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.
iPhone 4 first hands-on! (update: FaceTime video demo)
Posted by Rich Chuckrey in Shorts
There’s no shortage of iPhone 4 coverage on the web today. Here’s Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky:
We’ve just gotten some face time (ha ha!) with the new iPhone 4, and let’s just say this: it’s incredibly sexy. We’ll hand it to Apple, the phone is so thin it’s kind of mind-boggling. The 3GS by comparison looks bloated.
Promising little machine from Apple. With little doubt I think this certainly upped the smartphone ante.
(The GUI looked like it was running a bit sluggish to me. Anyone else?)
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.
PrivacyDefender Sets Facebook Privacy Settings in Two Clicks
Posted by Rich Chuckrey in Shorts
Lifehacker’s Whitson Gordon:
You may be sick of hearing about the Facebook Privacy debacle, but your friends and family may still be in the dark. PrivacyDefender is a Facebook application that shows privacy settings in easy-to-read chart form, and provides three predefined settings to use.
This application takes the pain out of ensuring your Facebook data isn’t shared across the web through Facebook’s data groping ‘Facebook partner’ program. It also helps corral your data from being shared inadvertently by those in your friends list.
It’s not exactly the most granular Facebook security management app, but PrivacyDefender is a good start towards reeling in your Facebook privacy.
“Send From” Multiple Gmail Addresses on the iPhone and iPad
Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts
If you have secondary email addresses tied to your Gmail account, using one of them to “send from” on your iPhone and/or iPad is not a straightforward process. Nick Cernis did the research and figured out a way to make it work, although be prepared for a somewhat tedious process to make it all happen:
The short version is that you just list your email addresses separated by a comma in the Address field of the mail settings on your iPhone/iPad. Sounds simple, but it turns out to be important that you follow certain steps in order, and that you set your Gmail address up as an IMAP account, not a Gmail account. If you’re already utterly confused, read on as I attempt to deconfuddle you.
Nick does an exceptional job breaking down each and every step, presenting screenshots to make it as user-proof as possible. Although nobody has mentioned anything of the sort, I really do hope iPhone OS 4.0 solves this problem. There should not be a need to jump through this many hoops just to setup additional “send from” addresses on the iPhone and/or iPad.
CENSORED: China Blocks Foursquare; Too Many People Checking Into Tian’anmen
Posted by Rich Chuckrey in Shorts
China blacks out Foursquare in yet another blow to freedom on the internet. techblog86 reports:
Foursquare. Dead to China beginning in the afternoon hours of June 4, 2010. (Confirmed here in Beijing.) You’ll have to reroute to get in…
I’d think a major player in the world economy, like China, could implement methods [other than censorship] for harnessing their citizens’ data. Methods that could balance the country’s national security while allowing it’s people unfettered access to the web.
The amount of data that could be garnered by the Chinese government is potentially enormous.
If China really wanted a thorough snapshot on each of their citizens, don’t you think they’d collect more data rather than restrict it.
Adobe Flash, Acrobat and Reader Critical Vulnerability Allows Remote Control
Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts
Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat are riddled with more security holes than just about any other commercial application available today. Yet another critical vulnerability has been found in all three products, all of which are being actively exploited by malicious attackers and which may allow attackers to remotely control the affected machines (emphasis added):
A critical vulnerability exists in Adobe Flash Player 10.0.45.2 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris operating systems, and the authplay.dll component that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX operating systems. This vulnerability (CVE-2010-1297) could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild against both Adobe Flash Player, and Adobe Reader and Acrobat.
An inordinate amount of time is spent patching Adobe related vulnerabilities compared to other products. Even the huge amount of updates Microsoft releases on Patch Tuesday do not compare. At the very least, Microsoft patches are rather easily applied and rarely require multiple installs. On the other hand, Adobe patches often times do not install correctly and require multiple passes.
Do yourself a favor and install Google Chrome, Firefox or Safari – three browsers completely capable of HTML5 video – and uninstall Adobe Flash. YouTube offers HTML5 video to those browsers capable and those users who are interested in not using Flash to play their videos. Unless you play flash-based games chances are you do not need Adobe Flash.
On OS X there is no need for Adobe Acrobat as Preview natively opens PDF files and most applications are capable of creating PDF files without additional software required. There is a host of alternative PDF software for Windows available. Install one of many freeware PDF viewers and remove Adobe Acrobat and/or Adobe Reader.
Once you free yourself from the Adobe shackles you will feel a whole lot safer, and without the added burden of having to constantly update your system due to the frequent vulnerabilities found in the ubiquitous Adobe products.
Pino – Sexy Linux Twitter Client
Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts
Pino is a sexy Twitter client for Linux.
Pino is Twitter and Identi.ca client for Linux desktop (actualy, for any OS, that has X11). It’s simple and fast. Pino is written in Vala language and compiled to the native binary code.
I am not entirely pleased with the existing Twitter client landscape, however Pino appears to be one of the best possibilities for Linux users. The application is available on just about every distribution possible and fulfills the standard Twitter client requirement – a tab for your stream, another for @replies and yet another for direct messages. Pino even supports multiple Twitter accounts as well as support for identi.ca accounts.
While Pino does not have built-in twitpic support, the capabilities offered by this lightweight client outweigh any potential drawbacks for those who truly need a dedicated Twitter client. I just played with Pino in an Ubuntu build I have running and was impressed with the simplicity. (via minimal linux)
Verizon guy shoots down iPhone, touts Android
Posted by Rich Chuckrey in Shorts
Beat TV tapes John Johnson debunking the myth that Verizon plans to offer iPhones:
The idea of Verizon carrying iPhones didn’t make much sense to begin with when handset competition is mainly tied to cellular provider. We know [for now] that the Verizon iPhone is nothing but a consumer’s pipe dream.
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