pages. But now with Custom Post Types, we can create lot more types of posts like Gallery Items, Movie Information Posts etc. which will be independent in style from a normal post. Custom taxonomies which got introduced in WordPress 2.8 got a small upgrade which now allows them to be hierarchial too just like a normal Category.

Its difficult to explain all this in a small post plus there are already awesome tutorials on this.

WordPress 3.0 is a huge release, offering one of the largest feature set upgrades in the history of the platform. The merging of single-user WordPress with WPMU is one of the most exciting, for now WP can run multiple blogs with one installation – something Movable Type has been capable of for years.

The combination of WordPress, BuddyPress and bbPress allows for the easy creation of a pretty wicked social networking site with relative ease.

Mac OS X 10.6.4 Released

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts

, ,

Apple has released Mac OS X 10.6.4:

Apple has released Mac OS X 10.6.4, the latest update to the company’s computer operating system. As often with such updates, this release not only fixes bugs and provides optimizations for performance, but also includes a number of security fixes. 28 flaws are patched, in this update and a related Security Update 2010-004 for Mac OS X 10.5. There are fixes for both client and server versions of the software.

Looks to be a solid, worthwhile update, fixing a number of security related issues rather than adding anything overly feature rich nor exciting. If Software Update has not automatically launched and prompted for the download, you ought to do so manually and install 10.6.4 to take advantage of the mitigations for the previously known vulnerabilities.

9 Essential Tips To Speed Up Windows 7

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts

, , , ,

At first glance it may appear as if all we do around TechMiso is post story after story about Apple, Security and Social Media. Well, how is this for something different – nine essential tips for speeding up your Windows 7 experience to help make Microsoft’s latest operating system feel a whole lot lighter:

The Microsoft Windows 7 operating system has been designed for delivering better speeds than its predecessors. However, as time passes by, the laptop/PC might tend to get slower. This is not exactly the fault of the OS. As the matter of fact, it is a common problem faced by many operating systems.

The major reasons for this are accumulation of junk in the system or a highly stuffed hard drive or running of too many unnecessary services and programs. Here we shared a few essential tips that can help speed up Windows 7 performance on laptops or computers.

Many of the tips are quite easy to implement, no matter whether you are a computer novice or major geek. Some of the tips, such a disabling sound, are things I do on just about every operating system I install because I find them to be far more trouble than they are worth. Others, like disabling unnecessary services may require a little more mojo to work out but can still be taken care of with relative ease.

While I do still use Windows, I currently do not have a single workstation running Windows 7. At work I am forced to use Windows XP and at home I use that same operating system because I have not found a truly compelling reason to upgrade my somewhat ancient HP AMD/64 desktop. I primarily use my MacBook Pro so upgrading XP to W7 is not a priority.

If you find any of the tips particularly useful, or if you have others not listed, please feel free to share them with our readers in the comments.

Five iPhone 4 Features You’ll Use Every Day

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts

, , ,

The iPhone 4 in and of itself is not a dramatically different piece of hardware from its predecessor the 3GS, but coupled with iOS 4 there are a number of new features that are sure to be used on a daily basis:

Hurrah! iPhone owners will finally be able to toss any extra digital cameras they’ve been lugging around and take advantage of the high definition 5-megapixel x5 digital zoom video camera. Plus the LED light will brighten dark environments and there’s on-phone editing.

And if you need any more impetus for HD video excitement, the iMovie app will be arriving on the App Store soon so you’ll be able to add music, photos and different types of transitions as well as themes – quite a leap from the basic cutting you could do before.

The SiliconRepublic list essentially points out the obvious features most folks are sure to be excited about after getting their hands on the new hardware. After all, who isn’t looking forward to recording video in HD in addition to the better camera, this time equipped with an LED flash?

Of the five items on the list, I am most intrigued by the HD video camera but am very curious about the battery life. My aging 3G has absolutely no qualms about completely draining before noon, especially if I am constantly checking email, eyeing Google Reader, sifting through the endless tweets or playing an online game.

If the iPhone 4 can do all that and still retain a decent amount of battery – if the iPhone 4 can go an entire day without draining while still allowing me to be the productive procrastinator I am – then we will be in a state of electronic gizmo euphoria.

Shocking: iPhone 4 Requires App Updates for Multitasking

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts

, , ,

This oddly labelled exclusive from Pocket-lint explains the requirement for developers to update their applications to take advantage of the multitasking features available in iOS 4 (emphasis added):

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, has personally shown us, at length in two press announcements, that it can. He demoed the function at the launch of the new iPhone OS and again at WWDC10, and proved that you will be able to switch between multiple apps on the phone.

We’ve also tried it here in the Pocket-lint office thanks to a play with the latest GM build of the iOS 4 update on an iPhone 3GS.

But here’s the rub: Currently, in our initial testing, only Apple apps, like the Clock, Mail and Safari, can multitask. That’s it!

It seems that, as Jobs pointed out, developers will need to enable multitasking on their apps for the function to work, before it comes with the free iOS 4 update on June 21. Something that’s unlikely in a vast number of cases.

Approximately two months ago, at an Apple event where the company unveiled a sneak peak of iPhone OS 4, Scott Forstall, Senior Vice President of iPhone software, mentioned the following about the multitasking approach Apple has decided to take in the upcoming iPhone OS 4 (emphasis added):

How are we adding multitasking while preserving battery life and performance. We looked at tens of thousands of apps in the app store, and we’ve distilled the services those apps need to run in the background. So we implemented those services, and we’re providing those services as APIs to developers so they can add multitasking while preserving battery life.

As shocking as it may sound, there is absolutely nothing exclusive about the Pocket-lint article. It has been known since day one that iOS 4 would require developers to update their applications to take advantage of multitasking features in the newer operating system.

Where Apple would best serve iPhone customers would be better socialization of this requirement – that all existing applications will not automagically be capable of taking advantage of multitasking features until updated, something unlikely to happen to most applications prior to the June 21 release of iOS 4.

Consumers need to be aware of this issue so they are not banging their heads on their desks while trying to figure out why their apps will not multitask. Apple needs to clearly publish this information so they are not inundated with requests for help. Developers need to reach out to their communities and keep them informed so their users are not wondering why their favorite apps cannot multitask.

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Released

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts

, , , , , ,

According to the Adobe Flash Player Team Blog, the long awaited Flash Player 10.1 has been released:

From hardware decoding to better buffering, p2p video, multicast and http streaming — there are many improvements in Flash Player 10.1 with regards to web video delivery and playback. For desktops, Flash Player 10.1 introduces hardware-based H.264 video decoding to deliver smooth, high quality video with minimal overhead across supported operating systems. Using available hardware to decode video offloads tasks from the CPU, improving video playback performance, offering smoother frame rates, and reducing system resource utilization

There is a plethora of new features and improvements in Flash Player 10.1, all of which are clearly outlined on the Flash Blog. One thing to note, Flash 10.0 does not appear to be affected by the most recent critical vulnerability allowing attackers potential remote control of affected workstations.

The single-most sought after feature Mac OS X users will most likely enjoy is the addition of hardware decoding. This should make video playback on the Mac less jerky, and less processor intensive, potentially improving the use of Flash on that platform.

Adobe also added multi-touch support to Flash 10.1, in lieu of the hope that Flash will be added to the many mobile devices expected to be produced this year – iOS devices obviously excluded. Android 2.2 “Froyo” appears to be the front runner in the flash-for-mobile race.

Many companies are beginning to rollout touch enabled devices, and not just smartphones, but tablets as well as PCs like the HP Touchsmart. With Flash Player 10.1, you can take advantage of the latest hardware and operating system user interaction capabilities using a new set of ActionScript 3 APIs for multi-touch and native gesture events, creating the ability to interact with multiple objects simultaneously or work with native gestures, such as pinch, scroll, rotate, scale, and two-finger tap. Multi-touch may be one of the most important features for developers and designers creating new content with the Flash Platform, knowing your implementations may be easily extended to devices with touch capabilities.

It looks like Adobe took their time to make Flash 10.1 a decent product. The only outstanding question is this: how many critical security vulnerabilities will be found in this version of Flash? Adobe seems to be the one company consistently producing exploit-riddled products.

No Big Surprise: iPad is a Huge Hit in Japan

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts

, , , , ,

According to Serkan Toto of CrunchGear, Apple took a huge bite out of the notebook market in Japan in May, mostly thanks to the iPad:

The iPhone turned out to be a mega-hit in Japan’s competitive cell phone market, and the iPad is poised to replicate this success. Tokyo-based market research firm BCN [JP] today said Apple’s share of the domestic notebook market more than tripled in May (on a month-to-month basis) to reach 11.5% – thanks to the iPad.

The firm, which collected POS data from 2,364 Japanese electronics retailers, says Apple’s share in that segment stood at just 3.5% in April. But the iPad (launched in Japan on May 28), helped Apple to eclipse Sony, which – at 9.3% – fell down to No. 5 in the notebook sales ranking (at least for the time being).

The Japanese have not found the means to innovate in the notebook market, largely copying the success of other computer manufacturers. This might seem odd to many folks outside of Japan. However, from the perspective of someone having lived in Japan for almost twenty years now, I find it not at all surprising to see Japan unable to revolutionize the computing industry like they did consumer electronics in the 80′s and 90′s.

Bottom line about computing in Japan: the Japanese like small, portable gadgets since they are always on the go, whether on foot, bike, bus or train – public transportation is the single-most popular means of daily transportation to/from work. The industry has mostly focused on adding hordes of useless functionality to their keitai (mobile phones) rather than creating revolutionary devices like the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Until the Japanese electronics industry can figure out how to do what Apple is doing, possibly using Android as the foundation for such devices, I believe the companies will continue to flounder.

Simple Pragmatic Thoughts About iPhone 4

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Articles, Features

, , , ,

Apple unveiled the iPhone 4 earlier today, during a keynote speech presented by the man himself, Steve Jobs. As usual, the keynote was a work of art in and of itself, exquisitely displaying the beautifully designed new hardware for the world to see. The iPhone was not the only exciting reveal, for iOS 4 (the OS formerly known as iPhone OS) was unleashed as well – both products unveiled in tandem, available in sync, with each relying on the other to propel their exhilarating new features in to the mainstream and in to the hands of mouth watering consumers. Will you be one of the select few to wield an iPhone 4 come June 24?

Continue

Post WWDC Keynote Present – Apple Delivers Safari 5

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts

, , , , , , ,

The final days leading up to the WWDC saw a number of sites post rumors about a possible Safari update. Unfortunately Steve Jobs managed to walk away from the stage without ever mentioning this potential update. It appears that Apple did in fact release an update to Safari upon the conclusion of the keynote.

Apple on Monday released Safari 5, the latest version of its desktop Web browser, with a 30 percent performance increase, the addition of Bing search and secure sandboxed extensions, as well as support for more than a dozen new HTML5 technologies.

The most exciting new feature of Safari 5 is the ability to develop extensions, much like what Firefox and Chrome currently offer. This should allow for endless possibilities of expanded support within Safari – such as a native del.icio.us bookmarks extension and much more.

Check out the full list of what is new in Safari 5. This update appears to be one that cannot be overlooked.

Stream Videos To Your iPhone and Save Time

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts

, , , , ,

Why use the time consuming method of converting videos to a format capable of being played on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad when you can let Air Video stream them and do the converting on the fly?

Air Video can stream videos in almost any format to your iPhone and iPod touch. You don’t need to copy your videos to the device just to watch them.

Granted, Air Video is not an application you are going to use over 3G, but for use via WiFi on a local LAN it is an absolutely perfect fit. What is really cool about Air Video is that if the video is in a format not natively supported by iPhone OS then it will be converted on the fly. In my experience this can save hours of conversion time, allowing the videos to be watched immediately without any hassle.

Additional software is required for either Mac OS X or Windows to facilitate the on-the-fly conversion and streaming process. The processor time required for the conversion is a little costly, so it is best to ensure the software is installed on a box with some decent specs.

While Air Video is a universal application capable of running on either the iPhone or the iPad, it does not natively support native iPad screen resolutions. It appears the developer is working on an update to address this in the near future.

TechMiso © Copyright 2013. All Rights Reserved.

Designed & developed by We Are Pixel8.

Back to Top